An Analysis of the Fundamentals of Marketing (part 21)

Advertising

by

Charles Lamson

In 1913 Watson began the movement known as classical behaviorism. He borrowed heavily from Pavlov:

Food is an unconditioned stimulus; a hungry animal will automatically salivate at the presentation of food. A bell does not naturally stimulate salivation. However, this response can be learned due the contiguity, or close association between the presentation of the food (unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the bell (conditioned stimulus (CS)). Eventually the secondary stimulus presented by the bell alone is sufficient to elicit the same reaction.

When Watson joined advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, he used similar techniques to those described above to promote products. Coon (1994) explains the general switch to using emotional appeals at the time as being linked to the reduction in 'reason why" copy,  which sought to explain to the consumer why they should use one product rather than another, thereby appealing to the customer's reasoning powers. One problem with this was that some advertisers dishonestly made false claims, a fact the US legislature started to take seriously by prosecuting offenders from 1912 onwards. Another problem was how to persuade someone to buy your product rather than that of a competitor, given the sheer number of products of comparable quality that vied for the consumer's attention. The temptation was to appeal less to the reader's reason and to address instead their emotions. While earlier accounts tend to overplay Watson's influence on the advertising indstry, there is no doubt that this focus on emotions coincided exactly with his own specialist interest. At J. Walter Thompson, Watson worked on Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder, Pebeco toothpaste and Pond's skin cream and cleansing tissues.

Watson formed part of the group which used the 'fear-sex-emulation' formula in advertising. Rather than simply publicizing the product, Watson used symbols to stimulate basic emotions such as fear, rage and love responses in his audience:

• For example, fear could be linked witrh anxiety, especially in the vulnerable, as a powerful inducement to buy. The advertisements which he developed for Johnson's Baby Powder targeted relatively affluent white young mothers who were expecting their first child. In constructing the advertising appeal the aim was to highlight the 'purity' and 'cleanliness' of Johnson's Powder, while the implication that those who did not use it would be impure and unclean. Advertising also highlighted the dangers of infection to infants and the desirability of using baby powder frequently. Should the young mother be tempted to ask advice from her own mother, traditional methods of child care were disparaged as being inadequate and unscientific. Most important, the advertisements did not simply create associations of anxiety and fear but offered the solution backed by the testimonials of 'scientific experts'.
• Buckley argues that Watson used sexuality as a means of selling Pebeco toothpaste. In this case, the advertisement depicted a seductively dressed young woman smoking a cigarette which carried associations of independence and assertiveness. The advertisement aimed to stimulate anxiety in the target market as it raised fear that the effects of smoking on the breath and teeth might diminish attractiveness. In this way, toothpaste was promoted not as a contribution to health and hygiene, but as a means of heightening the sexual attraction of the user. As Buckley notes, 'Consumers were buying not merely toothpaste, they were buying sex appeal' (Buckley, 1982).

Classical conditioning is also employed by advertisers to link a product with a stimulus that evokes  a positive feeling. Assael (1995) cites the example of the Marlboro cowboy which signifies an image of strength, masculinity and security. Over time, as the result of repetitive advertising and contiguity, the product becomes a secondary or conditioned stimulus that comes to evoke the same positive feeling as does the cowboy. Consequently, the cowboy acts as a means of influencing smokers to buy Marlboro and reminds them to repurchase. The brand thus comes to be a conditioned response.

Important Considerations When Using Classical Conditioning

From a classical conditioning perspective, advertisers should be mindful of the following in seeking to utilize classical conditioning in order to influence consumers:

• Overshadowing. The UCS should clearly stand out against other stimuli used in the advertisement and should not be overshadowed. In the Marlboro advertisement, e.g. the cowboy is often portrayed sitting astride a white horse. Given that the intention of the advertising is to link the Marlboro (CS) with the cowboy (UCS), the advertisement would not have worked if people had simply associated the brand with the horse that the cowboy was riding.
• Blocking. Generally, unconditioned stimuli should not have previous associations to other brands, e.g. if a beer company were to use a cowboy in its advertising, then it would be unlikely to work for them, given the existing link between cowboys and Marlboro. If two brands use the same advertising themes then brand confusion may result.
• Pre-exposure effect. This is partly linked with the blocking effect discussed above. it refers rto the situation where the unconditioned stimulus becomes so familiar that it fails to work. For example, the basketball player Michael Jordan in the US and UK footballer David Bekham became associated with such an array of products that arguably their influence became diluted.

