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The authors maintain that the positive consumer sentiment for many products is the result of a discontinuous learning path consumers traverse during initial trial. Accordingly, the goal of this article is to investigate whether consumers do indeed learn to use products in a discontinuous fashion and show that this form of learning is accompanied by the experience of insight (an Aha! moment) in relation to product usage.

Their findings suggest that consumers’ proficiency gain with using new products is sometimes characterized by a sudden, abrupt change rather than the commonly expected gradual improvement. Furthermore, such jumps in learning correlate with the experience of insight. In turn, this seems to have unique positive consequences for liking and usage intentions. Finally, we explicate how firms can encourage such types of learning rooted in the notion of exploration and discovery. New customers may be explicitly encouraged to try out different product features, wherein the exploration is designed to lead them along an Aha! path. Alternatively, firms may actively use product design to elicit exploration during usage, which in turn leads to not only better user skills but also more positive customer sentiment. Thus, this form of persuasion through product trial could help with not only short-term firm objectives (sales) stemming from the positive joy of learning but also long-term objectives such as satisfaction and repeat purchase. The Aha! form of persuasion through product trial (demonstration) has been famously championed by Steve Jobs with his “one more thing” act at most Apple new product launches.

Biography
Arun Lakshmanan joined the faculty at the University at Buffalo in 2008. He earned is PhD in marketing from Indiana University and an MBA in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. Dr. Lakshmanan’s research interests center on the role of learning and memory in consumption. His recent research has specifically concentrated on how customers learn to use products, factors that influence customer skill acquisition, and issues in postconsumption memory and price perceptions. His research has been published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Journal of Retailing. He has also served as a reviewer for Journal of Consumer Research, the Association for Consumer Research, American Marketing Association, and the Society for Consumer Psychology.

H. Shanker Krishnan joined the faculty of the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, in 1991. He completed his PhD from the University of Arizona. Dr. Krishnan’s research focuses on the interaction between customer behavior and marketing strategy. Specific projects focus on implicit memory for information, memory interference processes, and role of memory in brand equity, brand associations, and brand extensions. His research papers have been published in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Advertising, Psychology & Marketing, and Advances in Consumer Research. He has served on the editorial boards of Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Consumer Psychology, and as a guest editor for Psychology & Marketing.

Journal of Marketing, Volume 75, Number 6, November 2011
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