Consumer behaviour GBA MKT351

Q3ai)

Classical Conditioning

What is classical conditioning?

According to Leon G.Schiffman et al (Consumer Behavior, Pearson 10th edition, 2010), classical conditioning is a learning process in which learning is taught through repetition of stimulus, conditioned and unconditioned.

Ivan Pavlov did an experiment by teaching the dog to salivate through classical conditioning, using the meat paste as the unconditioned stimulus and the sound of the bell as a conditioned stimulus. The dog was able to salivate at the ring of the bell.

Using the same theory, Microsoft was doing the same with the marketing campaign of Xbox Kinect in Plaza Singapura.

Plaza Singapura has been a hip place for Singaporean, attracting high volume of crowd as well as all types of crowd, from the young to the executives to the elders in the family. This is in line with the target audience of Xbox Kinect which aims to target consumer across all age group. With this in mind, Plaza Singapore was chosen as the conditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus is Xbox Kinect, and the conditioned response would be the desire or attention for Xbox Kinect. This was done through live demo of the Xbox Kinect by movie stars, popular singers, top hosts and of the public was also invited to try it out for themselves.

From http://sg.offerstation.com/happenings-events/64187/x10--kinect-for-xbox-360-launch-event.htm, (by offerstation.com Nov 2010, accessed on 23 Aug 2011)
Below are the Event Highlights:
17th November 2010
3pm-4pm - Xbox Sports Fiesta
4pm-6pm - Xbox Kinect Happy Family Playtime, special appearance by Edmund Chen

20th November 2010
3pm-4pm - Xbox Sports Fiesta with Allan Wu
4pm-5pm - EA Sports Active 2 with Jaymee Ong
5pm-7pm - Xbox Kinect Happy Family Playtime

21st November 2010
3pm-4pm - Xbox Sports Fiesta with Allan Wu
4pm-5pm - EA Sports Active 2 with Jaymee Ong
5pm-7pm - Xbox Kinect Happy Family Playtime

Media exposure, guess appearances and large scale event are all part of the repeated conditioned stimulus. When people think of Plaza Singapura, people think of the good Xbox Kinect can be, because they have experience it themselves. Even for those who did not get to try it themselves, they would be attracted to the crowd and be curious to find out more about Xbox kinect. In the near future visit to Plaza Singapura, it induces a conditioned response of having a wanting or desire towards Xbox Kinect.

How effective was the launch? According to Nicholas Aaron Khoo, Singapore (http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/singapore-kinect-ed-62114757.htm, Nov 17, 2010, accessed on 23 Aug 2011), on the first day of the launch, which was cater only exclusively to Posb and Dbs card member, almost 2000 consoles was sold and average of 3 game title sold per sale. With higher volume of crowd over the weekend and even more public awareness, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Microsoft posting a good sales figure for the whole launch campaign.

The only draw back to this would be once the conditioned stimulus (after the event ended), the public will slowly loses the condition response. To avoid extinction, or unlearning of classical condition, Microsoft should also try to stay in the sight of the public.





Leon G.Schiffman et al (Consumer Behavior, Pearson 10th edition, 2010)
http://sg.offerstation.com/happenings-events/64187/x10--kinect-for-xbox-360-launch-event.htm, (by offerstation.com Nov 2010, accessed on 23 Aug 2011)
Nicholas Aaron Khoo, Singapore (http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/singapore-kinect-ed-62114757.htm, Nov 17, 2010, accessed on 23 Aug 2011)