Hi, welcome to this blog post about the how operant conditioning and how this can be useful within the marketing world. This is written as part of an assessment for my Consumer Behaviour module on my Digital Marketing Integrated Degree with QA and Solent University. If you’re here reading this, I would very much appreciate your feedback or additional observations/knowledge in the form of a comment!
What is Operant Conditioning?
Operant Conditioning is theory of learning that uses rewards and punishments to adjust behaviour (WebMD 2022). Under this theory, behaviour that is rewarded will continue, and behaviour that is punished will stop occurring.
There are 4 ways in which operant conditioning occurs: Positive Reinforcement, Negative
Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, Negative Punishment.
Positive Reinforcement: A reward is given in response to behaviour that is encouraged. For example, a gold star given when a child completes a chore.
Negative Reinforcement: A negative outcome is taken away in response to behaviour that is
encouraged. For example, not having to wash the dishes if you finish your homework.
Negative Punishment: Removing a positive stimulus to encourage desired behaviour. For example, taking away a child’s phone.
Positive Punishment: Introducing a negative stimulus to encourage desired behaviour. For example, having to do the dishes for a week because you stayed out past curfew.
B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner is regarded as the father of operant conditioning in psychology, coining the above terms himself during his time at Harvard University (Skinner 1963). Skinner worked with both pigeons and rats, placing them in a “skinner box” which included lights, levers, a speaker, and an electrified floor grid. Skinner ran many different forms of these experiments, however their simplest forms the animals were rewarded for desirable behaviour (like pulling the leaver) with food and punished for undesirable behaviour with the electrified grid (Schiffman 2012). Repetitions of these outcomes encouraged continued desired behaviour.
Operant Conditioning in Marketing
But how does this relate to marketing?
Operant conditioning can be used within marketing to encourage and reinforce the desired buying behaviours that we as marketers want our customers to exhibit – like buying our product over our competitors. Here are some examples that we see in the world of marketing today!
(Vitality 2022)
Vitality Health & Life Insurance offer their members a deal on the purchase of an Apple Watch – the more they keep active (using the Apple Watch to measure this) the less they pay off on their watch. This negative reinforcement sees them rewarded with a watch, taking away the pain of having to spend hundreds to get it!
(Mirror 2022)
McDonalds Monopoly is a beloved time of year. With rewards hidden behind stickers on the food packaging including free food and vouchers, all the way up to large cash prizes and brand new cars these are examples of positive reinforcement.
(British Lung Foundation n.d.)
Cigarette packaging in the UK now, by law, depicts the health concerns caused by smoking though disturbing images. The idea behind these is to deter you from smoking by making the issues they cause more visible. This uses positive punishment as a warning that these are the consequences of buying and using these harmful products. You may still buy them, BUT, these are the potential consequences of doing so.
How Could I Use Operant Conditioning in My Workplace?
For my workplace context, this mostly looks like offering certain customers better pricing. I work in a B2B context, which highly revolves around giving our customers the best products, at the best prices, in the easiest way.
At the lowest end, this looks like not having to pay for delivery if a customer buys a certain amount of product from us at once (Negative reinforcement). At a higher end, for a customer who either buys with us often, in significantly large quantities, or both, we offer special pricing. These price breaks act as a reward for buying from us (positive reinforcement).
References
BRITISH LUNG FOUNDATION., n.d. Plain packaging for cigarettes [viewed 28 February 2022].
Available from: https://www.blf.org.uk/take-action/campaign-with-us/plain-packaging-for-cigarettes
MIRROR., 2022. McDonald’s Monopoly 2022: How to play, prizes in full, menu items included and tips for boosting your chances [viewed 28 February 2022]. Available from:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/mcdonalds-monopoly-2022-how-play-27927286
SCHIFFMAN, L. G., L. L. KANUK and H. Hansen, 2012. Consumer Behaviour: A European Outlook. 2nd ed. Harlow, England: Pearson
SKINNER, B. F., 1963. Operant behavior. American psychologist, 18(8), 503.
VITALITY., 2022. New Apple Watch with health or life cover [viewed 28 February 2022]. Available from: https://www.vitality.co.uk/
WEBMD, 2022. What Is Operant Conditioning? [viewed 28 February 2022]. Available from:
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-operant-conditioning