Consumer Attitudes

Introduction

 An attitude describes a person’s relatively consistent evaluations, feelings, and tendencies towards an object or an idea. Attitudes put people into a frame of mind for liking or disliking things and moving toward or away from them. Companies can benefit by researching attitudes towards their products. Understanding attitudes and beliefs is the first step toward changing or reinforcing them. Attitudes are very difficult to change. A person’s attitudes fit into a pattern, and changing one attitude may require making many difficult adjustments. It is easier for a company to create products that are compatible with existing attitudes than to change the attitudes toward their products. There are exceptions, of course, where the high cost of trying to change attitudes may pay off.. We can now appreciate the many individual characteristics and forces influencing consumer behavior. Consumer choice is the result of a complex interplay of cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors. We as marketers cannot influence many of these; however, they help the marketer to better understand Customer’s reactions and behavior.

 Attitudes are defined as a mental predisposition to act that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor. The value of attitude in marketing can be explained in terms of its importance in prediction, diagnostic value and also as relatively inexpensive information that is easily obtained. 

Models of Attitude

 We will now look at the various models of attitudes. But before looking at these models, we have to understand the fact that many a times our attitudes depend on the situations. 

 Structural models of attitudes: To understand the relationships between attitudes and behavior, psychologists have tried to develop models that capture the underlying dimensions of attitude. To serve this purpose, the focus has been on specifying the composition of an attitude to better explain or predict behavior. 

Tri-component Attitude Model

 According to the tri-component attitude model, attitude consists of three major components, viz., a cognitive component, an affective component, and a conative component. 

a. The cognitive component: The cognitive component consists of a person’s cognitions, i.e., knowledge and perceptions (about an object). This knowledge and resulting perceptions commonly take the form of beliefs, images, and long-term memories. A utility function representing the weighted product of attributes and criteria would be used to develop the final ranking and thus choice. This model represents the process used by individuals with a strong Thinking Cognitive Style. 

b. The affective component: The affective component of an attitude comprises of the consumers emotions or feelings (toward an object). These emotions or feelings are frequently treated by consumer researchers as primarily evaluative in nature; i.e., they capture an individual’s direct or global assessment of the attitude-object, which might be positive, negative, or mixed reaction consisting of our feelings about an object. Buying of any product or service would be accomplished on the basis of how each product/service makes the decision maker feel. The product that evokes the greatest positive (pleasurable) affective response would thus be ranked first. The affective response may be derived through association (i.e., category attributes) or directly attributed to the interaction between the product or service and the decision maker. It is believed that the manner in which the product/service affirms or disaffirms the selfconcept of the decision maker has a strong impact to the decision maker’s affect response to the candidate. This model represents the process used by individuals with a strong Feeling Cognitive Style. Ordering of the three job candidates would be accomplished on the basis of how each candidate makes the decision maker feel. The candidate that evokes the greatest positive (pleasurable) affective response would thus be ranked first. The affective response may be derived through association (i.e., category attributes) or directly attributed to the interaction between the candidate and the decision maker. It is believed that the manner in which the candidate affirms or disaffirms the self-concept of the decision maker has a strong impact to the decision maker’s affect response to the candidate. 

c. The conative component: The conative component is concerned with the likelihood or tendency of certain behavior with regard to the attitude object. It would also mean the predisposition or tendency to act in a certain manner toward an object

Multi-attribute Attitude Models

 Multi-attribute attitude models portray consumers’ attitudes with regard to an attitude “object” as a function of consumers’ perceptions and assessment of the key attributes or beliefs held with regard to the particular attitude “objects”. The three models, which are very popular, are: the attitude-toward-object model, the attitude-toward-behavior model, and the theory of reasoned-action model.

1) Attitude toward object model. The attitude-toward object model is suitable for measuring attitudes towards a product or service category or specific brands. This model says that the consumer’s attitude toward a product or specific brands of a product is a function of the presence or absence and evaluation of certain product-specific beliefs or attributes. In other words, consumers generally have favorable attitudes toward those brands that they believe have an adequate level of attributes that they evaluate as positive, and they have unfavorable attitudes towards those brands they feel do not have an adequate level of desired attributes or have too many negative or undesired attributes. 

2) Attitude towards behavior model: This model is the individual’s attitude toward the object itself. The crux of the attitude-towardsbehavior model is that it seems to correspond somewhat more closely to actual behavior than does the attitude-toward-object model. So taking on from liking a BMW, we may say you are not ready to buy/drive one because you believe that you are too young/ old to do so

3) Theory of reasoned-action-model: This model represents a comprehensive integration of attitude components into a structure that is designed to lead to both better explanations and better predictions of behavior. Similar to the basic tricomponent attitude model, the theory-of-reasoned-action model incorporates a cognitive component, an affective component, and a conative component; however these are arranged in a pattern different from that of the tricomponent model.

