What is the Importance of Consumer Behaviour in Marketing?
Understanding the importance of consumer behaviour in marketing or any organization before launching a product. If the organization failed to analyze how a customer will respond to a particular product, the company will face losses. Consumer behaviour is very complex because each consumer has a different mind and attitude towards the purchase, consumption, and disposal of products.
Understanding the theories and concepts of consumer behaviour helps to market the product or services successfully. Moreover, studying consumer behaviour helps in many aspects. As there is constant change in living standards, trends, fashion, and technology change. Consumers’ attitude toward the purchase of product varies. Understanding these factors is of utmost importance because the marketing of products is largely dependent on these factors.
What is the Importance of Consumer Behaviour in Marketing? This essay discusses the value to marketers of understanding the importance of consumer behaviour concepts and theories in marketing.
Consumer Behaviour or Buyer Behaviour is referred to the behaviour. That is displayed by the individual while they are buying, consuming, or disposing of any particular product or service. These behaviors can be affected by multiple factors. Moreover, it also involves searching for a product and evaluating of product where the consumer evaluates different features, purchases, and consumption of the product. Later the post-purchase behavior of the product is studied. Which shows consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction where it involves the disposal of the product.
The customers while buying a product go through many steps. The study of consumer behaviour helps to understand how buying decision is made and how they look for a product. Moreover, understanding consumer behaviour also helps marketers to know the what, where, when, how, and why of the consumption of product consumption. These help marketers or organizations to know the reason behind the purchase of products by consumers and how it satisfies them. Among other factors, basic needs like shelter and hunger along with a craving for psychological fulfillment tends consumer to buy a certain product or service.
The main purpose behind marketing a product is to satisfy the demands and wants of the Consumers. The study of consumer behavior helps to achieve this purpose. As consumers are the most important person for marketers or salespeople. Therefore they need to consider the likes and dislikes of the consumers so that they can provide them with the goods and services accordingly. The more careful analysis helps in more exact prediction about the behavior of consumers of any product or service. The study of consumer behaviors helps business managers, salespeople, and marketers in the following way.
Marketers need to study consumer behaviour. They need to know consumers as individuals or groups opt for, purchase, consumer, or dispose of products and services and how they share their experiences to satisfy their wants or needs. This helps marketers to investigate and understand how consumers behave. So that they can position their products to a specific group of people or targeted individuals.
From the marketer’s viewpoint, they assume that the basic purpose of marketing is to sell goods and services to more people so that more profit could be made. This principle of making profits is heavily applied by almost all marketers. Earlier, marketers were successful in accomplishing their purpose. However, today, consumers are more aware of the use of products and other information about the product. It is not easy to sell or attract customers to buy the product. Thus, to sell a product or service or to convince consumers to buy the product. The marketers have to undergo proper research to win them over.
The following are some of the points discussed that explain the value to marketers of understanding and applying consumer behaviour concepts and theories.
The study of consumer behaviour helps marketers to recognize and forecast the purchase behavior of consumers while they are purchasing a product. The study of consumer behavior helps marketers not only to understand what consumers purchase but helps to understand why they purchase it. Moreover, other questions like how, where, and when they purchase it are also answered. The consumption and the reasons behind the disposition of that particular product or service help marketers to be fully aware of the product that is marketed.
Consumer behavior studies also help marketers to understand the post-purchase behavior of the consumers. Thus, marketers become fully aware of every phase of the consumption process i.e., pre-purchase behavior, behavior during purchase, and post-purchase behavior. Many studies in the past show that each consumer behaves differently toward a product i.e. They buy the product for different reasons, pay different prices, used the product differently, and have different emotional attachments with the product.
Professor Theodore Levitt says that consumer behavior is of most importance to marketers in business studies as the main aim is to create and retain customers. If the consumers are satisfied with the product, he or they will buy the same product again. Therefore, the product should be marketed by markers in such a way that convince the customer to buy the product. Thus, creating customers and retaining those customers are important.
These can be done through understanding and paying close attention to the consumer’s behavior. While making a purchase decision or buying a product in the marketplace. Moreover, the information published on the websites largely influences the customer’s buying behavior. Such information on published sources arouses consumers to buy a product or service. Moreover, updating such information will help the consumer to retain a product or re-try the product. If the product has dissatisfied them.
Marketers need to consider the factors that affect the buying behavior of consumers before entering the market. Many factors can influence the purchase decision of consumers such as social influence, cultural influences, psychological factors, and personal factors. Understanding these factors helps marketers to market the product at the right time to the right consumers. For example, if the marketer is marketing a Halal product. The marketers first consider all the factors that can influence consumers to buy Halal products. Where they can target specific areas where Halal food is more sold.
Marketers need to pay attention to cultural influences such as religion, values, and norms of the people or societies targeted, and the lifestyle of the targeted consumers. The marketers can propose different strategies that convince the targeted consumers to buy marketed products or services. Moreover, marketers should ascertain the factors that influence and affects the purchase decision of consumers.
