An Analysis of the Fundamentals of Marketing (part 22)

Reinforcement Schedules

by

Charles Lamson

Skinner points out that it is not the reinforcement itself that is important, but rather the pattern or schedule of reinforcement that makes all the difference. He divides reinforcement into a number of types.

• Continuous reinforcement. This is when there is a one-to-one relationship between the response and the reinforcement, as in the cold that one feels when one puts an ice cube into one's hand. Skinner argues that when an act is reinforced then a person has a feeling of confidence. A golfer practices a particular shot until she feels 'confident', i.e. until she is good at it. Frequent reinforcement builds and maintains an interest in what the person is doing (Skinner, 1974). Skinner notes a drawback with continuous reinforcement, which if it fails to materialize the behavior can quickly extinguish.




On the other hand, with intermittent reinforcement the schedule of reinforcement can either be fixed interval or variable ratio.



• Interval schedules. Fixed-interval schedules require that the interval is constant from reinforcement to reinforcement. By contrast with variable interval reinforcement the time varies from one reinforcement to the next. For example, a person might spend quite a long time reading a book or Internet surfing prior to the behavior being reinforced. Frustratingly, the very delay in receiving satisfaction when serving or reading seems to harden the resolve not to give up until some is obtained. Marketers are well aware of this and creatively use delay in a number of ways, e.g. through 'teaser' advertising campaigns and the organization of large entertainment events such as concerts.
• Ratio schedules. Fixed-ratio reinforcement requires that the number of responses that must be made before reinforcement occurs is constant from one situation to the next. Some products cost more or less the same from one time period to the next, e.g. a can of beans. In variable-ratio reinforcement by contrast, one cannot predict the number of responses that must be made before reinforcement is made. All gambling systems are based on variable-ratio reinforcement. The gambler has been exposed to a program through which a highly unfavorable ratio is made effective. Foxall (1996) comments that prepurchase search for luxury or status products follows a variable ratio schedule. For example, in searching for a new coat or car - items that can provide utility and enjoyment as well as conferring status - precisely how many stores/showrooms to visit and how many coats/cars to see and try cannot be readily determined.




Research indicates that intermittent reinforcers are the most effective. It has been found that when reinforcement is intermittent, occurring less than every time the response is emitted, the level of extinction is very slow. So the reinforcement effect can be very powerful. Skinner cites examples that have little else in common, such as gambling and scientific research, where massive effort is spent for an uncertain return. he also notes how society tells the gambler that she is 'addicted' while the scientist is regarded as being 'dedicated'. He dismisses such attributions arguing that the consequence is not a matter of will power or lack of it (dedication, addiction) but of a particular reinforcement schedule. In the case of gambling, scientific discovery, and even perhaps in the search for some new products which share the characteristic of intermittent reinforcement, behavior may be sustained over long periods of time with little return.


Punishment

It can be difficult to distinguish negative reinforcement from punishment. The difference between the two is that where negative reinforcement is used to strengthen a behavior, punishment is designed to remove behavior from a repertoire. Much social advertising seeks to punish harmful behaviors such as smoking and alcohol and drug abuse. For example, the 'Know the Score' campaign in Scotland aims to provide unbiased information to users about the potential dangers associated with the ingestion of drugs, including cocaine. Skinner argues that punishment may lead a person to express feelings of shame or embarrassment. If the person changes her behavior so as to avoid further punishment, she will not feel so guilty or ashamed. Skinner emphasizes that it is important to recognize in the behavioral explanation that the person does not act because of her feelings, or because her feelings are changed, but because of the punishing contingencies to which she has been exposed.






Habitual Behavior

If one assumes that the consumer has a degree of choice in consumption behavior then continuous reinforcement (repeated satisfaction) resulting in product use increases the probability that the consumer will buy the same brand. Initially the consumer has a decision to make, but with continuous reinforce the probability of buying the same brand increases until the consumer establishes a habit.


Extinction and Forgetting

Instrumental conditioning helps to understand how a consumer may come to cease buying a product. If the person is no longer satisfied with the product then the link between the stimulus and the expected reward is broken. Extinction leads to a rapid decrease in the probability that the consumer will repurchase the same brand. For example, anti-smoking advertisements seek to break the link between smoking cigarettes and the pleasure that they bring.

Forgetting is different from extinction and occurs when the stimulus is no longer repeated or perceived. Where the advertising for a product is discontinued, for example, consumers may forget the product. Marketers counter forgetting by repetition and seeking to maintain high awareness levels.






Behaviorists do not use words that signify internal states to describe behavior. In this respect to say 'I like chocolate, or the Rolling Stones, or Perrier' is not permissible. Instead one would observe the effect that eating chocolate or listening to the Rolling Stones or drinking Perrier has on the person and if this is pleasant then one would describe these as being positively reinforcing.