 To understand intention, in accordance with this model, we also need to measure the subjective norms that influence an individual’s intention to act. A subjective norm can be measured directly by assessing a consumer’s feelings as to what relevant others would think of the action being contemplated; i.e., would they look favorably or unfavorably on the anticipated action?

Theory of Trying to Consume

 The theory of trying to consume has been designed to account for the many cases where the action or outcome is not certain, but instead reflects the consumer’s attempts to consume or purchase. In such cases there are often personal impediments and/or environmental impediments that might prevent the desired action or outcome from occurring. Here again, the key point is that in these cases of trying, the outcome is not, and cannot be assumed to be certain. The focus here is the “trying” or seeking part, rather than the outcome (consumption)

Attitude-Towards-the-Ad Models

 The gist of this model can be explained by the following: 1) Normally, if you like an ad, you are more likely to purchase the advertised brand. 2) For a new product/brand, an ad has a stronger impact on brand attitude and purchase intention.

Attitude Formation and Change

I. How are attitudes formed? We examine attitude formation by dividing into three areas: how attitudes are learned, the sources of influence on attitude formation, and the impact of personality on attitude formation. 

II. How attitudes are learned:

1) The shift from having no attitude toward a given object to having an attitude is learned. The learning may come from information exposure, consumers’ own cognition (knowledge or belief), or experience. 

2) Consumers may form an attitude before or after a purchase. Sources of influence on attitude formation: personal experience, friends and family, direct marketing, or mass media.

 3) Personality factors: such as high/low need for cognition (information seeking), and social status consciousness

Learning of Attitudes

 By formation of attitude, we mean a situation, where there is a shift from having no attitude towards a given object to having some attitude toward it. This shift from no attitude to an attitude or the formation of attitude is a result of learning. Attitudes are generally formed through: · Repeated exposure to novel social objects,

  ➢ Classical conditioning, 

 ➢ Operant conditioning and 

 ➢ Exposure to live and symbolic models.

 Consumers generally purchase new products that are associated with a favorably viewed brand name. Their favorable attitude toward the brand name is frequently the result of repeated satisfaction with other products produced by the same company. In terms of classical conditioning, an established brand name is an unconditioned stimulus that has resulted in a favorable brand attitude through past positive reinforcement. A new product, which is yet to be linked to the established brand, would be the conditioned impulse. For example, by giving a new anti-wrinkle lotion the benefit of its well-known and respected family name, Johnson & Johnson may be counting on an extension of the favorable attitude already associated with the brand name to the new product. They are counting on stimulus generalization from the brand name to the new product. It has been shown by research that the “fit” between a parent brand like in the case of J&J and a brand extension, for instance, J&J’s anti-wrinkle, is a function of two factors:

 (1) the similarity between the pre-existing product categories already associated with the parent brand and the new extension, and 

(2) the “fit” or match between the images of the parent brand and the new extension. At times, attitudes follow the purchase and consumption of a product. For example, a consumer may purchase a brand-name product without having a prior attitude towards it, because it is the only product available like the last bottle of shampoo in a hotel store). Consumers sometimes make trial purchases of new brands from product categories in which they have little personal involvement. If they find the purchased brand to be satisfactory, then they are likely to develop a favorable attitude toward it. Life is too complicated to predict what attitudes will persist and which will change but early socialization experiences do shape attitudes.

Sources of Influence on Attitude Formation

 The formation of consumer attitudes is strongly influenced by personal experience, the influence of family and friends, direct marketing, and mass media. Attitudes towards goods and services are primarily formed through the consumer’s direct experience

Personality Factors

 We know that the personality of each individual is different and it plays a very crucial role in formation of attitude. Say for example, if you have a high need for cognition, i.e., you crave for information and enjoy thinking. Then you are likely to form a positive attitude in response to ads or direct mail that is rich in product related information. On the other hand, your friend Ravi, who is relatively low in need for cognition, is more likely to form positive attitudes in response to ads that feature an attractive model or well-known celebrity. 

