consumer Behavior chap. 3

Applications of Stimulus Discrimination

-Consumers learn to differentiate a brand from its competitors -Unique attributes of the brand

Salience and Recall

-Salience: The prominence or level of activation of stimuli in memory -Von Restorff Effect: Any technique that increases the novelty of a stimulus also improves recall.

Factors Influencing Retrieval

Physiological Factors (e.g. age) Situational Factors: --Pioneering brand: First brand to enter a market. Is generally easier to retrieve from memory. --Descriptive brand names easier to recall than names that do no provide cues to what the product is.

State-Dependent Retrieval

(a.k.a. mood congruence effect) A process by which consumers are better able to access info if their mood is the same at the time of their recall as when the info was learned.

Products and ads can serve as powerful retrieval cues.

--Autobiographical memories: Consumer memories related to their own past. --Mnemonic stimuli: Aspects of a consumer's possessions that serve as a form of external memory which prompts the retrieval of episodic memories.

Factors Influencing Forgetting

--Decay: Structural changes in the brain produced by learning simply go away. --Retroactive Interference: Consumers forget stimulus-response associations when new responses to the same or similar stimuli are learned. --Proactive Interference: As new responses are learned, a stimulus loses its effectiveness in retrieving the old response. --Part-list Cueing Effect: When only a portion of the items in a category are presented to consumers, the omitted items are not as easily recalled.

The Marketing Power of Nostalgia

--Spontaneous recovery: The ability of a stimulus to evoke a response years after it is initially perceived

Activation Models of Memory

-Argues that different levels of processing occur depending on the nature of the processing task. -The more effort it takes to process information, the more likely that information will be placed in LTM.

Learning is an Ongoing Process

-Constantly being revised -Can be either simple association (logo recognition) or complex cognitive activity (writing an essay)

Associative Networks

-Contains many bits of related information organized according to some set of relationships Knowledge structures: Complex "spider webs" filled with pieces of data -Hierarchical processing model: Message is processed in a bottom-up fashion (i.e., starts at a basic level and is subject to increasingly complex processing which requires increased cognitive capacity) -Node: A concept related to a category An associative network is developed as links form between nodes.

Personal relevance

-Episodic memories: Personally relevant events -Flashbulb memories: Especially vivid associations -Narrative: Linear mental representation of information

Levels of Knowledge

-Knowledge is coded at different levels of abstraction and complexity. -Proposition (a.k.a. belief): A larger unit of meaning (i.e., formed by combinations of nodes) -Schema: A cognitive framework (comprised of propositions) developed through experience -Script: A type of schema consisting of a sequence of events expected by an individual

Observational learning

-Occurs when people watch the actions of others and note reinforcements received for their behaviors -Learning occurs as a result of vicarious, rather than direct, experience. -Marketers can reinforce or punish consumers indirectly by showing what happens to desirable / attractive models who do or do not use their products. -Attractiveness can be based on several components (e.g. physical attractiveness, expertise, similarity to the evaluator)

Frequency Marketing

-Reinforces regular purchases by giving them rewards with values that increase along with the amount purchased, e.g., frequent flyer miles

Types of meaning

-Sensory meaning (e.g. color or shape) -Sense of familiarity (e.g. seeing a food that we have tasted) -Semantic meaning: (e.g. rich people drink champagne)

Reinforcement of Consumption

-Thank you -Rebates -Follow-up phone calls

Ivan Pavlov's Dogs

-Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) - Naturally capable of causing a response (UCR). -Conditioned stimulus (CS) - Does not initially cause a response -Conditioned response (CR) - Response generated by repeated paired exposures to UCS and CS. Eventually, through learned association and repetition, the CS will cause the CR.

Two major behavioral approaches to learning

1) Classical Conditioning 2) Instrumental Conditioning

Spreading Activation

A process which allows consumers to shift back and forth between levels of meaning

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience

The Starch Test

A widely used commercial measure of advertising recall for magazines

Instrumental Conditioning

Actions result in rewards and punishments, which influence future responses to similar situations. -also, operant conditioning): the individual learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and to avoid those that yield negative outcomes.

Behavioral Learning Theories

Assume that learning takes place as the result of responses to external events.

Classical Conditioning

Behavior and expectations shaped by feedback from the environment. -: a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Can retain information for a long period of time Elaboration rehearsal is required: Process involves thinking about a stimulus and relating it to information already in memory

Incidental Learning

Casual, unintentional acquisition of knowledge

Applications of Stimulus Generalization

Family branding Product line extensions Licensing Look-alike packaging

Short-Term Memory (STM):

Limited period of time & limited capacity Working memory (i.e., holds information we are currently processing)

Instrumental ("Operant") Conditioning

Occurs as the individual learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and avoid behaviors that yield negative outcomes Occurs one of three ways: -Positive reinforcement -Negative reinforcement -Punishment

Stimulus discrimination

Occurs when a UCS does not follow a stimulus similar to a CS.

Familiarity and Recall

Prior familiarity enhances recall

Memory Systems

Sensory Memory: Short-Term Memory (STM): Long-Term Memory (LTM):

Stimulus generalization

Tendency of a stimulus similar to a CS to evoke similar, conditioned responses -Masked branding: Deliberately hiding a product's true origin cs-classical conditioning usc-unconditioned stimulus

Multiple Store Models of Memory

Traditional perspective which assumes that STM & LTM are separate systems

Recall

Typical recall test: Subjects are asked to independently think of what they have seen without being prompted first.

Recognition

Typical recognition test: Subjects are shown ads and asked if they have seen them before.

Sensory Memory

Very temporary storage of information we receive from our senses

Extinction:

When a positive outcome is no longer received, the learned stimulus-response connection will not be maintained.