*SOURCE: FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING, 2007, MARILYN A. STONE AND JOHN DRESMOND, 93-96*




END

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).

END

An Analysis of the Fundamentals of Marketing (part 20)

Behaviorism

by

Charles Lamson

In 1913 Watson began the movement known as classical behaviorism, and in 1938 Skinner proposed a different version known as radical behaviorism. Together with their Russian predecessors, Sechenov, Bekhterev and Pavlov, they introduced a commitment to the study of overt behavior as opposed to internal states, and coined a vocabulary of conditioned reflexes, including processes of reinforcement, extinction and generalization. Although initially Watson was well disposed towards Freud's theories, he later described it and other forms of analysis based on introspection as voodooism. In establishing the behaviorist platform, Watson sought to establish psychology as a natural science, asking:

Why don't we make what we can observe the real field of psychology? Let us limit ourselves to things that can be observed and formulate laws about only things. Now what can we observe? Well we can observe behavior - what the organism does or says.

(Watson, 1931)

While Skinner's (1938) concept of operant conditioning (a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior) is different to  the classical account, he nevertheless shares with Watson a focus on the need to explain behavior solely with respect to its environmental consequences. Both explanations thus deny any importance to the consumer's internal state of mind.

Classical Conditioning

As an academic, Watson was primarily interested in the development of emotions, in posing basic questions such as "Where does fear come from?" Watson had observed the differences between very young infants, who positively engaged with external objects, and 3 year-olds, who seemed to be afraid of many things which were often harmless. How did such bizarre fears arise? Watson based his explanation of the development of emotions on Pavlov's theory of conditioned response. . Pavlov had found that if one repeatedly paired the sound of a bell with the taste of food, eventually the sound of the bell alone would elicit salivation from a dog. Watson reports that colored and geometrical forms were equally effective in eliciting the same response.


Unconditioned and Conditioned Stimuli

Food is an unconditioned stimulus; a hungry animal does not need to learn to salivate at the presentation of food but will do so automatically. 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. 

Watson extended Pavlov's work by moving away from the study of simple conditioned reflexes to the study of complex emotional responses. He reasoned that such complex responses could be derived from three innate or primary emotional responses of fear, rage and love, all of which could be observed in infants. Fear could be stimulated by loss of support or a loud bang, rage was produced by restricting the infant's movements; finally love occurred as the consequence of fondling and stroking the infant's skin, especially in sensitive areas. Additionally, Watson theorized that the infant could learn emotional responses to new, previously neutral objects.

Watson offers the example of Albert B., a 'good' baby, aged 11 months and 4 days on the day of the experiment, to demonstrate how fear arises in infancy. Albert had played happily with a white rat for weeks. On one occasion it was presented to him and a steel bar was struck by a hammer just behind his head just as he reached forward to stroke the rat. Albert jumped and whimpered and Watson reported that due to his disturbed condition no further tests were carried out that day. Subsequently, Albert would whimper and withdraw when the rat was presented to him. Not only did Albert learn to fear the rat, this fear transferred to other objects that had the white furriness of the laboratory rat, to rabbits, a fur coat and even cotton wool.

Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination

The reaction of Albert to rabbits and cotton wool described above reveals that the conditioned stimulus (CS) does not have to be identical to the stimulus associated with the behavior during the learning process. Albert generalized the fear response from the white rat to objects that shared just one characteristic with the rat, a sense of 'furriness'. Formally the propensity to generalize one characteristic of the conditioned stimulus to other stimuli is known as stimulus generalization. Given a positive brand name, each of the products carrying that name should equally be evaluated positively. On the other hand competitors to a primary brand may copy stimuli that are associated with the primary brand, for example, the pack design or coloring, to capitalize on the same associations. This occurred in the UK, when supermarkets launched their own brands in competition with Coca-Cola. The packaging of Saiinsbury's cola was  reputedly almost identical to that used by the 'real thing'.While stimulus generalization may be of benefit in generalizing the reputation of a brand to a whole family of brands, brand managers spend a considerable amount of time in building stimulus discrimination. where they seek to associate their brand with some unique differentiating characteristic.

SOURCE: FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING, 2007, MARILYN A. STONE AND JOHN DRESMOND, PGS. 86-88*

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An Analysis of the Fundamentals of Marketing (part 19)

Family Identity and Social Class

by

Charles Lamson

Family Identity

Outside our own skins, the family is where we are likely to feel (at least initially) most at home.

In Western Europe, the nuclear family, two adults living together in the same household with one or more children, is considered to be the norm. The nuclear family is itself of comparatively recent origin in Europe, where there are still strong pockets of an earlier form of family organization, the extended family (three generations living under one roof). The nuclear family emerged largely as a response to the eighteenth-century division of labor which occurred in Europe at the time of the industrial revolution. The development of the factory as a new form of work unit led to more men becoming separated from the household as 'breadwinners'. During this period greater pressure was brought to bear on women to become 'providers' as being responsible for cooking, housework and other domestic jobs, which were seen as an inferior occupation, if  they were thought of as being work at all. The woman as provider for the needs of the household was also associated with gathering its provisions. She became the centerpiece of the 'cornflake packet (a UK term)' family that emerged as the focus of advertising for a vast range of 'domestic' products and services.

