Consumer Behaviour – The Basics
Consumer behaviour is a very complex subject with many elements so we are just going go start off with the basics. We believe understanding your consumer’s behaviour along with your marketing options can save you time and money in the long run and make your business more successful.
A consumer is simply an individual who purchases goods & services available on the market for his/her end use (not for resale). Understanding consumer behaviour is essential to the development of marketing strategies, especially for the consideration of pricing, positioning, segmentation, product design and promotion.
Creating consumer interest and desire for your product/service is one of the main factors to success and is achieved largely by understanding consumer behaviour. Creating a marketing mix to please your target consumers is the goal, as it will positively influence the buyer’s decision making process. To create interest and desire, you need awareness and one of the best ways to do this is with PR.
Basic consumer behaviour towards marketing.
- Not all promotional material and advertisements will excite the consumer and he does not pay attention to everything he sees. The consumer is interested in only what he wants to see, this is called selective attention.
- How the consumer perceives the message in your marketing materials and advertisements is called consumer interpretation.
- The consumer remembers only the most relevant and meaningful message, this is called selective retention.
The Purchasing decision
There are several types of purchasing decisions. High involvement purchases such as a house or car requires complex decision making and the consumer will search for more information and consider other brands etc. For less important or repetitive purchases, little decision making is required and habit or brand loyalty tend to take over. Then you have impulse buying which requires spur of the moment decisions and not much thought about other brands etc.
Several factors influence the buying decision of a consumer including psychological, social, personal and cultural. It’s also important to analyse what, where, when and how consumers buy to achieve a better understanding of your targets. Analysing this also helps you achieve more successful sales promotions.
In the next consumer behaviour blog we will look at the buying process and how marketing and PR may affect this. If you are looking for marketing & PR on the Costa del Sol contact us on 952 903 154 or email info@shawmarketingservices.com