MCB20806 - Principles Of Consumer Studies (MCB20806)
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Wageningen University (WUR)
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Consumer Behaviour
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Lecture summary Principles of Consumer Studies (MCB20806)
Summary of Chapter 11 of Consumer Behaviour - Isabelle Szmigin & Maria Piacentini (2018): Where are we going?
Summary of Chapter 8 - 10 of Consumer Behaviour - Isabelle Szmigin & Maria Piacentini (2018): Macro-view of consumption
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MCB20806 - Principles Of Consumer Studies (MCB20806)
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LECTURE 2
READING 1 - BOOK CHAPTER 4
1. Demonstrate understanding of the main approaches to learning.
Learning is the activity or process of acquiring knowledge or skill by studying, practicing, or experiencing
something. Focus on two major categories:
• Behavioural learning: concerned with learning as a response to changes in our environment (seeing a
brand e.g.)
• Cognitive learning: theories focus on learning through internal mental processes and conscious
thought (precious experience and gathering new information before deciding to buy).
2. Understand what is meant by behavioural learning, and the difference between classical and
operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning: originally from the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov with his research of feeding a dog
and the stimulus of ringing a bell. The unconditioned stimulus produced an unconditioned response, and the
unconditioned stimulus (food) linked with a neutral stimulus (bell) produces an unconditioned responses. Over
time this repeated paring results in the bell acting as a conditioned stimulus which produces a conditioned
response (salivation).
First-order conditioning: a conditioned stimulus acquires motivational importance by being paired with an
unconditioned stimulus, which is intrinsically aversive or rewarding (Pavlov’s dogs example). In first-order
conditioning, the US needs to come almost immediately before expose to CS, a biological stimulus such as food,
sec, pain, that elicits a natural psychological response. e.g. using a sexy women (US) in sport cars advertisement
(CS), suggesting the two are connected as sex is a basic biological instinct.
Extinction: when the US is removed from the CS, over time the response will be removed. E.g. after time no bell
no food, the dogs would stop salivating.
Evaluative conditioning: the changes in the linking of a stimulus (e.g. a brand) linked to the pairing of that
stimulus with other positive or negative stimuli (e.g. celebrity).
High-order conditioning: the pairing of two conditioned stimuli. Can occur when a conditioned stimulus (CS1)
acquires associative strength through being connected to a second conditioned stimulus (CS2) (rather than an
unconditioned stimulus). The pairing of CS1 and CS2 may occur before or after the first conditioned stimulus
(CS1) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US). e.g. the use of famous music in advertisements >
synchronization, the pairing of music with a brand.
Stimulus generalization: occurs when a stimulus similar to a conditioned stimulus elicits a similar conditioned
response. Stems from the fact that people often respond in the same way to stimuli that are similar.
Consumers form impressions and judgements about new product lines and extensions based on their general
feeling toward the brand, largely derived from previous experiences with that brand. E.g. Heinz expanded their
brand from just ketchup to also hot sauces, baby food etc. If they bring out new products, the process of
stimulus generalization acts as insurance to consumers and may encourage them to try something new.
Passing off: the marketing of a good in way that enables it to be mistaken for another brand, and it relies on
the phenomenon of stimulus generalization. E.g. private-label brands, label colours the same as the famous
brand (copycat)so people get confused and buy.
Stimulus discrimination: just as generalize one stimulus from another, we can also learn to discriminate
between similar stimuli. If a CS is not followed by an US, the response will decline hence we discriminate
against that CS. E.g. two different kind of bells with Pavlov’s dogs. E.g. we buy an own-label product and find
that it does not perform to the same standards as the branded product, we are likely to discriminate against
this product by switching back to the manufacturer’s brand.
Operant conditioning (instrumental learning): the changing of behaviour through reinforcement following a
desired response. Skinner showed that learning occurs when behaviour is changed, or modified, as a result of
the outcome of previous behaviour. E.g. new coffee shop, try it, appears to be better and cheaper than your
usual one. Positive reinforcement, you go again. Could also be a negative reinforcement when bad experience.
Neutral operants: nothing particularly good or bad about a product, you might not notice the brand and next
time you might or might not buy them again. E.g. marketers want a positive reinforcement for their brands, so
they give away free samples or free delivery.
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,Reinforcement schedules: operant conditioning relates to how and when reinforcement is applied to
behaviour.
Fixed ratio schedule: applies reinforcement after a specific number of responses. E.g. how much you need to
spend before you get a financial reward (stamp for every coffee)
Fixed interval schedule: when reinforcement is provided after a specific known period of time. E.g. advertise 3
times a year sale, customers may decide only to shop there these 3 times.
Variable schedules: are where reinforcement is provided on an irregular basis. E.g. gamblers.
