LEARNING THEORIES IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR PDF

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It contains topics of perceptions, mental archives, the model of the probability of elaboration, learning and habits of brand loyalty, motivation processes in the consumer, influence of them reference groups and the factors of the environment that interferes. ...

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LEARNING THEORIES IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR There are many theories of learning, but advertisers classify the majority into two broad categories: cognitive theory and conditioning theory, depending on the level of consumer participation (high or low) required to make a purchase. Cognitive theory sees learning as a mental process of memory, thinking and the rational application of knowledge to practical problems. It can also be an accurate description of how we learn from the experience of others, such as our parents, and how we evaluate a complex purchase such as insurance, stocks and bonds, or business products. Conditioning theory also called stimulus-response theory treats learning as a process of trial and error. Some stimulus (perhaps an ad) triggers the consumer's need or desire, and this, in turn, creates the urge to respond. If the consumer's response reduces momentum, then satisfaction occurs, and the response is rewarded or reinforced. This causes the behavior to repeat the next time the moment the moment the moment umpire wakes up, proving that learning has taken place. The condition theory is more applicable to simple basic purchases that consumers make every day: soap, cereal, toothpaste, paper towels, etc. And this is where reinforcement advertising plays its most important role, along with superior product performance and good service. If learning is sufficiently strengthened and repeated behavior is generated, it can be a buying habit. Learning and persuasion are closely linked. Persuasion occurs when the change in behavioral belief, attitude, or intent is caused by promotional communication (such as advertising or personal sales). Of course, advertisers are very interested in persuasion and how it takes place. The model of the probability of elaboration Researchers have identified two ways in which promotional communication can persuade consumers: the central and peripheral routes for Persuasion. Like the theory of learning, each depends on the level of consumer participation with the product and the message. When the level of consumer participation is higher, the central path to persuasion is more likely. On the other hand, the peripheral route to persuasion has more possibilities when consumer participation is low. On the central path to persuasion, consumers have a higher level of participation with the product or message, so they are motivated to pay attention to the central information related to the article, such as its attributes and benefits or demonstrations of positive functional or psychological consequences. Because of their high turnout, consumers tend to learn cognitively and understand the information delivered by the ad at deeper, more elaborate levels. This can lead to beliefs in the product, positive attitudes towards the brand and purchase intent. Suppose you are on the market for a meaningful purchase, say, a new camera or a computer. Because the purchase is relatively expensive, your level of participation is higher. He may ask some friends or family for advice. You could visit different stores to compare models and prices. And you're likely to read ads for these products thoroughly to understand their variety of features and

benefits. This is central processing. And in this situation, a well-worded information alsem can be very persuasive. The peripheral route to persuasion is very different. What's more, like stimulus-response learning. People who are not in the market for a product often have a low share with the product message. They have little or no reason to take an interest in it or to understand the central information of the ad. As a result, direct persuasion is also low and consumers are few if any beliefs, attitudes or buying intentions. However, these consumers could address certain peripheral aspects, such as images or colors in an ad or actors in a commercial, for their entertainment value. And anything you feel or think about these non-product peripheral aspects could be integrated into a positive attitude toward the ad. Later, if a buying opportunity arises and the consumer needs to make some brand assessment, these ad-related meanings could be activated to form some attitude toward the brand or purchase intent. Because very few people are really in the market at any time, perhaps most mass media advertising will receive peripheral processing. We all know that most of the ads we see have little relevance to our immediate goals or needs, so we're not motivated to pay much attention to them, let alone think about it. Our participation is very low. For this reason, we also remember little about the ads we saw yesterday. In cases where there is little differentiation of the product, advertisers might want us to perform peripheral processing. Your ads focus more on image or entertainment than product features. This is typical of advertising for many low-stake everyday purchases, such as soap, cereal, toothpaste and chewing gum. But when a product has a different advantage, the advertiser's goal should be to support the central processing path by increasing consumer engagement with the message. This is where we see a stream of comparative advertising. A key to learning and persuasion is repetition. Just as a student prepares for an exam by repeating important data for memorizing, an advertiser should repeat key information to prospective and current customers so that they remember the product name and benefits. Repeating messages penetrates customers' perceptual screens by rekindling memories of previous ad information. Cossette Communications-Marketing, based in Quebec, used pairs of spectaculars for supermarket chain Provigo. They featured strong and similar visuals that were placed to be seen in succession. The repetition proved to be very successful, generating $100 million in sales in just six months. Learning produces attitudes and interest An attitude is our acquired mental position regarding some idea or object. They are the assessments, trends in action or feelings, positive or negative, that we learn and hold on to. For advertisers, getting positive consumer attitudes is crucial to success. Attitudes must be capitalized or changed. In Japan, for example, dishwashers are not a common appliance. Not only is there little room for them, but Japanese housewives feel guilty about using the work-saving device. As