Yet, the dominance of the stereotypical nuclear family is a myth, or at least it is in the UK. In 1971 nuclear families accounted for 35 percent of all households; by 1978 they constituted 32 percent, and in 1996, 23 percent of all households were nuclear families. By contrast, 62 percent of the population lived alone or were living together without dependent children, reflecting the gradual ageing of the population. Another trend has been toward lone parent families; for example, of the 36 percent of households with children, 10 percent were made up of lone parents in 1996. The dynamic shift away from the cornflake packet family has been paralleled by a growing complexity in family relationships. For example, in 1996, 8 percent of families included more than one stepchild. 

There has been much change within nuclear families which reflects changing patterns of work and leisure. Put simply, more women go to work, fewer men have stable full-time employment and the home itself has become more like a nest of cells than one single unit. The Henley Centre discusses this latter point as a shift towards cellular living. This reflects the growing individualization of life in family homes and a corresponding decrease in collective ritual activities like joint family meals or entertainment. Microwaves and a thriving take-out food industry allow members of the family to have it their way; many children own their own personal stereos, television sets, laptop and/or desktop computers, and smartphones.

This means that, generally, the trends indicate that the cornflake packet family, while constituting a relatively large group within society, is continuing to fragment and decline. This has many implications for consumer behavior. For example, food companies and those producing hygiene products offer less 'family' style products and more products that cater to the individual. 

Social Class

For many years the social class of a person has been seen to be an important determinant of their purchase behavior, e.g. a social classification section is almost always to be found in any questionnaire survey. While social class is a complex phenomenon researchers have operationalized this, i.e. rendered it capable of measurement, e.g. in terms of the occupation of the head of household. In the UK this means that the researcher will ask who the head of the household is. This used to be the 'man of the house'. However, nowadays it is based on the person who earns the most and so may be a man or a woman. The occupation of this person is then noted and forms the basis of the social classification.

Social class varies in importance. In the UK it used to be a powerful explanatory factor in purchase behavior. It is suggested that social class dictated not only the work environment, but what stores a person patronized for shopping as well as attitudes toward education, leisure and holidays. It is not possible to discuss all the fine distinctions between classes. For example, the middle classes were supposed to be knowledgeable about and were expected to drink wine (but not beer because that was 'working-class'); certainly middle-class women were not expected to be seen in public houses (pubs) because that is where working-class men went to drink. On the other hand, working-class people did not go on holidays abroad and could be accused as traitors to their class if they went to university. As a result, in a major way who you were, i.e. what class you belonged to, determined what you could do. Social class position dictated a whole range of 'appropriate' behaviors which were summed up in the expression 'People like us don't . . . drink beer, go to Blackpool for our holidays, wear flat caps, train to be lawyers, or read the Times newspaper.' However, owing to the influence of the mass media, particularly 'fly on the wall' documentaries and soap operas, people have shown how the 'other half' live, e.g. most of the world has access to the inner workings of the British royal household. Television programs 'educate' middle-class women about appropriate forms of behavior in 'working-class' preserves such as public houses; working-class men can learn to be wine snobs through the same channel. In a nutshell, the suggestion is that social class no longer provides the pillar for identity that it used to do. The views expressed above have been influenced by the work of Bob Tyrell while he was associated with the UK think tank, the Henley Centre.

If this is right, the implications are enormous. People who feel strongly bound by class in terms of what they could and could not do are faced with an unprecedented freedom. But how powerful is social class in contemporary Britain? One question in the British Panel Household Survey 1996 asks 'Do you think of yourself as belonging to any particular social class?' In answer to this question, only 38 percent of respondents said 'yes'. However, when asked if they had to choose, 44 percent said that they would be working-class, and just under 40 percent indicated that they would be middle-class. Asked the question 'In Britain today, how much do you think a person's opportunities are affected by the class into which they are born?', 28 percent said 'a great deal', 40 percent 'quite a lot', 23 percent 'not very much' and just over 6 percent 'not at all'. Methods of assessing social class will be discussed in later posts, especially the development of ACORN.

