This involves paring of two stimuli. Most reminder advertising falls under this category of
classical conditioning where the marketer pairs a product with some benefit of using it. For
example, if you buy a certain product you get quality and after sales services.
Marketers also use rewards to try and persuade customers to buy. This is part of classical
conditioning too.
Habitual buying is also a form of classical conditioned response. Customers can be conditioned
to favor products, brands, stores, prices and services. This can be done through giving
something extra while one buys that product or in a particular store.
Classical conditioning is also used by marketers when they pair their brand with likeable
celebrities.
Strategic Applications of Classical Conditioning
Three basic concepts derive from classical conditioning:
I) Repetition: Repetition increases the strength of association between a conditioned stimulus
and an unconditioned stimulus and slows the process of forgetting. However research suggests
that there is a limit to the amount of repetition that will aid retention. While some over learning (ie repetition beyond what is necessary to learn) aids retention at some point an individual can become satiated with numerous exposures and both attention and retention will decline. This effect known as advertising wearout can be decreased by varying the advertising message.
Some marketers avoid wearout by adopting a cosmetic variation strategy (using different
backgrounds, different print types, different advertising spokesperson) while repeating the same advertising theme.
Substantive variations are changes in advertising content across different versions of an
advertisement with no changes in cosmetic features.
II) Stimulus Generalization: According to classical conditioning theorists, learning depends not only on repetition but also on the ability of individuals to generalize. Pavlov found for example that a dog could learn to salivate not only to the sound of a bell but also to the somewhat similar sound of jangling keys. If we were not capable of stimuli generalization ie of making the same response to slightly different stimuli not much learning would take place.
Stimulus generalization explains why imitative ``me too’’ products succeed in the market place:
Consumers confuse them with the original product they have seen advertised. It also explains
why manufacturers of private label brands try to make their packaging closely resemble the
national brand leaders. They are hoping that consumers will confuse their packages with the
leading brand and buy their product rather than the leading brand. Some brand names are so
valuable that similarly packaged or distributed products can result in millions of lost sales.
Strategic Application of the Concept of Stimulus Generalization
a) Product line, form and category extensions. The principle of stimulus generalization is
applied by marketers to product line, form and category extensions. In extending its product
line the marketer adds related products to an already established brand, knowing that new
product is more likely to be adopted when it is associated with a known and trusted brand name.
Conversely it is much more difficult to develop a totally new brand.
Marketers not only offer product line extensions that include different sizes, different colors
even different flavors, they also offer product form extensions (such as Ivory bath soap to ivory liquid soap to ivory shower gel) and product category extensions (disposable BIC pens to
disposable razors). The success of this strategy depends on a number of factors eg if the image
of the parent brand is one of quality, consumers are more likely to bring positive associations to the new category extensions .Consumers tend to relate a given brand extension to other
products affiliated with the brand. Tylenol initially introduced line extensions by making its
products available in a number of forms (tablets, capsules, gelcaps), strengths (regular, extra- strength and children’s) and package sizes. It also has extended its brand name to a wide range of related remedies for colds, flu, sinus congestion and allergies, further segmenting the line for adults, children and infants.
Of course the process of relating multiple unrelated products to a well-known brand may
change the ``meaning’’ of the brand. Eg the brand name Black & Decker was first associated
with power tools. When the company bought the small electric appliance division from General
Electric the meaning of the name Black & Decker evolved from ``electric power tools’’ to the more generalized ``small powered electric equipment for the home’’ to ``small household
electric appliances.’’
Researchers report that the number of different products affiliated with a brand may actually
strengthen the brand name as long as the company maintains a quality image across all brand
extensions. Failure to do so is likely in the long run to negatively affect consumer confidence
and evaluations of all brand offerings.
b) Family Branding. Family branding- the practice of marketing a whole line of company
products under the same brand name-is another strategy that capitalizes on the consumer’s
ability to generalize favorable brand associations from one product to the next. The Campbell’s
Soup Company for example continues to add new food products to its product line under the
Campbell’s brand name achieving ready acceptance for the new products from satisfied
consumers of other Campbell’s food products. The Ralph Lauren designer label on men’s and
women’s clothing helps to achieve ready acceptance for these products in the upscale
sportswear market.
