Chapter 3 Consumer Learning Starts Here: Perception

1. Chapter 3 Consumer Learning Starts Here: Perception

2. Learning Outcomes • Define learning and perception and how the two are connected • List and define phases of the consumer perception process • Apply the concept of the JND • Contrast the concepts of implicit and explicit memory • Know ways to help get a consumer’s attention • Understand key differences between intentional and unintentional learning

3. Defining Learning and Perception • Learning - A change in behavior resulting from the interaction between a person and a stimulus • Value involves learning, and consumer learning begins with perception • Learning can be intentional or unintentional • Perception - A consumer’s awareness and interpretation of reality

4. Elements of Consumer Perception • Exposure • The process of bringing some stimulus within the proximity of a consumer so that it can be sensed by one of the five human senses • Attention • The purposeful allocation of information-processing capacity toward developing an understanding of some stimulus • Comprehension • When consumers attempt to derive meaning from information they receive

5. Consumer Perception Process • Sensing • Organizing - Possible reactions • Assimilation • Accommodation • Contrast • Reacting

6. Selective Perception • Selective exposure - Involves screening out most stimuli and exposing oneself to only a small portion of stimuli • Selective attention - Involves paying attention to only certain stimuli • Selective distortion - A process by which consumers interpret information in ways that are biased by their previously held beliefs

7. Subliminal Processing • The way in which the human brain senses low-strength stimuli • Stimuli that occur below the level of conscious awareness • Subliminal persuasion - Behavior change induced or brought about based on subliminally processing a message

8. Applying the JND Concept • Just noticeable difference (JND) - Represents how much stronger one stimulus has to be relative to another so that someone can notice that the two are not the same • Weber’s Law - The ability to detect differences between two levels of a stimulus is affected by the original intensity of the stimulus

9. Applying the JND Concept • JND - Marketing implications • Pricing • Quantity • Quality • Add-on purchases • Just meaningful difference - Represents the smallest amount of change in a stimulus that would influence consumer consumption and choice

10. Implicit and Explicit Memory • Explicit memory - Memory for information one is exposed to, attends to, and applies effort to remember • Implicit memory - Represents stored information concerning stimuli one is exposed to but does not pay attention to • Creates preattentive effects

11. Mere Exposure Effect • Represents another way that consumers can learn unintentionally • Relevant points: • Preattentive • Easy to elicit • Greatest effect on novel objects • Weak effect • Best when consumer has lower involvement

12. Attention • The purposeful allocation of cognitive capacity toward understanding some stimulus • Involuntary attention - Attention beyond the conscious control of the consumer and occurs as the result of a surprising or novel stimuli • Orientation reflex - A natural reflex that occurs as a response to a threat

13. Factors That Get Attention • Intensity of stimuli • Contrast • Movement • Surprising stimuli • Size of stimuli • Involvement

14. Intentional and Unintentional Learning • Intentional learning - Consumers set out to specifically learn information devoted to a certain subject • Unintentional learning - Consumers simply sense and react (or respond) to the environment

15. Learning Theories • Behaviorist approach to learning - Because the brain is a “black box,” the focus of inquiry should be on the behavior itself • Information processing perspective - The focus is on the cognitive processes associated with comprehension, including that leading to consumer learning

16. Unintentional Learning • Classical conditioning - A change in behavior that occurs simply through associating some stimulus with another stimulus that naturally causes a reaction • Instrumental conditioning - Behavior is conditioned through reinforcement

17. Shaping Behavior • Shaping is a process through which the desired behavior is altered over time, in small increments • Not all reinforcement is positive • Negative reinforcement refers to the removal of bad stimuli as a way of encouraging behavior • Punishers represent stimuli that decrease the likelihood that a behavior will occur again