Chapter 1 Flashcards
What are the three models of consumer decision making (also known as the paradigms of purchase)?
- Cognitive
- Reinforcement
- Habit
Explain: Cognitive Model
• Treats purchase as the outcome of rational decision-making processes.
• The decision rests on beliefs about alternatives, which are investigated and
compared.
• Under this model, consumers typically go through a step by step decision
making process (i.e. problem identification, information search etc.).
• A cognitive approach is often used when consumers make an important
purchase for the first time, they may reflect on alternatives and discuss pros &
cons with others with the intention of securing benefits and avoiding costs.
• Purchase example, buying a bike, computer or house.
Explain: Reinforcement
Treats purchase as behaviour which is learned and modified in response to the opportunities, rewards and costs present in the consumer’s environment.
• Behaviour steered by reinforcement from the environment and other people.
• Two theories of learning fall under this model, i.e. classical and operant
conditioning. \
• Positive and negative reinforcement play a role in influencing people’s purchase
behaviour.
• Purchase example: buying a chocolate bar because of a two for one deal.
Explain: Purchasing Model- Habit
• Treats purchase as already learned behaviour, which is elicited by particular stimuli in the consumer’s environment.
• This model is thought to manage the consumer, provide the right cues so that purchase is stimulated - brand names, packaging, features of ads, and shop contexts serve as cues to recognition, recall and purchase.
• Purchase example: most of our everyday FMCG purchase.
Habit model is used to explain most purchases as most of our purchase behaviour is repeat (subsequent) purchase.
What is empirical generalisation?
What is an empirical generalisation? An EG is a relationship between two or more variables that has been observed across a range of conditions. Because the relationship is observed to occur and recur it is regarded as a pattern, regularity or law, and it can be represented formally using a mathematical, graphic or symbolic language. By knowing that an observed relationship holds under a wide range of conditions (and that it does not hold under other conditions) it is possible to use knowledge of the relationship for practical purposes, i.e. making predictions and stating principles. It then also becomes possible to theorise why the relationship occurs, and why it holds under some conditions and not others.
Examples of Empirical Generalisations?
Double Jeopardy & Duplication of Purchase Law. Students will learn more about these throughout the course.
Main elements of empirical generalisation? Elements that construct a good empirical generalisation.
- Scope-Boundary Conditions – An EG that is known to be true over a certain range of conditions is said to have scope. The boundary conditions of the EG also need to be known (i.e. conditions under which the EG does not hold).
- Precision – If routine predictions are to be made it is desirable to have generalisations that are reasonably exact. Otherwise the generalisations may be too vague to make routine predictions or misleading. However, generalisations that have too narrow a focus tend to overlook other criteria (i.e. fitting a regression line to a single set of data). Of far more value is something that provides a ‘generally good fit’, even though it will only be approximately true in any specific instance.
- Parsimony – Achieving simplicity out of complexity. Simple EGs that summarise patterns, regularities and laws. Something that is simply expressed (though not necessarily simple in conception) is likely to be more memorable and more readily used. For example, E=MC2
- Relevance – An EG needs to be relevant to those who are intended to use it. Marketing practitioners are sometimes frustrated by generalisations, as they want answers to specific practical issues not generalisations. For example, they want to build a better rocket, preferably one that is seen as distinctive from all the other rockets, without necessarily knowing what a rocket has to do if it is to fly.
- Basis for theory building – Having established an EG in terms of its scope and boundary conditions, there is then something to explain. There is then the need for theory to account for the scope and boundary conditions. So, answering the ‘why’ question, once all the other ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘how much’ questions have been established.
What are the behaviourism decision making models?
- Reinforcement Model
- Habit Model
What is behaviour determined by?
Behaviour is determined, in whole or part, by internal processing of information, or the action of mental traits
The decision process as information processing
- Problem identification
- Search for information
- Recognition of alternatives
- Evaluation of alternatives
- Preference forming
- Decision
- Purchase & Trial
Initial purchase models
- Cognitive
2. Reinforcement
Subsequent purchase models
Habit
Operant Conditioning
-Trial & error learning, sometimes called instrumental conditioning or operant conditioning
-The stimulus results in the most satisfactory response being learned
-Trial and error with habits formed from positive or negative reinforcement and punishment
- B.F. Skinner’s pigeons (1938)
He showed that when given the choice of two levers (one that gave them an electric shock and the other that gave them food) they quickly learnt that the one that offered them food was the one to choose
Why is operative conditioning important in marketing?
People entering new markets are faced with a range of brands and may make near random trials of alternatives until they come upon a brand they like
Customers will try products/brands until they get one that has a positive reinforcer and then continue to buy that product
Classical Conditioning
Best known work by Ivan Pavlov (1927)
Research showing the conditioning of a biological response in dogs Organisms (humans included) learn through repetition (conditioning).
This learning is an automatic/biological response (i.e. you get tired when studying because for years you have studied late)