a result, dishwasher manufacturers have designed smaller, space-saving machines, and then promoted them using good hygiene issues rather than convenience appeals. For mature brands in categories with frequently purchased family products, interest in the brand is even more relevant to motivate action. Trademark interest is an individual's openness or curiosity about a brand. Entertaining and enjoyable advertising can increase brand interest and reduce variety search trends from consumers who get bored when using the same old product. Learning leads to habits and brand loyalty Attitude is the mental side and habit the behavioral part of the same coin. Habit, the pattern of acquired behavior that becomes almost or entirely unintentional, is the natural extension of learning. We’re creatures of habit. Most consumer behaviour is common for three reasons: it is safe, simple and essential. First, no matter how we learn to make our purchase decision (whether by processing the central or peripheral route), if we discover a quality product, brand or service, we feel safe when we repurchase it through the Habit. Second, the habit is simple. To consider options we must evaluate, compare and then decide. This is difficult and risky; it's also time-consuming. Finally, because the habit is safe and easy, we depend on it for daily life. Imagine rethinking every purchase decision you make. It would be almost impossible, not to mention impractical. So, it’s essential to have the habit in our lives. The main objective of all marketers is to produce brand loyalty, a direct result of the habit of repurchasing and the strengthening of continuous advertising. Brand loyalty is the conscious or unconscious decision of the consumer, expressed by the intention or behavior of purchasing a brand on an ongoing basis. It occurs because the consumer perceives that the brand offers the characteristics of product, image, quality or ratio appropriate to the correct price. In the search for brand loyalty, advertisers have three habit-related goals: 1. Breaking habits. Get consumers to unlearn an existing shopping habit and try something new. Advertisers often offer incentives for consumers to stay away from old brands or stores. Or they can use comparative advertising to demonstrate the superiority of their product. 2. Acquire habits. Teach consumers to repurchase their brand or revisit their property. To get you started, Columbia House announces free CDs when you sign, tied to a contract for you to buy more. 3. Strengthen habits. Remind current customers of the value of their original acquisition and encourage them to keep buying. Many magazines, for example, offer special renewal rates for their regular subscribers. Today, developing brand loyalty is much more difficult due to increased consumer sophistication and legions of demarketing activities to break the habits of

competing advertisers. Only recently have advertisers come to realize that their years of habit-breaking activities have undermined their own habit-forminggoals. In the search for instant results, they shifted much of their advertising budgets to sales promotions (offers, coupons, price reductions). But advertising, unlike sales promotion, is an integral part of what makes a brand sellable. It is advertising that reinforces brand loyalty and maintains market share. Learning defines needs and desires The learning process is immediate and long-term. Now we archive a perception, some learning takes place. When we see an advertisement for a succulent meal, suddenly we can feel hungry; we needfood. As we collect information in our mental archives, comparing new perceptions with old ones, more learning is obtained. Necessity can become a desire. This leads to the next personal process, motivation. The consumer motivation process Motivation refers to the underlying forces (or reasons) that contribute to our buying stocks. These causes come from the conscious or unconscious goal of satisfying our needs and desires. Needs are the basic, often instintive human forces that lead us to do something. Desires are "needs" that we learn during our lives. Motivation cannot be observed directly. When we see people eating, we assume they are hungry; But we may be wrong. People feed for a variety of reasons besides hunger: they want to be sociable, it's time to eat, or maybe they're nervous or bored. Usually, people are motivated by the benefit of meeting some combination of needs, which may be conscious or unconscious, functional or psychological. Motivation research provides some insight into the underlying reasons for unexpected consumer behavior. The reasons(reasons)why some people stop shopping at Ralph's Supermarket and switch to Vons might be that the Vons supermarket is closer to home, has a wider selection of fresh produce and (most likely) see to other people like them who shop at Vons. Any or all these factors could cause a consumer to change even if prices are lower at Ralph's. To better understand what motivates people, Abraham Maslow developed the classical model called hierarchy of needs. Maslow argued that lower physiological and safety needs dominate human behavior and must be met before the socially acquired needs (or desires) become significant. The highest need, selfrealization, is the highlight of the satisfaction of all the lower needs to come to the discovery of the true self. The promise of meeting a certain degree of need is the basic promotional appeal for many ads. In opulent societies such as the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and Japan, most individuals take for granted their physiological needs. So, advertising campaigns often portray the satisfaction of social needs,

