The Motivations of Different Customer Segments - Essay Example

Introduction Marketing is something that every firm and corporation either small scale or large scale would require to increase its sales and profitsbut without proper strategy and understanding of the customers marketing will be ineffective. Sometimes current sales and profit do not worry an entrepreneur rather what is coming next bothers them the most. Among all gigantic businesses, there is a constant and persistent apprehension that how do they keep their business on track and fight competition in the market. It is always suggested to be purposeful in marketing your product. It is debated that the marketing strategy should be made in such a way that attracts customer with curiosity and develops credibility of the business (Blythe, 2003). In strategy making, influence of the marketing is considered deeply for ensured success but there remains a major gap between a simple marketing strategy and a successful marketing strategy. That gap which I’m talking about is the understanding of consumer behavior. Studying consumer’s behavior is wholly in favour of the firm because it provides answers for the choices and decision making patterns of the consumer. Understanding of consumer behavior help firms in number of ways such as psychology of the consumer that how they think, how they reason, how they feel, how they rationalize, and how they react to alternatives etc. Sometimes consumers have such an attraction for their own social environment that anything presented against would offend them which makes it important for a businessman to have insight about such psychological matters for better output. Consumer behavior and its theoretical understanding can easily help devising marketing strategy as in processing limitation in consumer knowledge with awareness and influence. Understanding consumer behavior provide acumen to evaluate consumer motivation, interest and decision which no doubt vary among all consumers but with knowledge businessmen can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns more effectively according to the consumer’s choice. Consumer Behavior & its Applications If taken formally consumer behavior is the study of individuals’ and groups’ behavior and enlightens us about the processes to secure, save, dispose of products, deliver services and impacts our ideas to the consumers and society (Saito, 2009). Generally consumer behavior has four basic application in marketing a product in the market. First and foremost is the marketing strategy, in order to design a successful marketing campaign consumer behavior knowledge is very much appropriate. Suppose people are more receptive to clothes advertisements whenever new season arrives. This knowledge of consumer behavior will assist managers to plan for advertisements and launch of new products at the very start of the season. Since the advertisements will float in the market, initially few consumers will respond but soon with the shopping fever, the demand for the specific product designed specifically for the upcoming season will attract consumers. This was only because of the application of consumer behavior knowledge into market strategy which yielded results and output (Peter, et al., 1999). Secondly public choice knowledge can be applied into devising public policies. Suppose government wants to deliver public awareness message about tobacco products and its injurious impacts on society. What government can do is to post the graphic pictures of the consequences of smoking or drugs which will directly address those individuals who are inhabited to smoking or drugs. Thirdly major application of consumer behavior knowledge involves social marketing, it is well known fact that social marketing in contemporary world has a great influence but it does not necessarily mean social marketing has more output than traditional marketing (Samli, 2013). When we talk about social marketing considering consumer behavior, it actually targets audience on social media to plant the concept and product into their minds. If we understand consumers well then we can exploit social marketing to its best but on the contrary if social marketing fails to grasp attention and customers then it may also have adverse effects on the company’s sales. So, without prior understanding of consumer choices and behavioral understanding social marketing can be a disaster. Finally studying consumer behavior benefits us in understanding marketing from the perspective of a consumer. When businessmen get to know consumer choices, they become more sensitive to minor details which only a consumer can understand. Knowledge of consumer behavior makes entrepreneur to put on the consumer’s shoes and nonetheless, knowing your enemy is what makes you win the war. Consumer Behavior Theories in real life In this regard there are number of theories related to consumer behavior which in their own way tend to optimize the selling and enrich marketing strategies for better clientage and consumers (OShaughnessy, 2013). The theories are focused upon how consumers spend money, what makes them realize worth spending, what contains them from spending, what motivates consumers and how strategies should be planned etc. These theories target different aspect of consumer spending as their budget, utilities, satisfaction, knowledge of consumer about a product and feature of two different products etc. A theory that has most commonly been used to examine consumer behavior is the consumer’s rationality to his/ her decision of making purchase or not. Consumers are considered to be rational that when they are about to purchase something they would be more eager to make the most of the product in the least amount. The rationality theory proclaims that consumers will be more willing to spend on basic item rather than luxurious item which enlighten entrepreneur to plant the idea of necessity for his product marketing (Hawkins, et al., 1980). Another consumer behavior theory speculates about consumers’ preference, likings, disliking and tastes which provide marketing experts with the information to conduct survey analysis. In order to attain efficient interpretations consumers’ choices can be classified into demographics as location, age, gender, occupation and income etc. Having demographic statistics divides the society with respect to their preferences and ultimately