Variable interval: when reinforcement occurs at some unknown but consistent rate. E.g. unexpected sales but
people know it’s coming so they visit the website and see the deals of other brands.
Learning history: is developed from similar or related experiences that the consumer has had before, and when
they encounter new settings they call upon these experiences to guide behaviour. E.g. first time you visit a
gym, feel uncertain, after couple of times not, previous gym experience helps you.
3. Describe the different modes of cognitive learning.
Internal mental processes, contrasts with behavioural learning as it does not focus on external cues in the
environment. Has the potential to explain much more complex behaviour and decision-making processes. It’s
based on the view that humans are broadly rational and use the information available in their environment to
make decisions. Our responses to our environment can include a complex set of processes including gathering,
processing, interpreting information, assigning it meaning and storing it in our memory. Can be conscious or
unconscious.
Information processing: explains how communications are received by the consumer and then interpreted,
stored in the memory, and later retrieved in a logical and sequential fashion. The process:
Exposure: involves sensory detection and registration through receptor organs.
Attention: required the focusing of attention, leading to perception and categorization of stimuli.
Comprehension: is where the consumer searches (and identifies) meaning.
Acceptance/rejection: the consumer considers existing choice criteria and elaborates the message received to
reach a point of acceptance or rejection of the information.
Retention: learning has to be retained in the memory for future use.
4. Explain the different functions of sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.
Memory: is a system and a process whereby information is received, sorted, organized, stored and retrieved
over time. Marketers are eager to get their brands remembered and enable retrieval from consumers
‘memories during the purchase decision process.
There are 3 critical steps to information being remembered:
Encoding: refers to how information enters the memory.
Storage: how the encoded information is retained in the memory. The new information is connected with other
information that may impact on how and when it is retrieved. Different kinds of memory systems:
Sensory memory: information received by sight, smell, touch, taste or hearing and retained for a very brief
period, no longer than the amount of time the sensation is experienced. E.g. walking around a fairground.
Short-term memory: Limited to holding small amounts of information for short period of time. Chunking: the
grouping together of similar or meaningful pieces of information. People can remember around seven chunks
of information.
Long-term memory: has the potential to be remembered for ever. But firs information has the get there.
Getting memories into the long-term memory is achieved by encoding them through engrams: neural networks
connection memories with old. E.g. rehearsal of short-term memory and linking information.
The long-term memory can be subdivided into 2 types of memory:
Procedural memory: involved with knowing how to do things, and allows us to remember how to perform tasks
and actions. E.g. riding a bike, typing on a computer.
Declarative memory: is specifically about knowing things. 2 different types:
Episodic memory: refers to our memoires of specific events and experiences, which have formed our
autobiographical time line (e.g. graduation, wedding).
Semantic memory: involves structuring of specific records, facts, concepts and knowledge about the world we
live in (e.g. names of capital cities, how to play games).
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,Advertisements are hard to remember because they involve episodic memory, which requires more encoding
than semantic memory. That’s why advertisers try to use nostalgia in ads.
5. Understand and evaluate the role of memory in retaining and retrieving information.
Retrieval: the process whereby we remember and access our stored memories. Different ways to do so:
Recollection: when we reconstruct memory through a range of different narratives and bits of memory. E.g.
see a product, remember somebody telling you about it.
Recognition: requires the memory to retrieve information by experiencing it again. Visually recognize a product
from ad.
Relearning: when you relearn something that you had previously learned, and the process of relearning helps
with remembering and retrieval. E.g. use of automatic check-in, long time since last time, relearn. Brands
sometimes wants you to forget. Proactive interference is when you try to remember and some of the old
features of the product may interfere with the most recent ones. Retroactive interference is when the new
information you have had to learn excludes previously learnt old information.
Explicit memory: the conscious recollection of an experience.
Implicit memory: remembering without conscious awareness.
Research suggest that a number of techniques can help the retrieval of memory and therefore are useful for
marketeers to understand in order to capitalize on them in their marketing:
Repetition and spacing over time.
Position and duration of the ad.
Pictorial and verbal cues
6. Explain the issues around social learning, including observational and vicarious learning.
Much of our leaning occurs in a social setting where we observe the behaviour of other and learn from it.
Observational learning often used in marketing as we learn the specifics of how to do something by observing
others. It may also lead to replicating the behaviour of others. Beneficial for marketeers to explain how to use
their products. Also risk of learning wrong things or learn by accident.
1. Name, explain and apply the concept of goals, as well as different types of goals.
Goals = internal representations of desired states, where states are broadly construed as outcomes, events or
processes.
Process-oriented theories discuss the dynamic interaction between relevant factors over time during the
various phases between goal setting and goal attainment or disengagement.
Non-process-oriented theories subscribe to a static view of the individual factors that contribute to goal setting
and striving.
