Learning, Memory and Nostalgia

Nostalgia is defined as a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life. A sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time. It is described as a bitter-sweet emotion.

Nostalgia is used when an advertiser wants to evoke a feeling of happiness to sell their products so that it is linked to your happy feeling. A number of things can trigger a feeling of nostalgia:

• Sound (music - John Lewis using Billy Joel’s “Always a Woman”)
• Taste (an old beverage one used to drink in the park in summer)
• Touch (the feel of rough wood reminding one of helping their dad do DIY)
• Images (iconic people or fashion from teenage years)
• Smells (the smell of petrol or stale cigarette smoke).

The behaviourist approach to learning involves stimulus response connections; classical conditioning (Pavlov) and operant conditioning (Skinner). The cognitive learning theory involves using conumers as complex problem solvers; latent learning and observational learning.
A common objective of advertising is to ensure the viewer has not only learned something but also remembered it.

Memory - “learning is the acquisition of kowledge and memory is the storage ofinternal representations of that knowedge“ - Blakemore, 1988. 
The memory process:
external inputs —> encoding (information is placed in memory) —> storage (information is retained in memory) —> retrieval (information stored in memory is found when needed).

To create a greater emotional tie between the consumer and the product sensory branding is used. This involves using senses that are linked to our memory - as discussed previously - sight, smell, sound, touch, taste.

Gender Differences in Buying Behaviour

There are a huge amount of differences between males and females. One can be shown when listing the differences between impressing a woman (complimenting her, comforting her, honouring her, etc.) and a man (food and nudity). For a woman the list is a lot longer.
Women tend to note the small details in things - for example the famous John Lewis advert “Always A Woman”. As a female I noticed the female character wears red throughout and the male character wears blue throughout, however neither of these are John Lewis’ colour. Their brand colour is green. None of the males sat in the room at the time this was shown picked up on this detail.

Advertising toward women focuses more on youth and beauty as women value these things and buy into them whereas advertising toward men focuses more on physical strength and ambition - even products such as shaving foam have an element of sport.
Men look for humour in adverts and tend to make their buying decisions based on partially digested information, simplicity and clarity. Women prefer to be given details and buy into “scientifically proven” facts shown on most toiletries.

During the advertisements between programmes women tend to remember the first advert shown but men tend to remember the last advert shown before the programming resumes.
Females respond to emotional writing and pictures and charties using a direct mail technique know to play on this - when they tried to produce more factual publications to try and target men the women response rate was 15% lower than the original. Women prefer the language to be colloquial whereas men prefer it to be concise and about hard data which is normally reflected in everyday conversational differences between men and women.

The gender differences in advertsing is clearly started when aiming products at children. When it comes to toys for boys the images are fast-paced even though the toy doesn’t seem to be doing an awful lot whereas the toy adverts for girls tend to move in realtime with soft music, colours and camera movements.

Personality and Self Concept

Personality is the essential character of a person. It is the visible aspect of one’s character as it impresses others. Self concept is how one perceives oneself - it does not mean it is the reality. There are many factors that affect buyer behaviour. Personality and self concept falls into the category of personal factors.
There are many types of personality. These fit into categories and sub-categories:
The Protectors (SJ):

• ESTJ (overseer) - traditional, practical, organised, loyal, hard-working, like to be in charge.
• ESFJ (supporter) - conscientious, popular, puts needs of others above own, strong sense of duty.
• ISTJ (examiner) - thorough, dependable, responsible, tend to be quiet and serious.
• ISFJ (defender) - quiet, conscientious, kind, stable, practical, perceptive of other’s feelings.

The Creators (SP):

• ESTP (persuader) - adaptable, friendly, impatient, risk-takers, loyal, great people skills.
• ESFP (entertainer) - people-oriented, well developed common sense and practical ability.
• ISTP (craftsman) - reserved, quiet, interested in how things work, detached, analytical.
• ISFP (artist) - sensitive, serious, kind, quiet, loyal, faithful, flexible, open-minded, original, creative. 

 The Intellectuals (NT): 

• ENTJ (chief) - outspoken, assertive, intelligent, well-informed, value competence and knowledge.
• ENTP (originator) - resourceful, intellectual, creative, outspoken, assertive, logical.
• INTJ (strategist) - determined, original, analytical, independent, natural at leading.
• INTP (engineer) - creative thinkers, logical, original, individualistic, value knowledge and competence. 

The Visionaries (NF):

• ENFJ (mentor) - sensitive, popular, people skills, focused, places needs of others above own.
• ENFP (advocate) - creative, enthusiastic, idealistic, great people skills, open-minded and flexible.
• INFJ (confidant) - original, sensitive, forceful, intuitive about people, individualistic.
• INFP (dreamer) - interested in serving humanity, reserved, quiet, loyal, adaptable, laid-back. 

