How and Why Consumers Buy 95
personal meanings and interpret information in a way that fits our preconceptions.
Unfortunately, marketers can do little about selective distortion.
➤ Selective retention.People forget much that they learn but tend to retain information
that supports their attitudes and beliefs. Because of selective retention,we are likely to
remember good points mentioned about a product we like and forget good points
mentioned about competing products. Selective retention explains why marketers
use drama and repetition in messages to target audiences.Learning
When people act, they learn. Learninginvolves changes in an individual’s behavior
that arise from experience. Most human behavior is learned. Theorists believe that
learning is produced through the interplay of drives, stimuli, cues, responses, and
reinforcement. A driveis a strong internal stimulus that impels action. Cuesare minor
stimuli that determine when, where, and how a person responds.
Suppose you buy an IBM computer. If your experience is rewarding, your
response to computers and IBM will be positively reinforced. Later, when you want to
buy a printer, you may assume that because IBM makes good computers, it also makes
good printers. You have now generalizedyour response to similar stimuli. A counter-
tendency to generalization is discrimination,in which the person learns to recognize
differences in sets of similar stimuli and adjust responses accordingly. Applying learn-
ing theory, marketers can build up demand for a product by associating it with strong
drives, using motivating cues, and providing positive reinforcement.
Beliefs and Attitudes
Through doing and learning, people acquire beliefs and attitudes that, in turn, influ-
ence buying behavior. A beliefis a descriptive thought that a person holds about
something. Beliefs may be based on knowledge, opinion, or faith, and they may or
may not carry an emotional charge. Of course, manufacturers are very interested in
the beliefs that people have about their products and services. These beliefs make up
product and brand images, and people act on their images. If some beliefs are wrong
and inhibit purchase, the manufacturer will want to launch a campaign to correct
these beliefs.^20
Particularly important to global marketers is the fact that buyers often hold dis-
tinct beliefs about brands or products based on their country of origin. Studies have
found, for example, that the impact of country of origin varies with the type of prod-
uct. Consumers want to know where a car was made but not where lubricating oil came
from. In addition, attitudes toward country of origin can change over time; Japan, for
instance, had a poor quality image before World War II.
A company has several options when its products’ place of origin turns off con-
sumers. The company can consider co-production with a foreign company that has a
better name. Another alternative is to hire a well-known celebrity to endorse the prod-
uct. Or the company can adopt a strategy to achieve world-class quality in the local
industry, as is the case with Belgian chocolates and Colombian coffee.
This is what South African wineries are attempting to do as their wine exports
increase. South African wines have been hurt by the perception that the country’s
vineyards are primitive in comparison to those in other countries and that wine farm-
ers are continuing crude labor practices. In reality, South Africa’s wine farmers have
improved the lives of their workers. “Wine is such a product of origin that we cannot
succeed if South Africa doesn’t look good,” says Willem Barnard, chief executive of the
Ko-operatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging, the farmers’ co-op that dominates the industry.^21