Goals regulate thinking, emotions, and behaviour. Psychological research examines very different types of
goals, ranging from specific goals defined in a laboratory setting to personal goals.
2. Name, explain and apply the concept of commitment and how commitment is related to goals.
Commitment = describes the extent to which personal goals are associated with a strong sense of
determination, with the willingness to invest effort, and with impatient striving for goal implementation.
Various theories on commitment and intention strength are based on assumptions of expectancy-value theory.
3. Name, explain and apply the theory of expectancy value theory of goals, goal systems theory
(including goal shielding), goal setting theory, the Rubicon model of action phases and the concept
of implementation intentions.
Expectancy-value theory: The central claim of expectancy-value theory is that the desirability (value) and
feasibility (expectancy) of a goal determine which goals an individual selects and how much they commit to the
selected goals. They distinguish between personal (e.g. personal traits or social norms) and situational
determinants (e.g. external reward or task difficulty). The distinction between personal and situational
determinants is not always completely clear (e.g., different people perceive external rewards differently
depending on their personal preferences or values).
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, However > Common expectancy-value models do not specify how expectancy (or feasibility) and value (or
desirability) interact. How can we assure that individuals commit to goals that are both desirable and feasible?
Fantasy Realization theory: a process-oriented explanation of goal setting. The central focus of the theory is
how non-binding wishes, so-called fantasies (“It would be great if…!”), are transformed into binding goals that
regulate behavior (“I intend to…!”). According to the authors, this is only possible if positive fantasies about the
future are mentally contrasted with the current situation.
Mental contrasting links future and present and shows the acting individual what to do and which obstacles to
expect. Thus, the assessment with regard to how feasible or realistic a certain goal is, becomes a second pillar
in the foundation of goal commitment alongside the desirability of its outcomes. The (average) strength of goal
commitment is independent of the subjective likelihood of success.
Unconscious goal setting: The approaches above introduced so far all assume that goal setting takes place once
goal-related values and expectations have been assessed consciously. Some researchers, however, investigate
goal setting in the context of unconscious affective processes. Their central assumption is that goals can be set
without involvement of conscious assessment when goal-related concepts are linked with positive affect.
Goal systems theory: = Multiple goals can be reached with only one means. Goals are embedded in goal
systems consisting of interconnected means and goals, that can mutually activate each other cognitively. It is a
form of bottom-up goal priming. “Bottom-up” because means are subordinate to goals within goal hierarchies.
Bottom-up priming resulted in stronger persistence and improved performance due to the increased
accessibility of the goal in question. The same goal can be reached with more than only one means
(equifinality). On the other hand, the same means can help us with reaching multiple goals, to proverbially “kill
several birds with one stone” (multifinality).
If a means is associated with more than one goal, each individual associative pathway that transmits activation
is weaker than in cases in which a means is only linked to a single goal. Similarly, the priming effect of means on
goals is less pronounced if the same means is instrumental to other goals as well. If an individual considers a
specific goal to be particularly important, the same should be true for means that enable the individual to
pursue the goal.
Goal shielding: Activation across the different components of goal systems can not only be transferred but also
inhibited. If a person commits strongly to a goal, its activation is accompanied by a simultaneous reduction of
the accessibility of other goals. This effect is known as “goal shielding”. Individuals who tend to be more
successful in realizing their goals in general also tend to shield their goals more strongly. Goal shielding is
particularly relevant when several goals are of similar importance to us and thus compete for resources with
one another.
Goals are only useful if they are able to motivate our behavior in ways that allow us to eventually realize them.
Goals also have an impact on how we feel. If we pursue a goal, however, we are happy about making progress
toward its realization and frustrated, sad, or upset when obstacles and setbacks get in the way. Many studies
have in fact found these effects of progress toward goal realization on well-being and general life satisfaction.
Some goals are less beneficial to our performance and well-being than others.
Goal setting theory: Goal setting theory discusses which types of goals have optimal effects on performance. In
particular, the theory claims that concrete and challenging goals tend to be superior. People only perform
better if they possess the necessary abilities and means to solve a task and feel like they do commit to the
current goal, and receive feedback about their performance.
All three theories discussed here – goal setting theory, (motivational intensity theory, and cybernetic control
theory) – assume that individuals proportionally adjust their efforts to unfinished goals and only invest as much
effort as they deem required.
Degree of abstraction of goals: Goals vary with regard to their relative position and degree of abstraction
within a given goal system. More abstract goals feel more meaningful, on the other hand, but are usually more
difficult to achieve because they tend to consist of several subordinate goals and require goal-oriented
behavior across different situations and over an extended period of time. Accordingly, it has been shown that
pursuing more abstract goals is associated with higher levels of stress.
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