Operant Condition

Several years ago, I was the marketing Manager for a new line of perfume, which had to be promoted, introduced to the consumer, and allow for succession in the market. By marketing the product the sales would either be high or low depending on the market responses. One way to ensure successfully marketing to the right consumers is through the use of Operant Conditioning.

Operant Conditioning, also known as Instrumental learning is defined as a "learning process by which the consequences of an operant response affects the likelihood that the response will occur in the future"(Kozak, pg 22). Basically, Operant Conditioning is a stimulus response pattern that when reinforced will condition the individual response to a desired behavior. Our behaviors are altered to be desirable or undesirable through reinforcements, punishment and extinction. Overall, Operant conditioning is a voluntary response that precedes the stimulus and the reinforcement. According to Dr.Komisar Behavioral therapist at Long Island Jewish Hospital, says Operant Condition has been applied in many situations, such as teaching, clinical settings, and advertising, which have been proven successful in clinical trails. B.F Skinner and Edward Thorndike have developed two famous stream of research in this area.

BF Skinner felt that the "term reinforcement was more desirable than the word reward"(Darcy, pg 215). "Reinforcement is any stimuli that strengthen the desired response" (Darcy, pg 223). For example, sometimes when you purchase a product, the company offers a rebate on that particular product. That includes receiving money back when the receipt of the purchased product is sent to the company. When you purchase the specific product you are being reinforced to make the actual purchase because of the reward of receiving money back. There are two types of reinforcements, positive and negative.

Positive reinforcers bring pleasant consequence abrupt by adding something pleasant to the environment of the individual. "This increases the probability that the response will occur again"(Darcy, pg 224). For example to increase customer response you may want to send a trail sample or coupon to entice the customer to the store so as to make a purchase. On the other hand negative reinforcement is the removal of negative stimuli from the individual surrounding environment. Negative reinforcement is a way to get rid of undesirable behaviors. Think about when you are listening to a radio and you are trying to hear the advertisement that is coming in all fuzzy. Well, if you adjust the setting on the radio to eliminate the static, you will be able to hear the advertisement and possibly want to proceed on to buy the product. In this case, you are removing the unpleasant behavior such as the static from the immediate situation to bring about the pleasantness of the advertisement. These two aspects of reinforcement both strengthen the individual's behavior by adding or subtracting necessary praise or barriers.

Operant Conditioning as been used in many advertisements such as "Natural Desire" this