*SOURCE: FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING, 2007, MARILYN A. STONE AND  JOHN DRESMOND, PGS. 84-85*

END

An Analysis of the Fundamentals of Marketing (part 18)

Freud and Psychoanalysis (part D)

by

Charles Lamson

Values and Lifestyles

Twenty years or more after Reisman wrote his book (see last post), in 1978, Mitchell and others at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), now SRI International, conducted a series of studies in the US that culminated in the construction of the Values and Lifestyles (VALS) consumer segmentation system. From the analysis of data, Mitchell devised three orientations: needs-driven, inner-directedness and outer-directedness, two of which are very similar to the terms developed by Riesman. Needs-directed refers to those who are limited by resources, i.e. poor. The VALS concept of outer-directedness is similar to that described by Riesman and signifies a person who is primarily motivated by the opinions of others. The VALS study found that this character was the prevailing social type, accounting for 68 percent of the population. The VALS study found that another character, inner-directeds, comprised 21 percent of their sample. However, it is important to differentiate between Riesman and Mitchell's definitions of 'inner directedness' as this potentially is confusing. Although they share the same label, Mitchell's concept of inner-directedness is different from that described by Riesman. The most obvious reason is that US society had changed fundamentally between the 1950s when Riesman wrote his book and the 1970s when the VALS research was conducted. By the 1960s the seeds of the permissive society noted by Riesman in his study had grown into a diverse coalition of interests that sought to challenge authority and free people from all forms of repression. In Freudian terms this amounted to an attack by these theorists on the concept of the superego, which, they argued, was not so much a civilizing influence as authoritarian. Alongside Fromm, whose argument was briefly mentioned above, others trained in the psychoanalytic tradition, including Reich and Marcuse, challenged the role played by the superego in society, arguing that it had reduced the ego to a bland inauthentic conformist caricature. To the dismay of many orthodox Freudians, Reich in particular argued for the destruction of the superego, the 'policeman in the head' that in his view gave rise to the false and inauthentic self. Instead id forces should be liberated to restore the self to a sense of authenticity. These were joined by others, including Weber Erhard, who developed a training program, Erhard Seminar Training (EST), so that people could through self-expression come into contact with their 'true' selves. The ideas of the expressive self and the 'me' generation were widely publicized during the 1960s. Consequently the inner-directeds that constituted 21 percent of the VALS findings shared little in common with those described 20 years previously by Riesman. The idea of the expressive individual is different from Riesman's gyroscopically controlled self-made man. The new inner-directeds purchased goods to meet their own internal wants and used consumption as a vehicle for self-expression.

In 1988 SRI introduced a new measure of values also called VALS. For example, as two out of three Americans were identified as being outer-directed consumers, this category was found to be too large to be a meaningful differentiator. The original framework segmented people by their social values, attitudes toward gun control or military spending, for example. The new framework was, and continues to be based on psychological characteristics that are correlated with consumer purchase behavior, while social values shift over time. Initially the new formulation bore a strong relation to Maslow's (1958) hierarchy, in creating new categories based on esteem and actualization. For example, Weinstein (1998) utilizes Maslow by reporting that Actualizers on a base of 100 were more likely than average to own a small car (133) and a bicycle (154). They were much more likely to own a foreign luxury car (363) or sports car (330), but less likely to own a pickup truck (72). On the other hand, the Struggler's ownership of these items was well below that of the Actualizer, with bicycle (43), foreign luxury car (3), small car and sports car (5). The only transport items which strugglers seemed to own in any numbers include small to medium cars (54) and pickup trucks (52) (Weinstein, 1998). In introducing Maslow to the scene VALS researchers had theoretically moved a long way from Freud. Maslow's core belief was fundamentally different from that of Freud. Where the latter argued that civilization must tame the beast within us. Maslow (1970), in common with the prevailing spirit of the 1960s, argued that it was civilization that was at fault and that one should cultivate a person's 'natural' need for self-expression. More recent formulations of VALS have somewhat moved away from Maslow's categories.

Gender Identity

While Freud provides a base for the study of identity, he never actually used the term himself. Gender identity is only one form of identity. At birth individuals are identified with those forms of signification which are associated with our parents and which mark their identities, e.g. with their class position, religion or ethnicity, which are transferred to individuals. While undoubtedly identity is given to us by society, it is true that a stable identity is something which individuals strive for, as it provides a sense of 'belongingness, of 'home'. However, feelings about identity tend to be ambivalent. Individuals simultaneously want to be at home and to be free. Yet while being at 'home' offers security and comfort, it can also tend to be claustrophobic; even like a prison. Sometimes we long to break free from the chains of identity, particularly when these have been fashioned for us by others so that we can experience the terrors and delights of freedom. To sum up, identity is built on a characteristic or set of characteristics that makes us identical in some respects to some people and at the same time marks individuals out as being different from others. Identity is not naturally conferred, but is marked out by culture.

