Consumer Psychology and Buying Behaviour - Essay Example

Consumer Psychology and Buying Behaviour Marketing is an important aspect in our lives. It through marketing that business is certain to thrive all over the world. Without marketing, potential customers are not able to learn about the existence of products and services they miss, and this leads to lack of success in business. On the other hand, the marketers need to incorporate their understanding in the involvement principle into the marketing campaigns in order to assist the consumer in their buying decision behavior. The marketing model that is most used by marketers has two distinctive parts. The first part entails a description of a population of ‘consumers’ who individual choose to buy various competing brands over and over again. The second one entails brand management especially when changing the attributes of a brand like the price, or quality in response to events in the marketplace. Several factors have been said to influence marketing. Once a company has carried out efficient marketing research, it is important to ensure that it introduces the approved product and/or service for the market. Location or place is an imperative aspect of marketing where products and or services are distributed. Marketing also entails promotion of products by given companies. It is used to inform customers about the new product that the company intends to bring into the market. The market must be dominated by the element of value for products and services. Most potential consumers tend to buy products or services sold at low prices. Loyalty denotes the likeliness of some consumers to stick to the same products. This serves as the key effect and determinism in the market. Psychology entails how and in what ways aspects of the actual products and /or services in the market influences people to make their choices, by possibly buying a product that is different from the previous one. Sociology entails the manner in which one person‘s buying is influenced by that of others. In essence, there is the tendency of people willing to buy the same brands as others leading to a lock in one product that dominates the market without even considering the fact that the competitors have more or less identical ‘qualities’ that may include price. Introduction Marketing is the selling of products and services to potential clients in a given environment at a given time. It basically entails the potential clients that are available and how to handle them. Hence, customer psychology and buying behaviour is necessary in any marketing plan because, clients are the most important elements in growth of businesses. Without marketing, potential customers are not able to learn about the existence of products and services they miss, and this leads to lack of success in business (Kinley et al 2010). Essentially, the large part of the marketing focuses on consumer behavior. Thus, application of psychology acts as a paradigmatic influence in explaining human behavior in terms of consumer perceptions and preferences of certain products and services. On the other hand, the marketers need to incorporate their understanding in the involvement principle into the marketing campaigns in order to assist the consumer in their buying decision behavior. In marketing, most consumer products are designed in the manner that appeals to the customers, encouraging them to buy. Thus, industrial and manufacturer tend to focus more on understanding and manipulating products attributes (Kinley et al 2010). Nether the less, buying behavior is not a function product but also a function of the consumer, the social environment of other customers, the competing products in the marketplace, and the brand marketing strategy. Hence, it is important to first understand the psychology of the consumers, and the sociology of consumer groups or networks. The marketing model that is most used by marketers has two distinctive parts. The first part entails a description of a population of ‘consumers’ who individual choose to buy various competing brands over and over again. This demonstrates the psychology of a single consumer and the sociology of collective behavior of a group. The second one entails brand management especially when changing the attributes of a brand like the price, or quality in response to events in the marketplace. Evolutionary psychology entails addressing basic issues pertaining to consumer behavior, emotion and cognition and attempting to give solutions on the focal point on the basic principle that the human mind that comes due to the evolutionary process, and the principle of natural selection as argued by Darwin. In essence, Darwin developed a three step process that entails variation, inheritance and selection. The mind is said to have psychological mechanisms that solve specific adaptive problems (Kinley et al 2010). They help in solving various issues such as emotion, perception, reasoning and social relations. Apparently, all businesses that want to prosper must consider the element of marketing. Thus, it is considered ideal in determining the correct form of advertisement to use, potential to the target consumers, creating the loyalty of the consumer, as well as, ensuring that the overall duty of the marketing strategy is to work out on the short and long term objectives. Needless to say, almost all businesses seek success and are guaranteed from various factors, which include qualified marketing workforce and the ability to effectively communicate the products and /or services in the market. Present business world is concerned with satisfying the customers’ needs in the midst of other factors. This is done through proper planning where business purpose on defining their destinations. According to Kinley et al 2010, the marketers carry out a market research that aims at identifying an appropriate market and the needs of the potential customers. With the help of evolutionary psychology, researchers would be able to understand the consumer psychology and buying behavior in the intended market segment. This acts as identification for the researchers that there is a need to create appropriate brands for the market and the potential consumers. Product Once a company has carried out efficient marketing research, it is important to ensure that it introduces the approved product and/or service for the market. It should be of the best quality and distinct from other products that are similar in the market. For this to be achievable, the company should come up with perceptions that suit potential consumers. This is best emphasized through the use of advertisement and promotions. An effective advertisement should ensure that it draws attention of potential consumers, hence influences them to use the products, and since consumers are argued to be rational in consumption or usage of products. For instance, they consume what is best for then at a particular time and when another product comes in the market surpassing the previous one, they jump over to the new product (Kinley et al 2010). By use of evolutionary psychology, a company can identify certain defaults in current products that are from competitors and use them for appropriate measures to improvise them own products to enable them solve the needs of potential consumers. The evolutionary psychology argues that human behavior is an instigator of interaction with the environment, meaning that if the environment is adjusted then the human behavior is adjusted too. For instance, a certain company has expensive products and introduces them to a poor neighborhood and another company comes with an idea of putting into the market affordable products that are meant for low income earners in the same market, it is likely that the new products will sell better than the current products (Kinley et al 2010). Hence, marketers should ensure that they place the best products to the market in terms of quality and market preference. Moreover, marketers should also focus on customer service and the benefits that are accrued from the products, which involve changing the features and the scope of the products and the customer service. Of importance to note is that, when potential and target