1. Attitude Change and Persuasion 2. Strategies of Attitude Change

 Bringing about a change in the consumer attitudes is a very important strategic consideration for us marketing people. When the product or brand is the market leader, the marketers will work at ensuring that their customers continue to patronize their product with the existing positive attitude. Such firms also have to ensure that their existing loyal customers do not succumb to their competitor’s attitude change ploys. But it is the firm whose is not the brand leader, which tries to adopt marketing 

strategies so as to change the attitudes of the market leaders, customers and win them over. Among the attitude change strategies that are available to them are: 

1. Changing the consumer’s basic motivational function 

2. Associating the product with an admired group or event 

3. Resolving two conflicting attitudes

 4. Altering components of the Multi-attribute model, and

 5. Changing consumer beliefs about competitor’s brands.

 Now let us look at each of these strategies in greater details.

1. Changing the basic motivational function

 This strategy calls for changing consumer attitudes towards a product or brand by making a new need prominent. One such method changing motivation is called the functional approach. As per this approach, attitudes can be classified in terms of four functions, viz:

1. The utilitarian function 

2. The ego defensive function 

3. The value - expressive function 

4. The Knowledge function.

 The utilitarian function: A consumer develops a brand attitude because of its utility. In other words; we develop a favorable altitude towards a product because of its utility function. So marketers try to change consumer attitudes in favor of their products or brand by highlighting its utilitarian purpose, which they (the competitors consumers ;) may not have considered.

 Ego defensive function: Most individuals want to protect their selfimage. They want re-assurance about their self-image from inner feelings or doubts. Firms marketing personal care and cosmetics try to appeal to this need and develop a favorable attitude change towards their products or brands by communicating a re-assurance to the consumers self concept

 The value expressive function: A. consumer develops an attitude based on his general value, life style and outlook. If the target consumers hold a positive attitude towards being fashionable, then they will have a positive attitude towards high fashion clothes 

 The knowledge function: Human nature is such that individuals prefer to know and understand the people and things they are in contact. While product positioning, marketers try to do this and improve the consumers attitude towards their product or brand by highlighting its benefits over competing brands. 

2. Associating the product with an admired group or event

 At times attitudes come to be attached to certain groups, social events or causes. So marketers could try strategies whereby their product or service comes to be associated with certain events, social groups or causes. 

3. Resolving two conflicting attitudes

 Marketers also try to take advantage of actual or potential conflict between attitudes. At times firms make consumers see that their attitudes towards a brand is in conflict with another attitude, and then they may be inclined to change their evaluation of the brand. 

4. Altering components of the Multi-attribute model

 In the earlier lesson we discussed a number of Multi-attribute models, which have implication for attitude change strategies. To be more precise, these models provide us with additional insights as to how to bring about attitudinal change:

(1) Changing the relative evaluation of attributes 

(2) Changing brand beliefs 

(3) Adding an attribute, and 

(4) Changing the overall brand rating

(1) Changing the relative evaluation of attributes

 Consumer markets can be segmented in the same product category according to brands that offer different features or beliefs. 

(2) Changing brand beliefs

 This calls for changing attitudes of consumers by changing beliefs or perceptions about the brand itself. 

(3) Adding an attribute

 This means either adding an attitude that p previously has been ignored or one that represents an improvement or technological innovation. 

(4) Changing the overall brand rating

 Altering the consumers overall assessment of the brand directly without attempting to improve or change their evaluation of a single brand attribute. Usually this strategy is used by using some form of global statement like “ this is the largest selling brand

(5) Changing consumer beliefs about competitor’s brands

 Usually it is seen that the attitude change agent is a well respected agent authority or peer group. The amount of attitude change is related to the credibility of the source of the message. The major purpose of changing attitudes is to eventually change consumer behavior. Thus an understanding of consumer attitudes towards their product will enable the marketer to adopt suitable strategies and create a positive image or attitude for that matter of their products in the minds of the consumer. Behavior Can Precede or Follow Attitude Formation'

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

 According to cognitive dissonance theory, discomfort or dissonance occurs when a consumer holds confusing thoughts about a belief or an attitude object (either before or after the purchase).

 Post purchase dissonance occurs after the purchase. 

 The consumer is not happy with the purchase—so they adjust their attitudes to conform to their behavior. Post purchase dissonance is quite normal. Attitude change is frequently an outcome of an action or behavior. Dissonance propels consumers to reduce the unpleasant feelings created by the rival thoughts. 

Tactics that consumers can use to reduce dissonance include reduction By rationalizing the decision as being wise. By seeking out advertisements that support the original reason for choosing the product. By trying to “sell” friends on the positive features of the brand. By looking to known satisfied owners for reassurance. Marketers can help reduce post purchase uncertainty by aiming specific messages at reinforcing consumer decisions. Beyond these dissonance-reducing tactics, marketers increasingly are developing affinity or relationship programs designed to reward good customers and to build customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Attribution Theory

 What does attribution theory say about attitude? Attribution theory attempts to explain how people assign causality to events on the basis of either their own behavior or the behavior of others.