Using Freud's theory of personality companies can produce marketing campaigns that affect an individual's subconcious mind. Freud's theory of personality is basically that unconscious needs or drives are at the heart of human motivation. The Freudian theory looks like this:
ID - Primitive or instinctual needs for which an individual seeks immediate satisfaction.
Superego - Individual's internal expression of society's moral and ethical codes of conduct.
Ego - Individual's conscious control that balances the demands of the ID and Superego.

By using Freud's personality theory researchers view consumer purchases as an extension and reflection of a consumer's personality. The ID is the largest factor in Freud's theory and so companies can use this to market their product effectively. Freud's theory explains the reasons why sex sells. It is primitive and instinctual and seeing it with a product sends signals to your unconcious mind that you want that product. If you buy that product you will look like or attract the type of person selling it. Lynx is a brilliant example of this. Their campaign is simple - buy our products and you will have women chasing you down.

Self-concept is the way one perceives and defines oneself.

The self-concept is an internal model which comprises of various features that will lead to a final assessment of oneself. Features include: personality, skills and abilities, occupations and hobbies, physical characteristics, etc.

The most important element of self-concept that those in marketing need to know is that self-concept is not restricted to the present. Individuals look at both their past selves and their future selves. Companies can use an individual's idea of their future self to market a product. Future selves represent someone's idea of what they would like to become, what they might become and what they are afraid of becoming. This makes them correspond to fears, hopes, goals, standards and threats. Future behaviour is based on an individual's idea of their future selves. For example, it is a well-known fact that a vast majority of women do not want to age. When thinking about their future selves they might see an eighty year old woman instead of a sixty year old woman - they are afraid of becoming old. Cue a large amount of skin products "scientifically proving" to reduce the signs of aging priced at an extortionate level. No matter how over-priced they are there is a very high demand for products like these because it's an issue at the forefront of pretty much every thirty year old woman's mind.

This is important in marketing as the company must decide how best to reach the target audience. Do the target audience envision themselves as someone else? There are plenty of thirty year old women who perceive themselves to still be eighteen. There are also plenty of eighteen year olds who live the lives of thirty year olds. When choosing how to market a product a company must bear in mind these factors.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Segmentation, targeting, and positioning together comprise a three stage process.  Determining first what kind of customers exist, then selecting the ones the business are best off trying to serve and finally implementing the segmentation by optimising the products or services for that segment and communicating that the choice made to distinguish the business that way.

Segmentation is the division of the market into sub-groups and each segment presents a separate target market within the marketing mix. This happens due to the standard of living rising and the fact that consumers now have more choice in the market. Effective segmentation ensures that each segment is identifiable/measurable, substantial, accessible and meaningful.

This makes targeting each segment in the market much simpler. Establishing a position in the market is important as it is relevant to the customer’s choice. It is important how the customers perceive the brand - fashionable, modern, etc.

A marketing mix suitable to how the customers will perceive the brand should be designed to ensure appropriate positioning.

Perception

Define: Perception

According to Wikipedia perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. Passive perception can be surmised as the following sequence of events: surrounding → input (senses) → processing (brain) → output (re-action).

Perception in consumer behaviour depends on the level of attention one gives it. For example, if you were looking to buy a child a present for Christmas you would pay more attention or “tune in” to advertisements surrounding children’s toys. Perception is a personal thing, for example - a road is thick with fog and there is something up ahead that looks to you like a small dog but looks to your passenger like a small cat. Either one of you could be right and both will create arguments to try and convince the other that their perception is the correct one.

Another good example is the optical illusion as this demonstrates how different people perceive things. In the picture above, there is both a scene and a face, but depending on the person looking at it, some will see the face first and some will see the scene first. Some will only be able to see one of the two and will not be able to look at it from the other perspective.

Face or scene?

Steps in consumer in consumer decsison making model:

• Need for recognition
• Search for information
• Alternatives
• Evaluation
• Purchase
• Post purchase evaluation

Three important models that explain consumer decision making:

• Howard-Sheth Model of Buying Behaviour
• The Nicosia Model
• The Engel-Blackwell-Miniard Model

The Howard-Sheth Model of Buying Behaviour:

In the Howard-Sheth theory, the most significant stimulus affecting the buying behaviour are the information cues about the characteristics of the product. The product characteristics acting as information cues are quality, price, distinctiveness, service and availailibility. Perceptual constructs refer to all the complex states or psychological processes and how the individual deals with the information cues received. Although the individual may be engaged in a search for information they may sometimes be overwhelmed  with unwanted information. Any information cues to the individual may be distoreted by their own frame of reference.

Perception: sensation --> attention --> interpretation.