UNIT - 2

CONSUMER LEARNING
 CONTENT (20%)

• Element of learning process,

• Types of Learning Process: Classical
Conditioning Theory, Operant / Instrumental,
Conditioning Theory, Cognitive Dissonance
Theory, Consumer Memory
 MEANING & DEFINITION OF CONSUMER
BEHAVIOUR

• Learning is defined as a change in the behaviour that occurs as a result of

experience of self or others.
• According to Schiffman “consumer learning can be thought of as the
process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption
knowledge and experience that they apply to future related behaviour”.
• Consumer learning is defined as a process by which people gather and
interpret information about products and services and use this
information/knowledge in buying patterns and consumption behaviour.
• Consumer learning may be intentional, where learning is an outcome of a
careful search for information.
• Consumer learning can also be incidental, where learning occurs as a
matter of chance, by accident or without much effort.
ELEMENTS OF LEARNING PROCESS

• Learning is the process by which individuals acquire the knowledge and

experience that they apply to future related behaviour.
• Several points in this definition are worth noting.
• a) First, learning is a process; that is, it keeps changing as a result of
newly acquired knowledge or from experience.
• b) Both newly acquired knowledge and personal experience serve as
feedback to the individual and provide the basis for future behavior in
similar situations.
• All learning is not deliberate (i.e. acquired through one’s own action).
Many times learning is achieved through accident or without much
effort.
• In general, following are the basic elements of learning;
MOTIVATION
• In order to learn anything, motivation is the driving force for it. Without motivation, a person
will not try to learn anything.
• Unfulfilled needs lead to motivation and this result into the process of learning. It is
important to know that level of motivation of a person to search for knowledge or
information depends on two factors
• a) The degree of relevance
• b) involvement, with the goal
• Example: When people watch advertisement of discount offers before Diwali festival, they
are motivated to watch these advertisements as they are interested in buying products
during the festival.

• The marketer can play an important role by

• identifying or helping the consumer identify the sub-conscious and hidden motives;
• triggering off motives and desires;
• In both these ways, the consumer would be motivated to search for information, in so far as
that product/service would help satisfy the need/want.
• Hence it can be said that Learning is stimulated by motives.
• Motives drive human behaviour. It encourages learning in individuals.
CUES

• If motives serve to stimulate learning, cues are the stimuli that give direction to
the motives.
• In the marketplace, price, styling, packaging, advertising, store displays etc. are
cues that help consumers to fulfill their needs.
• Cues can direct the drives of the consumers when they are consistent with
their expectations.
• Hence, we can say that Motives drive learning and Cues give direction to
motives.
• Example: All 4Ps could act as cues and give direction to motives; eg. the
packaging of the product (colorful design; easy to carry; reusable containers),
price (discounts, sales), place (store display, store layout, window dressing)
and promotion (advertisement).
RESPONSE
• Response means how shall individuals react to a cue.
That means, response means the way individuals
behave when they come across cues
• A response is not tied to a need in a one-to-one
fashion.
• A need or motive may generate variety of responses.
• The response of a consumer depends heavily on
previous learning. Previous learning depends on how
related responses were reinforced previously.
REINFORCEMENT
• Reinforcement increases the chance that a specific response will occur in the
future as the result of particular cues or stimuli.
• If a consumer is rewarded, that consumer has learnt to associate the purchase
with a pleasant feeling and is likely to repeat the learnt behaviour and become
a loyal customer.
• An action always has a reaction; based on the reaction, the behavior gets
reinforced. In other words, if the action (behavior) is followed by a reaction
that is positive or pleasant or rewarding, the action (behavior) gets positively
reinforced; the likelihood of repetition of that action (behavior) increases.
• If the action (behavior) is followed by a reaction that is negative or unpleasant
or unrewarding, the action (behavior) gets negatively reinforced; and the
likelihood of repetition of that action (behavior) decreases.
 EXAMPLE: Basic elements of Learning
ELEMENT OF LEARNING EXAMPLE 1 EXAMPLE 2

