Consumer behavior marketing/ a lesson

Q 1: How can principles of instrumental conditioning be applied to advertising? In what ways does application of instrumental conditioning differ from those of classical conditioning?

Ans: PRINCIPLES OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

The main principles of operant conditioning, as defined by Skinner, are reinforcement, punishment, shaping, extinction, discrimination, and generalization.

KEY CONCEPTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

• Reinforcement
  The process in which a behavior is strengthened, and thus, more likely to happen again.
  • Positive Reinforcement
    Making a behavior stronger by following the behavior with a pleasant stimulus. For example, a rat presses a lever and receives food.
  • Negative Reinforcement
    Making a behavior stronger by taking away a negative stimulus. For example, a rat presses a lever and turns off the electric shock
• Punishment
  The process in which a behavior is weakened, and thus, less likely to happen again.
• Negative Punishment
  Reducing a behavior by removing a pleasant stimulus when the behavior occurs. If the rat was previously given food for each lever press, but now receives food consistently when not pressing the lever (and not when it presses the lever), the rat will learn to stop pressing the lever.
• Positive Punishment
  Reducing a behavior by presenting an unpleasant stimulus when the behavior occurs. If the rat previously pressed the lever and received food and now receives a shock, the rat will learn not to press the lever.
• Shaping
  Technique of reinforcement used to teach new behaviors. At the beginning, people/animals are reinforced for easy tasks, and then increasingly need to perform more difficult tasks in order to receive reinforcement. For example, originally the rat is given a food pellet for one lever press, but we gradually increase the number of times it needs to press to receive food, the rat will increase the number of presses.
• Extinction
  The elimination of the behavior by stopping reinforcement of the behavior. For example, a rat who received food when pressing a bar, receives food no longer, will gradually decrease the amount of lever presses until the rat eventually stops lever pressing.
  
  
• Generalization
  In generalization, a behavior may be performed in more than one situation. For example, the rat who receives food by pressing one lever, may press a second lever in the cage in hopes that it will receive food.
  
  
• Discrimination
  Learning that a behavior will be rewarded in one situation, but not another. For example, the rat does not receive food from the second lever and realizes that by pressing the first lever only, he will receive food.

Classical Conditioning in Advertising

Classical Conditioning is defined as "a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus" It is a very effective tool for advertising and is used in many different forms of advertising. By just turning on the television and watching a few commercials you are sure to see quite a few examples of Classical Conditioning. One of these examples is a commercial done by Mikes Hard Lemonade. In this commercial it starts off a doctor testing a patient with an ultra sound machine. Inside his stomach you see some kind of snake or monster. The doctor says he does not have long to live so they both go out and buy a Mikes Hard Lemonade. The slogan they use is "A Hard Day calls for a Mikes Hard Lemonade". This is effective by linking the thought of a hard day to the idea of drinking a Mikes Hard Lemonade. It is probably aimed toward a younger audience 21-26 but could reach any age group. I would and do bu

Summary Even today Pepsi is the one of leader of beverage industry but it still follow the Coca-Cola so it has to do every way to gain more market share and keep its position in the top of cola beverage. As we know the main customer target is teenagers and young adults and they have similarly interested around the world there are sport and music. In fact, the company is recognized worldwide as a leader in advertising, marketing, sales and promotional initiatives. Advertising make fun that is a purpose of Pepsi Other point that Pepsi has to think about it is how can it extend its repeat consumer? In currently a new target group for Pepsi is gay. n people aged 23-29, who worry about their bodies and health and people who like to drink soft drinks but do not like the carbonation and sugar in them. 95 billion of Coca-Cola, Pepsi brand value is far less stronger. com), Pepsi and other Pepsi Cola products including: Diet Pepsi, Caffeine Free Pepsi, Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Mountain Dew, Slice, Diet Slice, Gotorade, Sobe and Mug brands. a cool and up-to-date so nobody can say they do not know what Pepsi is. However brand value of the Pepsi in 2001 is just evaluate for $6. For example nowadays Pepsi Co has launched a new game called "PEPSI FOOT" for mobile phone, the game is a fantasy soccer game where players build a virtual team based on real life soccer players and challenge each others team to cyber face-offs via SMS. Pepsi is one of the major sponsors of PrideVision, the 24 hours gay TV network in Canada.

