Hello my friend, and welcome back for the Part 2 of our discussion on operant conditioning. This time I would like to guide you on how marketing applies it to influence the behaviour of consumers. I am sure you will identify with many of the examples and recognise that you have been “fooled” before by these practices. But before we start, shal we do a quick review? In...

My friend, tell me something: do you believe in free will? Do you consider that all of your behaviors are under your full control? Here is a quote I really enjoy: “We believe in free will, because we know our behavior. But not its causes.” This quote is credited to Jonathan Edwards, an American revivalist preacher, philosopher (1703 –1758). As consumers, we make decisions...

My friend, do you see the lady at the music store on the photo of this article? Rumors say she has become obsessed with vinyls. Indeed, it is a fascinating way of listening to music, which has gone back to being trendy. But how did she come to this decision of purchasing vinyls? And what process does she go through in order to purchase them? In this article I would like to take you...

Brand Personality The development of marketing enabled companies to carefully construct brands. And what are brands exactly? Well, brands are set of signifiers which communicate a company’s values, culture, quality of their products and much more. It is therefore built to portray the way how the company wishes to be perceived by their target audience and the general population....

My friend, I find it beautiful how complex human behaviour can be. For example, we do not behave consistently as one same person, permanently with same motivations. Depending on the situation and perspective, we can be many. And we tend to have a clear sense, notion or concepts of each these versions of ourselves, which are named: self-concepts (defined by Rosenberg in 1979 as “the...