Psychology of Marketing - Essay Example

? The Psychology of Marketing Valued Material Possessions The concept of valued material possession is significant from view point of marketers. Marketers need to understand concept of value possession in order to analyze consumer behaviour and decide marketing strategy on the basis of analysis. Research scholars have identified that value attached with a product plays pivotal role on directing goals, motives and attitudes of consumer behaviour also motivates customer to purchase the item. Many customers believe that possessing a particular valued item will reflect and communicate their character to external world. Value possession can be judged on the ground of materialism and personal trait. Customers prefer value possessions are not always status seeker because sometimes they purchase valuable product to show self image to external world. Researchers have pointed out that customers do valued material possession to show adjusted and refined self image (perceived self image of customer which might differ from real self assessment of the person). Sometimes customer purchase valued product in order to imitate other person’s purchasing habit. Many of the time it has been observed that purchasing valued item increases confidence level among customers. Opinion leaders also plays significant role to motivate customers to purchase valuable product. General trend shows that materialists have a tendency to purchase valuable item in bulk volume by spending huge amount of money on acquiring new items. These customers are lucrative target for marketers. Marketers decide unique business strategy to cater demand of high value customers. Why Valued? Value of a product is dependent on various factors such as brand name attached with the item, usability, social image and many others. Value of product can be analyzed in the following manner. Possession might help us to reflect personality we want to show cast to external world. Purchasing a particular product might help us to reflect our social class to other (for example purchasing branded cars). Sometimes few purchasing decisions help us to reflect role transition (buying wedding dress). Product having the capability to change our moods (many customers prefer purchasing music system because the item has capability to put them in positive and good mood by providing sweet music) hence they are valued. Purchasing a particular might help us to achieve highly respected social group membership. Purchasing product and then consuming it help us to evaluate our self image in a right manner. The process can be classified as symbol for us to show our connection with significant portion of society. Many customers believe purchasing a valuable item associated with strong brand image might help them to achieve ideal self image and ideal social self image. Psychographics of consumer behaviour is contributed by two variables. 1-Actulizers- customers belong to uppermost income group prefer to spend huge sum of money on in order to purchase premium priced products. They purchase high net worth products in order to show status and financial power. 2- Fulfilled- customers purchase high value product after gathering sufficient information about the product in order to show social status to other people (Young, and Pagoso, 2008, p. 116). Customers show various types of purchasing behaviour including impulsive and compulsive buying. In 1989, O’Guinn and Faber have argued that compulsive buying is a result of behavioural disorder and directly linked with attitude of consumers to purchase valuable products. In 2004, Roberts and Pirog in their research paper have suggested that compulsive buying is linked with satisfying personal goal rather than rather than fulfilling need. In compulsive buying purchase motive of customer is cantered on satisfying external need rather than satisfying internal needs. In 2002, Kacen and Lee have pointed out that in valued possession customers get enjoyment from item purchased and sometimes they become obsessed about the purchase (Fitzmaurice, 2008, pp. 332-338). External World Association with a particular is created in stepwise manner while attaching brand personality with our self identity is moment driven process. Implicit self theories can be used to understand our personal association with particular brand. This theory emphasizes on individual how personality of customers can direct their brand association. Two fundamental concepts such as incremental theory and entity theory can be used to understand core concept of consumer buying behaviour. According to incremental theory personal quality can be improved by purchasing while entity theory believes external purchase cannot improve personal quality. Customers can express their personality by purchasing particular brand. Brands having unique image and application can serve purpose for customers to increase their personality. Marketers also argue that better customer service also helps to evoke satisfaction regarding purchase (Taylor, 2008, pp. 41-65). Self concept plays pivotal role while purchasing valuable items. Self concept creates self identity (person’s understanding about his/her identity in the society). Self identity in terms of behaviour, trait, habits, skills, relationship can be multifaceted. Research scholars have pointed out that self image and valuable item possession can be directed in four dimensional ways. Actual self image or how customers in real world see themselves Ideal self image or how customer in real world like to themselves Social self image or how customer feel other member in society see themselves Ideal social self image or how customer would like other member in society to see themselves Different steps of consumer psychology and purchase decision-making are complemented with furnishing a conscious goal concept and taking necessary action to achieve the goal (Chartrand, Huber, Shiv, and Tanner, 2008, p. 190-191). Customers in the initial stage identify goal in the later stage perform in order to achieve the goal. Setting goals is complemented by identifying needs while performing to achieve the particular goal is directly affected by concepts of perceptions, value and motivation. Goal setting in conscious environment can be done in a three way manner. The goal is enforced on people by external environment The person having desire to achieve the goal without any pressure from external sources Goal is created by external stimulus such as advertising and other promotional medium The systematic process of goal setting can be influenced by new product launch and unique advertising elements. The marketers try to launch a new product or application for customers in order to motivate them to set goals. Customers first chose trusted brands to purchase product in order to achieve the goal. Brand loyalty play significant role on deciding the direction on goal striving phase. External advertisement can also increase temptation among customers to purchase particular product (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 1999, 19-21). Brand attachment plays pivotal role deciding consumer behaviour in accordance to external world expectation. Establishing relationship with particular brand helps the person to show ideal self image to society. Advertisement and other promotional techniques create certain brand image for a particular product and then marketers promote the brand image to lure customers. Situation might arise when customers like the brand image and try to metamorphosis his/her