Basic Principles of Learning

The marketer is interested in consumer's learning so that he will be able to influence the purchase of his product. However, for learning to occur,certain basic elements must be present. The elements, which bring about or influence learning, Including motive,cues, response and reinforcement.

(1) Motives; A motive or drive is a strong internal stimulus,which impels action. Motives arouse individuals thereby increasing their readiness to response. It is this arousal function which activates the energy needed by consumers to engage in learning activity.

(2)  Cues; The presence of cues influence consumers learning. Cues are weak stimuli,which provide direction to motivated activity. Cues influence the manner in which consumers respond to motives.

Where motives serve as stimuli learning cues are the stimuli that give direction to those motive. Cues serve to direct consumer drives when they are consistent with consumer expectations. That is why marketers must be careful to provide cues that do not upset their expectations. Consumers often learn such strong bonds between certain cues and products,which influence their purchase behavior. Consequently,marketers make sure that appropriate cues ate present in their products. Examples of such cues are colour, thickness, sweetness,scent,design and others. A consumer go to market to buy a shirt(motive) and it is the colour (cue) that will make him buy a particular shirt.

(3) Response; How an individual reacts to a motive or cue constitutes his response. Some response are overt,while others are convert. Learning can occur even if response are not overt.

Response is the mental or physical activity a consumer makes to a stimulus situation. For example,when a consumer sees an advertisement,how does he react or respond? Is he persuaded or convinced to buy the product? Consumer learn what are appropriate response to certain situations over a period of time through experience with similar situation.

(4) Reinforcement; Without reinforcement learning may not take place. Reinforcement is any thing following a response,which can increase the tendency for the response to reoccur in a similar situation. Response could be negative(which makes one avoid) or positive (which makes one seek). Eg. Punishment and reward. The quality and satisfaction a consumer gets from a product is reinforcement. This means that if a consumer gets what he wants from buying a product ,the tendency is that he will buy it more and more; other wise he will stop purchasing it.