Strangely, perceptions of what is 'masculine' and what is 'feminine' are not given biologically but are mediated through culture. It is important to realize that while the sex categories 'male', 'female' and 'androgynous' are given to us by nature, a range of gender identities is available in different cultures. In contemporary European societies traditional rigid divisions between the sexes have been eroded with the growth in acceptability of the expression of a range of 'gay', identities. Gender is an extremely important focus for identity. A person who identifies primarily with 'feminine' traits in a society is 'feminine', with 'masculine' traits is 'masculine' and with both sets of traits is 'androgynous'. When 'men' and 'women' are discussed, activities are identified which are enabled or proscribed by society. For example, until recently the conventional wisdom was that a man's identity was to be found in the world of work and that, by contrast, a woman's identity was to be found in the home, where she nurtured and cared for the man and their children. There is an important point that relates to consumption. As the domestic situation was the center of family consumption and also defined as a woman's place, so consumption came to be associated with women's work. For example, it is expected that in Europe and the US women would be more involved in grocery shopping and in Christmas shopping than men. The latter provided the focus for a study by Fischer and Arnold (1990) who sought to explore the role played by sex differences and gender role orientations in Christmas gift shopping behaviors. Gender role attitude refers to an individual's level of agreement with traditional views regarding the roles and behaviors stereotypically associated with each sex.

Q&A

QUESTION In your view what reasons lie behind such hypotheses? ANSWER Egalitarian attitudes signify a degree of freedom from traditional role stereotypes. For a woman, such disagreement may lead her to avoid ‘female’ stereotypical roles such as shopping for gifts; for a man it may mean the opposite, with egalitarian men more involved in shopping than traditional men because they disagree with traditional assumptions that shopping is a ‘female’ preserve. Fischer and Arnold’s study of Christmas shopping behavior found that men and women differed significantly; women gave more gifts than men, started shopping earlier, spent longer shopping and were more successful in selecting gifts. On the other hand, men spent more per person and had more gifts returned or exchanged. The authors found that similar gender role attitudes have different implications for men and women. More egalitarian men were slightly more involved than traditional men, in that they bought more gifts for more recipients and spent more time shopping per recipient that either traditional men or equally egalitarian women. Fischer and Arnold concluded that gender identity had some of the predicted effects on involvement. More communally oriented men and women started shopping much earlier than less communally oriented men and women. Moreover, men with more communal orientations spent considerably more time shopping per recipient than other men. Overall it was found that those (both men and women) with more femenine gender identities are more involved in Christmas gift shopping.

*SOURCE: FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING, 2007, MARILYN A. STONE AND JOHN  DRESMOND, PGS. 81-83*

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QUESTION

In your view what reasons lie behind such hypotheses?

ANSWER

Egalitarian attitudes signify a degree of freedom from traditional role stereotypes. For a woman, such disagreement may lead her to avoid ‘female’ stereotypical roles such as shopping for gifts; for a man it may mean the opposite, with egalitarian men more involved in shopping than traditional men because they disagree with traditional assumptions that shopping is a ‘female’ preserve.

Fischer and Arnold’s study of Christmas shopping behavior found that men and women differed significantly; women gave more gifts than men, started shopping earlier, spent longer shopping and were more successful in selecting gifts. On the other hand, men spent more per person and had more gifts returned or exchanged. The authors found that similar gender role attitudes have different implications for men and women. More egalitarian men were slightly more involved than traditional men, in that they bought more gifts for more recipients and spent more time shopping per recipient that either traditional men or equally egalitarian women.

Fischer and Arnold concluded that gender identity had some of the predicted effects on involvement. More communally oriented men and women started shopping much earlier than less communally oriented men and women. Moreover, men with more communal orientations spent considerably more time shopping per recipient than other men. Overall it was found that those (both men and women) with more femenine gender identities are more involved in Christmas gift shopping.

An Analysis of the Fundamentals of Marketing (part 17)

Freud and Psychoanalysis (part C)

by

Charles Lamson

Freud's Legacy: Changing Social Characters

Freudian theory alerts us to the importance of identity and difference in consumer behavior. Identity can be a difficult subject to grasp because it has a dual aspect. A simple way of understanding this is to recall how Freudian theory describes two powerful forces for conditioning the emergence of the self, namely society and biology. The concept of identity reflects this duality in that it contains two forces, one of which relates to the person, the other to society. From a personal point of view identity is everything which I call 'mine'. It is the sum total of the objects (including people) with which I identify and is what marks 'me' out as being different from other people. On the other hand, individuals and groups in society treat me as if I have a particular identity.

Relating Psychogenesis to Sociogenesis

Central to Freudian theory is the idea of the interaction between biology and environment in the formation of the self. This has led a number of authors to speculate on the changing nature of social character through time. Authors in this tradition share in common the belief that the self is not immutable but rather that the structure of the psyche (psychogenesis), is formed in relation to the society in which it develops (sociogenesis). For example, in his epic study of the development of civilization in Europe from the period known as the Dark Ages at the end of the Roman Empire, Norbert Elias (1994) explores how psychogenetic processes (involving the structure of personality, including how the relations between id, ego, and superego are formed over time) changed within the context of a sociogenetic explanation (involving changes to the structure of society over time). Elias charts the very gradual process of development from the disorder and constant warfare of pre-modern Europe, where the expression of id desires found little resistance, to the orderly nation state where the societal expectation that individuals conduct themselves in a civilized manner is realized in self-control due to the strengthening of the superego, or what some might call the policeman inside the head.

