Learning: General Perspectives

Introduction: How individuals learn is a matter of

great interest and importance to academicians, to
psychologists, to consumer researchers, and to
MARKETERS. The reason that Marketers are
concerned with how individuals learn is that they are
virtually interested in teaching them, in their roles as
consumers, about Products, Product attributes, and
their potential benefits:
Where to buy them, How to use them, How to
maintain them, and even How to dispose of them.
 Marketers are also vitally interested in how
effectively they have taught consumers to prefer
their Brands and to differentiate their products from
competitive offerings.
 Marketing strategies are based on communicating
with the consumer directly, through advertisements;
and indirectly through product appearance,
packaging, price, and distribution channels.
 Consumer Learning
 Marketers want their communication to be noted,
believed, remembered, and recalled. For these
reasons, Marketers are interested in every aspect of
the Learning process.
Consumer Learning is the process by which
individuals acquire the purchase and consumption
knowledge & experience they apply to future related
behaviour. Although some Learning is Intentional,
much Learning is Incidental. Basic elements that
contribute to an understanding of learning are
Motivation, Cues, Response and Reinforcement.
Intentional Learning: It is acquired as a result of a
careful search for information.
Incidental Learning: It is acquired as a result of
Accident or without much effort. e.g. some
advertisements may induce Learning ( say of Brand
names) even though the consumer attention is
elsewhere.
The term LEARNING encompasses the total range,
from simple, almost reflexive responses to Learning
of abstract concepts and complex problem solving.
 LEARNING THEORIES
Despite the fact that Learning is all-pervasive in our
lives, there is no single, universal theory of how
people learn. Instead, there are two major schools of
thought concerning the Learning process.
1. Behavioural Theories: It focus almost exclusively
on observable behaviours (responses) that occur as
the result of exposure to stimuli.
2. Cognitive Theories: It views Learning as a
function of purely mental processes.
Although these theories differ markedly in a number
of essentials, each theory offers insights to
Marketers on how to SHAPE their messages to
consumers to bring about desired purchase
behaviour; as well as how consumers store, retain,
and retrieve information, and how Learning is
measured.
 LEARNING THEORIES
Behavioural Cognitive Learning
Learning Theory Theory
 Classical  Information
Conditioning Processing &
 Observational Involvement
(Vicarious) theory
Learning
 Instrumental (or
Operant)
Conditioning
 Consumer Learning:
Basic Elements
1. Motivation: The driving force within individuals
that impels them to action. Motivation is based on
needs and goals. It acts as a spur (drive) to Learning.
Uncovering consumer motives is one of the prime
tasks of Marketers, who then try to teach motivated
consumer segments why and how their products will
fulfill the consumer’s needs.
2. Cues: Cues are the stimuli that give direction to
consumer motives i.e. that suggest a specific way to
satisfy a salient motive. In the marketplace, Price,
Styling, Packaging, advertising and store displays all
serve as cues to help consumers fulfill their needs in
product – specific ways.
Cues serve to direct consumer drives when they are
consistent with their expectations. Marketers must
be careful to provide cues that do not upset those
expectations. Each aspect of Marketing-Mix must
reinforce the others if cues are to serve as the
stimuli that guide consumer actions in the direction
desired by the Marketer.
 Consumer Learning:
Basic Elements
3. Response: How individuals react to a drive or cue
– how they behave – constitutes their response.
Learning can occur even when responses are not
overt (clear). A response is not tied to a need in a
one-to-one fashion. Indeed, a need or motive may
evoke a whole variety of responses. Cues provide
some direction, but there are many cues competing
for the consumer’s attention. Which response the
consumer makes depends heavily on previous
learning; that, in turn, depends on how related
responses were reinforced previously.
4. Reinforcement: A positive or negative outcome
that influences the likelihood that a specific
behaviour will be repeated in the future in response
to a particular CUE or STIMULUS.