the job of any marketing manager in return becomes easier. Price of the marketed product is most frequent choice of a consumer which according to consumer theories is very important to determine the sales. Entrepreneurs are always advised to keep prices of their products at the lowest possible level. Why would a businessman afford to bear low profits? Because it is the consumer behavior to respond to incentives which in rationality perspective increases the satisfaction of the consumer hence the sales go rocket high (Hawkins, et al., 2004). Third perspective of consumer behavior states the utility of the product need to be marketed at best. It is a common practice among consumer that they would opt for costly product if it offers better utility to them. If the product has certain extra features, the consumer will be tempted to buy the costly product for enhanced utility. Supposedly a car with two features will be preferred over another car with one feature, irrespective of the fact that whatever the price is demanded for it but for sure the price difference must fulfill consumers’ ability to purchase. Similarly a car with an efficient fuel engine or with enhanced media system will also be preferred by the consumer (Solomon, 2010). Consumer behavior for product marketing is again the key here. Finally the most important theory about consumer behavior is the knowledge of the consumer which makes or breaks the sale of the product. Usually consumers are tempted to buy only those items of which they are already aware of. Consumers choose product of their knowledge whereas information of the product also motivates a consumer to go for the sale. Information at first means knowledge of the existence of the product then good knowledge also matters. Bad repute will adversely influence the consumer choices. So, all in all consumer behavior for marketing is the key to successive business. Focus on Marketing Strategies There is a famous saying that put your money where your mouth is; yes, I agree to it. Many of the firms do not even realize the importance of marketing. They invest their efforts in either retaining customers or attracting new ones but what they actually miss for their firm to grow is the marketing. Businessmen should keep a minimal budget for marketing because that is from where, customers come from (Dolan, et al., 2002). The most essential strategy for developing a business is to conceive a realistic forward looking marketing budget. In this fast changing world businesses must have to understand the emerging new marketing opportunities. There was a time when fooling out the consumer was easy but now consumers are increasingly starting to research for product and their features, then compare and finally decide for purchase (Zinkhan, 2000). Since the trends have changed, businesses must opt for new technologies such as websites. Having an attractive website detailing all services and product convinces consumers before they have even thought about visiting your store. This sort of marketing can access billions of consumers in a flesh. Investment on marketing or allocating specific budget for marketing always proves to be smart marketing and strengthen business position. After allocation of resource, entrepreneurs must set target audience on whom the budget will be spend. As mentioned earlier that having demographic analysis help formulating the target audience for whom the company offers it services or who can be the potential customers. The marketing strategy must have clear target audience to address to. Suppose smart phones can convince youth more effectively than elders so, the marketing must target youth. Similarly an insurance plan for families must address families not women or youth. The contextual understanding of the target audience is what makes them feel needy for the products. Marketing strategy must be based upon the understanding that what motivates the consumers, what are their weaknesses and at which point the customer would take a moment to think of buying and then provision of relevant information to make consumer buy the product. Only such a strategic design of marketing can survive otherwise the consequences can be worst. In this regard even customers can be directly approached for conceptual understanding and information. After marketing customers with information, a strategic marketing plan must focus on converting efforts into output and potential customer into paying customer. In this regard setting up the benchmark can help maintaining track of progress or deficiency. Once benchmark has been set, the marketing must contact customers according to their convenience either through social media, through website, through mass media, through email, through direct meetings or through publicity. Whatever the mean is used, the target must be deliver the information to the consumer. The next strategy is to contemplate all the piece of marketing planning at one place such as budget, target audience, conceptual understanding, conversion of value, benchmark, consumer contact, and alignment. All these strategic decision syndicate together and provide businessmen with a progressive marketing idea which clearly understands human behavior. References Blythe, J., 2003. Marketing strategy. London: McGraw-Hill Education. Dolan, R. J. et al., 2002. Marketing strategy. Boston: Harvard Business School Pub.. Hawkins, D. I., Best, R. J. & Coney, K. A., 2004. Consumer behavior: building marketing strategy. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Hawkins, D. I., Coney, K. A. & Best, R. J., 1980. Consumer behavior: implications for marketing strategy. Dallas: Business Publications.. OShaughnessy, 2013. Consumer behaviour: perspectives, findings and explanations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.. Peter, J. P., Grunert, K. G. & Olson, J. C., 1999. Consumer behaviour and marketing strategy. London: McGraw-Hill.. Saito, F., 2009. Consumer behavior. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Samli, A. C., 2013. International consumer behavior in the 21st Century impact on marketing strategy development. New York: Springer. Solomon, M. R., 2010. Consumer behaviour: a European perspective. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times. Zinkhan, G. M., 2000. Advertising research: the Internet, consumer behavior, and strategy. Chicago: American Marketing Association. Read More