Managing What Consumers Learn from Experience

Abstract

The authors argue that what consumers learn from the experience of using products is not a simple matter of discovering objective truth. They frame the problem of learning from experience as a four-stage process (hypothesizing—exposure—encoding—integration) with three moderating factors (familiarity with the domain, motivation to learn, and the ambiguity of the information environment). The framework is used to identify where learning from product consumption experience is most open to managerial influence. The authors discuss strategic tools for managing experiential learning and consider applications to the simulation of learning in concept and pre-test-market product testing.

In-store Marketing as a Mode of Discipline

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Corporate Social ‘Irresponsibility’: Are Consumers’ Biases in Attribution of Blame Helping Companies in Product–Harm Crises Involving Hybrid Products?

“…Therefore, it might be assumed that consumer attributions of blame to the manufacturing company would decrease if information provided in the recall announcement links the product defect directly to the brand company (e.g., by explicitly mentioning that a faulty design caused the product defect). However, this might not necessarily happen, because consumers' confirmatory biases may prevent them from properly processing the information presented to them (Darley and Gross 1983;Dawar and Pillutla 2000;Ha and Hoch 1989;Hoch and Deighton 1989). Dawar and Pillutla (2000), for example, suggest that when consumers have strong expectations, they simply interpret information in a manner that confirms their expectations, ''which leads to a cumulative effect of expectations and evidence'' (p. 219).…”

Vicarious experience in retail e-commerce: An inductive taxonomy of product evaluation support features

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