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Part Two Integrated Marketing Program Situation Analysis
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
Figure 4-8 Application of
shaping procedures in
marketing
II. Integrated Marketing
Program Situation Analysis
4. Perspectives on
Consumer Behavior
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
Learning occurs more slowly but lasts longer when a partial or intermittent reinforcement
schedule is used and only some of the individual’s responses are rewarded.
Promotional programs have partial reinforcement schedules. A firm may offer consumers
an incentive to use the company’s product. The firm does not want to offer the
incentive every time (continuous reinforcement), because consumers might become
dependent on it and stop buying the brand when the incentive is withdrawn. A study
that examined the effect of reinforcement on bus ridership found that discount
coupons given as rewards for riding the bus were as effective when given on a partial
schedule as when given on a continuous schedule. 28 The cost of giving the discount
coupons under the partial schedule, however, was considerably less.
Reinforcement schedules can also be used to influence consumer learning and
behavior through a process known as shaping, the reinforcement of successive acts
that lead to a desired behavior pattern or response. Rothschild and Gaidis argue that
shaping is a very useful concept for marketers:
Shaping is an essential process in deriving new and complex behavior because a behavior cannot
be rewarded unless it first occurs; a stimulus can only reinforce acts that already occur.
New, complex behaviors rarely occur by chance in nature. If the only behavior to be rewarded
were the final complex sought behavior, one would probably have to wait a long time for this
to occur by chance. Instead, one can reward simpler existing behaviors; over time, more complex
patterns evolve and these are rewarded. Thus the shaping process occurs by a method of
successive approximations. 29
In a promotional context, shaping procedures are used as part of the introductory
program for new products. Figure 4-8 provides an example of how samples and discount
coupons can be used to introduce a new product and take a consumer from trial
to repeat purchase. Marketers must be careful in their use of shaping procedures: If
they drop the incentives too soon, the consumer may not establish the desired behavior;
but if they overuse them, the consumer’s purchase may become contingent on the
incentive rather than the product or service.
Cognitive Learning Theory
Behavioral learning theories have been criticized for assuming a mechanistic view of
the consumer that puts too much emphasis on external stimulus factors. They ignore
internal psychological processes such as motivation, thinking, and perception; they
Approximation
Sequence
Terminal Goal: Repeat Purchase Behavior
Shaping
Procedure
Induce product trial Free samples
distributed; large
discount coupon
Induce purchase with
little financial obligation
Induce purchase with
moderate financial
obligation
Induce purchase with
full financial obligation
Discount coupon
prompts purchase with
little cost; coupon
good for small
discount on next
purchase enclosed
Small discount coupon
prompts purchase
with moderate cost
Purchase occurs
without coupon
assistance
Reinforcement
Applied
Product performance;
coupon
Product performance;
coupon
Product performance
Product performance