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Consumer Behavior - Summary Week 2 all articles
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Consumer Behavior – Summary Week 2 Author: HuisinghCB Summary Article 2.1 Nord & Peter (1980)
A Behavior Modification Perspective on Marketing
Abstract
Purpose article to provide an overview of the Behavior Modification Perspective (BMP) which has
evolved from the work of Skinner and others and investigate its applicability to marketing. It is
suggested that this perspective provides a useful complement to the more cognitively-oriented
approaches which currently dominate the marketing literature.
Fundamental Elements of Behavior Modification
Behavior Modification Perspective (BMP) focuses on environmental factors which influence
behavior. It takes the prediction and control of behavior as problematic and deliberately shuns
speculation about processes which are assumed to occur within the individual such as needs,
motives, attitudes, information processing, etc.
We believe that it is useful and desirable to theorize about and investigate internal, psychological
processes which affect behavior. However, we maintain that many marketing objectives can be (and
in fact have been) accomplished without such theories by simply studying environmental conditions
and manipulating them to influence consumer behavior. The BMP provides the stimulus and
technology for systematizing this external focus.
Treatments of BMP are limited to 2 types of environmental manipulations: classical conditioning and
operant conditioning.
1
,Respondent conditioning = Classical conditioning
Respondent conditioning = Classical conditioning Pavlov A process of through which a
previously neutral stimulus, by being paired with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to elicit a
response very similar to the response originally elicited by the unconditioned stimulus.
No use of cognitive system, automatic nervous system.
Involuntary responses.
Stimuli before response.
Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning Deals with behaviours, which are usually assumed to be under the
conscious control of the individual.
‘ Instrumental’ conditioning, the use of reinforcements.
Under conscious control.
Consequences after behavior.
3 important concepts of operant conditioning in marketing:
- Reinforcement schedules (reinforcement in a certain schedule).
- Shaping (shaping involves a process of arranging conditions which change the
probabilities of certain behaviors not as ends in themselves, but to increase the
probability of other behaviors).
- Discriminative stimuli (the more presence or absence of a stimulus can serve to change
the probabilities of behavior, for example logo’s).
Vicarious learning
Vicarious learning (modelling) refers to a process which attempts to change behavior by having
an individual observe the actions of others and the consequences of those behaviors. According to
Bandura (1969) there a 3 major types of vicarious learning influences:
Observational a response someone wouldn’t’ think of himself.
Inhibitory things someone already does/thinks are strengthened/weakened.
Response facilitation when someone else does it someone thinks of it as well.
Ecological design
There is considerable evidence that the design of physical situations and the presence of absence of
various stimuli have powerful effects on behaviour. They use the term ecological design to refer to
the deliberate design of environments to modify human behavior.
Summary of some applications of the BMP in marketing
Table 1 provides a framework for considering some applications of the BMP to marketing. Each of
the 4 sections of the table outlines the general procedures which would be followed in applying one
of the 4 basic elements of the BMP. The table lists a number of the specific behaviors which
marketers may wish to develop. 2 qualifications should be kept in mind:
- There are many tactics for modifying behavior which are combinations of a number of
techniques which do not fit neatly into the simple categories presented in the table.
- Most, if not all of these tactics have already been used by practitioners. While the BMP may
lead to some new tactics, its most important value to practitioners will be in systematizing
and integrating marketing efforts by focusing attention on the sequence of specific behaviors
which can be modified to change the probability of product purchase or of some other
desired behavior.
2
, Potential contributions of the BMP to marketing
Marketing practice
BMP can make at least 2 major contributions to marketing practice:
- First: It can facilitate the development of a comprehensive set of strategies and tactics, which
encompass those environmental and situational factors which directly influence behavior.
- Second: The BMP can stimulate a closer interchange between academics and practitioners.
Study of consumer behaviour
There are also 2 major contributions to the study of consumer behavior:
- First: The BMP forces explicit recognition that, to the degree of marketing efforts seek to
increase sales, marketing is directly concerned with the influence, modification and control
of consumer behaviour.
- Second: There is considerable evidence that the behavior of consumers is far more
consistent with the principles of the BMP than the traditional explanations.
Some unresolved issues
Based on our argument, we believe it is reasonable to conclude that a good deal of marketing, at
least at the tactical or operational level, is as closely aligned with techniques of behavior modification
as with those suggested by more complex, internally- oriented psychological models. To the degree
this conclusion is valid, it raises a number of issues about the value of the BMP for marketing.
- First, to what extent is the BMP a suitable replacement for more traditional approaches? We
believe that it is a useful complement, not a replacement.
- Second, there is the issue of the efficacy of behavior modification techniques. While existing
research indicates that the technology exists to modify behavior very effectively, this
technology can be used more effectively in controlled environments.
Conclusions
This paper has attempted to provide an overview of behavior modification and investigate its
applicability to marketing. While it appears that many marketing tactics currently employed are quite
consistent with the BMP, these tactics appear to have been derived in an ad hoc manner. A more
systematic application of the BMP to marketing may well provide insights for the development of
improved tactics and overall strategies and for describing how the purchase-consumption process
works.
Although marketing academics and practitioners may be reluctant to view marketing as a technology
for modifying and controlling consumer behavior, it is clear that marketing tactics which are fully
consistent with this perspective will continue to be implemented.
In terms of consumer behavior research, it will undoubtedly be some time before researchers
actively catalog and sample elements of the external environment given the predilection toward the
study of internal processes.
In any case, the BMP may provide a clear understanding that one of the major de facto functions of
marketing in our society is the modification of behavior.
3
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