From Traditional to Inner-Directed and Other-Directed Characters

David Riesman and his colleagues who published their research in The Lonely Crowd (1950) argued that the prevailing social character in European and American societies had changed through the years. They posited that this change in character had occurred as people moved from traditional communities to work in mass-production industries in large urban areas. They argued that a person who is born in and lives in a traditional community has little need of what we might call an identity. This is because they are immersed within the community, which provides them with security. Following the industrial and consumer revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, huge numbers of people were torn from the bonds of traditional rural communities and moved to urban centers in search of employment in the new factories, mills and shipyards. While they had been reared in a traditional setting they now had to live and work among strangers who came from different traditions and who shared different values. While they had been reared in a traditional setting they now had to live and work among strangers who came from different traditions and who shared different values. Riesman and his colleagues describe these migrants to the cities as 'inner-directed' characters. The inner-directed character was different from the person who lived in a traditional community because they were removed from its protective embrace. These people coped with the loss of community by developing a strong internal sense of who they were, which was based on their early upbringing within the traditional community. In Riesman's explanation inner-directed individuals developed a gyroscopic sense of control, through having a clear sense of what their goal in life was coupled to a belief in self-reliance. Fulfillment came largely by following a career in the sphere of work. Pleasure and consumption were of minor importance to them, except in-so-far as the display of goods might signify their prowess.

Riesman et al. (1961) argue that many years later there developed another character, which they called the other-directed character. This character first appeared in twentieth-century urban America and worked in a service industry rather than in traditional industries such as shipbuilding or milling. The authors cite travelers' accounts of the time which noted that the other-directed character seemed to be shallower, more profligate with his money, friendlier, more uncertain of himself and his values and more demanding of approval than the inner-directeds. The other-directed character seemed to arise within the new middle classes who worked in the emerging service industries. Riesman and his colleagues suggest a number of reasons for the emergence of this character.

First, a new generation had grown up that lacked the solid foundation provided by traditional community. They lacked the gyroscope that had so surely guided their forbears. Popularity and the need to fit in were seen to be important by parents. Consequently the role of the superego (see last post for explanation of id, ego and superego) changed as parents made their children feel guilty not so much about the violation of inner standards but about failure to be popular or to manage their relations with other children. In any event the peer group became more important and parental authority waned in the progressively permissive society that was developing. The other-directed character not only offered a more promising opportunity for marketers but was arguably partly the product of marketing activity. For years mass advertising had cultivated anxieties and insecurities among the population so as to offer solutions to these through the products of mass production. What better object for advertising than a character who felt constantly anxious and who craved social approval (Riesman et al. 1950)?

One can see parallels with Reisman's other-directed character in the marketing character described by the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. In To Have or to Be? (1978), Fromm argued that modern society embodied a deep-seated change in values, from Being - literally, being centered on other people and social relations - to Having, which he associated with the lifeless world of machines and products, which he saw as being destructive. Fromm argues that the destructive 'having' mode is deeply etched into the customs, practices and language of Western society. One means of having is incorporation, which was a widespread practice in early societies, e.g. it was thought that by eating the heart of a brave warrior one could incorporate the symbol of this bravery. The modern consumer takes the idea of incorporation to new heights as he/she seeks to swallow the whole world. Fromm describes the modern consumer as 'the eternal suckling crying for the bottle. This is obvious in pathological phenomena such as alcoholism and drug addiction (Fromm, 1978).

Fromm saw this 'having' mode as exemplified by the emergence of a new personality, the 'marketing character'. To Fromm the emergence of this new character signaled a shift from the anal retentive 'hoarding' character to a new form:

The aim of the marketing character is complete adaption so as to be desirable under all conditions of the personality market. The marketing character personalities do not even have egos (as people in the nineteenth century did) to hold on to, that belong to them, that do not change. For they constantly change their egos according to the principal: 'I am as you desire me'.