An MBA student requires A man is shopping in a

a business suit for his mall
interview and feels hungry

MOTIVATION Requirement of a Hunger need triggered

Relevance of business suit for off.
need and goal interview.
A need that
motivates action

CUES Discounts/Sales; Or, Smell of cakes and

- A stimulus or Good deals; Or, pastries; Or,
symbol to drive Good designs. Good, well-lit
action confectionary
- It directs a drive when store with good display
they are match consumer of
expectations goodies to eat; Or,
Billboards and banners
publicizing brand etc.

RESPONSE REINFORCEMENT ????????

- Action to satisfy need. - The feedback
- The reaction or a consumer
behaviour relative to a receives.
drive or a cue - The reward or
action.
 BEHAVIORAL LEARNING THEORIES
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING THEORY
• Classical conditioning is a type of learning that happens unconsciously.
• When you learn through classical conditioning, an automatic conditioned response
is paired with a specific stimulus. This creates a behavior.
• The best-known example of this is from what some believe to be the father of
classical conditioning: Ivan Pavlov. In an experiment on canine digestion, he found
that over time dogs were salivating not only when their food was presented to
them, but when the people who fed them arrived.
• To test his theory that the dogs were salivating because they were associating the
people with being fed, he began ringing a bell and then presenting the food so
they’d associate the sound with food.
• These dogs learned to associate the bell ringing with food, causing their mouths to
salivate whenever the bell rang — not just when they encountered the food.
• Conditioning is beneficial in an evolutionary sense because it’s helped us create
expectations to prepare for future events. For instance, getting ill from a certain
food helps us associate that food with sickness. In turn, that helps prevent us from
getting sick in the future.
• We’re all exposed to classical conditioning in one
way or another throughout our lives.
• In our day to day, advertisers often use it to push
their products. For example, beauty commercials
use actors with clear, smooth skin to lead consumers
to associate their product with healthy skin.
• Below we break down classical conditioning, give
some examples, and help you better understand
how it’s used in health and well-being.
Terms to know
• Unconditioned stimulus. An unconditioned stimulus is a stimulus or trigger that leads to an
automatic response. If a cold breeze makes you shiver, for instance, the cold breeze is an
unconditioned stimulus; it produces an involuntary response (the shivering).
• Unconditioned response. An unconditioned response is an automatic response or a response
that occurs without thought when an unconditioned stimulus is present. If you smell your
favorite food and your mouth starts watering, the watering is an unconditioned response.
• Conditioned stimulus. A conditioned stimulus is a stimulus that was once neutral (didn't
trigger a response) but now leads to a response. If you previously didn't pay attention to
dogs, but then got bit by one, and now you feel fear every time you see a dog, the dog has
become a conditioned stimulus.
• Conditioned response. A conditioned response is a learned response or a response that is
created where no response existed before. Going back to the example of being bit by a dog,
the fear you experience after the bite is a conditioned response.
• Neutral Stimulus. A neutral stimulus is a stimulus that doesn't initially trigger a response on
its own. If you hear the sound of a fan but don't feel the breeze, for example, it wouldn't
necessarily trigger a response. That would make it a neutral stimulus.
• Extinction. This term is used when you start presenting the
conditioned stimulus (the bell) over and over but without the
unconditioned stimulus (the food). Over time, the dogs would
unlearn their conditioning that the bell means food is coming.
• Generalization. This refers to when you can generalize similar
things and respond the same way. Dogs began salivating at
sounds similar to bells because they were generalizing what they
learned.
• Discrimination. The opposite of generalization, this is our ability
to tell the difference when something is similar but not identical,
so it won’t produce the same response. A horn sound, for
instance, wouldn’t make the dogs salivate.
 Stages of Pavlovian conditioning