Retail private branding often achieves the same effect as family branding eg Wal-Mart used to
advertise that its stores carried only ``brands you trust’’ Now the name Wal-Mart itself has
become a ``brand’’ that consumers have confidence in and the name confers brand value on
Wal-Mart’s store brands.
c) Licensing. Licensing-allowing a well-known brand name to be affixed to products of another
manufacturer-is a marketing strategy that operates on the principle of stimulus generalization.
The names of designers, manufacturers, celebrities, corporations and even cartoon characters
are attached for a fee (i.e ``rented’’) to a variety of products, enabling the licensees to achieve instant recognition and implied quality for the licensed products.
Corporations also license their names and trademarks usually for some form of brand extension,
where the name of the corporation is licensed to the maker of a related product and thereby
enters a new product category (eg Godiva Chocolates licensed its name for Godiva Liquer).
Corporations also license their names for purely promotional licensing, in which popular
company logos such as Always, coca-cola are stamped on clothing, toys, coffee mugs and the
like. Recently magazines have been licensing their names to manufacturers of products similar
to the magazines’ own publishing focus: Better Homes and Gardens gardening tools, Poplar
Mechanics work boots and Martha Stewart Living flowerpots. According to the Licensing
Association, licensed branded goods accounted for$80 billion in retail sales in the United States in 1997.
Municipal and state governments have begun licensing their names to achieve new sources of
revenue eg the city of Atlanta licensed its name to Visa USA for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
The Vatican Library licenses its name for a variety of products from luggage to bed linens, the
Mormon Church has expanded its licensing activities to apparel and home decorating items and
Britain’s queen Elizabeth II has agreed to extend the licensed name ``House of Windsor” to
furniture and Scottish throw rugs.
The increase in licensing has made counterfeiting a booming business as counterfeiters add
well-known licensor names to a variety of products without benefit of contract or quality
control. Aside from the loss of sales revenue because of counterfeiting, the authentic brand also suffers the consequences associated with zero quality control over counterfeit products that bear their names. For example a counterfeit beer sold in China under the label Pabst Blue Ribbon was contaminated and resulted in at least one death and dozens of illness thus endangering the quality image of Pabst worldwide. Counterfeiting has spread to many product categories and a great deal of counterfeit merchandise is virtually identical to the original.
Generalizing Usage Situations. Not only are marketers trying to generalize positive associations for their brand name through product line extensions and product category extensions but some marketers are also trying to generalize the usage situations of their well known brands eg Kellogg’s is trying to persuade consumers that its dry cereals are good snack foods for any time of the day and Coca-cola tried to persuade consumers that Coke provided a good caffeine boost at breakfast.
III) Stimulus Discrimination: Stimulus discrimination is the opposite of stimulus generalization and results in the selection of a specific stimulus from among similar stimuli. The consumer’s ability to discriminate among similar stimuli is the basis of positioning strategy which seeks to establish a unique image for a brand in the consumer’s mind.
Positioning. In our over communicated society, the key to stimulus discrimination is effective
positioning, a major competitive advantage. The image-or position-that a product or service
holds in the mind of the consumer is critical to its success. When a marketer targets consumers
with a strong communications program that stresses the unique ways in which its product will
satisfy the consumer’s needs. It wants the consumer to differentiate its product from among
competitive products on the shelf. Unlike the imitator who hopes consumers will generalize
their perceptions and attribute special characteristics of the market leader’s products to its own products. Market leaders want the consumer to discriminate among similar stimuli. Major
marketers are constantly vigilant concerning store brand look-alikes and they quickly file suit
against retailers that they believe are cannibalizing their sales. They want their products to be recognized as uniquely fulfilling consumer’s needs. The favorable attitudes resulting from
effective positioning and stimulus discrimination are usually retained long enough to influence
future purchase behavior.
Titany answered the question on November 3, 2021 at 11:53