Involvement and Learning - Research Paper Example

Introduction

Consumer involvement plays a substantial role in interpreting the behavior of consumers. The consumer involvement concept as a motivating force illustrates distinct phases in the consumers' decision-making process, such as diversity and massiveness of pursuing data, making choices, attitudes, believes formation, and opinions. Consumer behavior entails numerous activities, such as purchases, decisions, plans, feelings, and thoughts. Marketers should discover the methods consumers collect information and utilize the data in choosing the products of competitors and variation of purchase procedures and reasons of distinct consumers. Researching and evaluating the aspects of influencing consumers' behavior will help identify and comprehend various products' involvement.

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Consumer Behavior Theory

Involvement is a vital variable in marketing and consumer behavior. Researchers have studied the concept of participation in marketing in the past years (Bernritter et al., 2017). Consumer involvement originates from internal participation. The involvement theory suggests that individuals participate in limited information processing in low relevance and extensive data on high importance conditions (Bernritter et al., 2017). These two methods result in the concept that consumer involvement relies on the degree of individual relevance that the good or product upholds for that customer. High involvement purchases are significant to the customers in terms of apparent risk and provoke extensive problem solving through information processing. More significant involved customers discover fewer brands satisfactory. Uninvolved consumers realize insignificant brands to be accessible to a more substantial amount of advertising messages about the acquisition, considering more trademarks. Besides, Krugman established involvement as popular marketing (Harrigan et al., 2018).

Krugman discovered that individuals recall the best advertisements at the end or beginning of a commercial break using the learning theory. Krugman claimed that non-ego and marketing involving material had a low involvement level and operationalized it as the number of bridging connections, experiences, or personal references in every minute that the viewer established amid the advertisement and own life. Krugman believed that advertisement contains low involvement level (Harrigan et al., 2018). Consumers tend to involve themselves with diverse advertising media and publicity, purchase decisions, and product range. Involvement has a substantial influence on the purchase decision procedures and buying behavior of a consumer. The process in which individuals learn and involve themselves with products or goods is of great significance to marketing practitioners and researchers. Involvement establishes the urge for consumers to pursue and decide on the category of service or product and the varying choices before generating decisions on brand preferences and the ultimate purchase act. People learn through cognitive and behavioral theories.

Behavioral Theory

Behavioral theorists perceive learning as visible responses to stimuli. According to behavioral, individuals' reactions as they go through experiences molds their experiences (Greve & Teh, 2018). Individuals respond to scents, brand names, and other marketing stimuli due to the learned connections they form over a certain period. Also, people learn that actions they exercise lead to punishments or rewards; hence this feedback impacts the method to respond in comparable conditions in the imminent. Consumers who obtain compliments on a product choice have a higher probability of purchasing a similar brand again (Chang et al., 2019). Customers who might get disappointed with a particular brand might not repurchase similar goods or products in the future. There exist two categories of behavioral learning theories, which include classical and instrumental conditioning.

Operant Conditioning

Operant or instrumental conditioning is a learning procedure that utilizes punishment and rewards for behavior. An association is established between consequence and behavior through operant conditioning. Skinner, a behaviorist, believed that it was unnecessary to perceive motivations and thoughts to illustrate conduct (Bernritter et al., 2017). Skinner used the term operant to symbolize the dynamic behavior that functions upon the atmosphere to produce consequences. He proposed that individuals view only the external and visible reasons for human behavior (Bernritter et al., 2017). There exists a link between behavior and impact, such as positive or negative, through operant conditioning. The operant plays a dynamic role in day-to-day learning. Punishments and reinforcements occur in a natural and structured environment all the time. Marketers have enhanced numerous sales and marketing methods founded on the instrumental conditioning principle and significantly positive reinforcements. These tactics motivate consumers to be frequent, loyal, and high spending shoppers (Nason et al., 2018). Some of the positive reinforcements include rebates, discounts, frequency marketing programs, rewards, gifts, and giveaways. Thus, this theory's central idea is that the marketer uses a more significant determination to inspire potential customers to use or try their product.

