layout: true background-image: url(figs/tcb-logo.png) background-position: bottom right background-origin: content-box; background-size: 10% --- class: title-slide .row[ .col-7[ .title[ # Consumer Behavior ] .subtitle[ ## Learning and Memory ] .author[ ### Dennis A.V. Dittrich ] .affiliation[ ] ] .col-5[ ] ] --- # How Do We Learn? .row[.col-7[ **Learning** is a relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience. The **experience** can be **direct** or it can be **observed**. **Incidental learning**: unintentional acquisition of knowledge * We learn even when we don’t try: We recognize many brand names and hum many product jingles even for products we don’t personally use. Learning is an ongoing process. * Our knowledge about the world constantly updates * as we are exposed to new stimuli and * as we receive ongoing feedback ] .col-5[ ![](img09/042.png) ]] ??? ...that allows us to modify our behavior when we find ourselves in similar situations at a later time. The concept of learning covers a lot of ground, ranging from a consumer’s simple association between a stimulus such as a product logo (e.g., Coca-Cola) and a response (e.g., “refreshing soft drink”) to a complex series of cognitive activities (e.g., writing an essay on learning for a consumer behavior exam) --- # Theories of Learning .col-7[ **Behavioral learning** theories focus on stimulus-response connections * classical conditioning * instrumental conditioning **Cognitive** theories focus on consumers as problem solvers who learn when they observe relationships ] ??? There are several learning theories which range from those that focus on connections between actions and consequences to those that focus on understanding complex relationships and problem solving. --- # Behavioral Learning Theories .row[ .col-7[ **Classical conditioning**: a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own. * condition responses to **involuntary** behaviors ] .col-5[ .row[.col-6[![](img09/044.png)].col-6[![](img09/043.png)]] ]] .row[ .col-7[ **Instrumental conditioning** (also, operant conditioning): the individual learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and to avoid those that yield negative outcomes. * refers to **voluntary** behaviors ] .col-5[ .row[.col-6[![](img09/046.png)].col-6[![](img09/047.png)]] ]] --- ## Classical Conditioning .row[.col-7[ ...occurs when a **stimulus** that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own. ]] .row[.col-7[ Components of Conditioning * Unconditioned stimulus * Conditioned stimulus * Conditioned response Over time, the second stimulus causes a similar response because we associate it with the first stimulus. ] .col-5[ Ivan **Pavlov**, a Russian physiologist who conducted research on digestion in animals, first demonstrated this phenomenon in dogs. He paired a neutral stimulus (a bell) with a stimulus known to cause a salivation response in dogs. ]] ??? Pavlov: The powder was an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) because it was naturally capable of causing the response. Over time, the bell became a conditioned stimulus (CS). The bell did not initially cause salivation but the dogs learned to associate the bell with the meat powder and began to salivate at the sound of the bell only. The drooling of these canine consumers because of a sound was a conditioned response (CR). --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ How might classical conditioning operate for a consumer who visits a new tutoring Web site and is greeted by the Web site’s avatar who resembles Albert Einstein? ] --- # Stimulus .row[.col-7[ **Repetition**: Conditioning effects are more likely to occur after the conditioned (CS) and unconditioned (UCS) stimuli have been paired a number of times. **Stimulus generalization**: Stimuli similar to a CS may evoke similar responses. * **Halo effect**: People also react to other similar stimuli in much the same way they responded to the original stimulus **Stimulus discrimination**: a UCS does not follow a stimulus similar to a CS * Conditions may weaken over time when a UCS does not follow a stimulus similar to a CS. **Extinction**: happens when the effects of prior conditioning diminish and finally disappear. ] .col-5[ **Brand equity**: a brand has strong positive associations in a consumer’s memory and commands a lot of loyalty as a result of prior conditioning. ] ] ??? Halo effect: Pavlov noticed in subsequent studies that his dogs would sometimes salivate when they heard noises that only vaguely resembled a bell, such as keys jangling. --- class: practice-slide # Exercise .col-8[ Give an example of a halo effect in marketing. ] ??? People react to other, similar stimuli in much the same way they responded to the original stimulus; this generalization is called a halo effect. A drugstore’s bottle of private brand mouthwash deliberately packaged to resemble Listerine mouthwash may evoke a similar response among consumers, who assume that this “me-too” product shares other characteristics of the original --- # Marketing Applications of Repetition .row[.col-7[ Repetition increases learning More exposures = increased brand awareness When exposure decreases, extinction occurs ] .col-5[ Many classic advertising campaigns consist of product slogans repeated often