- Memory
- The collection of information gained, such as the mental image of an experience, from past learning or experience that is stored in a person's mind.
- Heuristics
- Trial-and-error procedure for solving problems (or reaching an unclear goal) through incremental exploration, and by employing a known criteria to unknown factors.
Now to understand how they fit in with the marketing world we need to understand where they fit in with marketing theories. With Kotler's very famous 'Buyer Decision Process' we can see that memory and heuristics would be a part of the 2nd and 3rd stages; this is 'Information Search' and 'Evaluation of alternatives'. Heuristics serves these stages by providing the short cuts needed to speed up the process. For instance if you needed to buy some new shoes and you knew that your local shoe shop would have shoes in you like then you stop searching for alternative location right there and then. Solomon et al. (2206) sees these short cuts as "assumptions that act as substitutions for prolonged information search.". Now these sets of criteria can range from general (High Price = High Quality or Buy the same brand as last time.) to more specific (Buy the same brand of sugar mother always did.)However they do have a negative because if people you know have had problems with a certain product then you may disregard that product without really thinking about it, as Solomon points out they are assumptions.
The other thing that needs pointing out with Kotler's model is mainly a way of optimising the purchase decision, this does not mean that it satisfy the consumer, after all its satisfaction the consumer will ultimately want right. We in Heuristics there is something know as 'Fast and Frugal Heuristics' which basically states "Making quick decisions when there is a lot of choice." (Williams 2001) Developed by Williams himself he came to understand that there was an internal set of rules within the consumer mind that we go through to aid a purchase decision; know as Heuristic Rules they consist of 4 aspects which trigger a consumer to buy into a brand or product, they are:
- Recognition - This is where you will buy a product based on a Brand you already know over a new brand.
(Branding) - Minimalist - Recognition +1 more criteria such as nice packaging or good slogan/name.
(Advertising) - Take the Last - Buying the product simply because you used it last time and it works.
(Habbit) - Take the Best - assessing the options in order of perceived importance of criteria.
(Branding/Unique Selling Point)
Pricing - Making items cheaper make them the best value for money.
Promotion - Adding freebies of BOGOF offers act as incentives to consumers.
Novelty - It's a brand new item (such as iphone) or is in fasion.
Variety - Something new and different (Chocolate and Chilli Walkers).
Herd - Because it is the most popular.
Using these the ultimate aim of the marketer is to get the adverts and the brands into the consumers mind, "the objective is to have the reader or viewer learn something …. and remember what he learned“ (Britt 1955) and “our ultimate aim is to teach them brand loyalty” (Rice 1997). To get the consumer to learn and ultimately remember your brand you need to understand the ways in which they learn and there are 2 processes within the learning theory:
Behaviourist Approach
This theory of learning works on the basis of the consumers being triggered by a stimulus. Have you ever thought "Why do I have that annoying jingle in my head" and every time you hear you remembered the product associated with that jingle. Well thats because the jingle was designed to stick the product in your head and from then on remind you of that product whenever you hear it, you don't even have to see the advert, just hear the jingle. Now with this theory it is understood that leaning is how our behaviour changes through conditioning and 2 types of conditioning were found:
Classical Conditioning
Developed by Ivan Pavlov, who wanted to understand and study reflexes, he used dogs because he wanted to know why the dogs in his lab drooled even though there was no food. He found that they drooled every time the dogs saw lab coats as the person who brought food wore a lab coat. He then started conditioning the dogs by ringing a bell every time the food came... when he then rang the bell the dogs would drool without there being any food, thus being conditioned into an action when a specific stimulus or stimuli is used. (Learning through Association)
Operant Conditioning
Developed by B.F Skinner looked more at how the reinforcement of reward or punishment affected behaviour; basically learning by doing something and seeing if the result is good or bad. For example there is a saying that says "you will only touch a hot iron once." this is because if you are told not to touch it because it's hot when you are a kid you will still touch it. Now because when you touch it you get punished by the searing hot pain as you get burnt you learn never to touch it again, simple. The one thing to understand with Skinner's theory is that it will not be considered a punishment/reward if the punisher/rewarder does not noticeably change the behaviour of the person. (Learning through Action)
Cognitive Learning
As a development from Gestalt psychologist Cognitive Learning understand the human mind as a complex and ordered system of memories and experiences that are stored in either the long-term or the short-term memory. It points out that where as behaviourism relies too much on the behavioural traits of the consumer; Cognitive Learning wants to open up the black box of the human mind and understand it as an information processor, much like a computer. Under this theory there are 2 ways in which consumers solve problems:
Latent Learning
Defined as "Learning that is not the result of determined effort and is not evident at the time it occurs, but remains latent until a need for it arises." (Freedictionary.com)and a good example is the Ronseal advert because you remember "It does exactly what it says on the tin." but you wont think of it until say you were staining your fence. Latent Learning is how we learn by what we are told either by the media or other people.
Observational Learning
Defined as "Learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining and, in the case of imitation learning, behaviour executed by others.". So it basically means that you will learned based on what you observe others to do. This means if you see your neighbour with a brand new lawnmower and you can see it works well, when you need a new one your are likely to go for that particular make or model. Another example is if Mom always bought one brand of washer powder when you were a kid you are likely to use it in your life. These observations can be kept as long as they are needed.
Memory
Now that I have told you how we learn we can move onto how we enter, store and retrieve this information in our memories. Within memory there are 3 stages after the input of information from external sources:
Encoding - This is where information is encoded with triggers so that it can be stored. These triggers will then allow the information to be retrieved at a later date.
Storage - This is the process of actually storing the now encoded information into the memory, either short-term or long-term.
Retrieval - This is where the memory is found and brought back to the conscience mind by triggers encoded in the initial memory when it was encoded. It is then decoded and experienced.
The triggers that allow use to remember things can be anything from textures, to colours, sounds and returning to the place where the memory was first experienced. Now the way to clearly understand how our memory does this we need to think of our minds as a normal desktop computer. Our file 'experience' is put into a folder or 'Knowledge Structure' which is associated to other memories in the file, it will then be put into it's own sub-folder or 'node' which is linked to the main folder. These folders are then linked together and triggers are set to each folder 'knowledge structure' which would then be trigger by stimuli that was in the original experience.
and finally....
Nostalgia
Nostalgia id defined as "a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days." (dictionary.com).
The way I see nostalgia is memories that although make us happy to remember also have a darker side, much like the thorns on a rose, because although the memory is good it may remind us of how bad the time now is or that it wont ever happen again. Generally Nostalgia occurs more in the older generations and this is simply because they have already experienced 50% of their lives and as the saying goes, your best years are between the ages of 18 and 24; purely because they are the times when you were most free and had money to do things and no commitments. For me my feeling of nostalgia comes from my holiday to Laganas, Zante last year. This is because it was the best summer holiday I've ever had and me and my 7 mates were all together. So that is the good side, remembering all the good times we had. The dark side for now is that I wont go on another holiday like that ever again, since last year many of us have lost contact and moved on.
Laganas, Zante ... June 23rd (Day One)2008
Now it is because that memories that have nostalgic powers that are very powerful tools to use in adverts because if you as a marketer can trigger that nostalgic memory, you will also trigger the happiness of the memory, which in turn tricks the viewer into thinking the product associated to the ad will bring them that same happiness.
As it is Christmas soon.. Here are some Christmas Advert Examples... ENJOY!! and HAPPY CRISTMAS
Examples