Before conditioning
• Before conditioning is when the unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response come into play. This is the
natural response that wasn’t taught.
• For instance, food produces salivating, or a stomach virus produces nausea.
• At this point, the conditioned stimulus is still called the neutral stimulus because it currently has no effect.
During conditioning
• We begin to associate the neutral stimulus with the unconditioned response.
• For instance, you may associate a specific type of food with a stomach virus, or the bell ringing before getting food
may be associated with receiving food.
After conditioning
• Once you’ve learned to associate the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned response, it becomes the
conditioned response.
• So, the specific type of food now produces nausea (even if it wasn’t necessarily what caused the stomach virus),
and the bell creates salivation.
• In this way, you’ve unconsciously learned to associate the new stimulus (whether situation, object, person, etc.)
with the response.

Try it for yourself

• “The Office” has a great (and funny!) example of classical conditioning: (VIDEO)
 Examples of classical conditioning

• There are many different examples of classical conditioning and how we can
learn in our daily lives.
Example 1
• For the last few years, you receive your paycheck every Friday. Even though
you have a new job where you receive your paycheck on different days, you
still feel good on Fridays. You’ve been conditioned to associate it with the
positivity of receiving that paycheck.
Example 2
• You used to smoke in a certain outside area at work but have recently quit
smoking. Every time you go to this outside break area, your body craves a
cigarette.
Example 3
• During a thunderstorm, a tree breaks and falls onto your house, causing major
damage. Now whenever you hear thunder, you feel anxiety.
 OPERANT / INSTRUMENTAL
CONDITIONING THEORY AND LEARNING
• Operant conditioning, sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning,
is a method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for
behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a
behavior and a consequence (whether negative or positive) for that
behavior.
• For example, when lab rats press a lever when a green light is on, they
receive a food pellet as a reward. When they press the lever when a red
light is on, they receive a mild electric shock. As a result, they learn to press
the lever when the green light is on and avoid the red light.
• But operant conditioning is not just something that takes place in
experimental settings while training lab animals. It also plays a powerful
role in everyday learning. Reinforcement and punishment take place in
natural settings all the time, as well as in more structured settings such as
classrooms or therapy sessions.
• His theory was heavily influenced by the work of psychologist Edward Thorndike,
who had proposed what he called the law of effect. According to this principle,
actions that are followed by desirable outcomes are more likely to be repeated
while those followed by undesirable outcomes are less likely to be repeated.
• Operant conditioning relies on a fairly simple premise: Actions that are followed
by reinforcement will be strengthened and more likely to occur again in the
future. If you tell a funny story in class and everybody laughs, you will probably
be more likely to tell that story again in the future.
• If you raise your hand to ask a question and your teacher praises your polite
behavior, you will be more likely to raise your hand the next time you have a
question or comment. Because the behavior was followed by reinforcement, or a
desirable outcome, the preceding action is strengthened.
• Conversely, actions that result in punishment or undesirable consequences will
be weakened and less likely to occur again in the future.
Types of Behaviors
• Skinner distinguished between two different types of behaviors
• Respondent behaviors are those that occur automatically and
reflexively, such as pulling your hand back from a hot stove or jerking
your leg when the doctor taps on your knee. You don't have to learn
these behaviors. They simply occur automatically and involuntarily.
• Operant behaviors, on the other hand, are those under our conscious
 control. Some may occur spontaneously and others purposely, but it
is the consequences of these actions that then influence whether or
not they occur again in the future. Our actions on the environment
and the consequences of that action make up an important part of
the learning process.
Components of Operant Conditioning
• Reinforcement in Operant Conditioning
• Reinforcement is any event that strengthens or increases the behavior it follows.
There are two kinds of reinforcers. In both of these cases of reinforcement, the
behavior increases.
• Positive reinforcers are favorable events or outcomes that are presented after the
behavior. In positive reinforcement situations, a response or behavior is
strengthened by the addition of praise or a direct reward. If you do a good job at
work and your manager gives you a bonus, that bonus is a positive reinforcer.
• Negative reinforcers involve the removal of an unfavorable events or outcomes
after the display of a behavior. In these situations, a response is strengthened by
the removal of something considered unpleasant. For example, if your child starts
to scream in the middle of a restaurant, but stops once you hand them a treat,
your action led to the removal of the unpleasant condition, negatively reinforcing
your behavior (not your child's).
Punishment in Operant Conditioning
• Punishment is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome that causes a
decrease in the behavior it follows. There are two kinds of punishment. In both of
these cases, the behavior decreases.
• Positive punishment, sometimes referred to as punishment by application, presents
an unfavorable event or outcome in order to weaken the response it follows.
Spanking for misbehavior is an example of punishment by application.
• Negative punishment, also known as punishment by removal, occurs when a
favorable event or outcome is removed after a behavior occurs. Taking away a child's
video game following misbehavior is an example of negative punishment.