Q 2: (a) Explain the ways by which understanding of consumer behavior can help in designing marketing strategies?

Ans: Analyze how targeted consumer needs, wants, and desires change as marketplace marketing variables are adjusted according to cultural and structural lifestyle constraints.

Evaluate cultural and lifestyle influences on consumer behavior, and design targeted messages to create awareness, interest, and guided action.

Examine motivation, personality. and emotion and how these factors directly influence consumer behavior.

Synthesize information taken from secondary data courses and design effective primary data gathering efforts.

Analyze situational influences impacting motivation, personality, and emotional responses in groups.

Evaluate the consumer decision process to determine how problems are identified and evaluated, and how products/services are selected to resolve the problem state.

Analyze port purchase processes, consumer satisfaction, and metrics to evaluate customer commitment.

Evaluate business to business buying behavior and segment these organizational behaviors into actionable groups with appropriate performance metrics.

Evaluate strategies to address pre- and post-purchase behavior including outlet selections and information requirements of targeted segments.

Q 2: (b) What is the distinction between Utilitarian and Hedonistic needs? What are its implications on marketing strategy?

Ans: Hedonistic needs

social : Reinforcement, sex, play

Non- Social: sensory stimulation, cognitive stimulation, and novelty

Utilitarian Needs:

Social : modelling, support

Non-social: safety, order, physical well-being

a) Bathing: Bathing means bathing all, or some part of the body, including the hair, whether the bath occurs in a tub, shower, or bed.
b) Clothing: Clothing means total dressing and undressing, including stockings or socks and shoes.
c) Eating

Eating means to consume or assimilate food or nutriments to fulfill nutritional needs. Eating includes both oral and tube feedings.

d) Grooming/Personal Hygiene

Grooming/personal hygiene means bodily maintenance including combing hair, cleaning and clipping nails, shaving if applicable, tooth brushing and oral hygiene including denture care, daily deodorant use, hygiene associated with menstruation, makeup application when desirable and appropriate, daily hands and face washing.

e)Toileting/Continence

Toileting means the appropriate use of a toilet, including related undressing/dressing activities, and necessary follow-up hygiene.

f)Mobility

Mobility means the power of locomotion and includes transfers/movements which are accomplished by independent ambulation and via the employment of assistive devices such as walkers, wheelchairs, braces, and prostheses.

g) Psychosocial Mental Statusp

psychosocial mental status means the achievement of a sense of well-being and emotional balance in one's relationship with self, other persons, and one's daily environment.

Q 3: What is meant by family decision making? How can different members of the household be involved with different stages of the decision process?

Ans: Decision making is a term used to describe the process by which families make choices, determine judgments, and come to conclusions that guide behaviors. That the process is called family decision-making implies that it requires more than one member's input and agreement The family decision-making process is a communication activity—it rests on the making and expression of meaning. The communication may be explicit (as when families sit down and discuss a prospective decision) or implicit (as when families choose an option based on their past decisions or some other unspoken rationale). Families are confronted with a myriad of decisions, including the purchase of products, the selection of educational practices, the choice of recreational activities, the use of disciplinary practices, and the deployment of limited resources. Decision making is an unavoidable, daily process.

1. Influencers: Those family members who provide information and advice and thus influence the purchase.

The housewife tells her family about the new eatery that has opened in the neighborhood and her favorable

description about it influences her husband and teenaged children to also patronize the restaurant. Family member(s) who provide information to other members about a product or service.

2. Gatekeepers: Those family members who control the flow of information about a product/service thus influencingthe decisions of other family members. The teenaged son who wants a racing bicycle, may withhold from his father much of the relevant information on all brands except the one that he fancies, thereby influencing his father’s decision in favour of his preferred brand. Family member(s) who control the flow of information about a product or service into the family.

3. Deciders: Family members who have the power to unilaterally or jointly decide whether or not to buy a product or service. The husband and wife may jointly decide about the purchase of a new refrigerator. Family member(s) with the power to determine unilaterally or jointly whether to shop for, purchase, use, consume, or dispose of a specific product or service.

4. Buyers: Those family members who actually buy a particular product or service. A housewife may be the person who actually buys all the foodstuffs, rations and toiletries, which are consumed by all the family members. Family member(s) who make the actual purchase of a particular product or service.