to enhance recall. ]] .row[.col-7[ However, __too much__ exposure leads to advertising wear out * Example: Lacoste crocodile on clothes ] .col-5[ Even when associations are established, too much exposure can turn negative. In that case, the association may change in terms of whether it is perceived as positive or negative. ]] ??? Conditioning effects are more likely to occur after the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) have been paired several times. Repeated exposures to the association increase the strength of the associations and prevent decay of these associations in memory. But for this to work, the UCS must repeatedly be paired with the CS. Otherwise, extinction occurs. Extinction means that the association is forgotten. Even when associations are established, too much exposure can turn negative. In that case, the association may change in terms of whether it is perceived as positive or negative. That’s what happened to Izod when its logo became too exposed on a variety of clothing and products. --- ## Marketing Applications of Stimulus Generalization .row[ .col-7[ **Stimulus generalization**: tendency for stimuli similar to a conditioned stimulus to evoke similar, unconditioned responses. * **Family branding**: enables products to capitalize on the ***reputation*** of a company name * **Product line extensions**: adding related products to an established brand * **Licensing**: to rent well-known names * **Look-alike packaging** * Distinctive packaging designs create strong associations with a particular brand. * Generic or private-level brands and want to communicate a quality image often exploit this linkage when they put their products in similar packages to those of popular brands. ] .col-5[ The process of stimulus generalization is critical to branding and packaging decisions that try to capitalize on consumer’s positive associations with an existing brand or company name. ]] --- ## How Does Instrumental Conditioning Occur? .row[.col-7[ We learn to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and avoid those that yield negative outcomes. Responses in instrumental conditioning are deliberately, they are made to obtain a goal. We may learn the desired behavior over a period of time as a shaping process rewards our intermediate actions. ] .col-5[ Psychologist B. F. **Skinner** demonstrated the effects of instrumental conditioning by teaching pigeons and other animals to dance and perform other activities when he systematically rewarded them for desired behaviors. ] ] .row[.col-7[ **Positive reinforcement** comes in the form of a reward **Negative reinforcement** shows how a negative outcome can be avoided **Punishment** occurs when unpleasant events follow a response. ] .col-5[ **Extinction** occurs when there is no reinforcement. The conditioning is not activated because it is not reinforced. ]] --- .row[.col-8[ ![](img09/049.png) ] .col-4[## Types of Reinforcement ]] ??? In addition to deciding whether to use positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or punishment, marketers also have to decide on a schedule. Marketers need to determine the most effective reinforcement schedule to use because this decision relates to the amount of effort and resources they must devote when they reward consumers who respond as they hope to their requests. Several schedules are possible. In a fixed interval reinforcement, the first response made brings the reward and then on a specific set interval, future rewards are given. With variable interval reinforcement, one doesn’t know when the reward will be offered. Because you don’t know exactly when to expect the reinforcement, you have to respond at a consistent rate. In fixed ratio reinforcement, reinforcement only occurs after a fixed number of responses. The last type of reinforcement schedule is the variable-ratio schedule. This is the type of schedule used by slot machines. --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ 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? ] --- ## Marketing Applications of Instrumental Conditioning Principles .row[ .col-7[ ![](img09/0410.png) ] .col-5[ **Frequency marketing** rewards regular purchasers with prizes that get better as they spend more. ]] --- # Gamification .row[ .col-5[ **Gamification** turns routine actions into experiences as it adds gaming elements to tasks that might otherwise be boring or routine. * Multiple short- and long-term goals * Rapid and frequent feedback * A reward for most or all efforts in the form of a badge or a virtual product * Friendly competition in a low-risk environment * A manageable degree of uncertainty ] .col-7[ **Endowed progress effect** * Loyalty cards with discounts after reaching certain thresholds of purchases **Store and brand loyalty** * Foursquare gives people virtual badges when they check in at a local cafe or restaurant. **Social marketing** * Opower that awards badges to customers when they reduce their energy consumption. Customers can compare their progress with their neighbors’ and broadcast their achievements on Facebook. **Employee performance** * rank the performances of employees on a leaderboard ] ] --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ What kind of reinforcement is being used when stores offer loyalty