“Strategic Applications of Classical Conditioning”

Three basic concepts derive from classical conditioning:

1) Repetition:Repetition means to repeat a specific stimulus to get a desired outcome. It increases the strength of the association between a conditional stimulus and an unconditional stimulus and slows the process of forgetting. But there is a limit to repetition, after which the attention and retention start declining, an effect called advertising wearout.This effect can be reduced by two different methods:

Cosmetic variations: Variation in the background or advertising spokesperson. Substantive variations: Using different advertisements for the same product.

Three-hit theory:

Marketing scholars believe that only three exposures to an advertisement are needed:

- To make consumers aware.- To show consumers the relevance of the product.- Remind customers the benefits of the products.

2) Stimulus Generalization:Making the same response to slightly different stimuli is called stimulus generalization.The principle of stimulus generalization is applied to following:

Product line, form, and category extensions:

Product line extensions: In product line extensions, the marketer adds related products to an already established brand, knowing that the new products are more likely to be adapted when they are associated with a known and trusted brand name.

Product form extensions:In Product form extensions, the form of the product is slightly changed like Colgate mouthwash to Colgate toothpaste.

Product category extensions:Product category extension means to target new market segments. For example Cadbury, a chocolate manufacturer, introduced Cadbury’s Premium Celebrations Dry Fruit.

Family branding:

The practice of marketing a whole line of company products under the same brand name is called Family Branding. LG and Samsung are the companies who effectively use the concept of family branding.

Licensing:

Licensing is a marketing strategy in which a well known brand name is allowed to be affixed to products of another manufacturer. Licensing can be done by manufacturers, designers, corporations, celebrities and even cartoon characters for a specified fee. Corporations can license their names and trademarks for some form of brand extensions and for purely promotional purposes.

Counterfeiting – 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.

3) Stimulus Discrimination:Stimulus discrimination is the opposite of stimulus generalization and results in the selection of specific stimulus from among similar stimuli. The main objective of this strategy is to get the consumer to discriminate among similar stimuli.

Product differentiation: Product differentiation means to distinguish a product or brand from that of competitors on the basis of an attribute that is relevant, meaningful, and valuable to consumers. Many marketers also differentiate their products on the basis of an attribute that is irrelevant to creating the implied benefit like the color or the packaging.