esteem and self-realization, and many offer the reward of satisfaction through personal achievement. In focus groups for Nabisco SnackWells, for example, it became clear that, today, middle-aged women have a high sense of deservedness of their own. Well-being, for them, is no longer about looking good in a swimsuit, but celebrating what they do well. The advertiser wondered if they could use women's positive attitude toward themselves to change their attitude toward the concept of eating snacks. Nabisco's agency, Foote, Cone & Belding capitalized on a new campaign aimed at boosting women's self-esteem. The message: "Eating snacks is not about 'filling up', but about 'satisfying'." We all have needs and desires, but we often don't notice them. Before the advent of the laptop, people were completely ignorant of any need for it. But when a consumer consciously recognizes a product-related desire or need, a dynamic process begins. The consumer first assesses the need and accepts it as worthy of action or rejects it. Approval turns need satisfaction into a goal, which creates dedication (motivation) to achieve a particular result. In contrast, rejection nullifies the need for action and therefore eliminates the goal and motivation to buy. Modern researchers have translated Maslow's theory of needs and motives into more strategic concepts for marketers and advertisers to use. For example, Rossiter and Percy identify eight fundamental reasons for purchase and use They refer to the first five as negative (informative) reasons and the last three as (transformational) motives originating in positively. (informative) reasons arising in a negative way The most common energizers of consumer behavior are negatively caused by reasons, such as eliminating or avoiding a problem. For example, whenever we ran out of something, we experience a negative mental state. To alleviate these feelings, we actively seek a new or replacement product. Therefore, we are temporarily motivated until the moment we make the purchase. So, if the acquisition is satisfactory, the momentum or motivation is reduced. These are also called informational reasons because the consumer eagerly searches for information to reduce mental state. In fact, Rossiter and Percy point out that these could also be called "relief" reasons because consumers are working to vent the negative state. (transformational) motives originated in a positive way From time to time, we all want to indulge ourselves by buying a brand or product that promises a certain benefit or reward. Positively originated motives promise a positive bonus rather than the elimination or reduction of some anomalous situation. The goal is to use positive reinforcement to increase consumer motivation and energize the acquirer's research or search for the new product. The three reasons originated in positive sensory gratification, intellectual stimulation and social approval are also called transformational reasons because the consumer hopes to be transformed into a sensory, intellectual or social sense. They could also be called "reward" reasons because transformation is a rewarding

state. For some consumers, buying a product (say, a new suit) might represent a negatively originated motive (they don't really want to spend the money on it, but they must buy it to work). But for other consumers it could be sourced in a positive way (they love to buy new clothes). This suggests two different selected markets that advertisers should understand that may require completely different advertising strategies. Before creating messages, advertisers should carefully consider the goals that lead to consumer motivations. Chili's restaurants would make a costly mistake if their commercials represented the reward of a romantic interlude, when the real motive of most Chili's customers is just to satisfy their need to reduce hunger with a meal that makes the fill at a low price. The issues of high participation and low participation products, and informational and transformational motives. Interpersonal influences on consumer behavior It's not enough for advertisers to know the personal processes of perception, learning and persuasion, and motivation. Basic interpersonal influences affect, sometimes even dominate, these processes. They also serve as guidelines for consumer behavior. These influences can be better classified as the family, society and the cultural environment of the consumer. Family influence From an early age, family communication affects our socialization as consumers, as well as our attitudes towards many products and shopping habits. This influence is usually strong and lasting. A child who learns that the "right" painkiller for headache is Bayer aspirin and the "right" name for household appliances is General Electric has a well-developed adult buying behavior. From 1970 to 1990, households of married couples with children declined abruptly, from 40 to 26% of the total. Since 2004, this decline has been slower, to 23% in 2004. Still, this suggests that the family's influence has been greatly reduced in the United States over the past 30 years as working parents take a less active role in raising their children and young men seek social values outside the family The. As this happens, the influence of social and cultural environments intensifies.

Social influence The community in which we live has a great influence on all of us. When we join a particular social divide or identify with a reference group or value the ideas of certain opinion leaders, our concepts of life, our perceptual screens and, ultimately, the products are affected we bought. Social divisions: the group we belong to

Sociologists traditionally divided societies into social classes: high, middle high, middle low, etc. They believed that people of the same social class tended towards similar attitudes, position symbols, and spending patterns. But at present this does not apply to most developed countries. American society is fluid and moving in the extreme, from a physical, social and economic point of view. Americans firmly believe in success, being better than their peers, and gaining greater admiration and self-esteem. As the army's famous campaign illustrates, advertisers capitalize on this desire to "be as much as you can be." Because of this dynamism, impressive increases in immigration and the high divorce rate, the boundaries of social classes have become rather murky. Single parents, stockbrokers, immigrant shopkeepers, retired laborers, and bankers see themselves as part of the big middle class. So "middle class" doesn't mean anything anymore. From the advertiser's point of view, the social class rarely represents a functional or operational set of values. To deal with these often-disconcerting changes, marketers are looking for other ways to classify social divisions and new strategies in order to advertise for them. Some of the rankings that marketers use to describe today's society: for example, upper crust, bright small-town lights, influential young people and urban winners. People in the same group tend to possess similar patterns of behavior and use of products. Reference groups: the people we relate to Almost all of us care about how we appear to the people whose opinions we value. We can even mimic with our behavior the members of some groups with which we are identified. This is the importance of reference groups, people we try to emulate or whose approval we are interested in. These sets can be personal (family, friends, co-workers) or impersonal (political parties, religious creeds, professional associations). A special reference group, our counterparts, has a tremendous influence on what we believe and how we behave. They determine which brands are great and which are not. To gain acceptance from our peers (school or workmates, or colleagues) we can buy a certain style or brand of clothing, choose a certain place to live and acquire behavioral habits that will earn their approval. Often, an individual is influenced in opposite directions by two reference groups and must choose between them. For example, a college student might feel pressured by some friends to join a fraternity and others to live independently off campus....