LEARNING:
From a marketing perspective, Learning can be seen as a process by which individuals acquire the purchase and the consumption knowledge and experience that they apply to future related behavior.
The following several points are worth noting.
Consumer learning is a process, it continually evolves and changes as a result of newly acquired knowledge or from actual experience.
The role of experience in learning does not mean that all learning is deliberate. Though much learning is intentional a great deal is incidental.
The term learning encompasses the total range of learning, from simple almost reflexive responses to the learning of abstract concepts and complex problem solving
Information Processing and Memory Stores

Sensory Input

Forgotten; lost

Rehearsal

Forgotten; lost

Forgotten; unavailable
Retrieval

Sensory Store: All information comes to us through our senses: however the senses do not transmit whole images as a camera does. Instead each sense receives fragmented piece of information such as smell, colour and shape etc and transmits it to the brain in parallel, where perceptions of a single instant are synchronised and perceived as a single image, in a single moment of time. The image of a sensory input lasts for just a second or two in the mind’s sensory store.

Short term Memory: Where information is temporarily stored while being processed and held for a brief period. If the information in the short term store undergoes the process of rehearsal, it is then transferred to the long-term memory store.

Sensory Store: All information comes to us through our senses: however the senses do not transmit whole images as a camera does. Instead each sense receives fragmented piece of information such as smell, colour and shape etc and transmits it to the brain in parallel, where perceptions of a single instant are synchronised and perceived as a single image, in a single moment of time. The image of a sensory input lasts for just a second or two in the mind’s sensory store.

Short term Memory: Where information is temporarily stored while being processed and held for a brief period. If the information in the short term store undergoes the process of rehearsal, it is then transferred to the long-term memory store.

Encoding: This is a process by which we select a word or visual image to represent a perceived object. Marketers help consumers to encode brands by using brand symbols such as ‘Tiger and Frosted Flakes’.

Retrieval: This is the process by which we recover information from long term storage. Most people have had experience of being unable to remember something with which they are familiar. This is referred to as the failure of the retrieval system.

Cognitive Learning Theory:

Closely related to information processing and memory is the field of cognitive learning. The kind of learning most characteristic of human beings is problem solving which enables individuals to gain some control in their environment. This involves complex mental processing of information#p#分頁標題#e#

Cognitive Learning Theory:

An Information processing model:

Information Input

Exposure

Involvement
Attention

Memory

Comprehension
Early Cognitive Theorists:

Gestalt Psychologists: Biological and psychological events do not influence behavior in isolation from each other. Instead people perceive the inputs from the environment as a part of the total context.

A consumer tends to see a product as an integrated whole rather than individual characteristics such as price, colour, and reliability etc.

The associationists:This is a cognitive learning approach which analyses associations that consumers form between stimuli.

Serial Learning: The study of serial learning is how people put into memory and recall information that is received in a sequential manner.

Paired associate learning: This involves investigating how consumers remember words that are paired with each other. Learning is faster if the stimulus and response items can be readily associated with each other and are familiar.

Behavioral Learning Theories

Classical Conditioning:

All organisms are relatively passive and they could be taught certain behaviors through repetition or conditioning.

Ivan Pavlov: According to him, conditioned learning results when a stimulus is paired with another stimulus that elicits a known response serves to produce the same response when used alone.

Diagram (Ivan Pavlov)

Unconditioned Stimulus
(Meat Paste) Unconditioned Response
(Salivation)
Conditional Stimulus
(Bell)

After repeated pairings

Conditioned Stimulus Conditional Response
(Bell) (Salivation)
Instrumental (Operant) Conditioning:

Like Classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning also requires a link between a stimulus and a response. However, in instrumental conditioning, the stimulus that results in the most satisfactory response is the one that is learned.

According to this theory learning occurs through a trial and error process, with habits formed as a result of rewards received for certain responses.

Skinner B.F: Most individual learning occurs in a controlled environment in which individuals are rewarded for choosing an appropriate behavior.
Involvement Theory
This theory has been developed from a stream of research called hemispheral - lateralization or split-hair brain theory. The basic premise of the theory is that left hemisphere of the brain specialises in cognitive information processing such as reading, writing. The right hemisphere is concerned with the nonverbal, timeless, pictorials and the holistic information.

The left side is rational, active and realistic; and the right side is emotional, impulsive and intuitive.

Central and Perisheral routes to Persuasion:
This theory illustrates the concepts of high and low involvement purchases. For high involvement purchases central route to persuasion is followed.#p#分頁標題#e#

This requires cognitive processing. For low involvement purchases peripheral route to persuasion is more effective.

Elaboration likelihood model (ELM). This suggests that a person’s level of involvement is critical during the information processing stage. If the message is personally relevant then it is more likely that she/he will be willing to spend more cognitive effort.

Measures of Consumer Learning:
Recognition and recall measures: To determine :
whether consumers remember seeing an ad
the extent to which they have read it or seen it
if they can recall its contents
can indicate their resulting attitudes toward the product and the brand and their purchase intentions.
Recognition tests are based on aided recall, whereas recall tests use unaided recall.

Cognitive responses to ads: Measures the degree to which consumers accurately comprehend the intended advertising message. Comprehension is a function of the message characteristics, the consumer’s opportunity and ability to process the information, and the consumer’s motivation.

Attitudinal and Behavioural Measures of loyalty: These are concerned with consumer’s overall feelings about the product and the brand and their purchase intentions. Behavioral measures are based on observable responses to promotional stimuli--------- purchase behavior rather than attitudes.

A basic issue among researchers is to define brand loyalty in terms of consumer behavior or attitudes.