If the marketers failed to understand the factors that might influence consumers. They will fail to convince the consumer to purchase that product or will fail to meet the demands of consumers. Some variables cannot stand directly observed. In such cases, a thorough understanding of concepts and theories of consumer behavior helps marketers to predict the consumer’s buying behavior to a reasonable extent. Thus, understanding consumer behavior to buy a product is complex and requires marketers to continuously understand and apply various concepts and theories for successful marketing.
All the products and services marketed revolve around the behavior of consumers that how they will respond to them. Effective marketing of a product by salespeople may help to deliver the right product to the right people. Consumer behavior deals with the knowledge of what the consumers need and want to buy and what goods and services are available to satisfy their needs. Thus, consumer behavior deals particularly with the behavior of people i.e., consumers.
A salesperson needs to be fully aware of the customer’s requirements. So that he or she could communicate the benefits of the product to the customers. Moreover, the salesperson by understanding the consumer’s demand and need for a product can sell goods that are most closely related to their requirement. Besides understanding consumer behaviour, the salesperson should also have command over their spoken language.
This is because any miscommunication could harm the brand’s reputation. Moreover, if the consumers have more knowledge about the product than the salesperson, the sales might fail to meet their targets. Thus, analyzing consumer behavior and knowledge for effective marketing of products by salespeople is important. The salespeople must be fully aware of the consumer’s behavior in different situations. So that they could help them in meeting their demands and satisfaction.
Disposal of products involves the throwing away of products by consumers. This behavior of consumers is very complex and requires more importance by marketers. Understanding the consumer’s behavior about how and when consumers dispose of a product, the marketers or the companies can position themselves so that this behavior could stand limited.
If the product or service has failed to deliver the required or expected satisfaction by the consumers, the product disposes of by the customers. For this, some marketers track the follow-up from the consumers so that they can gauge the reason behind the failure of the product. Moreover, to retain customers, some marketers or organizations offer customers services like exchange of products, money-back guarantees, etc. Although, these tools are helpful to influence the post-purchase behavior of consumers to some extent.
The method of disposition varies transversely from product to product. Some of the factors that lead to consumers’ behavior to dispose of a product include psychological characteristics, situational factors, or the intrinsic factors of the product. The psychological characteristics include attitude, mood, emotion, social class, social conscience, perception, etc. Situational factors such as urgency, functional use, fashion change, etc., and intrinsic factors such as product style, durability, reliability, adaptability, replacement cost, color, size, etc. can lead to consumers’ decision to dispose of a product.
For example, the personal computers sold previously stood largely demanded by consumers. However, due to changes in size, advancing technology, affordability, and convenience; most people have switched to laptops and mobiles with operating systems have disposed of personal computers to a greater extent.
The theories and concepts of Consumer behavior help marketers to optimize their sales and to create efficient marketing strategies. Moreover, these theories provide marketers with information on the consumer’s behavior to spend money, likely causes that incline them to spend more money on a product, and these two pieces of information help to plan strategies that should practice by the marketers for successful marketing of a product. Studying different consumer behavior theories helps to understand the different choices that consumers make to buy a product. Some factors need to exist carefully analyzed by marketers. Which helps them to increase their sales and develop effective marketing strategies. These factors stand discussed as follows:
It is foremost important for a marketer to understand the situations where consumers behave rationally. Many consumer behavior theories suggest that the consumers want to get maximum benefit and satisfaction from the product by spending the minimum amount of money. This shows that consumers do not spend all their money to buy a product and keeps a certain amount of money as their savings. However, on the other hand, the consumers having limited money spend all their money on the purchase of their basic needs such as shelter, food, and clothing. Thus, the marketer must carefully analyze these two situations of consumers before marketing a product or service.
Understanding consumer taste and preferences help marketers to revamp their products so that they could meet customer satisfaction. These factors may change from time to time. The change in consumer behavior affected by these factors should exist carefully monitored. Marketers need carefully understand the consumer’s interest in the products by breaking down the targeted consumers into demographics, like age, occupation, and location as they contribute to investigating information about consumer preferences.
Prices of products stand as a widely discussed factor in consumer behavior theories. The theories suggest that marketers should keep their prices low without affecting the quality to attract consumers. This is because consumers go mostly for products that are of low price but satisfy their demand.
An increased number of features offered by the product tends to increase the price of products. In such cases, consumers go for added features in a product at an affordable price. Therefore, the markers design their products in such a way that the product gives maximum value or features to consumers at an affordable price.
The marketer must know to what extent the consumers know a product. Mostly, consumers select products with which they are familiar. For example, if the consumers are aware of the health effects of eating high-fat food or fast food, marketing such a product to health-conscious consumers will end up in failure.
In a nutshell, consumer behavior theories and concepts are of most importance to salespeople or marketers in marketing. As products stand made to cater to consumers’ needs and demands. Therefore, the products should exist carefully marketed for the achievement of organizational goals. The study of consumer behavior helps them in analyzing different factors that have influenced the buying decision of the consumers. If the marketers failed to understand these factors, they would not meet their targets.
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