Self-Perception Theory

 Self-perception theory addresses individuals’ inferences or judgments as to the cause of their own behavior. In terms of consumer behavior, self-perception theory suggests that attitudes develop as consumers look at and make judgments about their own behavior. Internal and external attributions—attitudes develop as consumers look at and make judgments about their own behavior. These judgments can be divided into internal, external, and defensive attributions. Internal attribution—giving yourself credit for the outcomes— your ability, your skill, or your effort.

External attribution—the purchase was good because of factors beyond your control—luck, etc.

 Defensive attribution—consumers are likely to accept credit personally for success, and to credit failure to others or to outside events.

For this reason, it is crucial that marketers offer uniformly high quality products that allow consumers to perceive themselves as the reason for the success; that is, “I am competent.”

Attributions Toward Others

 Every time you ask “Why?” about a statement or action of another or “others”—a family member, a friend, a salesperson, a direct marketer, a shipping company— attribution toward others theory is relevant.

Attributions Toward Things

 It is in the area of judging product performance that consumers are most likely to form product attributions toward things. Specifically, they want to find out why a product meets or do not meet their expectations. In this regard, they could attribute the product’s successful performance (or failure) to the product itself, to themselves, to other people or situations, or to some combination of these factors.

How we Test our Attributions

 We as Individuals acquire conviction about particular observations by acting like “naive scientists,” that is, by collecting additional information in an attempt to confirm (or disconfirm) prior inferences. In collecting such information, we often use the following:

 Distinctiveness—The consumer attributes an action to a particular product or person if the action occurs when the product (or person) is present and does not occur in its absence.

 Consistency over time—Whenever the person or product is present, the consumer’s inference or reaction must be the same, or nearly so.

 Consistency over modality—The inference or reaction must be the same, even when the situation in which it occurs varies.

 Consensus—The action is perceived in the same way by othe consumers.

Consumer Learning

Introduction

 Marketers are concerned with how individuals learn because they want to teach them, in their roles as consumers, about products, product attributes, and potential consumer benefits; about where to buy their products, how to use them, how to maintain them, and even how to dispose off them. Marketing strategies are based on communicating with the consumer.

a)  Marketers want their communications to be noted, believed, remembered, and recalled. 

b)  For these reasons, they are interested in every aspect of the learning process.

 There is no single, universal theory of how people learn. There are two major schools of thought concerning the learning process: one consists of Behavioral learning theories, the other of cognitive learning theories. Cognitive theorists view learning as a function of purely mental processes, although behavioral theorists focus almost exclusively on observable behaviors (responses) that occur as the result of exposure to stimuli.

Consumer Learning

 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 behavior. Several points in this definition are worth noting.

a)  First, consumer learning is a process; that is, it continually evolves and changes as a result of newly acquired knowledge eor from actual 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.

 The role of experience in learning does not mean that all learning is deliberately sought. A great deal of learning is also incidental, acquired by accident or without much effort. The term learning encompasses the total range of learning, from simple, almost reflexive responses to the learning of abstract concepts and complex problem solving. c) Most learning theorists recognize the existence of different types of learning and explain the differences through the use of distinctive models of learning. Despite their different viewpoints, learning theorists in general agree that in order for learning to occur, certain basic elements must be present—motivation, cues, response, and reinforcement.

 Motivation - Motivation is based on needs and goals. a)  The degree of relevance, or involvement, with the goal, is critical as to how motivated the consumer is to search for information about a product. Uncovering consumer motives is one of the prime tasks of marketers, who try to teach consumer segments why their product will best fulfill their needs.

 Cues - If motives serve to stimulate learning, cues are the stimuli that give direction to the motives. a)  In the marketplace, price, styling, packaging, advertising, and store displays all serve as cues to help consumers fulfill their needs. Cues serve to direct consumer drives when they are consistent with their expectations.

 Response - How individuals react to a cue—how they behave— constitutes their response. A response is not tied to a need in a one-to-one fashion. A need or motive may evoke a whole variety of responses. The response a consumer makes depends heavily on previous learning; that, in turn, depends on how related responses were reinforced previously.

 Reinforcement - Reinforcement increases the likelihood that a specific response will occur in the future as the result of particular cues or stimuli.