consumers are treated in a caring manner, they feel honored and are more likely to identify with certain companies and their products. Additionally, the customer psychology and buying behavior argues that potential and target consumers are more likely to buy a product that is well packaged and labeled, all companies that pack and label their products in reference to the needs of their consumers tend to change their behavior so that the potential consumers prefer to purchase them and not others from different companies. Place Location or place is an imperative aspect of marketing where products and or services are distributed. A number of consumers have the tendency to believe that certain market areas are better than others. It is mostly influenced by the evolutionary psychology, which argues that consumer’s behavior and perception is shaped according to modification of behavior by the environment. For instance, wealthy people prefer buying expensive products at specific places due to class. Thus, they tend to think that products sold away from ‘their special places’ are not up to standard. Surprisingly, if the same products are taken out to the streets they would also not buy them. Hence, marketer should be very keen when choosing places they wish to distribute their products from (Kinley et al 2010). Promotion Marketing also entails promotion of products by given companies. It is used to inform customers about the new product that the company intends to bring into the market. Good promotion tactics ensures that potential consumers build a positive attitude towards the products. The essence of the promotion is not only to enlighten potential consumers about the new product in the market, but also demonstrate the high level of importance and quality that are the pulling factors for the consumers. Promotion acts as a persuasive tool that aims at enlightening consumers about the products. Through the use of evolutionary psychology, companies are able to handle the consumers’ psychology and buying behavior by understanding what influences consumers to like and use certain products. Hence, the marketers should be in apposition to come up with promotion tools that suit the needs of the potential consumer. For instance, promotion via electronic media that puts to advantage a certain product would most likely influence consumers’ decision to purchase the products. Promotions act both as an endorsement and convincing techniques. Going as per the evolutionary psychology mandate of investigating emotions and environmental preferences, a prior investigation of how other companies promotion affect consumers psychology and buying behavior helps design a new or distinct promotion technique that would sway emotions of the consumers in varying directions(Kinley et al 2010). Price The market must be dominated by the element of value for products and services. Most potential consumers tend to buy products or services sold at low prices. Recent study on the consumers’ behavior on respond can help companies determine the best prices to set for their products. The notion that cheap products are of low quality is one of the factors in which companies can set prices for its products. Hence, the result of this study gives companies informed decisions about what happens when low or high prices are set for the products. Marketers should ensure that their prices work with quality of the products or services to create a wider market. Moreover, the marketers should be sure that their model is in a position to handle desires of potential and target consumers that are in the market. Some of the factors that are used by the marketers in this model include: loyalty, sociology, and psychology. Loyalty denotes the likeliness of some consumers to stick to the same products. This serves as the key effect and determinism in the market. The stronger the loyalty, the sluggish it will be in moving and the people purchasing the product will be less taking more time. According to discrete –time models, loyalty is determined by the size of the diagonal element in a translation matrix. Conversely, lack of loyalty is not associated with dynamic behavior but only depends upon what is available in the market. Moreover, there is another aspect of loyalty that is associated with memory effect, to represent consumers returning to products or services that they had previously used especially having experienced new products and services that did not please them. Marketers should ensure that they purpose on building a brand loyalty for their products or services to ensure that potential consumers give preference to their products /services over others (Kinley et al 2010). Sociology entails the manner in which one person‘s buying is influenced by that of others. In essence, there is the tendency of people willing to buy the same brands as others leading to a lock in one product that dominates the market without even considering the fact that the competitors have more or less identical ‘qualities’ that may include price. Marketers should ensure that their products or services attract various potential customers who could be able to pull more consumer into purchasing the same products or services. This could be done through having quality products in the market and sustain their market territory over similar products (Kinley et al 2010). Psychology entails how and in what ways aspects of the actual products and /or services in the market influences people to make their choices, by possibly buying a product that is different from the previous one. Psychology involves minimised anticipated regret, attributed change, outline avoidance, and change in decision process. Minimised anticipated regret refers to the way two products are compared with each other with regard to different qualities including price or affordability. For instance, a consumer might judge one product to be superior to another in all respects. Attribute change is the act of incepting a new product onto the market to change the way consumers have viewed the established brands. Essentially, this may include drawing attention to products that may not have had experienced much publicity in the market (Kinley et al 2010). Outlier avoidance is a situation where a number of products are in similar in many aspects. This gives customer the tendency to avoid those that they are not familiar or conversant to. Decision process change is a straight choice between two items that are comparable in terms of price, size, and quality among others where a decision is made. All these elements of psychology should be considered by the marketers so as to improve the market and make is easier for consumers to work with their products. Conclusion Marketing should be handled with uttermost care in ensuring that marketers understand the consumers’ psychology and buying behavior. Through this, companies and individuals must prioritize on marketing as the extensive primary importance for business. Since marketing seeks to persuade, provoke specific behaviors, and change attitudes, it has always used psychological social theories for these purposes. Various theories used in marketing are meant to influence, create attitudes, and persuasion. Moreover, the psychology of persuasion and purchase decision is used during marketing, to attract potential consumers in order to increase their sales. Hence, many marketers use tactics that make sure that consumers feel that their products and /or services are few and will not last for long, thus insinuating that the products or services are valuable. On the other hand, potential consumers look at different issues that help them make decision in whether to purchase products and /or services. They must be sure that they have reasonable prices for good products and that other people take preference in the same products. Once potential and target consumers are convinced about the products or services, then companies are sure of having a good market and being able to continually understand the consumer psychology and their buying behavior. Bibliography: Kinley, T et al., 2010. Shopping behavior and the involvement construct, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 14, 4:562 – 575. Read More