Consumers

1
Chapter
9
Experience, Learning Knowledge
2
Objectives

• Discuss the different kinds of consumer
  experiences, their relationship to other kinds of
  consumer behavior, and marketing implications
  
• Describe the different ways that consumers learn
  and understand the marketing implications.
  
• Distinguish between the two types of behavioral
  theories --classical conditioning and operant
  conditioning--and apply these concepts to
  consumer behavior settings.
• Understand basic issues related to memory.

3
Overview

• We learn from our experiences
• Our knowledge comes from what we learn
• Consumer experiences are at the heart of consumer
  behavior and have an important impact on what
  consumers learn and remember.
  

4
Consumer Experiences

• Experiences are physical, cognitive, and
  emotional interaction with an environment.
  
• Direct experience important to consumer learning.
  Compared to other ways of learning, it is more
  motivated, vivid, and sensory and under the
  control of the consumer.

5
Consumer Experiences

• One of best ways to sell a product is to
  associate it with a life experience
  
• Lane, McDonalds
• Another way to sell a product is to create an
  experience
  
• Disney, Niketown, Bass Pro Shops, Cabelas
• experiences lead to repeat behaviors
• - experiences lead to avoidance
• Transformational experiences change us
• Education, counseling, self-help books, cosmetic
  surgery
  

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Exhibit 9.3A Classification of Consumer
Experiences
Arnould et al. slide
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Consumer Experiences

• Consumers valuate experiences based on skill and
  challenge they present
  
• Flow occurs when both skills and challenges are
  maximum (Finding Flow by Csikzentmihalyi)
  
• E.g., sports playing better than your best
  against the best
  
• Also occurs in some consumer settings (e.g.,
  collecting)
  

8
Exhibit 9.4 Flow A Combination of Challenge
and Skill
Arnould et al. slide
9
Learning

• Consumer learning is defined as connecting
  categories to behaviors.
  
• Leaning is adaptive and determined by the value
  systems, desires, and needs of the learner.
  
• Actions are partly a response to preferences
  (i.e., feelings and beliefs about what a person
  likes and dislikes).

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Types of Learning

• Incidental Learning
• things learned almost by accident through
  repetition
  
• Learning by Description
• acquiring information from vicarious or indirect
  encounters
  
• Vicarious Learning
• learning by observing the experiences of others
• Direct Experience

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Learning

• Marketers want consumers to learn to prefer their
  brand or company
  
• Behavioral learning theories
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning

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Classical Conditioning

• Advocated by Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov
  think Pavlovs dogs!
  
• Associated a neutral object (the bell) with a
  meaningful object (the meat powder)
  
• Temporal contiguity principle states that
  stronger associations are learned when events
  occur close together in time as opposed to far
  apart in time.
• Stimulus generalization refers to the tendency of
  stimuli that are similar to evoke similar
  responses.
  

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Marketing Applications

• Marketers use stimulus generalization to devise
  branding and product strategies.
  
• Family branding
• Brand extension
• Licensing
• Look-alike packaging

15
Operant Conditioning

• Advocated by American psychologist B.F. Skinner
  think rats and mice in a maze!
  
• Occurs as consumers shape their behaviors to
  respond to rewards and punishments in the
  marketplace
  
• Also called Instrumental Conditioning

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Principles of Operant Conditioning

• Shaping
• Reinforcement
• Positive and negative reinforcement increases
  probability of response
  
• Continuous reinforcement
• Partial reinforcement
• Punishment
• Decreases probability of response

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Is the Shopping Experience rewarding or punishing?

• Examine by looking at consumer logistics
• The speed and ease with which consumers move
  through the retail space and shopping process
  
• Consider signage, lighting, aisle width, and
  parking
  
• Retailers should consider perceived accessibility
  for all consumers
  

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Memory and Knowledge

• Memory begins with an experience
• Memory is social in nature
• Vicarious memory
• Familiarity with things weve never experienced
• Transactional memory
• Collaborative remembering

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Memory and Knowledge

• Associative network -- set of ideas and memories
  that are linked to a concept.
  
• Strong links are firmly established in memory
  other links may have been encountered
  infrequently, or not accessed for a long time and
  their establishment in memory is weak.
• Kelseys strong links for Fat Tire beer other
  links may exist but are weaker

Fat Tire
Nostalgia
Old Bicycle
Dad
Good guy
Fun with friends
Telling jokes
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Memory and Knowledge

• Why do people remember certain things and not
  others?
  
• Mood
• Uniqueness of the memory
• Number of times rehearsed
• Expertise
• Existence of categories
• Marketers can influence memory

22
Memory and Knowledge

• Measuring what consumers remember
• Aided recall
• Recall slogans and brand names with cues
• Free (or unaided) recall
• Recall something without any cues or help

23
Discuss

• A canned good manufacturer is interested in
  comparing the effectiveness of two very different
  commercials. One shows the product on the shelf,
  in the cart, in the pantry. The other shows the
  brand name multiple times. The first generates
  more sales. The second leads to higher brand
  name recall. Why is that?

24
Discuss

• The product manager for a new brand of skin
  softener is considering two possible names. Soft
  Skin versus Snyders Skin Moisturizer. Which
  name would you recommend? Why?