Behavioral Learning Theories

 Behavioral learning theories are sometimes called stimulus response theories. a) When a person responds in a predictable way to a known stimulus, he or she is said to have “learned.” Behavioral theories are most concerned with the inputs and outcomes of learning, not the process. Two theories relevant to marketing are classical conditioning and instrumental (or operant) conditioning.

Classical Conditioning

Early classical conditioning theorists regarded all organisms as passive recipients.

a)  Conditioning involved building automatic responses to stimuli. Ivan Pavlov was the first to describe conditioning and to propose it as a general model of how learning occurs. 

b)  For Pavlov, conditioned learning results when a stimulus that is paired with another stimulus elicits a known response and serves to produce the same response when used alone.

 c)  He used dogs to demonstrate his theories.

 d)  The dogs were hungry and highly motivated to eat.

 e)  Pavlov sounded a bell and then immediately applied a meat paste to the dogs’ tongues, which caused them to salivate.

 f)  After a sufficient number of repetitions of the bell sound, followed almost immediately by the food, the bell alone caused the dogs to salivate.

 In a consumer behavior context, an unconditioned stimulus might consist of a well-known brand symbol (e.g., the Microsoft “windows” icon) that implies technological superiority and trouble-free operation (the unconditioned response).

 Conditioned stimuli might consist of new products bearing wellknown symbols.

Cognitive Associative Learning

 Recent conditioning theory views classical conditioning as the learning of associations among events that allows the organism to anticipate and “represent” its environment. The relationship (i.e., contiguity) between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus (the bell and the meat paste) influenced the dogs’ expectations, which in turn influenced their behavior salivation). Classical conditioning is seen as cognitive associative learning not the acquisition of new reflexes, but the acquisition of new knowledge about the world.

 Optimal conditioning—that is, the creation of a strong association between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US)—requires forward conditioning; that is, the CS should precede the US, repeated pairings of the CS and the US, a CS and US that logically belong together, a CS that is novel and unfamiliar, and a US that is biologically or symbolically salient. Under Neo-Pavlovian conditioning, the consumer can be viewed as an information seeker who uses logical and perceptual relations among events, along with his or her own preconceptions, to form a sophisticated representation of the world.

Strategic Applications of Classical Conditioning

 Three basic concepts can be derived from classical conditioning: repetitin, stimulus generalization, and stimulus discrimination. 

1.  Repetition works by increasing the strength of the association and by slowing the process of forgetting.

 a)  After a certain number of repetitions retention declines.

 b)  This effect is known as advertising wear out and can be decreased by varying the advertising messages. 

c)  Wear out may be avoided by varying the message through cosmetic variation or substantive variation.

 According to classical conditioning theorists, learning depends not only on repetition, but also on the ability of individuals to generalize.

2.  Stimulus generalization explains why imitative “me too” products succeed in the marketplace: consumers confuse them with the original product they have seen advertised. 

a)  It also explains why manufacturers of private label brands try to make their packaging closely resemble the national brand leaders. The principle of stimulus generalization is applied by marketers to product line, form, and category extensions.

 b)  In product line extensions, the marketer adds related products to an already established brand, knowing that the new product is more likely to be adopted when it is associated with a known and trusted brand name.

c)  Marketers offer product form extensions that include different sizes, different colors, and even different flavors. 

d)  Product category extensions generally target new market segments.

 Family branding—the practice of marketing a whole line of company products under the same brand name—is another strategy that capitalizes on the consumer’s ability to generalize favorable brand associations from one product to the next. Retail private branding often achieves the same effect as family branding.

3.  Stimulus discrimination is the opposite of stimulus generalization and results in the selection of specific stimulus from among similar stimuli.

a)  The consumer’s ability to discriminate among similar stimuli is the basis of positioning strategy, which seeks to establish a unique image for a brand in the consumer’s mind. The key to stimulus discrimination is effective positioning, a major competitive advantage.

 b)  The image, or position, that a product or service has in the mind of the consumer is critical to its success.

 c)  Unlike the imitator who hopes consumers will generalize their perceptions and attribute special characteristics of the market leader’s products to their own products, market 

leaders want 

the consumer to discriminate among similar stimuli. Most product differentiation strategies are designed to distinguish a product or brand from that of competitors on the basis of an attribute that is relevant, meaningful, and valuable to consumers. It often is quite difficult to unseat a brand leader once stimulus discrimination has occurred. d)  In general, the longer the period of learning—of associating a brand name with a specific product—the more likely the consumer is to discriminate, and the less likely to generalize the stimulus. The principles of classical conditioning provide the theoretical underpinnings for many marketing applications. e)  Repetition, stimulus generalization, and stimulus discrimination are all major applied concepts that help explain consumer behavior.

