Understanding of Consumer Behaviour to Attract Customers - Literature review Example

How You Believe Companies Have Used an Understanding of Consumer Behaviour to Attract s and Persuade Them to Buy Their Products and Services Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Replication of Consumer Behaviour through the Theoretical Concept: Emotion 4 Review of Academic Knowledge 6 Examples 9 Conclusion 10 References 12 Introduction This paper intends to explain the concept of consumer behaviour with the sole focus on the replication of consumer behaviour through the integration of emotions in the promotional strategies adopted by companies when persuading customers. In order to accomplish this particular objective, the discussion will incorporate a critical review of academic knowledge regarding the stated research issue. Consumer behaviour is commonly described as the activities as well as decision process adopted by people who buy goods as well as services for their personal uses depending on particular variables and factors. Notably, with the type of consumers varying, the behaviour of their purchasing also changes. Notably, there are two major types of consumers identifiable in almost every market context; i.e. the personal consumer and the organizational consumer (Shodhganga, 2010). As commonly observed, personal consumers attempt to purchase goods and/or services for their personal uses only and therefore, the purchasing capacity tends to be lesser as compared to organisational customers. It is in this context that as organizational consumers, corporate entities, institutions and government agencies tend to purchase goods, services and equipments, which are necessary for running their organization in huge bulks. To be noted in this context, emotions are mostly applied by retailers to attract personal consumers from the target specific population. It is often considered in this regard that emotions inculcated in promotional strategies tend to trigger the likeness and desirability of the consumers, which in turn helps them to get easily persuaded towards the products being promoted (DeSteno & et. al., 2004). It is this particular thought to be emphasised in the further discussion of the study to examine the advantages of incorporating emotions when persuading consumers to purchase and thereby mould their behaviour towards consumption. Replication of Consumer Behaviour through the Theoretical Concept: Emotion Emotion today forms one of the main concepts, which influences the consumer behaviour effectively to make them purchase goods and services. Emotion is the sensitive part of the people. Consumer behaviour involves certain activities, decisions as well as experiences that satisfy consumer needs. The study of consumer behaviour is very essential for marketers as it helps the marketers to understand the reasons of buying products from people so that they can improve the strategies to influence consumer behaviour as well as attract the customers to buy goods and services. Brand name and brand loyalty are also noteworthy mechanisms to reflect consumer preferences to purchase a particular brand owing to their belief to obtain comfortable features, images as well as good quality of products at reasonable or at least just price (MKTG, 2014). Brand name also functions as an important concept when targeting increased sales of products. It is in this context that through brand loyalty and wider promotion of brand name, marketers often intend to persuade customers’ emotions at their unconscious levels. It is in this context that by targeting the emotions of consumers, marketers are able to attract and link with their desirability as well as likeliness features, which in turn define their demands, tastes and preferences. Consequently, emphasising the emotional attributes of the consumers gives an added advantage to the marketers to create a perception amid customers that further persuades them to prefer the offered product/service (Hasan, 2008). The influence of emotions on assessment and decision has been important to trigger sensibility, which is a major attribute of consumer behaviour. Studies have therefore been dedicated on elaborating the developmental effects of provoking conscious as well as personal emotions possessed by the consumers to motivate or rather persuade them for their ultimate purchase. Contextually, while Banyte & et. al. (2007) argue that the idea of emotion can be automatically well-informed and influence the consumer behaviour in emotions-specific method, there is no appropriate data that such type of emotion-specific behaviours can be automatically motivated. However, research revealed that emotion-specific behaviours can be motivated by using adjective primes, which represent two emotions such as sadness as well as guilt in advertisements, to persuade customers’ buying behaviour. This process is planned to activate the concept of specific-emotion in an unconscious manner. To ensure the proper orientation of this concept, companies have thus emphasised working on a systematic but complex process of strategic integration when attempting to persuade customers through emotions. It is in this context that companies intend to complement the approach by structures of knowledge as well as schemata. These emotion concepts are related to the neural network where ‘motivations’, ‘behaviours’ and ‘memories’ of the consumers and are activated when they deliberately experience such a feeling of sadness or happiness (Banyte & et. al., 