Buyer Behaviour & Market Research - Essay Example

For an organization to succeed in meeting its marketing goals, a lot of resources and energy have to be invested on research about the consumers so as to predict the likelihood of their behaviour towards a particular product or brand. Consumer behaviour, just like any human being’s behaviour is greatly influenced by the attitude formed towards the items or brand. According to , an attitude is a outcome of a judgemental analysis within our psychological hemisphere based on one’s beliefs on a person, item or event.’ It is a combination of feelings and cognitions that affect and is affected by our behaviour. Consumers can express displeasure or detest a product is they have a negative attitude towards it. This negative attitude can be caused by the string cultural or religious beliefs that disfavour it among others. Attitudes are formed and takes two routes; affective or cognitive. Cognition is about the mental process of thinking, memory, judgement, problem solving and decision making, perception among others. Affective elements consist of feelings, emotions and reflexive responses that we make towards sensations in the environment. The interplay of cognitive and affective elements therefore engineer and determine what opinions and attitudes we come up with when making purchases in the market. This essay aims at analyzing the formation of consumer attitudes based on these courses and how different they are. The attitudes consumers form can either benefits or be a drawback to an organization in the market as it decides on whether a customer will chose your product or not. Any effective market strategy is developed with a consideration of the consumer’s attitude. To achieve success in the market, the attitude of consumers cannot be ignored. The marketers have to find a way of changing the attitudes of the potential customer and convince them that their products are the best. The eventual behaviour of the customer shall reflect what beliefs the customers attached to the product. The mental aspect of thinking rationally about a product, perceptual process, judgement and mental images created by a product on a customer are some of the important areas that the marketers have to strategize on. The marketing department of an organization are tasked with a responsibility to unearth and understand why certain attitudes subsist amongst the consumers and find ways o changing them to the advantage of the company in terms of increasing sales and purchasing. The psychological interplay of affect and cognition in determining the attitudes formed and eventual consumer behaviour cannot be overlooked. It is however, important to note that these two routes vary in the way the form attitudes. Attitudes serve different functions in directing or skewing consumer behaviours. Functional Theory of Consumer Attitudes Utilitarian Function This is about forming attitudes based on the pleasure or favour it brings rather than the pain or discontentment it is associated with. Utilitarian function makes the consumers weigh benefits and analyze the likely happiness considering some item as pleasant will bring along. Those that projected to be beneficial are therefore construed as positively construed. Value-Expressive Function This is deployed when attitude serves on the foundation of product value. Consumers in this case attach positive attitudes to products that are seen as of high value and they are therefore held with positive esteem. For instance, Samsung fridges could be positively perceived since they are believed to be of high value. Particular Function This is developing positive attitudes due to the belief that the product will positively change and uplift the social image of a person. They therefore express admiration because of the predicted social escalation the product would bring. Ego-Defensive Function This is based on the idea a consumer forms with the thought/ belief that associating with certain product would bring down their reputation in the public eye. They therefore resent a product and dissociate with it so as to defend their ‘ego’. For example, a renowned politician having negative attitude towards cars that are considered to be for the lower class or middle class in the society so as to keep shining in their top class status. The marketers therefore are required to understand the dynamics of these functions and their effects on the consumer as well as the foundation and routes through which attitudes are formed in order to wholly understand why customers exhibit particular behaviour patterns. Attitudes and Purchasing Behaviour Attitudes take the course of feelings and emotions when they are formed. Consumers base and give reference to their feelings in tagging a product positively or negatively. Affect are psychological responses that consumers show when presented with a product. Consumers usually have very little control over how the emotionally respond to a product brought in the market. Through the sensory organs, the products in the markets (stimulus) are detected and an emotional response is achieved which in turn affect what attitude is formed towards the same product. On impulse purchasing, emotional state of the customer affect to a great extent what they will buy than cognition. When a customer had not planned to buy an item and then they find them on the market, to a great extent the attitude they have towards the product may trigger them to buy the item even though they never had it in mind. For example, if a customer finds a product that has always championed to help the street children, the customer can just decide to buy something from the company so that they can emotionally express how grateful they are towards the firm. On the other hand, planned purchasing requires rational and critical evaluation of what is to be bought. For this case it means the customer will not be driven by emotions but reasoning. For example, a person who wants a laptop will need to consider carefully which specifications they need so that the product can effectively function for them. Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) This models analyzes formation of consumer attitudes based on two routes; central and peripheral routes. It conceptualizes that consumer follows these routes in developing particular attitudes towards attitudes towards products in the market. Both the cognitive and affective components are encapsulated and clearly distinguished through this model. Central Routes In this course, consumers are more likely to rely on the cognitive element of attitude formation in which rationalism and decision making is involved when the consumer has sufficient information about the product that they find in the market. For example, based on the previous experiences that they have had with the products, they may critically evaluate it and decide if they really need to have it. If for example a person wants to buy some medicinal drug to treat their condition, then would engage in rational process of selecting which item matches their demand and can best serve them. They will not just buy any drug that is appealing to their eye from the packaging. This means that marketers who deal with products that require reasoning should go beyond mere physical appeal to provide sufficient information about their products. A person who stays in an environment that is hardly passable when it rains would rationally consider and prefer a Land Rover or any other 4 wheel drive vehicle to a saloon car due to the nature f their demand. They would therefore develop positive feelings and passion for such vehicles just like in a case of safari rally drivers do to their racing cars. In this route, the cognitive aspects are much more preferred to and considered relevant than emotional aspects in developing a resultant behaviour. Peripheral Routes Actions here are based on the emotional attachment that one develops for a product and attitudes are therefore formed based on these feelings. Unlike the central route which focuses on the power of reasoning on developing attitudes, peripheral routes are taken based on emotional or affective states when the consumers do not have enough information to deeply understand the product (low involvement). The consumer therefore acts on emotions in order to decide on which product to give preference to. The marketers should choose which aspect to focus on while doing their market promotions. For example, while doing advertisement on products such as books or academic stuffs, the promoters have to emphasize on the rational aspects since the customers weigh and evaluate their benefits based on rational criteria as they serve to satisfy consumers on rational grounds. Leisure products such as advertising a hotel, game park among other should on the other hand focus on emotional appeal such that the targeted consumer can feel’ touched’ deep from the heart and relate the products with the emotional satisfaction likely to be achieved. Role of Involvement in Consumer Behaviour The magnitudes in which the consumers are engaged with the products are vital in determining which routes (cognitive or emotional) the customer will take in developing attitude and eventual behaviour in the market. There is product and purchase involvement in which the former means the reason as why the consumer prefers one category to another while the latter describes why a customer who decide on a particular brand and not another. Purchase involvement precedes purchase since brand is covered within a category of product. The level of involvement that consumers have with a product determines and influences their choice. Those that relate positively in a product category, for example, youths who have passion for electronics and new technologies are more likely to spend their earning on items related to electronics and technology. It narrows down to specific brands in which those who find Sony, Samsung, LG or any other producer appealing will incline towards their brand of choice. Consumers may feel attracted to a particular product category or brand category because of the symbol the product or brand creates on them. For example, technology products indicates modernity and trendy an d this may make youths want to associate to such. Marketers therefore needs to understand the nature of the customers and what purpose the products and brands serve amongst the consumers such that strategies are made on how to fulfil this. Through market research, the marketers should unveil the meaning the products have on the face of the consumers and find out what group in the market are more attracted to that brand or product and why such that strategies are devised to increase the attraction and even influence the ones who are not yet attracted to the product brand . For example, if young people are interested in purchasing expensive mobile phones primarily because of social status, then promotion are devised in a way that encourages those who are not yet into the trend of new phones to join. Conclusion Consumer behaviour, as demonstrated in the essay, is greatly influenced by the attitude that that they form towards a particular product and brand. The manner in which they purchase products of companies will differ due to the attitude that they have towards a particular brand. The marketer’s strategy in influencing the attitude of the consumer will determine their success in the market or failure. Companies that uses strategies that completely modify the attitude thee consumers have towards them do well than those which do not appeal to the consumers. Attitude has been demonstrated to be taking two courses; affective and cognitive and they differ on several aspects; magnitude of customer involvements, eventual influence on consumer attitude among others. The situations in which consumers use them depend on different factors as well. It is upon the market management team of an organization to determine which best should be used on based on the nature of the product. 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