programs? Provide several examples and identify the reinforcement approach being used. ] --- ### We learn about products by observing others’ behavior. ![](img09/0412.png) --- # Observational Learning .col-7[ ...occurs when we watch the actions of others and note the reinforcements they receive for their behaviors. When we are preoccupied with other demands, we are likely to **mimic** others’ behaviors as a **social default**. **Modeling** is the process of imitating the behavior of others * The consumer’s **attention** must be directed to the appropriate model. * The consumer must **remember** what the model says or does. * The consumer must **convert** this information **into actions**. * The consumer must be **motivated** to perform these actions. ] --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ To hasten kids’ introduction to social media, a team of Finnish designers invented a block-sorting toy that also works like Twitter. It allows preverbal kids to grab colorful blocks with icons for sleeping, eating, or brushing their teeth; the kids then fit them into slots to indicate what they’re up to. The device then transmits the “status update” to light up the corresponding block-shape on the same toy in another household. Should very young children be introduced to social media this way? ] ??? Answers will vary; some students will think social media is good for young children, while others will think it is bad for young children’s educational growth. --- # How Do We Learn to Be Consumers? .row[.col-7[ Parents play an important role in **consumer socialization**. Parent’s influence * **Authoritarian** parents are hostile, restrictive, and emotionally uninvolved. * **Neglecting** parents are detached from their children and don’t exercise much control over what the children do. * **Indulgent** parents communicate more with their children about consumption-related matters and are less restrictive. ] .col-5[ ![](img09/0413.png) ]] --- .row[.col-9[ ![](img09/0414.png) ] .col-3[ ### Five Stages of Consumer Development The process of **consumer socialization** begins with infants. Within the first two years, children request products they want. By about age 5, most kids make purchases with the help of parents and grandparents ]] --- # Cognitive Development .row[.col-7[ **Limited**: Children who are younger than age 6 do not employ storage-and-retrieval strategies. **Cued**: Children between the ages of 6 and 12 employ these strategies but only when prompted to do so. **Strategic**: Children 12 and older spontaneously employ storage-and-retrieval strategies. **Multiple-intelligence theory**: argues for other types of intelligence, such as athletic prowess or musical ability, beyond the traditional math and verbal skills psychologists use to measure IQ. ]] --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ How did your parents influence your development as a consumer? How much freedom were you provided in terms of your consumer choices? ] --- ## Our brains process information about brands to retain them in memory. .row[.col-6[ **Memory** is a process of acquiring information and storing it over time so that it will be available when we need it. 1. In the **encoding** stage, information enters in a way the system will recognize. 2. In the **storage** stage, we integrate this knowledge with what is already in memory and “warehouse” it until it is needed. 3. During **retrieval**, we access the desired information ] .col-6[ **Episodic memories**: relate to events that are personally relevant A **narrative**, or a description of a product that is written as a story, is often an effective way to convey product information **Activation models of memory** explain that depending on the nature of the processing task different levels of processing occur that activate some aspects of memory rather than others. ] ] --- # Types of Memory ![](img09/0416.png) .row[.col-7[According to the information-processing perspective, there are three distinct memory systems: **sensory** memory, **short-term** memory, and **long-term** memory. ]] ??? Sensory memory stores the information we receive from our senses. This storage is temporary. If the information is retained for further processing, it passes through an attentional gate and transfers to short-term memory. Short-term memory also stores information for a limited period of time, and it has limited capacity. This system is working memory. It holds information we are currently processing. Our memories can store verbal input acoustically or semantically. We store this information by combining small pieces into larger ones in a process we call chunking. A chunk is a configuration that is familiar and the person can think about it as a unit. Long-term memory is the system that allows us to retain information for a long period of time. A cognitive process we call elaborative rehearsal allows information to move from short-term memory to long-term memory. --- # Associative Network .row[.col-6[ The other products we associate with an individual product influence how we will remember it. Long-term memory and short-term memory are **interdependent systems**. * An incoming piece of information gets stored in an associative network that contains many bits of information. * Incoming information gets