Operant Conditioning

Twenty years of development of behaviorist thinking was crystallized into a new form by B.S. Skinner's development of operant conditioning has more general explanatory power than Watson's because it is concerned with the ways in which behavior is determined by the environment in which it is emitted. where Watson's explanation focuses on the antecedent to behavior. Skinner considers its consequences, e.g. some things in the environment are directly linked to our survival value, including food, water, sexual contact and escape from harm. Skinner argues that any behavior which leads to these consequences becomes more likely to occur. Like classical conditioning, operant condition requires the development of a link between a stimulus and a response, but the person determines the response that provides the greatest satisfaction. Suppose Pavlov had provided the dog with electric shock; when it pressed the other it obtained the meat powder. The dog would learn quickly to avoid the lever that provided the shock and to press the one that delivered the meat powder. In Skinner's explanation learning occurs because the same act is repeatedly rewarded or reinforced. Skinner allows his subject the ability to act in a number of ways, the consequences of any action, such as the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction arising from it, will influence future behavior.

The process of operant conditioning is where behavior which has survival value is more likely to occur. The behavior is strengthened by its consequences or reinforcers (Skinner, 1974). Reinforcers should not be confused with rewards. One rewards a person, whereas one reinforces a response (Foxall, 1990). Whereas  marketers provide many kinds of rewards for consumers, including store loyalty cards, two-for-one offers and even, occasionally, enjoyable advertising. These do not necessarily act to reinforce consumer behavior by increasing its frequency. This is because the extent to which they result in satisfaction is likely to vary from one situation to another.

Perhaps the only concept that Skinner shares with Freud is the idea that humans are hedonists; that is, we are inclined towards those things that offer us survival value and pleasure, and to avoid those things that are destructive of our survival and that cause pain. In this respect reinforcement can work in one of two directions: 

• It can work in a positive sense in enhancing survival and thus providing pleasure, e.g. when a hungry person exhibits behavior that produces food, the behavior is reinforced by that consequence and is more likely to recur.
• Alternatively, where survival is threatened reinforcement can work in a negative sense to reduce a potentially damaging condition, e.g. moving into the shade to avoid the effects of extreme heat from the sun is reinforced by that consequence and tends to recur on similar occasions.

In Walden Two, Skinner's (1948) account of a fictional utopia, Frazier, the founder of the community, explains how a scientific behavioral engineering is used to create a schedule of positive reinforcement. Childcare is free and parents are not the sole carers of the young, whose environment is closely managed. Members do not need to travel far to work; their food is communally produced, stored, prepared and served. There is no need for retail outlets, because all clothing needs are cared for, no need to pay insurance, because the community looks after its own as well as in providing education. Members are required to work only four hours per day and are thus able to spend the rest of the time engaging in creative work as well as playing and resting. With respect to negative reinforcement, Frazier explains that the community has no need to indoctrinate its members. Rather it is sufficient for them to compare the Walden life with that experienced by those who live outside. They are encouraged to visit the outside world.  In so doing, they experience not only its cultural pleasures but the downside: the vast disparities in wealth between rich and poor, the miserableness of the lives of the poor, the use of advertising to create a false illusion of the good life, the harried look of the citizens, the waste. These experiences negatively reinforce their decision to be in Walden where such problems are unknown.

Hedonic and Informational Reinforcement

Products and services are replete with examples of positive and negative reinforcement. With repect to positive reinforcement, products provide hedonic or utilitarian reinforcement. They are enjoyed because they nourish and sustain us. Through time the process involved in searching for these reinforcement products is found enjoyable. Products also provide informational  reinforcement, which reflects feedback on consumer performance (Foxall, 1996). This may take the form of a better understanding of how well consumers are doing, which may relate to the level of achievement or social status achieved by purchasing certain products and services. Many product offerings are constructed around negative reinforcement, e.g. in later posts, Early brand appeals identified a problem that the brand could cure. In their earliest formulations, Coca-Cola, Aspirin and Kellog's offered negative reinforcement, and it is arguable only in recent years that such brands have moved away from focusing on a deficit, or lack in the consumer towards a more positive grounding (Falk, 1997).

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