2007). Theoretically, the concept of emotion refers to the active part of the consumers that can replicate consumer behaviour or attract consumers to buy goods and/or services, which they perceive to suffice their needs, tastes as well as preferences. Hence, it can be asserted that the concept of emotion also helps in consumer decision-making process. The companies can attract customers emotionally by giving them assurance of satisfaction (Mooij & Hofstede, 2011). When applied at a wider scale, it is through these mechanisms and strategic compilations that companies intend to influence the desirability and the perceptions of the targeted customers, which in turn motivates them to make their ultimate purchases. This in turn indicates the correlation existing between the marketers’ use of emotions and the changes observed in customers’ buying behaviour (Banyte & et. al., 2007). While critics have been arguing that using emotions in advertising and promoting a product or a service increases the chances of irrational behaviour amid customers, Mooij & Hofstede (2011) argued that sometimes rational decision-making model also influences the consumers to purchase products. However, as the ultimate decision depends on the situational aspects, which is again influenced by the personal preferences and perceptions of the customers, emotions also gets linked with the prospect (Mooij & Hofstede, 2011). Review of Academic Knowledge According to Spectrum (2009), the study of emotion was used to improve a model of online consumer behavior. This model observes the influence of three types of emotional qualities persistent amid consumers in common, in today’s contemporary scenario. These three variables include ‘pleasure’, ‘arousal’ and ‘dominance’. In general, emotions are regarded as an important aspect of human reaction to environmental surroundings as well as a useful component to monitor behavior. However, when related to the marketing concepts, there are several positive as well as negative effects that can be related with the plans of consumer decision making process while integrating emotional concepts. As per Spectrum (2009), positive emotions are related with the ‘heuristic information-processing strategies’ while negative emotions are related with ‘systematic elaboration of information’. These aspects can be apparently observed in respect to for the current trend of online consumerism, wherein the concept of emotion influences their perception of success as well as entertainment. According to Taylor (2011), the cultural relationship of customers with the emotion, attitude and self are the basic concepts that frame consumer behavior and branding as well as advertisement planning. These concepts influence the consumer behavior substantially to attract them for buying goods and/or services. It is thus argued by Taylor (2011) that when logical coherence and justifications fail to suffice the customers’ passive reaction towards buying a product, emotional motivation often tends to simulate their positive mindset and perceptions. According to Martin & Morich (2011), theories of consumer behavior suggest that consumer is a rational agent for branded products which they purchase. Studies conducted by Malar & et. al. (2011) thus argue that decisions taken by consumers are directed by their development of attitudes as well as needs. During this decision-making process, human behavior also activates as an unconscious process or follows a totally conscious awareness way of appraisal. Based on a similar notion Verhagen & Dolen (2011) also addresses a new model for consumer behavior that includes both conscious as well as unconscious levels to signify customer’s decision making process regarding brand choices in their daily lives. Arguably, this is how emotions tend to influence the consumer behaviors to make a positive buying decision. According to Verhagen & Dolen (2011), positive as well as negative affects are measured as two self-determining basic emotions, which can be recognized in almost every culture. Positive effect of emotions help consumers to feel enthusiastic as well as excited about the product being offered. While on the other hand, through negative effect of emotions, consumers are quite likely to feel disturbed as well as distressed. Accordingly, having a control over these factors, companies can surely mould and curve the decision-making of consumers, which in turn influences their purchasing intentions quite strongly even at adverse situations indicating towards ‘emotional brand attachment’ (Malar & et.al. 2011). Examples There are several examples regarding how emotion influences the consumer behaviour to make a positive decision when inculcated in advertisements. Various leading brands can hereby be observed to be much attentive when incorporating the thought of ‘emotional brand attachment’. For instance, many life insurance companies, car insurance companies and large multinational brands such as Ford as well as Cadbury have been following an emotional approach when aiming at influencing customers’ perception. To be specific, life insurance companies are often observed to provide several schemes assuring consumers to be able to manage their funds even after retirement or take loan facilities to suffice their family requirements during challenging situations. These companies are also often observed to provide gifts along with their products, so that customers can be easily attracted on the basis of emotions, creating an attachment with the brand