Lesson 3

Learning and Memory

CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR, 11e
Michael R. Solomon

3-1
Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education
 Learning Objectives
When you finish this chapter, you should
understand why:

1. It’s important for marketers to understand how

consumers learn about products and services.
2. Conditioning results in learning.
3. Learned associations with brands generalize to
other products, which is important to marketers.
4. There is a difference between classical and
instrumental conditioning, & both processes
help consumers learn about products
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 Learning Objectives (continued)
5. We learn by observing others’ behavior.
6. Our brains process information about brands to
retain them in memory.
7. The other products we associate with an
individual product influence how we will
remember it.
8. Products help us to retrieve memories from our
past.
9. Marketers measure our memories about
products.

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 What is Learning?
• Learning: relatively permanent change in
behavior that is caused by experience.
- The experience - direct or observed.

• Incidental learning = casual, unintentional

acquisition of knowledge
- We learn even when we don’t try.
- E.g. We recognize brand names & jingles even
when we don’t personally use the products
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 Theories of Learning
• Behavioral learning theories assume
that learning takes place as the result of
responses to external events.
• Cognitive theories focus on consumers
as problem solvers who learn when they
observe relationships

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 Conditioning Theories

PAVLOV SKINNER
Classical Instrumental/Operant
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 Types of Behavioral Learning Theories
Classical conditioning: a
stimulus that elicits a
response is paired with
another stimulus that
initially does not elicit a
response on its own.
Instrumental conditioning
(also, operant conditioning):
the individual learns to
perform behaviors that
produce positive outcomes
and to avoid those that yield
negative outcomes.

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Classical Conditioning

Unconditioned
Stimulus
Unconditioned
Response
Meat
Salivate

Bell Conditioned
Response
Conditioned Stimulus
(initially neutral) Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education
 . Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist
• He paired a neutral stimulus (a bell) with a
stimulus known to cause a salivation
response in dogs.
• The powder was an unconditioned
stimulus (UCS) because it was naturally
capable of causing the response.
• Over time, the bell became a conditioned
stimulus (CS).
*UCS: naturally capable of causing a response.
*CS: doesn’t initially cause response; consumers learn to
associate with UCS
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 • The bell did not initially cause salivation but
the dogs learned to associate the bell with
the meat powder and began to salivate at the
sound of the bell only.
• The drooling of these canine consumers
because of a sound was a conditioned
response (CR).

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 Classical Conditioning
• Components of Conditioning
• Unconditioned stimulus (meat powder)
• Conditioned stimulus (bell)
• Conditioned response (drooling)
• Conditioning Issues
• Repetition –paired multiple times
• Stimulus generalization- evoke similar responses
• Stimulus discrimination – weaken reactions over
time (if UCS doesn’t follow a stimulus similar to a
CS)
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 Classical Conditioning in Marketing

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 Classical Conditioning
Ad Example: Kaepernick for Nike
• https://youtu.be/wyHI3IrJOR8

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 Classical Conditioning
Ad Example: Kaepernick for Nike

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 Learning Objective 3
• Behavioral learning principles apply to
many consumer phenomena, such as
creating a distinctive brand image

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 Learning Objective 3
Conditioning effects created in marketing
through:
• Repetition
• Stimulus generalizations
• Stimulus discrimination

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 Repetition

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 Slogans to Enhance Recall

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 Marketing Applications of Repetition
• UCS & CS repeatedly paired  increased
exposure  increased strength & brand
awareness
• Decreased pairing  decreased exposure 
extinction
• However, too MUCH exposure leads to
advertising wear out
• Example: Izod Lacoste polo
shirt with its crocodile crest

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Brand equity

• Brand equity is a brand that has a strong

positive association in a consumer’s
memory and commands a lot of loyalty.

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 Marketing Applications of
Stimulus Generalization
• Stimulus generalization: a stimuli similar to a conditioned
stimulus to evoke similar, unconditioned responses.
• Capitalize on consumers’ positive associations with an
existing brand/company name.
• Strategies:
• Family branding/Umbrella branding
• Product line extensions
• Licensing - allows companies to rent well-known
names.
• Look-alike packaging

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 Family Branding/Umbrella Branding
• Capitalize on the reputation of a company’s name.
• All products under a family brand are interdependent;
one product’s success will boost the other.