Instrumental Conditioning

 Like classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning requires a link between a stimulus and a response. 

a) However, in instrumental conditioning, the stimulus that results in the most satisfactory response is the one that is learned. Instrumental learning theorists believe that learning occurs through a trial-and-error process, with habits formed as a result of rewards received for certain responses or behaviors. 

b) Although classical conditioning is useful in explaining how consumers learn very simple kinds of behaviors, instrumental conditioning is more helpful in explaining complex, goal-directed activities. According to American psychologist B. F. Skinner, most individual learning occurs in a controlled environment in which individuals are “rewarded” for choosing an appropriate behavior. 

c) In consumer behavior terms, instrumental conditioning suggests that consumers learn by means of a trial-and error process in which some purchase behaviors result in more favorable outcomes (i.e., rewards) than other purchase behaviors.

 d) A favorable experience is instrumental in teaching the individual to repeat a specific behavior. Like Pavlov, Skinner developed his model of learning by working with animals. ) In a marketing context, the consumer who tries several brands and styles of jeans before finding a style that fits her figure (positive reinforcement) has engaged in instrumental learning.

Reinforcement of Behavior

 Skinner distinguished two types of reinforcement (or reward) influence, which provided that the likelihood for a response would be repeated.

a)  The first type, positive reinforcement, consists of events that strengthen the likelihood of a specific response.

 b)  Negative reinforcement is an unpleasant or negative outcome that also serves to encourage a specific behavior. 

c)  Either positive or negative reinforcement can be used to elicit a desired response. 

d)  Negative reinforcement should not be confused with punishment, which is designed to discourage behavior.

Forgetting and extinction

 when a learned response is no longer reinforced, it diminishes to the point of extinction; that is, to the point at which the link between the stimulus and the expected reward is eliminated.

 a)  Forgetting is often related to the passage of time; this is known as the process of decay. b)  Marketers can overcome forgetting through repetition and can combat extinction through the deliberate enhancement of consumer satisfaction.

 Reinforcement schedules—marketers have found that product quality must be consistently high and provide customer satisfaction with each use for desired consumer behavior to continue. Marketers have identified three types of reinforcement schedules: Total (or continuous) reinforcement, Systematic (fixed ratio) reinforcement, and Random (variable ratio) reinforcement. Variable ratios tend to engender high rates of desired behavior and are somewhat resistant to extinction— perhaps because, for many consumers, hope springs eternal. Shaping—the reinforcement of behaviors that must be performed by consumers before the desired behavior can be performed is called shaping. Shaping increases the probabilities that certain desired consumer behavior will occur.

Modeling or Observational Learning

 Learning theorists have noted that a considerable amount of learning takes place in the absence of direct reinforcement, either positive or negative, through a process psychologists call modeling or observational learning (also called vicarious learning). They observe how others behave in response to certain situations (stimuli), the ensuing results (reinforcement) that occur, and they imitate (model) the positively reinforced behavior when faced with similar situations. a) Modeling is the process through which individuals learn behavior by observing the behavior of others and the consequences of such behavior. b) Their role models are usually people they admire because of such traits as appearance, accomplishment, skill, and even social class. c) Children learn much of their social behavior and consumer behavior by observing their older siblings or their parents. Advertisers recognize the importance of observational learning in their selection of models, whether celebrities 

 or unknowns. Sometimes ads depict negative consequences for certain types of behavior. d) This is particularly true of public policy ads, which may show the negative consequences of smoking, of driving too fast, or taking drugs

Cognitive Learning Theory

 Not all learning is the result of repeated trials. a) Learning also takes place as the result of consumer thinking and problem solving. Cognitive learning is based on mental activity. Cognitive learning theory holds that the kind of learning most characteristic of human beings is problem solving and it gives some control over their environment.

Information Processing

 The human mind processes the information it receives as input much as a computer does.

a)  Information processing is related to both the consumer’s cognitive ability and the complexity of the information to be processed. Individuals differ in terms of their ability to form mental images and in their ability to recall information. The more experience a consumer has with a product category, the greater his or her ability to make use of product information.

How Consumers Store, Retain, and Retrieve Information

 The structure of memory—because information processing occurs in stages, it is believed that content is stored in the memory in separate storehouses for further processing; a sensory store, a short-term store, and a long-term store. Sensory store—all data comes to us through our senses, however, our senses do not transmit information as whole images. 

a)  The separate pieces of information are synchronized as a single image. b)  This sensory store holds the image of a sensory input for just a second or two. c)  This suggests that it’s easy for marketers to get information into the consumer’s sensory store, but hard to make a lasting impression.