5. Preparers: Those family members who transform or prepare the product into the form in which it is actually consumed. The housewife may prepare the family meal using raw vegetables, lentils, spices, oil and other ingredients. Family member(s) who transform the product into a form suitable for consumption by other family members.

6. Users: Those family members who use or consume a particular product or service. All family members may use the car, watch the television, and listen to the stereo music system Family member(s) who use or consume a particular product or service.

7. Maintainers: Family member(s) who service or repair the product so that it will provide continued satisfaction.

8. Disposers: Family member(s) who initiate or carry out the disposal or discontinuation of a particular product or service. The number and identity

Q 4: Explain the following terms and their usage in Consumer Behavior.

a) Adaptation level theory

Ans: Adaptation-level reflects a compromise between two tendencies to use response categories :

(1) to cover similar proportions of the stimulus range; a

(2) with similar frequencies. Relevant recent work concerns the activation of judgmental norms appropriate to the context or class of objects.

Swimming-pool water feels cool after sun-bathing because its temperature is lower than the heat to which one has adapted

b) Just noticeable difference

Ans: When we try to compare two different objects to see if they are the same or different on some dimension (e.g., weight), the difference between the two that is barely big enough to be noticed is called the just noticeable difference (JND). Just noticeable differences have been studied for many dimensions (e.g., brightness of lights, loudness of sounds, weight, line length, and others).

The human sensory system does not respond identically to the same stimuli on different occasions. As a result, if an individual attempted to identify whether two objects were of the same or different weight he or she might detect a difference on one occasion but will fail to notice it on another occasion. Psychologists calculate the just noticeable difference as an

c) Figure and ground principle

Ans: Figure/Ground

The principle of figure/ground is one of the most basic laws of perception and one that is used extensively to help us design our photographs. In its basic sense, it refers to our ability to separate elements based upon contrast--that is, dark and light, black and white. In this discussion, we'll expand this definition from one of simple biological perception to one that includes abstract concepts such as subject/background and positive/negative space

d) Consumer inferences

Ans: Because products are rarely described completely, consumers often form inferences that go beyond the information given.

The process of inference formation:

The most basic processes are induction (inferences from specific instances to general principles) versus deduction (inferences from general principles to specific instances).

Stimulus-based inferences are formed on-line (as information is encountered) using situationally available information, whereas memory-based (or theory-based) inferences are formed using prior knowledge and experience. Inferences can pertain to a single product judged in isolation (a singular judgment context) or to multiple products considered in relation to one another (a comparative judgment context). This 2x2x2 (Induction vs. Deduction x Stimulus-Based vs. Memory-Based x Singular vs. Comparative Judgment) theoretical framework suggests that there are 8 different types of inferences that consumers may form. Based on this framework, we identify gaps in the literature and suggest directions for future research.

Q 5: What is meant by the term situations? Why is it important for a marketing manager to understand situation influence on purchasing behavior?

Ans: The buying situations are as follows:

Straight rebuy

In this buying situation, only purchasing department is involved. That get an information from inventory control department or section to reorder the material or item and they seek quotations from vendors in an approved list.

Modified rebuy

In this buying situation, there is a modification to the specifications of the product or specifications related to delivery. Executives apart from the purchasing department are involved in the buying decisions. The company is looking for additional suppliers or is ready to modify the approved vendors list based on the technical capabilities and delivery capabilities.

New task buy

In this situation, the buyer is buying the product for the first time. As the cost of the product or consumption value becomes higher, more number of executives are involved in the process. The stages of awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption will be there for the products of each potential supplier. Only the products which pass all the stages will be on the approved list and price competition will follow subsequently.

System buy

System buying is a process in which the organization gives a single order to a single organization for supplying a full system. The buying organization knows that no single party is producing all the units in the system. But it wants the system seller to engineer the system, procure the units from various vendors and assemble, fabricate or construct the system.

Q 6: a) Why is it easier to implement strategies reinforcing rather than changing attitudes?

Ans: Reinforcement strategy in reinforcement learning is essentially to boost the selection probability of "good" action.

Usually people are reinforced for the behavior expected out of him.

