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Chapter 3

Learning and Memory

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, 9eMichael R. Solomon

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Learning Objectives

When you finish this chapter, you should understand why:

• It’s important for marketers to understand how consumers learn about products and services.

• Conditioning results in learning.

• Learned associations can generalize to other things and why this is important to marketers.

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Learning Objectives (continued)

When you finish this chapter, you should understand why:

• There is a difference between classical and instrumental conditioning.

• We learn by observing others’ behavior.

• Memory systems work.

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Learning Objectives (continued)

When you finish this chapter, you should understand why:

• The other products we associate with an individual product influences how we will remember it.

• Products help us to retrieve memories from our past.

• Marketers measure our memories about products and ads.

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The Learning Process

• Learning: a relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience

• Incidental learning: casual, unintentional acquisition of knowledge

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Behavioral Learning Theories

• Behavioral learning theories: assume that learning takes place as the result of responses to external events.

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Types of Behavioral Learning Theories

Classical conditioning: a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own. Instrumental conditioning

(also, operant conditioning): the individual learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and to avoid those that yield negative outcomes.

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Classical Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov rang bell and put meat powder into dogs’ mouths; repeated until dogs salivated when the bell rang

• Meat powder = UCS (natural reaction is drooling)

• Bell = CS (dogs learned to drool when bell rang)

• Drooling = CR

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Marketing Applications of Repetition

• Repetition increases learning

• More exposures = increased brand awareness

• When exposure decreases, extinction occurs

• However, too MUCH exposure leads to advertising wear out

• Example: Izod crocodile on clothes

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Marketing Applications of Stimulus Generalization

• Stimulus generalization: tendency for stimuli similar to a conditioned stimulus to evoke similar, unconditioned responses.

• Family branding

• Product line extensions

• Licensing

• Look-alike packaging

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Discussion

• Some advertisers use well-known songs to promote their products. They often pay more for the song than for original compositions. How do you react when one of your favorite songs turns up in a commercial?

• Why do advertisers do this? How does this relate to learning theory?

• If you worked for an ad agency, how would you select songs for your clients?

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Instrumental Conditioning

• Behaviors = positive outcomes or negative outcomes

• Instrumental conditions occurs in one of these ways:

• Positive reinforcement

• Negative reinforcement

• Punishment

• Extinction

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Figure 3.2 Instrumental Conditioning

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Reinforcement Schedules in Instrumental Conditioning

• Fixed-interval (seasonal sales)

• Variable-interval (secret shoppers)

• Fixed-ratio (grocery-shopping receipt programs)

• Variable-ratio (slot machines)

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Cognitive Learning Theories: Observational Learning

• We watch others; we model behavior

• Conditions for modeling to occur:

• The consumer’s attention must be directed to the appropriate model

• The consumer must remember what the model does and says

• The consumer must convert information to action

• The consumer must be motivated to perform actions

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Figure 3.3 The Observational Learning Process

• Modeling: imitating others’ behavior

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Role of Memory in Learning

• Memory: acquiring information and storing it over time so that it will be available when needed.

• Information-processing approach; Figure 3.4

• Mind = computer and data = input/output

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How Information Gets Encoded

• Encode: mentally program meaning

• Types of meaning:

• Sensory meaning, such as the literal color or shape of a package

• Semantic meaning: symbolic associations

• Episodic memories: relate to events that are personally relevant

• Narrative: memories store information we acquire in story form

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Figure 3.5 The Memory Process

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Figure 3.6 An Associative Networks for Perfumes

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Spreading Activation

• As one node is activated, other nodes associated with it also begin to be triggered

• Meaning types of associated nodes:

• Brand-specific

• Ad-specific

• Brand identification

• Product category

• Evaluative reactions

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Levels of Knowledge

• Individual nodes = meaning concepts

• Two (or more) connected nodes = proposition (complex meaning)

• Two or more propositions = schema

• We encode info that is consistent with an existing schema more readily

• Service scripts

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Retrieval for Purchase Decisions

• Retrieving information often requires appropriate factors and cues:

• Physiological factors

• Situational factors

• Consumer attention; pioneering brand; descriptive brand names

• Viewing environment (continuous activity; commercial order in sequence)

• Post experience advertising effects

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What Makes Us Forget?

• Appropriate factors/cues for retrieval:

• State-dependent retrieval/ mood congruence effect

• Familiarity

• Salience/von Restorff effect

• Visual memory versus verbal memory

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Measuring Memory for Marketing Stimuli

• Recognition versus recall

• Problems with memory measures

• Response biases

• Memory lapses

•Omitting

• Averaging

• Telescoping

• Illusion of truth effect

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The Marketing Power of Nostalgia

• Marketers may resurrect popular characters to evoke fond memories of the past

• Nostalgia

• Retro brand

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Discussion

• What “retro brands” are targeted to you? Were these brands that were once used by your parents?

• What newer brands focus on nostalgia, even though they never existed before?

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Chapter Summary

• Marketers need to know how consumers learn in order to develop effective messages.

• Conditioning results in learning and learned associations can generalize to other things.

• Learning can be accomplished through classical and instrumental conditioning and through observing the behavior of others.

• We use memory systems to store and retrieve information.