that in turn enhances their trustworthiness as well as their desirability (Baker & Siegelman, 2013). Similarly, as a large and renowned international brand, Ford also attempts to relate with consumers’ emotions. For instance, in many of its brand promotional strategies, the company has been focused on the emotional values of its products rather than emphasising the economic attributes that could have otherwise created a negative impression on the consumers and thereby, narrowed its market potentials to a limited population (Anurit & et. al. n.d.). Again, products such as chocolate and fast food are nowadays being considered to have negative effects on its consumers if consumed regularly as well as in large amounts. To counterbalance these obstructions, brands such as Cadbury and McDonald’s have been emphasizing on the emotional values of their products through festive promotions as well as various value added offers (Conger, 2014). In addition, restaurants such as McDonald’s, Pret-A-Manger and retail giants such as Marks & Spencer’s have been emphasizing the development of their stores in a manner than can provide a homely-feeling to its customers and in turn, sufficing their emotional needs (McDonald & Chermetony, n.d.). Taking into account these examples, it might not be quite irrational to assert in this context that irrespective of negative publications and appraisals linked with the products offered by these brands, the organizations are still capable of retaining a large population of consumers by creating an emotional relation with them. This in turn indicates how companies are making use of consumer emotions when branding as well as marketing their products. Conclusion From the above discussion, the obtained facts reveal that consumer behaviour refers to those activities as well as decision-making process followed by people when making any purchase decisions. In general, the consumers’ buying behaviours may be influenced by their emotional sensitiveness to a substantial extent along with the economic attributes they perceive to be related with the purchase decision. It is in this context that the study of consumer behaviour is very important for marketers as it helps to understand the purpose of consumers for buying products. These initiatives taken by companies as well as academic researchers have further revealed that emotional linkage between the consumers’ expected returns from a purchase decision and the qualities being served by the product or service on offer shall influence the consumer behaviour and subsequently attract them to make their ultimate purchases. Nevertheless, identifying and influencing the emotional attributes of consumers is a challenging task, which is mostly dependent on the assumptions taken by the marketers. It is thus that the technique demands greater emphasis to market research and effective interpretation to ensure that the desired returns are obtained from the promotional ventures. References Anurit, J. & et. al., No Date. A Comparative Study between Thai and UK Customers’ Perceptions. Consumer Behaviour of Luxury Automobiles, pp. 1-23. Baker, T. & Siegelman, P., 2013. Behavioural Economics and Insurance Law: The Importance of Equilibrium Analysis. University of Pennsylvania Law School, pp. 1-21. Banyte, J. & et.al., 2007. Relationship of Consumer Attitude and Brand: Emotional Aspect. Commerce of Engineering Decisions, Vol. 2, No. 52, pp. 1-13. Conger, A. J., 2014. The Necessary Art of Persuasion. Harvard Business Review. [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/1998/05/the-necessary-art-of-persuasion [Accessed December 11, 2014]. DeSteno, D. & et. al., 2004. Discrete Emotions and Persuasion: The Role of Emotion-Induced Expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 86, No. 1, 43–56. Hasan, T., 2008. Influence of Brand Name on Consumer Decision in Car Choice. Department of Business Administration, pp. 1-74. McDonald, M. & Chermetony, L. de., No Date. Corporate Marketing and Service Brands: Moving Beyond the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Model. DSpace. [Online] Available at: https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/1045/1/McDonald-Corporate%20Marketing%20and%20Service%20Brands.pdf [Accessed December 11, 2014]. MKTG, 2014. Effects of non-consciously priming emotion concepts. Pamplin College of Business, pp. 1-57. Mooij, D. M. & Hofstede, G., 2011. Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior: A Review of Research Findings. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Vol. 23, pp. 181-192. Malar, L. & et.al., 2011. Emotional Brand Attachment and Brand Personality: The Relative Importance of the Actual and the Ideal Self. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 75, pp. 35-52. Martin, N. & Morich, K., 2011. Unconscious mental processes in consumer choice: Toward a new model of consumer behavior. Journal of Brand Management, pp. 483-505. Shodhganga, 2010. Consumer Behaviour. Welcome to Shodhganga @INFLIBNET Centre, pp. 1-53. Spectrum, 2009. A Comparison between Canadian and Chinese Website Visitors. Online Consumer Behavior, pp. 1-29. Taylor, F., 2011. Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior: A Review of Research Findings. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Vol. 3, Iss. 3-4, pp. 181-192. Verhagen, T. & Dolen, V. W., 2011. The influence of online store beliefs on consumer online impulse buying: A model and empirical application. Information & Management, Vol. 48, pp. 320-327. Read More