Lecture 2: Marketing, Goals and Learning
The marketing approach to consumer studies
Marketing = creating value for/satisfying customer companies (that may in turn create value for
satisfy their customers) with the ultimate goal to create value for/satisfy the customer
Marketing approach: understand consumers & what they value…
• From a societal perspective (the group of consumers)
o Society / macro level
• From a groups perspective (consumer differentiation / market segmentation)
o Household / meso level
• From an individual perspective (psychology of consumers)
o Individual / micro level
Learning: The activity or process of acquiring
knowledge or skill by studying, practicing, or
experiencing something
• A relatively permanent change in
behaviour, knowledge, or thinking skills
that occurs through studying, practicing,
or experiencing → stored in memory
• Thus not involved in inborn or innate
behaviours (e.g., blinking, swallowing)
Pavlovs dog theory
Unconditioned stimulus (see chocolate) →
unconditioned response (want to eat chocolate)
• When you have automatically response /
learned link
Conditioned stimulus (see tony chocolonely) →
conditioned response (eating that chocolate)’
• Logo attached to chocolate, attach
something new to something that you
automatically had
,Behavioural learning: only study observable / external behaviour; is concerned with learning as a
response to changes in our environment
• Classical conditioning (Pavlov’s dog – see above)
o First order conditioning: conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus
o Higher order conditioning: two conditioned stimuli
o Stimulus generalization: a stimulus similar to a conditioned stimulus, elicits a similar
conditioned response
• Operant conditioning
o Is the changing of behaviour through reinforcement following a desired response
Cognitive learning: can scientifically study internal behaviour; focus on learning through internal
mental processes and conscious thought
• Incidental learning
• Observational learning:
• Information processing: how communications are received and interpreted, etc.
o 5 stages:
▪ Exposure → attention → comprehension (search meaning) →acceptance /
rejection → retention (retained in the memory for future use)
Memory:
• Engrams are neutral networks that play an essential role in encoding memories
• Whether or not you remember something is influenced by the processing effort that is
required for the input
• Recognition requires the memory to retrieve information by experiencing it again.
• Relearning entails relearning something that you had previously learned, and the process of
relearning helps with remembering and retrieval
• Sensory memory is limited to retaining information only for a very short amount of time.
Reinforcement schedule:
• Positive reinforcement: try new shop, cheaper and better so positive reinforcement
• Negative reinforcement: something unpleasant is removed, or you behave in a way to avoid
something unpleasant
• Fixed ratio schedule
o Applies reinforcement after a specific number of responses
• Fixed interval schedule
o Is when reinforcement is provided after a specific known period of time
• Variable schedules
o Are when reinforcement is provided on an irregular basis
• Variable interval
o Is when the reinforcement occurs at some unknown but consistent rate
Marketing = creating value for/satisfying customer companies (that may in turn create value for
satisfy their customers) with the ultimate goal to create value for/satisfy the customer
Goals
• Desired end-states
• Internal representations of desired states (outcomes, events, processes)
,Goals (depending on context) influence the emotions and attitudes of customers
Learning and goals → mastering new skill / knowledge vs. performance goal (I want to achieve
something)
Learning goal: I want to learn about the different attitudes of customers → variety seeking
Performance goal: I want to pass the exam of MCB
Goal setting (you set a goal) → goal striving (work towards reaching a goal) → goal attainment (you
achieve the goal) or → goal disengagement (you didn’t complete the goal, completely stopped the
goal) → goal re-engagement
A) Determinants and processes of goal setting
B) Cognitive aspects of goals
C) Determinants and processes of goal striving
D) Determinants and processes of goal disengagement
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 individual factors that contribute to goal
setting and striving
Remember these theories!!
• Expectancy-value theory
o Goals in this case depend on Expectancy (expectation of likelihood of reaching the
goal, feasibility) and Value (desirability, how valuable is the goal for you?) → leads to
goal setting
o For example: ‘have sustainable life’ or ‘live healthy’
o Personal determinants: experience, implicit achievement
o Situational determinants: task difficulty, attractive opportunities, external reward
• Fantasy realization theories
o How non-binding wishes, so-called fantasies (it would be great if), are transformed
• Unconscious goal setting
o Goals can be set without involvement of conscious assessment when goal-related
concepts are linked with positive affect.
• Goal systems theory
o The same goal can be reached with more than one means (equifinality)
o The same means can help us reach multiple goals (multifinality)
o What are the means to reach the goals?
▪ A mean could have multiple goals
• Concert tickets lead to having fun and be with friends
▪ Bottom-up priming of goals
• There is a mean it reminds you of your goals so the goals are there in
your mind
▪ Top-down priming of goals
• I want to be with friends and have fun, how can I reach these goals?
Oh I could by concert tickets
▪ Goal shielding
, • You are thinking of concert tickets, activates goal having fun but then
it inhibits/conflicts the goal getting university degree (planned the
day before exam)
• Focus on the most important goal to carefully use our time,
attention, money and energy
▪ Goal conflicts
• People seem to be able to simultaneously pursue up to 15 goals
without difficulty
• Sometimes various goals can support one another if pursuing a goal
also benefits other goals
▪ Multifinality 1 mean different goals
▪ Equifinality different means for 1 goal
• Goal setting theory
o Which types of goals have optimal effects on performance
o Concrete and challenging goals tend to be superior
o People only perform better if:
▪ They posses the necessary abilities and means to solve a task (and feel like
they do)
▪ Commit to the current goal
▪ Receive feedback about their performance.
• The Rubicon model of action phases
o Implementation intentions
▪ If opportunity X occurs, I will do Y
• I will read the articles before the deadline, fulfilling and passing MCB
• When / where / how will you try to….? Asking the implementation
intentions
o (think it’s) Difficult to reach all goals → reduced
commitment → reduced success
• Process of goal disengagement
o Too much effort can sometimes have negative consequences
o In order to successfully realize goals, we also need the ability to disengage from
problematic goals
o People differ with regard to how quickly they disengage from unrealistic goals (goal
disengagement) and commit to alternative goals (goal reengagement)
o Disengaging from a goal is an ongoing and dynamic process
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.
We define goals as internal representations of desired states, where states are broadly constructed
as outcomes, events or processes.
Dimension of goals:
• First dimension:
o Degree of abstraction of goals. Goals can be formulated in concrete ways (I want to
loose 3 kg within 7 days) or more abstract ways (want to become a healthy person).