 Short-term store—if the data survives the sensory store, it is moved to the short-term store.

d)  This is our working memory.

 e)  If rehearsal—the silent, mental repetition of material— takes place, then the data is transferred to the long-term store. f) If data is not rehearsed and transferred, it is lost in a few seconds.

 Long-term store—once data is transferred to the long-term store it can last for days, weeks, or even years. Rehearsal and encoding—the amount of information available for delivery from the short-term store to the long-term store depends on the amount of rehearsal an individual gives to it.

g)  Encoding is the process by which we select and assign a word or visual image to represent a perceived object.

 h) Learning visually takes less time than learning verbal information. 

i)  How much consumers encode depends on their cognitive commitment to the intake of the information and their gender. Information overload takes place when the consumer is presented with too much information.

j)  It appears to be a function of the amount of information and time frame of that information.

 k) There are contradictory studies on what constitutes overload. 

l)  The difficulty is determining the point of “overload.” Retention— information is constantly organized and reorganized as new links between chunks of information are forged. 

m) In fact, many information-processing theorists view the long-term store as a network consisting of nodes (i.e., concepts) with links among them. 

n)  As individuals gain more knowledge they expand their network of relationships, and sometimes their search for additional information. 

o)  This process is known as activation, which involves relating new data to old to make the material more meaningful. 

p)  The total package of associations brought to mind when a cue is activated is called a schema. 

q)  Research has found that older adults appear to be more reliant on schema-based information processing strategies than younger adults. 

r)  Consumers’ information search is often dependent upon how similar or dissimilar (discrepant) presented products are to product categories already stored in memory.

 s)  Consumers recode what they have already encoded to include larger amounts of information (chunking). 

t)  The degree of prior knowledge is an important consideration. t)  Knowledgeable consumers can take in more complex chunks of information than those who are less knowledgeable in the product category.

 u)  Information is stored in long-term memory in two ways: episodically (i.e., by the order in which it is acquired) and semantically (according to significant concepts). 

v)  Many learning theorists believe that memories stored semantically are organized into frameworks by which we integrate new data with previous experience. Retrieval is the process by which we recover information from long-term storage.

w)  A great deal of research is focused on how individuals retrieve information from memory. 

x)  Studies show that consumers tend to remember the product’s benefits, rather than its attributes. 

y)  Motivated consumers are likely to spend time interpreting and elaborating on information they find relevant to their needs; and are likely to activate such relevant knowledge from long-term memory. 

z)  Research findings suggest that incongruent (e.g. unexpected) elements pierce consumers’ perceptual screens and improve the memorability of an ad when these elements are relevant to the advertising message. 

a) Incongruent elements that are not relevant to an ad also pierce the consumer’s perceptual screen but provide no memorability for the product. Interference effects are caused by confusion with competing ads and result in a failure to retrieve.

 b) Advertisements for competing brands or for other products made by the same manufacturer can lower the consumer’s ability to remember advertised brand information. 

c) There are actually two kinds of interference.

 i)  New learning can interfere with the retrieval of previously stored material.

 ii)  Old learning can interfere with the recall of recently learned material.

Limited and Extensive Information Processing

 For a long time, consumer researchers believed that all consumers passed through a complex series of mental and behavioral stages in arriving at a purchase decision (extensive information processing).

 These stages ranged from awareness (exposure to information), to evaluation (preference, attitude formation), to behavior (purchase), to final evaluation (adoption or rejection). This same series of stages is often presented as the consumer adoption process. Some theorists began to realize that there were some purchase situations that simply did not call for extensive information processing and evaluation; that sometimes consumers simply went from awareness of a need to a routine purchase, without a great deal of information search and mental evaluation (limited information processing).Purchases of minimal personal importance were called low involvement purchases, and complex, search-oriented purchases were considered high-involvement purchases.

Involvement Theory

 Involvement theory developed from research into hemispherical lateralization or split-brain theory.

a)  The premise is that the right and left hemispheres of the brain specialize in the kinds of information they process. 

b)  The left hemisphere is responsible for cognitive activities such as reading, speaking, and attribution information processing. 

c)  The right hemisphere of the brain is concerned with nonverbal, timeless, pictorial, and holistic information.