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 Product Line Extensions
• Add related product to an established brand.
E.g. Colgate adds a new addition to their toothpaste line –
Colgate Calming Clean toothpaste.

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 Licensing
• Companies often “rent” well-known names.
• Prevention magazine, America's most-respected health
magazine, launched a line of vitamins and supplements under
license with Windmill Health Products.

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 Look-alike Packaging
• Companies associate their generic or private-level
brands with a particular brand (to communicate quality
image)
• Can cause legal issues if copycat brand gets too close to
the original. (E.g. Levi Strauss has sued nearly 100
manufacturers that used its trademarked pocket design)

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 Marketing Applications of Stimulus
Discrimination
• Used when companies want to promote unique
characteristics of the brand

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Marketing Applications of Stimulus
Discrimination

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 For Reflection
• Some advertisers use well-known songs to
promote their products. They often pay
more for the song than for original
compositions. How do you react when one
of your favorite songs turns up in a
commercial?
• Why do advertisers do this? How does this
relate to classical conditioning?

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 Instrumental/operant conditioning
• a type of learning where behaviour is
controlled by consequences.
• learn the desired behavior over a period of
time as a shaping process rewards our
actions.
• Key concepts: positive reinforcement,
negative reinforcement, punishment &
extinction.

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 Instrumental/operant conditioning
• B.F. Skinner – demonstrated the effects of
instrumental conditioning through animals.
He rewarded them for desired behaviours.

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 Instrumental/operant conditioning

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 How Does
Instrumental Conditioning Occur?

• Positive reinforcement – in the form of reward

• Negative reinforcement – shows how a negative
outcome can be avoided/removal of averse
stimulus
• Punishment – unpleasant events follow a
response
• Extinction - no reinforcement. The conditioning
is not activated. In other words, behavior stops
having consequences and the behavior then
eventually stops occurring.
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3-33
 Figure 3.1 Types of Reinforcement

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3-34
 Instrumental/operant conditioning
• Positive reinforcement is giving something pleasant
after a behavior. This increases the probability that the
behavior will continue. Examples are:
• A teacher complimenting students when they answer correctly will
increase that behavior.
• At a gym, customers receive a discount if they work out a certain
number of times and eat healthy.
• In the Skinner Box experiment, a rat got food as a reward for
acceptable behavior, such as pressing a lever.

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 Instrumental/operant conditioning
• Negative reinforcement is taking away something
unpleasant/disliked (averse stimulus). This is also
meant to increase the behavior. Examples are:
• A teacher exempts student from the final test if they have
perfect attendance. So, the teacher is taking away
something unpleasant to increase behavior.
• In a biology class, students who made an "A" on the test
did not have to dissect a frog.

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For Reflection

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For Reflection

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 OBJECTIVE:

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 Learning Objective 5
• We learn about products by observing
others’ (“Models”) behavior.

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 Modeling Process

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 Modeling Process
• Powerful form of learning BUT may come
with negative effects

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 Modeling Process
• The Bobo Doll Experiment by Albert
Bandura
• https://youtu.be/zerCK0lRjp8

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Observational Learning Conditions

ATTENTION DIRECTED AT MODEL

REMEMBER WHAT MODEL DOES

CONVERT INFORMATION TO ACTION

MOTIVATED TO PERFORM ACTIONS

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 How does Observational Learning help
Marketers?
• Marketers can show what happens to
models who use/do not use their products,
without directly rewarding/punishing
consumers.
• E.g. A perfume commercial
- https://youtu.be/-6jK_Nzb9HQ

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 To what extent do you emulate a
celebrity’s choices?

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Parental Socialization Styles

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 Children of Each Parenting Style

• Unhappy • Happy
• Less independent/insecure • Independent
• Low self-esteem & academics • Good self-esteem & academics
• Poor social skills • Good social skills
• Prone to mental issues • Better mental health

• Cannot follow rules

• Poor self-control • Impulsive
• Egocentric • Cannot self-regulate emotions
• Problems in relationships & • More delinquency & addiction
interactions • Mental issues
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 For Reflection
• Think of an example of how your parents
influenced your development as a
consumer.

