Strategic Applications of Classical Conditioning Three basic concepts derive from

classical conditioning: 1) Repetition: Repetition means to repeat a specific stimulus

to get a desired outcome. It increases the strength of the association between a
conditional stimulus and an unconditional stimulus and slows the process of
forgetting. But there is a limit to repetition, after which the attention and retention
start declining, an effect called advertising wearout. This effect can be reduced by
two different methods: Cosmetic variations: Variation in the background or
advertising spokesperson. Substantive variations: Using different advertisements
for the same product. Three-hit theory: Marketing scholars believe that only three
exposures to an advertisement are needed: - To make consumers aware. - To show
consumers the relevance of the product. - Remind customers the benefits of the
products. 2) Stimulus Generalization: Making the same response to slightly different
stimuli is called stimulus generalization. The principle of stimulus generalization is
applied to following: Product line, form, and category extensions: Product line
extensions: In product line extensions, the marketer adds related products to an
already established brand, knowing that the new products are more likely to be
adapted when they are associated with a known and trusted brand name.
Product form extensions: In Product form extensions, the form of the product is
slightly changed like Colgate mouthwash to Colgate toothpaste. Product category
extensions: Product category extension means to target new market segments. For
example Cadbury, a chocolate manufacturer, introduced Cadburys Premium
Celebrations Dry Fruit. Family branding: The practice of marketing a whole line of
company products under the same brand name is called Family Branding. LG and
Samsung are the companies who effectively use the concept of family branding.
2. Licensing: Licensing is a marketing strategy in which a well known brand name is
allowed to be affixed to products of another manufacturer. Licensing can be done
by manufacturers, designers, corporations, celebrities and even cartoon characters
for a specified fee. Corporations can license their names and trademarks for some
form of brand extensions and for purely promotional purposes. Counterfeiting
the increase in licensing has made counterfeiting a booming business, as
counterfeiters add well-known licensor names to a variety of products without
benefit of contract or quality control. 3) Stimulus Discrimination: Stimulus
discrimination is the opposite of stimulus generalization and results in the selection
of specific stimulus from among similar stimuli. The main objective of this strategy
is to get the consumer to discriminate among similar stimuli. Product
differentiation: Product differentiation means to distinguish a product or brand from
that of competitors on the basis of an attribute that is relevant, meaningful, and
valuable to consumers. Many marketers also differentiate their products on the
basis of an attribute that is irrelevant to creating the implied benefit like the color or
the packaging.