Reinforcement Schedules
• New behaviour can be learned and old behaviour can be changed with the help of
reinforcement schedule.
• Reinforcement schedule must focus on time and frequency of reinforcement.
 Examples of Operant Conditioning

• After performing in a community theater play, you receive applause from

the audience. This acts as a positive reinforcer, inspiring you to try out for
more performance roles.
• A professor tells students that if they have perfect attendance all semester,
then they do not have to take the final comprehensive exam. By removing an
unpleasant stimulus (the final test), students are negatively reinforced to
attend class regularly.
• If you fail to hand in a project on time, your boss becomes angry and berates
your performance in front of your co-workers. This acts as a positive
punisher, making it less likely that you will finish projects late in the future.
• A teen girl does not clean up her room as she was asked, so her parents take
away her phone for the rest of the day. This is an example of a negative
punishment in which a positive stimulus is taken away.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY
• Cognitive dissonance is an internal conflict that people have
when their differing beliefs and opinions collide. A marketer
who can resolve such conflicts may help consumers choose
their brand's products. If you're a marketer, understanding
cognitive dissonance can be a significant factor in helping
you create effective brand messaging.
• What is cognitive dissonance?
• Cognitive dissonance is when two ideas or beliefs conflict.
When cognitive dissonance arises, people usually want to
resolve the conflict. In many instances, people can resolve
these conflicted feelings by themselves.
• Here are the primary kinds of cognitive dissonance:
• A logical and internal inconsistency
• A conflict between a person's attitude and their behavior
• A strongly held belief that proves false
• Cognitive dissonance can occur in many situations. For example, perhaps you're a
frugal person, but you want to buy an expensive new car. In this instance, the
desire to save money conflicts with the desire to buy a new car. Similarly, someone
might be a lifelong supporter of a sports team, but also like a player on a rival team.
• What is cognitive dissonance in marketing?
• In marketing, cognitive dissonance relates to consumers' expectations, feelings
about brands and internal logic when deciding to buy something. Marketers try to
be aware of potential conflicts or expectations that might affect buying decisions.
For a marketer, if cognitive dissonance involves purchasing their product, they
typically want to resolve the conflict in favor of what they're trying to sell.
 How to resolve cognitive dissonance in marketing

1. Encourage consumer beliefs

• Appealing to a consumers' strongly held beliefs is one tactic that a marketer
can use to overcome potential cognitive dissonance. By reinforcing an
internal belief, a campaign can resolve potential challenges regarding
consumer decisions. The belief could be one of self-image, such as appealing
to a person's view of themselves as smart and then positioning a company's
product as a suitable choice for a savvy consumer.
2. Use a consistent tone
• If the tone of a marketing campaign is consistent with consumer
expectations, it may have a positive effect on the customer. For example, if a
brand typically uses a friendly, casual tone in its marketing materials,
creating an upbeat advertising campaign may appeal to consumers and help
them overcome any cognitive dissonance. Logos, colors and messaging can
all contribute to the tone of a campaign.
3. Include relevant facts
• Providing consumers with factual information that appeals to their beliefs is another way you can attempt
to resolve cognitive dissonance. Testimonials, independent studies and the opinion of experts are all
methods that a company can use in its marketing campaigns. This tactic appeals to the rational decision-
making side of consumers and may convince them that a particular company's brand is the right choice.

