Learning

and Memory

What is Learning?

A change in Behaviour caused by experience.

What is Consumer learning?

Why is it important to understand how consumer’s learn?

From a marketer’s perspective learning becomes teaching

Classical Conditioning

InstrumentalConditioning

Learning Theories

Behaviorism Cognitive

Classical Conditioning

learning occurs when a stimulus (unconditioned stimulus) elicits a response (unconditioned response)

that is paired with another stimulus (conditioned stimulus) that initially does not elicit a response on its own,

but will cause a similar response (conditioned response) over time because of its association with the first stimulus.

Slide 10

Ivan Pavlov’s Classic Experiment

Before Conditioning

During Conditioning After Conditioning

UCS (foodin mouth)

Neutralstimulus(tone)

Nosalivation

UCR(salivation)

Neutralstimulus(tone)

UCS (foodin mouth)

UCR(salivation)

CS(tone)

CR (salivation)

Applications of Classical Conditioning

• Applications: communications--advertising, public relations, personal selling.

• Goal: identify powerful positive stimulus and associate brand with it.

• Examples of powerful, emotion causing stimuli:– beautiful, sexy people– patriotic themes, religious symbols– Music, beautiful scenes– Also, negative stimuli can be associated with

competitors.

Credit card insignia may elicit spending responses

The bears (UCS) generate positive feelings (UCR) towards them

Coke (CS) is associated with the positive feelings that.

Later you have a positive feeling towards coke (CR)

(Coke, before conditioning does not elicit a warm feeling response)

The goal of advertisers is to get the exposed person at the grocery store to associate the positive feeling they had for the ad with the product

The sponsor (Bayer) wants the person viewing the event (UCS) to project the positive feelings (UCR) they get from the event with their product (CS); I.e. Bayer hopes the positive emotional feeling will transfer to their product outside the sporting context

Positive emotional feeling toward the event can be intense because the person has chosen to be exposed to the event.

Event sponsorship

What happens when the person’s favorite team loses?

Brand Equity

What feelings are associated with the Disney logo?

Instrumental or Operant Conditioning

B.F. Skinner

Positive Reinforcement

Punishment

Negative Reinforcement

Reinforcements SchedulesInterval

Fixed-Interval Reinforcement Variable-Interval Reinforcement

Ratio Fixed-Ratio Reinforcement Variable-Ratio Reinforcement

Frequency Marketing

Consumer awareness of supermarket savings clubs or frequent-shopper programs (increased in 1997 versus 1996 (72 percent versus 62 percent respectively).

Classical Conditioning

InstrumentalConditioning

Reasoning Observation

Learning Theories

Behaviourism Cognitive

COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY

• Observational Learning

• Reasoning

Applications of Cognitive Learning Principles

• Modelling

The Role of Memory in Learning

• Encoding

• Storage

• Retrieval

Stages

An Associative Network for Perfumes

Draw an associative network for Pepsi

Things to consider might include:

• specific brands

• a celebrity identified with Pepsi

• related activities

• related products

• where purchased

• packaging

• attributes

• concepts

• feelings

Nostalgia

“Every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain”

Forgetting

Recognition Versus Recall

• Recognition remembering when shown

•Recall: remembering without stimulus

1. Zoom Zoom Zoom

2. Just for the fun of it

3. Grab Life By The Horns

4. Driven

5. I did it my way

6. The best a man can get."

7. The ultimate driving machine

8. Engineered to be great cars

9. It's everywhere you want to be

10. No More Tears

11. Always low prices.

12. Good to the last drop

Mazda

Diet Coke

Dodge

Nissan

Viagra

Gillette

BMW

Chrysler

Visa

J & J Baby Shampoo

Walmart

Maxwell House

Advertising Recall as function of timing and number of exposures (Zielske 1959)

70

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

5025

week of the year

1 exposure/ week for 13 weeks

%

13 exposures at 4-week intervals

How Can Marketers improve Memory retention?

Repetition

• Repetition of a central theme with some variation

• KISS

• how many times a consumer should be exposed to an ad before the advertising message is effective.

Meaningful or more vivid material

Material presented first (primacy) or last (recency) is better retained than material presented in the middle