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 Memory
• A process of acquiring information and
storing it over time so it will be available
when we need it.

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 Memory
• Acquire information
• Information changed into a form the system
Encoding recognizes
• Ways of encoding: visual, acoustic, semantic

• Storing information
Storage • Main storages: Sensory memory, short-term
memory & long-term memory

• Getting information
Retrieval • Main ways: Recognition & recall

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 The Three Memory Systems

Chunking “hack” 3 Types of LTM

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 Short-Term Memory (Chunking)
• Grouping small pieces of information into larger ones

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 Long-Term Memory
3 Types:
• Procedural Memory: how to do something

• Semantic Memory: general knowledge

• Episodic Memory: events in our life

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 For Reflection
• What’s a memory that you just can’t seem
to forget (bonus, if you think of one related
to a brand)?
• Now that you know the types of memory
and how your mind stores information,
why do you think the memory stays with
you?

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 Associative Network

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Spreading Activation
• Method for searching associative networks
The way we store & retrieve
a piece of information in
Marketing
Message memory depends on the type
of meaning we initially assign
to it.
Activates a
node

Activates
other linked
nodes

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 Spreading Activation: Meaning types

Ad-specific Brand
Brand-specific
(medium or identification
(claims by brands)
content of ad) (brand name)

Product-category Evaluative
meaning reactions
(how & where (positive or negative
products used) emotions)

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 Spreading Activation: Meaning types
• Meaning types determine how and when something will activate the
meaning.
• For example, we could store the memory trace for an Axe men’s
fragrance ad in one or more of the following ways:
1.Brand specific – memory is stored in terms of claims the brand makes
(“it’s macho”)
2.Ad-specific – memory is stored in terms of the medium or content of the
ad it-self (a macho-looking guy uses the product)
3.Brand identification – memory is stored in terms of the brand name
(“Axe”)
4.Product-category – memory is stored in terms of how the product works
or where it should be used (a bottle of Axe sits in a guy’s medicine
cabinet)
5.Evaluation reactions – memory is stored as positive or negative emotions
(“that looks cool”)
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 Learning Objective 8
• Marketers measure our memories about
products and ads.

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 Measuring Memory for Marketing Stimuli
• Measure recognition and recall
- Recognition test: show ads to subjects one at a
time and ask if they have seen them before.
- Free recall test: ask consumers to think of what
they have seen without being prompted first

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 Measuring Memory for Marketing Stimuli
Problems with memory measures
• Response biases: ‘Yes’ responses to all Qs
• Memory lapses
• Omitting facts
• Averaging (normalizing)
• Telescoping (inaccurate recall of time)
• Illusion of truth effect (remember claim is
true even if it’s false)
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 The Marketing Power of Nostalgia
• Marketers may resurrect
popular characters to
evoke fond memories
of the past
• Nostalgia
• Retro brand –
updated version of a
brand from the past

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Nostalgia Marketing

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Nostalgia Marketing
• Social Media Hashtags
#ThrowbackThursdays / #TBT
#FlashbackFridays

• Commercials
https://youtu.be/MF6OYq_2Ooc

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 Ability to Remember Information
• Early memory theorists thought that memories
just faded with time. This is known as decay.
• Consumers may forget stimulus-response
associations if they subsequently learn new
responses to the same or similar stimuli. This
is called retroactive interference.
• When prior learning interferes with new
learning, this is called proactive interference.

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 Ability to Remember Information
• State-dependent retrieval - we are better
able to access information if our internal state
at the time of recall is the same as when we
learned the information.
• Familiarity and recall - more likely to recall
messages about items we are already familiar
with
• Brand salience – the brand’s prominence or
level of activation in memory.
• Increased novelty in stimulus facilitates recall

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 For Reflection
• List three of your favorite foods.
• What memories do you have associated
with these foods?

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 Chapter Summary
• Marketers need to know how consumers learn in
order to develop effective messages.
• Conditioning results in learning and learned
associations can generalize to other things.
• Learning can be accomplished through classical
and instrumental conditioning and through
observing the behavior of others.
• We use memory systems to store and retrieve
information.

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