Learning & memory

Mothersbaugh & Hawkins Ch 9

Learning

• Learning is any change in the content or organization of long-term memory and is

the result of information processing
• Information processing is a series of activities by which stimuli are perceived,
transformed into information, and stored:
• Exposure
• Attention
• Interpretation
• Memory
5 learning theories

• Conditioning
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning

• Cognitive thinking
• Iconic rote learning
• Vicarious learning or modeling
• Analytical reasoning
Conditioning

• Conditioning present two stimuli in close proximity so that eventually the two are
perceived (consciously or unconsciously) to be related or associated
• Consumers learn that the stimuli go (or do not go) together
• Two forms of conditioning:
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
Classical conditioning

• Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with
another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own
• With repetition over time, this second stimulus causes a similar response because
we associate it with the first stimulus
• Example: Pavlov’s dogs
Classical conditioning: Pavlov’s dogs

Components of Conditioning
• Unconditioned stimulus
• Conditioned stimulus
• Conditioned response
 Classical conditioning: 6 o’clock news and salivation

Nestle TVC – smell coffee get up

A pop song used in TV advertisement

• Classical conditioning is the process of using an established relationship between

one stimulus (music) and response (pleasant feelings) to bring about the learning
of the same response (pleasant feelings) to a different stimulus (the brand).
Applications of classical learning: stimulus generalization

• Stimulus generalization
• Stimuli similar to a conditioned stimuli may evoke similar conditioned responses
• Pavlov noticed that his dogs would sometimes salivate when they heard noises that only
resembled a bell, such as keys jangling
 Consumers will assign some of the characteristics of the existing brand to
the new product
• Family branding
• Virgin as an over-arching brand concept: Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Media, Virgin Galactic
• Individual brands under the corporate brand, e.g. P&G with Pantene, Persil, Crest,
Safeguard
• Product line extension
• Licensing
• Generic or private-label brands design similar packaging to those of popular brands
The Virgin family brand covers a wide range of products/services
 Corporate branding: P&G

TVC: P&G corporate, Unilever corporate logo, Kraft CNY ad

Product line extension: Green Giant
Licensing: Disney
Generic or private-label brands get their packaging design to be as
similar to popular brands as possible
 consumers assume that the generic or private-label products
share characteristics of the popular brand
Operant conditioning

• Individual learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and to

avoid those that yield negative outcomes
• B. F. Skinner and pigeons
• teach pigeons and other animals to dance and perform activities when he
systematically rewarded them for desired behaviors
Operant conditioning
Marketing applications of operant conditioning

• Rewarding brand purchases with a positive outcome that serves to reinforce the
behavior
• Example: Frequent flyer scheme
• rewards customers with prizes that get better as customers spend more
• Example: Gamification
• Complete tasks to gain points
Cognitive learning

• Cognitive learning encompasses all the mental activities of humans as they work
to solve problems or cope with situations
• It involves learning ideas, concepts, attitudes and facts that contribute to our
ability to reason, solve problems, and learn relationships without direct
experience or reinforcement
• Iconic rote learning
• Vicarious learning/modeling
• Analytical reasoning
Iconic rote learning

• Learning a concept or the association between two or more concepts in the

absence of conditioning
• Example: one may see an ad that states “ketoprofin is a headache remedy”
and associate the new concept “Ketoprofin” with the existing concept of
“headache remedy”
• The distinction from conditioning is that there is neither an unconditioned
stimulus (classical conditioning) nor a direct reward/reinforcement (operant
conditioning) involved
• Involves considerably less cognitive effort and elaboration
• Example: numerous repetitions of a simple message that occurs as the
consumer scans the environment may result in the essence of the message
being learned
 Vicarious learning/modeling

• Consumers observe the outcomes of others’ behaviors and adjust their own
accordingly
• Learning occurs as a result of vicarious rather than direct experience
• Modeling
• Imitating the behavior of others
• the role models are usually people they admire because of such traits as
appearance, accomplishment, skill or social class

TVC: Patek Philippe

Marketing application of vicarious learning/modeling

• Demonstration
• Demonstrate in advertisements what happens to desirable models who use
or do not use their products
• Consumers often imitate these actions at a later time
• Celebrity endorsement
• When consumers see the celebrity as role model, they learn from them
• A celebrity’s image elicits more than a simple reflexive response of good or
bad. It elicits a complex combination of many attributes, which add to brand
association
Vicarious learning/modeling
Vicarious learning/modeling: Celebrity endorsement
 Analytical reasoning

• Analytical reasoning – in reasoning,

individuals engage in creative thinking to
restructure and recombine existing
information as well as new information to
form new associations and concepts
• Information from a credible source that
contradicts or challenges one’s existing
beliefs will often trigger reasoning
• Example: this iRobot ad challenges implicit
consumer beliefs

Source: Mothersbaugh & Hawkins P326 Illustration 9-4

High-involvement vs. low-involvement learning

• Consumers learn in various ways:

• High involvement learning
• when the individual is motivated to acquire information
• Example: an individual reading PC Magazine prior to purchasing a
compute is probably highly motivated to learn about computers
• Low involvement learning
• when the individual is only paying limited or indirect attention
• Example: a consumer whose TV program is interrupted by a TVC for a
product she does not use or need has little motivation to learn the
content of the TVC
Summary of learning theories with examples of involvement
level
Memory

• The total accumulation of prior learning experiences

• Short-term memory – active problem solving
• Long-term memory – stored experiences, values, decisions, rules, feelings
• These processes are interrelated and memory is both an outcome of learning as
well as a part of the learning process
Short-term memory (STM)

• STM is short lived

• Information in STM decays quickly
• Memory span for prices is about 3.7 seconds
marketers repeat the brand name or key benefit in a prominent manner several times in an ad
• STM has limited capacity
• Consumers can only remember 5 to 9 bits of information
Chunking = organizing individual items into groups of related items that can be processed as a single
unit
• Elaborative activities occur in STM
• Elaborative activities are the use of previously stored experiences, values, attitudes, beliefs and feelings
to interpret and evaluate information in STM
• Elaboration is enhanced when consumers are more involved in the brand, product or message
• Elaboration increases the chances that information will be transferred to LTM and be retrieved at a later
time by establishing meaningful linkages between the new information and existing information
Chunking

• Chunking = organizing individual items into groups of related items that can be
processed as a single unit
• Example: a research on toll free vanity numbers
• Memory for completely numeric numbers was 8%
• Combinations of numbers and words: 800-=555-Home was 44%
• More words: 800-New-Home was 57%
 The number of bits goes down as the words become meaningful chunks
replacing meaningless numbers
Example of chunking: 118 118
Long-term memory (LTM)

• LTM is viewed as an unlimited, permanent storage

• Concepts acquire depth of meaning by becoming associated with
other concepts
• A schema is a complex web of associations, which contains product
characteristics, usage situations, episodes and affective reactions
A partial schema for Mountain Dew
A partial schema for VW Beetle
 Changing a familiar packaging needs to be a cautious exercise

TVC – Kitkat ad
Chocolate-covered Oreo was a failure
Marketing applications of memory

• Marketers invest in communication to “teach” consumers to “learn and retain”

brand/product information
• Information, once learnt and become part of the associated network in
consumers’ mind, may be difficult to unlearn
• When marketers want to make changes to the marketing mix, they need research
to guide them on what can and cannot be changed