Week 03
Consumer Behavior · Davood Wadi, PhD
Brands live in the brain. How people learn, remember, and forget shapes every purchase.
Learning is a permanent change in behavior caused by experience.
The experience can be direct. You try a new snack and like the taste.
The experience can also be indirect. You see an ad or watch a friend buy running shoes.
Learning is an ongoing process. Consumers constantly update their knowledge when they see new products.
Marketers study learning so that brand names become automatic habits in the mind of the buyer.
Classical conditioning happens when a stimulus that brings a natural response pairs with a neutral stimulus.
Ivan Pavlov first demonstrated this with dogs, meat powder, and a bell.
In marketing, an unconditioned stimulus like upbeat music naturally triggers positive feelings.
A brand pairs this music with its logo or product repeatedly.
Over time, seeing the brand alone produces the positive feeling. This is a conditioned response.
All winter, a tea brand's ads show its logo beside a crackling fireplace. Match each part of classical conditioning to what happens in the campaign.
Classical conditioning
In the tea campaign
Tap a term, then the example it goes with.
Conditioning needs repetition. Repeated exposures prevent memory decay and strengthen the link.
Too much repetition causes advertising wear-out. Consumers tune out or get annoyed.
Stimulus generalization happens when similar stimuli trigger the same learned response.
Store brands use this principle. They copy the package colors and fonts of national brand leaders.
Stimulus discrimination occurs when a brand teaches consumers to spot unique differences between products.
Each case below shows repetition at work, or a learned response spreading or narrowing. Name what is happening.
Repetition: repeated exposures strengthen the link between the jingle and the gym.
Advertising wear-out: too much repetition makes consumers tune out or get annoyed.
Stimulus generalization: a similar-looking box triggers the trust shoppers learned for the leader.
Stimulus discrimination: the brand teaches consumers to spot the unique difference between products.
Repetition: repeated exposures prevent memory decay and keep the link strong.
Stimulus generalization: similar stimuli trigger the same learned response.
Advertising wear-out: too much repetition makes consumers tune out or get annoyed.
Stimulus discrimination: the brand teaches consumers to spot what makes it different from look-alikes.
Which concept does this case show?
Instrumental conditioning is also called operant conditioning.
People learn to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and avoid negative outcomes.
Positive reinforcement rewards good behavior. Loyalty points and thank-you discounts encourage repeat visits.
Negative reinforcement shows how a product removes a negative state. Taking medicine removes a headache.
Punishment occurs when an unpleasant event follows an action. Late fees teach consumers not to pay bills late.
Consumers do not learn only from personal rewards. They also learn by watching other people.
This process is called observational learning or modeling.
First, the consumer directs attention to an attractive or credible model.
Second, the consumer remembers what the model says or does.
Third, the consumer converts this memory into action by purchasing the same clothing, phone, or car.
Lena watches a fitness coach online; Sami watches a star striker. Sort each moment into the step of observational learning it belongs to.
Tap a card, then tap the group it belongs to.
Memory is the process of acquiring information and storing it over time for later use.
Sensory memory holds brief sensory inputs for a few seconds. If an ad gets attention, it moves forward.
Short-term memory holds a small amount of information in active consciousness for about twenty seconds.
Chunking helps short-term memory. Brands group phone numbers or slogan words into memorable chunks.
Long-term memory retains information for days, months, or years through elaborative rehearsal.
Each case below shows a brand message in one of the three memory stores. Name the store at work.
Sensory memory holds brief sensory inputs for a few seconds. This poster never got your attention.
Short-term memory holds a small amount of information in active consciousness for about twenty seconds.
Long-term memory retains information for days, months, or years.
Sensory memory holds brief sensory inputs for a few seconds before they fade.
Chunking helps short-term memory: three chunks fit where ten separate digits would not.
Elaborative rehearsal moved the brand into long-term memory, which lasts for days, months, or years.
Which concept does this case show?
Long-term memory stores knowledge as an associative network.
Think of memory as a spider web of connected nodes. Each node represents a concept, brand, or feeling.
When you think of a brand like Nike, related nodes light up: running, sneakers, athletes, and Just Do It.
Spreading activation happens when one memory node triggers nearby connected nodes.
Strong positive links make a brand easy to recall when standing in a store aisle.
Having information in memory is useless if the buyer cannot retrieve it at the point of purchase.
Retrieval is the process of accessing information from long-term memory.
Retrieval cues trigger brand memories. Packaging shapes, colors, and logos act as visual retrieval cues.
If an ad shows a distinct green box, using that exact green box on the shelf helps shoppers find the product.
State-dependent retrieval means buyers remember ad messages better when their internal mood matches the ad.
Consumers now also search by asking an AI assistant, such as “Which running shoes are best for flat feet?”
The assistant answers with a short list of brands.
This list often becomes the consumer's consideration set: the small group of brands the consumer seriously considers.
A brand that is missing from the answer may never be considered, even if the consumer knows it.
The assistant learns about brands from what is written about them, such as reviews, articles, and product pages. In this way, the assistant also forms links between brands and attributes, much like an associative network.
Retrieval cues move from the shelf into the question. Words such as “cheap,” “durable,” or “eco-friendly” shape which brands the assistant retrieves.
Marketers therefore work to link their brands clearly to the needs that consumers mention in their questions.
Each case shows a consumer searching with an AI assistant. Name the idea at work.
Retrieval cue: the words in the question shape which brands the assistant retrieves.
Consideration set: the assistant's short list becomes the small group of brands Ana seriously considers.
Links between brands and attributes: the assistant learns about brands from what is written about them.
Retrieval cue: changing the word in the question changes the brands retrieved.
Consideration set: a brand missing from the answer may never be considered, even if the consumer knows it.
Links between brands and attributes: the assistant forms these links much like an associative network.
Which concept does this case show?
Forgetting is normal. Memory traces fade over time through decay.
Interference also causes forgetting. New brand ads displace memories of older brand messages.
Retroactive interference occurs when new learning displaces old information.
Proactive interference occurs when older habits make it hard to learn a new brand name.
Marketers fight forgetting with consistent visual identity, reminder ads, and clear shelf placement.
Discussion: Pick a brand you buy regularly. What four associations pop into your mind first? Did the brand teach you these links through conditioning, observation, or personal experience?