4. Appeal to emotions
• Marketers typically want consumers to have positive emotions associated with their products. They may
also want to address any doubts or anxiety that consumers have. An emotional appeal can allow them to
counter rational decision-making that might be an obstacle to a consumer's purchasing actions. For
instance, a campaign might seek to make a consumer feel more positive about a product by highlighting
its unique features. This may lead consumers to disregard feelings of anxiety over price and purchase the
product.

5. Solve a pain point

• A pain point is something that might keep a consumer from making a decision. Usually, a pain point is
some form of anxiety about a product, concerning issues like its price or longevity. Through research,
marketers often learn what's preventing consumers from buying a certain product. Marketers can then
attempt to solve those concerns through the brand's messaging.
 Examples of cognitive dissonance in marketing

1. University courses example

• A university is expanding its online course options. The demographic that the
university would like to appeal to is adults over the age of 45. This demographic
is less comfortable with online education options and might not choose to
enroll, even though they want to and it's easier than in-person options. The
university focuses its marketing campaign on the ease of its technology,
includes testimonials from people within the targeted age demographic and
highlights the positive aspects of its online courses, like price and quality
instructors.
2. Electric car example
• A new, fully electric car appears on the market. Consumers are interested in
buying the car, but they worry about how many miles they can get from the car.
The car manufacturer creates a marketing campaign that seeks to address this
anxiety by using studies to demonstrate how many miles the car can get.
4. Self-image example
• A company is going to release a new four-wheel drive, off-road vehicle.
The company creates a marketing campaign that seeks to reinforce a
person's self-image of themselves as adventurous. The campaign
showcases the vehicle as the kind of product an adventurous person
would own.
5. Athletic sneakers example
• A shoe company's athletic sneakers cost slightly more than competitors'
products on the market. This is because the company creates its
sneakers using better materials and provides more color options.
Consumers consider both price and quality when purchasing sneakers,
so the shoe company creates a marketing campaign that emphasizes
the quality differences to resolve any internal conflicts about high prices.
 CONSUMER MEMORY
Definition & Meaning:
• “Consumer memory refers to the processes that allow us to record and
later retrieve experiences and information related to products,
services, and consumption experiences.”
• According to Baddeley, “Memory is “an active mental system that
receives, stores, organises, alters and recovers information”
• Consumers have prior learning experiences, which are accumulated in
their minds. The total accumulation of past experiences are known as
memory
• Without understanding how memory works it will not be possible to
understand how consumers reason, make decisions and solve
problems, since most consumer decisions are dependent on memory”
Consumer Memory System:
• Sensory memory: It stores after images which are lost quickly through decay unless
capturing sufficient attention and further processing
• Short-term memory: It is the memory which can be recalled immediately and, is
activated and in use. It can also be referred to as the working memory, which one
can work with and refer to, whenever required. Short-term memory can give
continued repetition of a piece of information that can be used for problem
solving. When elaborate activities are considered, they ride five involvements in
the memory. Elaborate activities make use of previously stored experiences, values
attitudes, beliefs and feelings, to interpret and evaluate information and add new
elements to memory.
• Long-term memory: It is a permanent storage in the minds of the consumer. It is
active and can store a variety of information consisting of concepts, decisions,
rules, processes, affective states, etc. This is important to the marketer because an
image of a brand and the concepts that a consumer had heard about a brand, are
made up of various elements and the consumer can have a lot of meanings
attached to the brand, when the particular brand is mentioned.