Woolworths Ltd Essays

Submitted By garima1984
Words: 1630
Pages: 7

Executive Summary

This report aims at understanding some important aspects of consumer behavior viz., consumer learning, attitude and influence of families on youngsters using social media. The report highlights the relevance of conventional theories of conditioning to the contemporary markets. Consumer attitudes phenomenal is devising a marketing strategy are explained along with relevant statistics to substantiate the fact. The influence of families is discussed in the last section in the light of current changes in the online scenario.

I. Understanding consumer behavior

Marketers are always looking for most effective marketing strategies and advertisement plans to make an impression in consumers mind in this highly competitive market. Consumers have become more demanding and well educated due to the information overflow from the digital media and plethora of advertisements. Thus to create a lasting impression in a small span of time, understanding consumer and what drives him to accept the product is vital. Consumer learning is an aspect that gives insight to consumers’ purchasing behavior.

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II. Consumer Learning

According to Schiffman and Kanuk (2007), consumer learning is a process by which individuals acquire purchase and consumption knowledge and experience that they apply to future related behavior. To put it simply, learning is a process that educates the consumer about the product and every aspect related to it and also includes the experience that the consumer goes through after he has tried the product. It is noteworthy that learning is a process i.e., a continuous in nature and can change with time, knowledge and experience. Learning can be incidental or intentional. For example, somebody planning to purchase a refrigerator will intentionally try to gain knowledge about the latest models and price whereas somebody else will acquire the same knowledge incidentally while browsing through a magazine or a website.

[pic] Understanding what motivates the consumer by identifying the level of involvement of the consumer in acquiring knowledge about the product is a critical. Effective cues will direct the motivated consumer towards a desired action. For example, a consumer planning for a holiday can be made to try deals on hotels and car rentals by giving a cue about the discounts. Responding to a cue is important is the process of learning and can be reinforced by stimulating the consumer effectively. On the basis of these elements, learning can be studied under few models or approaches viz. behavioral, cognitive and involvement.

III. Behavioral Learning Theories

Also, known as stimulus-response theories, this approach is based on the premise that consumers react or respond in a certain manner to certain stimuli. Behavioral theories are mostly derived from input and output of the learning process i.e. X input or stimulus will lead to Y outcome or response. Classical, instrumental and observational theories originate from this school of thought.

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i. Classical Conditioning - This approach assumes that people can be taught or conditioned to evoke a certain response to a stimuli through repetition. Humans naturally have unconditioned responses to unconditioned stimuli. Conditioned learning, as described by Ivan Pavlov, can happen when unconditioned stimuli are paired with conditioned stimuli to generate the same response making it the conditioned response. Repeating the process reinforces the connection between conditioned stimulus and response. For example, serene mountains are associated with unpolluted atmosphere and purity. Displaying images of mineral water with mountains will create a notion of the water being completely pure. Stimuli can be generalized or discriminated to vary the responses.

ii. Instrumental Conditioning- Instrumental or operant learning theory emphasizes that role of favorable experience or