Exam (elaborations)
Consumer Behavior Dec 2020
- Module
- Consumer Behavior
- Institution
- Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (HW)
Consumer Behaviour Dec 2020 solution
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Student IDConsumer Behaviour for December 2020
Section 1: Case Study
Question 1
i)
Language is one of the way people communicate with each other and language learning has
been important across history to facilitate communication, transfer of knowledge and trade
between different nations. Language is not just made of symbols and sounds, it also
includes an imprint of the culture of the people speaking that language. For example, “Time
flies” for English speakers and “Time walks” for Spanish speakers. There are more
differences that can make acquiring language a challenging prospect. There is a lot of hype
about Gaming and its effect on learning. Experts, teachers and researchers on learning,
especially language learning suggest that one of the key aspects deterring people from
starting or continuing to learn a language is that it is common to feel frustration, being
overwhelmed and the desire “not to screw up”. After years going through the process of
learning, people nowadays consciously and unconsciously associate negative emotions with
learning process, especially those that are beginners.
B.F. Skinners operant conditioning explains that when we associate negative feelings with
something, we tend to be averse to it and avoid doing it. We know that the outcome of
learning is “Cool”, “be able to communicate with natives”, “earn more money
professionally” and “the social esteem speaking more languages garners” yet a lot of people
can’t bring themselves to commit because, as the operant conditioning theory explains; we
have associated negative feelings with the process of learning and we tend to unconsciously
or even consciously avoid things that affect our mood and emotions so. The people who
push on through these feelings are either those who perceive the incentives to achieving
their goals outweigh the negative feelings associated with the process and are better able to
,Student ID
cope with risk and uncertainty for the thrill of achieving the task ahead of them or as in the
case of what Duolingo and researchers have discovered gamifying the process of acquiring a
language helps learners persevere.
Gamifying the process for language learners changes the learning process enough so as to
avoid the unconscious activation of the negative feelings associated with learning, rather
the opposite, associating “fun” and “satisfaction” of achieving goals and gaining rewards.
Further, the concept of “losing” is less likely to elicit frustration but more likely to be viewed
as a challenge to do better!
Motivation is defined as the behaviour taken to satisfy needs and desires. A lot of people
want to acquire a second (or more) language(s) but wanting something is not enough! This
equation would help explain:
Buyer Behaviour = f(A, O, M)
Where:
F = Function
A = ability
B = opportunity
M = motivation
One has to have the ability (Duolingo is free while Rosetta is premium) so duo lingo is
targeting a large market segment that Rosetta doesn’t (300m users so far among 1.2 billion
learners!) who only need the means to access the app. In order for us to feel motivated, we
must have the need which is to bridge the gap between their actual state (not knowing a
language) and the desired state (acquire a language) and to do that (subscribe to the free
Duolingo app). There are 3 kinds of need as per McClelland's Human Motivation Theory:
, Student ID
1. Need for achievement: enhanced through gamifying the process of learning a
language using “bite-size lessons and rewards” which give a sense of achievement,
further fuelling the desire motivation to learn.
2. Need for affiliation: they cater to this need as well by providing face-to-face
meetings, events and interactive stories.
3. Need for power: through providing virtual coins to spend and having a sense of
control over the learning process.
This shows that motivation = Needs and incentives (which can either be internal or external)
which along with ability and opportunity leads to a fairly accurate idea of buyer behaviour.
There are two types of consumers according to:
Theory X: People are lazy and have to be coerced to get the job done
Theory Y: People are ambitious and want to succeed in everything they do
I believe that it’s not so black and white. People are more complex than that. It is simply a
matter of finding the combination of ability, needs and motivation and opportunity for them
to act on their needs and satisfy them.
Maslow provides a hierarchy of needs that would be suitable to look at here:
Duolingo provides higher order needs such as social needs (events and face-to-face
meetings with likeminded consumers), self-esteem and even self-actualisation goals (for
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