(Fromm, 1978)

*SOURCE: FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING, 2007, MARILYN A. STONE AND JOHN DRESMOND, PGS. 78-80*

END

An Analysis of the Fundamentals of Marketing (part 16)

Freud and Psychoanalysis (part B)

by

Charles Lamson

The Preconscious and the Unconscious

In The Ego and the Id (1923) Freud made the distinction between the 'preconscious', ideas which an individual can bring to consciousness almost at will and 'unconscious' thought which because of its disturbing nature is not easily made conscious although it still may indirectly influence behavior. Freud posited that people may consciously censor and repress, display or project such threatening ideas. As an instance of 'repression' Freud offers the case history of  'Anna O'. Despite the summer heat, Anna refused to drink water. She often raised the glass to her lips only to repel it with an air of disgust. No one, including Anna herself, knew the source of this sudden malady. It was only several days later when under hypnosis that Anna revealed that she had gone into someone else's room and had seen a dog drinking out of a glass. She had felt revulsion and disgust at the sight. Once she had described this situation Anna felt better and was able to drink. Freud's explanation of Anna's predicament was that this image had so revolted Anna's sensibilities that she had unconsciously repressed all knowledge of the scene and had converted this repressed disgust into a phobia concerning drinking.

Repression is a form of ego defense whereby images which are thought of as being disturbing are shut out of consciousness. Such disturbing images may be related to the outward expression of desires that are considered abnormal by society. By contrast to repression, 'displacement' occurs when an unconscious impulse is redirected towards a more acceptable target.

Displacement can take many forms, but that which is of most interest for consumer behavior assessment is 'sublimation'. Sublimation involves the displacement of sexual energy, known as 'libido', to non-sexual ends in a manner which not only avoids conflict. It actively promotes a person's adjustment to his or her social context. Oriented toward the reality principal, the ego plays a key role in sublimating id demands by channeling id energy away from the pure investment in immediate gratification demanded by the pleasure principal towards a more socially acceptable response (see last post for a better description of id, superego and ego). A Freudian explanation would suggest that within Western European culture, consumer goods play an ever increasing role in sublimating those desires expressed by Eros. Freud's idea of 'sexuality' is different from that used generally. For Freud libido is essentially a drive whose object is the stimulation of various bodily areas or 'erotogenic zones'. In order to understand what Freud means by sexual energy and the developmental process by which this is attained, there needs to be further discussion.

Researching Consumer Motivation

The Institute for Motivation Research, started by Dichter around 1940, employed Freudian concepts to understand consumer desire better. Dichter (1960) argued that the key to desire lies in an understanding of the unconscious motives that often lie behind it. He considered that the desire for freedom and discovery can be expressed through the glamour of a new car. Dichter pioneered a number of forms of research, including the focus group. He recalls the institute's first study on Ivory soap. By means of detailed observation researchers learned what others had ignored, that when buying soap people do not simply look at it but often sniff it and hold it; that consequently the smell, feel and shape of the soap bar are important. Researchers carried out 100 non-directive interviews in the US inquiring why people take a bath or shower. They found that taking a bath or shower before a romantic date had more significance; interviewees bathed more carefully and took longer. People made the choice to buy based not on attributes such as price, appearance, lather and color but on a combination of these factors, plus an 'intangible' element which Dichter labeled the personality of the soap. The researchers found that Ivory soap had a somber, utilitarian, thoroughly cleansing character. Dichter linked brand identity to personal identity by arguing that individuals project themselves on to products. In buying a car they actually buy an extension of their own personality (Dichter, 1964). Likewise when they are 'loyal' to a commercial brand they are 'loyal' to themselves. In discussing areas such as brand personality and social marketing he was well ahead of his time. Dichter (1964) later published a handbook of consumer motivations that contained findings from 2,500 studies of motivation carried out by the Institute.

Later Freud: Id-Ego-Superego

It was mentioned above that Freud's theory is hydraulic to the extent that energy plays a vital part in his explanation and provides a key role in understanding motivation. In his later work he associated this energy with the powerful instinctual forces that are produced within the id, which Freud likens to a huge reservoir of psychic energy. The id is:

[A] cauldron full of seething excitations ... it is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle.

(Freud, 1933) 

According to Freud, biological instincts drive the production of energy according to two main principals over the life of the human subject, the life drive, Eros, and the death drive, Thanatos. Eros 'naturally' should prevail over the birth and growth phases of life, to be replaced as a person grows older by the equally pervasive power of Thanatos. During the period of the predominance of Eros the instinctual drives push all the behavior in the direction of immediate gratification of biological life-giving needs, the instinctual drives of hunger and sex. Freud's definition of 'sex' differs from the common view, a point which will be expanded upon later. The biological forces of the id are especially powerful during infancy and into early childhood.

The powerful demand of the id for immediate satisfaction is progressively countered by an equally powerful force that only becomes internalized following the resolution of the Oedipus complex at adolescence. This internalized image of society is known as the superego, which in the early years consists of parental control. Parents pass on their language, customs and cultural values to their children which subsequently are internalized by the child following a period of struggle in adolescence. The third important aspect of the self is the ego, which stands between the id and the superego. The ego has a fragile existence as it plays the role of arbitrator and mediator between the demands of biology and society by seeking to bring the influence of the external world to bear on the id. The ego aims to substitute the reality principal for the pleasure principal which governs the id.

