Lecture Consumer behaviour: Chapter 9 - Cathy Neal, Pascale Quester, Del Hawkins

Marketers expend considerable effort to have consumers learn about their products. Therefore it is vital that we understand how consumers, and that includes us, learn. There are different types of learning, and in this chapter we will discuss the five types. The characteristics of learning are important, including aspects such as the strength of learning, reinforcing learning and the importance of brands.

PPTs t/a Consumer Behaviour 4e by Neal, Quester, 

Hawkins

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• How we (and consumers) learn

• Types of learning

• Main characteristics of learning

• Using learning in marketing strategies

• Importance of brand image and product positioning

Learning as a Key to Consumer Behaviour

Learning Results from Information

Processing and Causes Changes in

Memory

PPTs t/a Consumer Behaviour 4e by Neal, Quester, 

Hawkins

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Involvement and Learning

• Learning under high-involvement conditions

– consumer has a high motivation to learn

• Learning under low-involvement conditions

– most consumer learning is in a low-involvement context

Learning Theories in High- and

Low-Involvement Situations

• Most common in low-involvement situations

• Learning is more often a feeling or emotion than information

Consumer Learning through Classical Conditioning

How Affective Response Leads

to Learning

Operant Conditioning

• Trial precedes liking

– reverse is often true for classical conditioning

– product sampling is an example of this type of learning

The Process of Shaping in Purchase Behaviour

An Advertisement Designed to Induce Trial

• Iconic rote learning

– association between two or more concepts in the absence

– most complex form of cognitive learning

 most high-involvement decisions generate some reasoning

An Advertisement Using Reasoning

PPTs t/a Consumer Behaviour 4e by Neal, Quester, 

Hawkins

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General Characteristics of Learning

• The strength of learning is influenced by:

Spontaneous Awareness: Brand A

Spontaneous Awareness: Brand B

– strength of original learning

– similarity of original learning environment to the retrieval environment

PPTs t/a Consumer Behaviour 4e by Neal, Quester, 

Hawkins

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The Response Environment

• Strength of original learning affects ability to

retrieve relevant information

• Similarity of the original learning and the type of learning is important

• Marketers aim to replicate these situations

Example of Stimulus Generalisation to Launch a

New Product

• Memory is the total accumulation of

prior learning experiences

• Short-term memory

– working memory

– the role of images, sight, sound, smell, taste and tactile situations