Instead of directly asking them for their attitude change. The reinforcement strategy works as a substitute measure for attitudinal change efforts.

b) What are differences among:

1) Dissonance Theory

The feelings of post purchase psychological tension or anxiety a consumer often experiences is called Dissonance of the consumer.

Firms often use ads or follow-up calls from salespeople in this post purchase stage to try to convince buyers that they made the right decision.

2) Attribution Theory

Attribution theory is a social psychology theory developed by Fritz Heider, Harold Kelley, Edward E. Jones, and Lee Ross.

The theory is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behavior of others or themselves (self-attribution) with something else. It explores how individuals "attribute" causes to events and how this cognitive perception effects their usefulness in an organization.

Internal versus external

The theory divides the way people attribute causes into two types.

• "External" or "situational" attribution assigns causality to an outside factor, such as the weather.
• "Internal" or "dispositional" attribution assigns causality to factors within the person, such as their own level of intelligence or other variables that make the individual responsible for the event

3) The passive learning in explaining attitude change after purchase.

Ans: LEARNING AND ATTITUDE go hand in hand. It is always important for Instructional Designers to define the target audience's current attitude toward the subject that will be taught. In some cases the current attitude is not the desired end state, and so attitude change becomes a component of the instructional design.

New, useful information
Learner attitudes will be more favorable if they are learning new information, that they can apply to needs they have.

Realistic, relevant and technically stimulating instructional methods/technologies
Realism and relevance in the instructional examples and materials help make the instruction more believable. Applying appropriate technologies can stimulate interest, which also promotes positive attitude change.

Presented in a credible manner
Credibility may be enhanced by using a credible source to deliver a message. It is also dependent upon the way the course is presented. Competently designed and delivered courses enhance credibility,whether they are live, by computer, or videotape

Q 7: a) What types of products are mostly sold on social need, emotional need and psychological need. Explain why?

Ans: Social needs: . The social needs are emotionally-based relationships in general, such as: Friendship , Intimacy

The social needs are emotionally-based relationships in general, such as:

• Friendship
• Intimacy
• Having a supportive and communicative family

The major sources of social needs fulfillments are:

A large social group, such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs. Or

A small social connections family members, intimate partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants.

. In the absence of these elements, people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression.

Having a supportive and communicative family

The major sources of social needs fulfillments are:

In the absence of these elements, people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression.

Emotional needs:

psychological need:

b) What is the difference between absolute threshold and differential threshold? Discuss the how marketing firms uses it?

Ans: absolute threshold -the lowest point at which a stimulus can be perceived.

EXAMPLE

THE IMPACT OF UPWARD PRICE MOVEMENTS ON DAILY HOUSEHOLD GOODS.
THIS SHOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF MARKET SEGMENTATION AND THE ASSOCIATED PRICING POLICIES.

differential threshold -the lowest limit at which two stimuli can be differentiated or distinguished Difference Threshold: The difference threshold, also known as the just noticeable difference (jnd), is the minimum difference in stimulation that a person can detect 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference. For example, let's say I asked you to put your hand out and in it I placed a pile of sand. Then, I add tiny amounts of sand to your hand and ask you to tell me when you notice any change in the overall weight. As soon as you can detect any change in the weight, that difference between the weight of the sand before I added that last bit of sand and the amount of sand after I added it, is the difference threshold.

The concept of differential threshold is applied to almost
all aspects of marketing strategies.

1.PRODUCTLINE EXTENSION.
This concept is applied to the advertising/ promotion of
the productline, in order to exploit the strength of the original brand.
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2.DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
The marketers' apply the concept of differential threshold
in the selection of the distribution channels, for the various
products from the same family productgroup.
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3.PRODUCT PRICING
The marketers' apply the concept of differential threshold
in the PRICING of the two brands from the same company
--like two toothpaste brands from one company.
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4.PRODUCT PROMOTIONS
The marketers' apply the concept of differential threshold
in the DEVELOPMENT/ IMPLEMENTATION of the
sales promotion programs in two channels to maintain
similarity / cost down.
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5. PRODUCT PACKAGING
The marketers' apply the concept of differential threshold
in the PACKAGING of the various models of the company
products / to create uniform image.
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6. PRODUCT PERCEPTION/ IMAGE
The marketers' apply the concept of differential threshold
in the PRODUCT POSITIONING in more than one
market segments.