From the behaviorist perspective, consumers are ex-posed to stimuli and directly respond in some way. Thus, the argument is that the marketing focus should be on stimulus and response. Behaviorists do not deny the existence of mental processes; rather, they consider these processes to be behaviors themselves. For example, thinking is an activity in the same way as walking; psychological processes are viewed as actions. Note that the term conditioning is used in behavioral learning, as behavior becomes conditioned in some way by the external environment. The second theory of learning involves an information processing (or cognitive) perspective . With this approach, the focus is on the cognitive processes associated with comprehension, including those leading to consumer learning. The information processing perspective considers the mind as acting much like a computer. Bits of knowledge are processed electronically to form meaning. With this approach, we must look to see what goes on inside the human brain. Traditionally, the behavioral learning and cognitive perspectives have competed against one another for theoretical dominance. However, we avoid such debate, because on closer inspection the two theories really share much in common. At the very least, both perspectives focus on changes in behavior as people interact with their environment. We adopt an orientation more directly applicable to consumer learning by separating learning mechanisms into the intentional and unintentional groups that we have presented. The next section discusses unintentional learning and how consumers respond to stimuli they are exposed to.
Question:
How do you buy products? Do you use intentional learning or unintentional learning in some of your buying habits? Give an example of what and why?