Involvement Theory and Media Strategy 

Individuals passively process and store right-brain information.

a)  Because it is largely pictorial, TV viewing is considered a right hemisphere activity. 

b)  Passive learning was thought to occur through repeated exposures to low-involvement information. 

c)  The left hemisphere is associated with high-involvement information. 

d)  Recent research suggests that pictorial cues help recall and familiarity, although verbal cues trigger cognitive functions, encouraging evaluation. 

e)  The right-brain processing theory stresses the importance of the visual component of advertising, including the creative use of symbols. 

f)  Pictorial cues are more effective at generating recall and familiarity with the product, although verbal cues (which trigger left-brain processing) generate cognitive activity that encourages consumers to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the product.

There are limitations to split-brain theory.

 Research suggests the spheres of the brain do not always operate independently of each other, but work together to process information. There is evidence that both sides of the brain are capable of low- and highinvolvement. It does seem the right side is more cognitively oriented and the left side more affectively oriented.

Involvement Theory and Consumer Relevance

 A consumer’s level of involvement depends on the degree of personal relevance that the product holds for the consumer.

a)  High-involvement purchases are those that are very important to the consumer in terms of perceived risk. 

b)  Low-involvement purchases are purchases that are no very important to the consumer, hold little relevance, and little perceived risk.

 Highly involved consumers find fewer brands acceptable (they are called narrow categorizers); uninvolved consumers are likely to be receptive to a greater number of advertising messages regarding the purchase and will consider more brands (they are broad categorizers).

Central and Peripheral Routes to Persuasion

 Central and peripheral routes to persuasion—the central premise is that consumers are more likely to weigh information carefully about a product and to devote considerable cognitive effort to evaluating it when they are highly involved with the product category and vice versa.

a)  Use of the central route to persuasion is more effective in marketing for high-involvement purchases. 

b)  The peripheral route to persuasion is more effective for lowinvolvement purchases. The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) suggests that a person’s level of involvement during message processing is the critical factor in determining the most effective route of persuasion.

c)  Thus, when involvement is high, consumers follow the central route and base their attitudes or choices on the message arguments. 

d)  When involvement is low, they follow the peripheral route and rely more heavily on other message elements to form attitudes or make product choices.

The marketing implications of the elaboration likelihood model are clear:

e)  For high-involvement purchases, marketers should use arguments stressing the strong, solid, high-quality attributes of their products—thus using the central (i.e., highly cognitive) route. 

f)  For low-involvement purchases, marketers should use the peripheral route to persuasion, focusing on the method of presentation rather than on the content of the message(e.g., through the use of celebrity spokespersons or highly visual and symbolic advertisements).

Measures of Involvement

 Researchers have defined and conceptualized involvement in a variety of ways including ego involvement, commitment, communication involvement, purchase importance, extent of information search, persons, products situations, and purchase decisions.

a)  Some studies have tried to differentiate between brand involvement and product involvement. 

b)  Others differentiate between situational, enduring, and response involvement.

 The lack of a clear definition about the essential components of involvement poses some measurement problems.

c)  Researchers who regard involvement as a cognitive state are concerned with the measurement of ego involvement, risk perception, and purchase importance. d)  Researchers who focus on the behavioral aspects of involvement measure such factors as the search for and evaluation of product information.

e)  Others argue that involvement should be measured by the degree of importance the product has to the buyer. Because of the many different dimensions and conceptualizations of involvement, it makes sense to develop an involvement profile, rather than to measure a single involvement level.

Marketing Applications of Involvement

 Involvement theory has a number of strategic applications for the marketer. 

f) The left-brain (cognitive processing)/right-brain (passive processing) paradigm seems to have strong implications for the content, length, and presentation of both print and television advertisements. 

g) By understanding the nature of low-involvement information processing, marketers can take steps to increase consumer involvement with their ads. Measures of Consumer Learning Market share and the number of brandloyal consumers are the dual goals of consumer learning.

a)  Brand-loyal customers provide the basis for a stable and growing market share. 

b)  Brands with larger market shares have proportionately larger groups of loyal buyers.

Recognition and Recall Measures

 Recognition and recall tests are conducted to determine whether consumers remember seeing an ad, the extent to which they have read it or seen it and can recall its content, their resulting attitudes toward the product and the brand, and their purchase intentions. 

a)  Recognition tests are based on aided recall, although recall tests use unaided recall.

 b)  In recognition tests, the consumer is shown an ad and asked whether he or she remembers seeing it and can remember any of its salient points. 

c)  In recall tests, the consumer is asked whether he or she has read a specific magazine or watched a specific television show, and if so, can recall any ads or commercials seen, the product advertised, the brand, and any salient points about the product.