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning occurs when the conditioned stimulus links with an unrelated unconditioned stimulus to generate behavioral feedback referred to as conditioned response. Besides, the conditioned response is the feedback learned from the initially neutral stimulus. It is usually neutral and generates no specific response; however, it causes conditioned feedback after conditioning. The classical conditioning principles that offer theoretical underpinning for numerous marketing applications constitute repetition, discrimination, and generalization of the stimulus. Neo- Pavlovian theories perceive traditional classical conditioning as a form of cognitive, associative knowledge instead of reflexive actions (Nason et al., 2018). The approach can function with specific brands. A consumer might focus on a particular brand product or name with specific perspectives after repeated marketing determinations or experience with the good or service. For example, numerous individuals associate themselves with the brand name of Loreal with clear and pure skin.

There exists an establishment of the conditioned response as clients obtain verified involvements with brands (Nason et al., 2018). Also, the associating fear with the utilization of behavior or product such as displaying images of deadly automobile fates to inspire seat belts or using pictures of surgeries performed on lung cancer to depress smoking. These advertisements tend to be useful as a result of the more significant section of conditioning. When people perceive fear of dying and cigarettes tend to reduce the utilization of these products. Under the neo-pavlovian theory, the vendor perceives the consumer as an information seeker who utilizes the perceptual and rational events along with one's preconceptions to establish a sophisticated depiction of the globe (Nason et al., 2018). Therefore, the conditioning is the learning that occurs due to the exposure to relations amid events in the atmosphere, like exposure generates prospects for the atmosphere's structure.

Cognitive Learning Theory

Cognitive learning theory asserts that problem-solving is one of the sorts of learning human characteristics. Cognitive theorists consider that learning is a mental processing role and gets concerned with information processing by individuals such as storage, retaining, encoding, rehearsal, and retrieval (Batkoska & Koseska, 2012). Three separate storage units include sensory, short, and long-term stores as the memory's structure and operation (Batkoska & Koseska, 2012). Besides, the consumer gathers information on numerous competitive products regarding performance, price, and other features. The consumer utilizes the collected data into the human brain, processes them logically, and establish a conclusion. For instance, if one decides to purchase a television, the individuals gather information on different products available in the supplier's market, performance, features, and reputation.

Hence, marketers attempt to offer information to diverse teams of individuals based on their retention power as supposed by the vendor. For example, a technocrat consumer might get more information than general customers, particularly in technical services or products such as automobiles, computers, electronics, and a photocopier. Observational learning is one of the notable features of cognitive learning perspectives and happens when individuals modify their behavior or attitudes by watching other people's activities (Batkoska & Koseska, 2012). Individuals in this concept tend to store information by observing, perhaps, to guide their behavior. Modeling is another aspect that is the procedure of imitating other individuals (Batkoska & Koseska, 2012). Some advertisements may model and encourage one to use the actor's behavior in the future. Thus, it entails the learning of concepts, ideas, reasoning capacities, and attitudes.

Motivation Theory

Consumer motivation is an internal state that drives individuals to distinguish and purchase services or products that accomplish awareness and unconscious desires or prerequisites (Taormina & Gao, 2013). The contentment of those necessities can motivate them to generate a recurrence purchase or to discover different services and goods to achieve those needs well (Taormina & Gao, 2013). Motives enable people to augment their willingness to respond to learning. It aids in stimulating the dynamism to respond to the environment. Thus the involvement level typically defines the motivation to pursue information regarding a product. For instance, displaying ads for summer goods or services before the season. Cues activate the direction of these drives, and motives inspire learning. Maslow's Theory of Need Hierarchy as a form of motivation focuses on the idea of a universal pyramid of human wants (Taormina & Gao, 2013).

Abraham Maslow established an extensive accepted human motivation theory identifying the five fundamental level requirements from the lower to higher needs. The hierarchical conditions include psychological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs (Taormina & Gao, 2013). The theory indicates the significance of gratifying the lower level wants before the more significant needs arise. According to this theory, discontentment motivates customers (Taormina & Gao, 2013). Marketers need to comprehend the motives of their probable clients to enjoy good sales. A consumer has numerous explanations, and each transformation comprises several basics. Thus, the marketers can willingly aid their clients by modifying their marketing approaches to resolve conflicts that may arise, such as the approach-avoidance conflict.

Conclusion

Thus, consumer learning is where people obtain and apply the consumption and purchase knowledge in a future related action. Reinforcement, response, cues, and motivation are fundamental factors that result in the understanding of learning. Consumer learning offers consumers with more significant gratification. Thus, this paper aims at examining the involvement and consumer learning.