The above relates to consumer behavior by providing an explanation of the dynamics underlying selfhood. Psychoanalytic theory can help explain the role played by goods and services in the make-up of ourselves. Freud's theory offers an explanation which focuses on the investment of psychic energy (motive force) into consumer goods. Why is such energy invested into consumer goods? It relates to the contradictory nature of the demands of biology and society and how these are partly resolved by means of consumption. Psychoanalytic theory suggests that often individuals are unaware of the motives which govern their decisions, as these are largely unconscious. This means that the importance of the unconscious in directing thoughts and behavior should be explored.

Sexuality and Development

Freud theorized that Eros is composed of ego and sexual instincts. While survival depends on fairly immediate gratification of ego instincts, libido or sexual drive is infinitely more malleable. His theory is developmental to the extent that he explains how the needs of children change as they grow older. According to this theory, children pass through a number of stages of development on their passage towards adulthood and at each stage a different erotogenic zone becomes the focus for sexual energy. Either excessive gratification or frustration of this desire will have major consequences for the individual in later life. They will help to determine not only the style of the child's sexual satisfaction in later life but also their personality and emotional character. If the child receives too much or too little gratification during a particular stage this creates anxiety that may result in a fixation on this zone; in adulthood they may even regress to this stage of development as the result of some trauma.

Oral Stage

in the first year of life the mouth of the child is the zone of interest and the breast of the mother (or its substitute) is the object of interest. The child obtains most gratification from sucking and when teeth develop, pleasure comes from biting. If the mother responds by either over or under gratifying the demands of the child, then the child may develop great tension and anxiety about feeding. This anxiety may reach intolerable levels, at which stage the ego may act to repress the impulses which are responsible for this tension. The ego must expend large amounts of energy in repressing this anxiety. In focusing on the mouth the adult may experience pleasure, engaging in oral activities such as smoking, drinking or perhaps a preoccupation with the preparation and consumption of food. However, a severe trauma such as the death of a relative may so stretch the resources of the ego that it can no longer contain the repressed anxieties of childhood which return in full force. This can result in a neurotic disorder where the person regresses back to the oral stage and may exhibit a wide range of disorders associated with eating.

Anal Stage

The next phase, which lasts from around one year old to the age of 3 is the anal phase. By this time the child's sphincter control has reached the point where s/he can take pleasure in holding on to or letting go of bodily wastes. Freud's theory suggests that children who are fixated at the anal stage may well develop as adults the character traits which reflect his or her difficulties in resolving this stage. Such adults may develop an obsessive regard for order and cleanliness, value hoarding and saving and have a stubborn nature.


Phallic Stage

The phallic stage which lasts from between 3 to 5 years of age culminates in the emotional crisis known as the 'Oedipus complex'. Prior to the Oedipus complex (named after the famous Greek myth), both boys and girls identify with their mother. Boys see their father as a rival for the mother's affections but come to fear the power of the father. Their terror of the father becomes so great that eventually the boy splits his affections away from the mother and identifies himself with the father. It is by means of such an identification that the boy child achieves a male identity. In identifying with the father and 'introjecting', or internalizing,the father's values the boy develops a new structure, the superego or conscience, which replaces the external control his parents exercised over him.

The transition for girls is not so simple. Girls seek to identify with the father and come to see the mother as a rival for his affections. However, the girl's physical resemblance to the mother means that she cannot physically identify with the father or with his power. As a result, Freud thought, the development of the female superego was a more difficult process. Those who become fixated at the phallic stage become obsessed with power and those things which symbolize power. For example, this may be expressed through the purchase of products which are recognized as signifying prestige and power, i.e. anything from powerful sports cars to expensive watches or the latest technological toys. In recent years women executives who mimic male dress codes in business, e.g. by wearing suits which have jackets with wide shoulders, and sometimes even shirts and ties, have acquired the label 'power dressers'.

Following the phallic stage there is a period of quiescence known as 'latency' which may last between 5 years of age and puberty. The beginnings of adult sexuality are observed in the 'genital period' when the individual's self-love or 'narcissism' becomes channeled into the love of others.

What can be learned from Freud in terms of the role which goods play in people's lives? Firstly the id is the source of all true needs, providing the energy and motive force for the demand for need satisfaction. The id demands satisfaction in line with the requirements of Eros, the life drive. Individuals are motivated to satisfy directly those needs for hunger and thirst and safety which are directly linked with survival. The sex drive is another major motive force which demands satisfaction. However, within Freud's explanation this comes into conflict with the restraining force of the superego which in its capacity as a proxy for 'civilized' society reins in the desire for direct sexual satisfaction and replaces such actions with others which are more socially acceptable. In a consumer society, one outlet for the sublimation of sexual desire is through the purchase of consumer goods and services.

*SOURCE: FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING, 2007, MARILYN A. STONE AND JOHN DRESMOND, PGS. 74-78*

END