personality in accordance to the brand personality. Obviously external stimuli such as advertisement, opinion leader, social image plays important role in this metamorphosis. The concept of brand equity should be discussed to understand relationship between customer and the brand. Brand equity is net worth of the brand in monetary term. Brand having high equity often attract customers to purchase particular product. When customer can attach his/her perceived identity with the brand then it becomes easier for marketers to sell their product. Attaching self image with a brand not only motivates the person to purchase the product but helps to achieve satisfaction also. Brand value can change periodically in order to fulfil multidimensionality of customer demand. A brand value can go through following stages. Generic level- fulfilling basic needs of customer and this stage brand attachment is low Expected level- expectations of customers from the brand and if the brand can fulfil such expectations then customer can go for valued material possession Augmented level- when brands add applications beyond the expectation of customers into the product then there is high probability that customers will pay extra money to purchase the item. Stable Self Concept Researchers have found that stable self image is completely different effective self concept. Early work in psychology refers that people try to contrast their behaviour from other member of the society in order to evaluate self image. The result of this evaluation might come positive and negative. Although this theory of self evaluation has changed in recent years due to intervention of advertising and communication techniques adopted by marketers. Generally some customers are not satisfied by their own self image and want to incorporate other’s image into them. This kind of self image is vulnerable to external stimulus. Stable self image is created after the person evaluates his/her personality with other members in the society and gets satisfactory result. The study in the later part will discuss the concept of existential identity (governed by social identity theory) in order to understand key aspects of stable self concept (Huang, Phau, and Lin, 2010, pp. 909-937). Person’s concept of temporal continuity, selfsameness and uniqueness can play pivotal role on deciding stable existential identity. Existential identity can generate self stability without any basis or solid ground. Mean end chain or ladder analysis can be used to understand why customers chose a brand (Eugene, 2006, pp. 12-20). Researchers have suggested that self esteem and cognitive position of the brand. Situation might occur when customers do not get satisfied with their self image and external stimulus such as new product advertisement, competitor’s possession of valuable products and downgraded social position and advice from opinion leader are continuously reminding that the person needs valued possession to be satisfied. Such situation can be classified as unstable self image. Sense of Cultural or Social Belonging Sometimes certain culture can attract customers and as a result customers incorporate that culture into them by purchasing a particular product. For example in recent times Americans have influenced by Indian yoga culture and they have stated to incorporate yoga culture into themselves by taking admission into yoga classes. Tradition such as celebrating Christmas is an inherent part of western culture. People belong to countries outside USA and Europe purchase product during Christmas season in order to show their belonging to western culture. Hence it can be concluded that external culture can decide direction of our personality. Environment Dynamics Availability of new technology can obsolete older products and has the ability to motivate customers set new goal. Latest fashion trend also impacts customer’s purchase behaviour in terms of altering product preference, requirement to belong particular social group and many others. Customers might change their purchasing habit in order to acquire new products complemented with latest technology. Marketers need to understand psychology of consumer in order to design products having ability to satisfy their needs and create bond with consumers. A product can help the person to develop stable self image by satisfying goal of the individual. Loyalty towards the brand can be developed by gaining satisfaction such as goal is achieved from consumed product among consumers. The essay can be concluded by stating five way approach of self image. Consumption of valued item helps person to achieve stable self image but stability is relevant to effect of external environment. Consuming product inferior from view point of society generally destabilizes self image. Some customers prefer to go for competitive striving in order to possess more than other members of the society which is known as materialism. Although materialism and valued possession might be less important for many people while for others they (valued possession) are source of daily endeavour. People obsessed with materialism believe number of valued possession increases their social image in front of other members in the society. They believe acquisition of valuable item helps them to be happy and prosperous in real life (Troisi, and Christopher, 2006, pp. 421-436). Marketers need to identify requirement of customers preferring materialism to possess valuable products. Obviously their requirements are different from common customer’s demand and this gap creates marketing opportunity for marketers. Auditing the external environment can be used by marketers to decide strategy map in order to understand psychology of customers. References Bagozzi R. P., and Dholakia, U., 1999. Goal Setting and Goal Striving in Consumer Behaviour. Psychology & Marketing. Journal of Marketing [e-journal] 63, Available through: American Marketing Association [Accessed 17 October 2012]. Chartrand, T. L., Huber, J., Shiv, B., and Tanner, R. J., 2008. Nonconscious Goals and Consumer Choice. Journal of Consumer Research [e-journal] 35(2), Available through: JSTOR [Accessed 17 October 2012]. Eugene, K., 2006. Analysis of Means-end Chain Data in Marketing Research. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing [e-journal] 15(1), ISSN: 09673237, Available through: ProQuest [Accessed 17 October 2012]. Fitzmaurice, J., 2008. Splurge Purchases and Materialism. The Journal of Consumer Marketing [e-journal] 25. 6, ISSN: 07363761 Available through: ProQuest: Banking Information Source [Accessed 16 October 2012]. Huang, Y. A., Phau, I. and Lin, C., 2010. Consumer animosity, economic hardship, and normative influence: How do they affect consumers' purchase intention? European Journal of Marketing [e-journal] 44 (7/8), ISSN: 03090566, Available through: ProQuest [Accessed 17 October 2012]. Taylor, S. A., 2008. Reconciling Satisfaction, Emotions, Attitude, and Ambivalance within Consumer Models of Judgement and Decision Making: A Cautionary Tale. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behaviour [e-journal] 21, ISSN: 08998620, Available through: ProQuest [Accessed 17 October 2012]. Troisi, J. D. and Christopher, A. N., 2006. Materialism and Money Spending Disposition as Predictors of Economic and Personality Variables. North American Journal of Psychology [e-journal] 8 (3), ISSN: 15277143, Available through: ProQuest [Accessed 17 October 2012]. Young, F. C. and Pagoso, C. M., 2008. Principles of marketing. Cebu: Rex Bookstore. Read More