According to skinner there are two types of reinforcement or reward that influence the chance that a response will be repeated. The first type is called positive reinforcement. This consists of events that strengthen the likelihood of a specific response. Giving food to pigeons that depress a bar is an example of positive reinforcement and is likely to result in a repetition of the behaviour in other to get more food.
The second type of reinforcement is called negative reinforcement; Negative reinforcement is an unpleasant or negative out come that serves to discourage a specific response. For example ,an animal will learn to avoid pressing a bar that results in an electric shock.
What is the relevance negative and positive reinforcement in marketing? Marketing makes use of both positive and negative reinforcement to encourage consumers to buy their products. The most effective or successful wat for a marketer to encourage consumers to repeat specific buying behavior is to maintain higher product quality over time.
Sometimes marketers use negative reinforcement. Fear appeals in advert message are an example. Insurance commercials,which warn, husband that in the event of sudden death they may leave their wives widows without any means of income,rely on negative reinforcement. The purchase of a policy is recommended as the way to prevent the threatened consequences. In the same way marketers of headache remedies use negative reinforcement when they illustrates the unpleasant symptom of an unrelieved headache marketers of mouthwash when they show the loneliness suffered by someone with bad breath.
Either positive or negative reinforcement can also be used to elicit a desired response. We have to point out that when a learned response is no longer reinforced,it diminishes to the point of extinction; that is, to the point where it no longer occurs. However individuals may not totally forget behaviour once it is learned,but they may engage in the behaviour less and less frequently.