put into nodes that connect to one another in knowledge structures. * The more effort it takes to process information, the more likely it is that information will transfer into long-term memory. ].col-6[ ![](img09/0417.png) ]] --- # Spreading Activation .row[.col-7[ A marketing message may activate our memory of a brand directly or indirectly. The way we store a piece of information in memory depends on the type of meaning we initially assign to it. **Brand-specific** meaning refers to memory stored in terms of the claims the brand makes. **Ad-specific** meaning refers to memories stored in terms of the medium or content of the ad itself. **Brand identification** is memory stored in terms of the brand name. **Product category** meaning is memory stored in terms of how the product works or where it should be used. **Evaluative reactions** is memory stored as positive or negative emotions. ] .col-5[ We may combine these meaning concepts into a larger unit we call a **proposition** or a **belief**. A proposition links two nodes together to form a more complex meaning. * For example, “Axe is cologne for macho men” is a proposition. ] ] --- # Levels of Knowledge .row[ .col-5[ **Schema**: a cognitive framework we develop through experience. **Script**: a sequence of events an individual expects to occur. **Service scripts**: guide our behavior in commercial settings. ] .col-7[ ![](img09/0418.png) ]] --- # Retrieving Memories .col-7[ **Pioneering brand**: the first brand to enter a market. **Follower brands**: ride the coattails of pioneers because the first product’s introduction is likely to be distinctive, and for the time being, no competitors divert our attention. **Spacing effect**: the tendency for us to recall printed material more effectively when the advertiser repeats the target item periodically, rather than presenting it repeatedly in a short time period. ] --- # For Reflection .col-8[ List three of your favorite foods. What memories do you have associated with these foods? Are the foods associated with specific family events like a gathering for St. Patrick’s Day? Explain. ] --- ## Forgetting .row[ .col-7[ **Decay**: the structural changes that learning produces in the brain simply go away. **Interference**: as we learn additional information, it displaces the previous information. **State-dependent retrieval**: we are better able to access information if our internal state is the same at the time of recall as when we learned the information. **Highlighting effect**: occurs when the order in which consumers learn about brands determines the strength of association between these brands and their attributes. **Salience** of a brand refers to its prominence or level of activation in memory. **The von Restorff Effect**: shows that almost any technique that increases the novelty of a stimulus also improves recall. * We recall mixed emotions (e.g., those with positive and negative components) differently than unipolar emotions that are either wholly positive or wholly negative. **Hybrid ads** include a program tie-in ]] --- ## Measuring Memory for Marketing Stimuli .row[.col-7[ How do we know if our marketing messages are designed to help consumer remember them? We can measure recognition and recall. Measures of memory can be faulty: * Response biases: people tend to give yes responses to questions regardless of the question. * Memory lapses * Omitting facts * Averaging (or normalizing the memories by not reporting extreme cases) * Telescoping: inaccurate recall of time **Illusion of truth effect**: the phenomenon of people remembering a claim is true when they have been told the claim is false. ] .col-5[ In a typical **recognition test**, researchers show ads to subjects one at a time and ask if they have seen them before. **Free recall tests** ask consumers to independently think of what they have seen without being prompted first. ] ] --- # What Makes Us Forget? .row[ .col-4[ Products help us to retrieve memories from our past. **Retrieval** is the process whereby we recover information from long-term memory. Many things affect our ability to retrieve information. One of those is how the marketer presents the information. ] .col-8[ ![](img09/0419.png)]] --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ What’s a memory that you just can’t seem to forget (bonus, if you think of one related to a brand)? Now that you know the types of memory and how your mind stores information, why do you think the memory stays with you? ] --- # The Marketing Power of Nostalgia .row[.col-5[ Marketers may resurrect popular characters to evoke fond memories of the past. **Nostalgia**: the emotions where we view the past with longing. * We reference the good old days. When marketers play on nostalgia, they want us to attach our fond memories to new products. **Retro brand**: an updated version of a brand from a prior historical period. * The Mini Cooper, PT Cruiser, and Volkswagen's New Beetle are all retro brands. ] .col-7[ ![](img09/0420.png)]] --- class: practice-slide # For Reflection .col-8[ 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? ] --- # Review .col-7[ Conditioning results in learning. We learn about products by observing others’ behavior. Our brains process information about brands to retain them in memory. ]