Classical Conditioning

Marketers make extensive use of classical conditioning techniques. In brief, classical conditioning combines a stimulus with an unconditioned response and a stimulus with no conditioned response. Through repetition of this combination, it is expected that eventually the stimulus that previously had no response would now have a response, that being the conditioned response (PsychPost, 2012). Through the use of these techniques, marketers elicit specific responses in consumers. Repetition is used, as ads are replayed dozens of times before they have the desired effect. For example, while a cold cola might not be intrinsically thirst-quenching (being too sticky, sweet, and even salty), repetition of thirst-quenching imagery alongside the soda has conditioned millions to believe that a cold soda is better for quenching thirst than water. Stimulus discrimination is sometimes poor, meaning that consumers will elicit a conditioned response to a stimulus that is similar, but not identical to, the...
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