Learning and Memory

Learning is the process which takes place when something is understood and possessed by a person. It is a process which is done over a lifetime and is ongoing. It is when someone processes their experiences and information gained into how they behave and act, also what their attitudes are.

“Learning refers to a relatively permanent change in behaviour which comes with experience” (Solomon et al, Consumer Behaviour, Pg 246) 

Memory is when you store information and experiences and are able to think back to them in different points of the future. There are three aspects which take place in order to store information as a memory; these are encoding, storage and retrieval.

“Memory involves a process of acquiring information and storing it over time so that it will be available when needed” (Solomon et al, Consumer Behaviour, Pg257)

The main theories which can be applied to marketing are the cognitive and behavioural learning theory.

The behavioural learning theory suggests that people learn through what they see around them and as a direct response to their environment. This theory excludes the thinking process when looking at specific stimuli. For example those who receive positive feedback from purchasing a product are most commonly likely to purchase this product again.

This theory is used by the majority of marketers in order to focus a certain product and how people respond to them. “Many marketing strategies focus on the establishment of association between stimuli and responses” (Solomon et al, Consumer Behaviour, Pg 252)

Classical conditioning is when two unrelated objects are placed together in order to gain a certain response. Even though a person may not like a certain stimuli, when it is placed with something else it may lead to them liking it.

Here is Youtube video which demonstrates a key study into classical conditioning by Pavlov (1927)

Overall products which are marketed in a certain way can change how a person feels towards them. If they are associated with something which makes individuals feel good, this will automatically lead to them also liking the product. Therefore when marketing product businesses must be careful to ensure it is associated with something which is positive. 

If people do not originally like a product but see other people around them using a specific product or service, this leads to them wanting it regardless of how they feel towards it. This is very important as marketers must ensure it is portrayed positively without knowing what it actually is.

Product examples:

The celebrities used in these adverts encourage consumers to want to purchase the clothing even if they do not like it at first as this is the new and current trend being set. This shows that positively representing clothing can influence consumers buying decision.

Lecture:

During the lecture we were asked to write down a shopping list in the correct order from what we could remember. This was quite hard to do as there were ten different types of products on the list; the ones which were related to one another were those which were mostly remembered.

References:

1. Consumer behaviour: A European perspective: Fourth Edition:2010                        Michael R.Solomon, Gary Bamossy, Soren askegaard, Margaret K. Hogg