"Kon-sumers" review (article-4)

INTRODUCTION

Recently I enrolled for a Mini-degree in "Digital Psychology and Persuasion" from CXL Institute. I would love to share whatever I will learn from this Mini-degree through a series of articles.

This is my 4th "Digital Psychology and Persuasion" review article in a series of a total of 12 articles. I will be posting an article on each weekend for consecutive 12 upcoming weeks in which I will cover all the tactics and principles of Digital psychology, Consumer Behavior, and Persuasion and Neuro-Marketing which will surely help anyone passionate about marketing.

What is consumer behavior?

If you were asked to define consumer behavior, you might say it refers to the study of how a person buys products. However, this is only part of the definition. Consumer behavior really involves quite a bit more, as this more complete definition indicates:

Consumer behavior reflects the totality of consumers’ decisions with respect to the acquisition, consumption, and disposition of goods, services, activities, experiences, people, and ideas by humans.

Consumer Behavior Involves:

Goods, Services, Activities, Experiences, People, and Ideas. Consumer behavior means more than just the way that a person buys tangible products such as bath soap and automobiles. It also includes consumers’ use of services, activities, experiences, and ideas such as going to the doctor, visiting a festival, signing up for yoga classes, taking a trip, donating to UNICEF, and checking for traffic before crossing the street. In addition, consumers make decisions about people, such as voting for politicians, reading books written by certain authors, seeing movies starring certain actors, and attending concerts featuring favorite bands.

Another example of consumer behavior involves choices about the consumption of time, such as whether to watch a certain television program (and for how long) and the use of time in ways that show who we are and how we are different from others. Many consumers like the excitement of watching a sports event live on TV rather than waiting to watch a tape-delayed version later, for instance. Because consumer behavior includes the consumption of many things, I will use the simple terms offering to encompass these entities.

It is more than Buying:

The manner in which consumers buy is extremely important to marketers. However, marketers are also intensely interested in consumer behavior related to using and disposing of an offering: 

• Buying represents one type of acquisition behavior. The acquisition includes many ways of obtaining goods and services, such as leasing, trading, and sharing. It also involves decisions about time as well as money.
• The products we use very often may symbolize the event’s significance and how we feel about the product and the specific place from where it was bought maybe a mall or website or e-commerce store. The music we enjoy and the jewelry we wear can also symbolize who we are and how we feel. Moreover, marketers must be sensitive to when consumers are likely to use a product, whether they find it effective, and how they react after using it—do they spread positive or negative word-of-mouth reviews about a new film, for instance?
• Eco-minded consumers often seek out biodegradable products made from recycled materials or choose goods that do not pollute when disposed of. Municipalities are also interested in how to motivate earth-friendly disposition. Marketers see profit opportunities in addressing disposition concerns. For instance, consumers who renovate their kitchens can install new counters made from recycled material, which is made from recycled paper.

Continuously changing:

Assume that a family has acquired and is using a new car. Usage provides the family with information—whether the car drives well, is reliable, and does little harm to the environment—that affects when, whether, how, and why members will dispose of the car by selling, trading, or junking it. Because the family always needs transportation, a disposition is likely to affect when, whether, how, and why its members acquire another car in the future. When consumers buy used cars, they are buying cars that others have disposed off. Many businesses exist to link one consumer’s disposition behavior with another’s acquisition behavior.

A group of friends, a few coworkers, or an entire family may plan a birthday party or decide where to have lunch. Moreover, individuals engaging in the consumer behavior can take on one or more roles. In the case of a car purchase, for example, one or more family members might take on the role of information gatherer by researching different models. Others might assume the role of influencer and try to affect the outcome of a decision. One or more members may take on the role of purchaser by actually paying for the car, and some or all may be users. Finally, several family members may be involved in the disposal of the car.

Decision, The deciding factor! 

Consumers may need to decide whether to spend or save their money when they earn extra cash. They may need to decide whether to order a pizza, clean out a closet, or go to a movie. Among the most important reasons, are the ways in which an offering meets someone’s needs, values, or goals. Some consumers have body parts pierced as a form of self-expression, while others do it to fit into a group. Teenagers may smoke, even though they know it is harmful because they think smoking will help them gain acceptance. Some consumers may be unable to stop acquiring, using, or disposing of products. They may be physically addicted to products such as cigarettes or alcoholic beverages, or they may have a compulsion to eat, gamble, or buy. 

Consumers may delay buying a personal video recorder because they doubt that they can handle the technology or they doubt that the product offers anything special. They may believe that technology is changing so fast that the product will soon be outdated. At times, consumers who want to acquire or consume an offering are unable to do so because what they want is unavailable. Ethics can also play a role. Some consumers may want to avoid products made in factories with questionable labor practices or avoid movies downloaded, copied, and shared without permission.

As a conclusion, we must not underestimate the powers of human behavior and marketing psychology in order to get success as a good marketer and to grow our business exponentially.

Congrats! You are now one step ahead in the competition after understanding Marketing Psychology and Consumer behavior.

Stay tuned for the next Article!

 (This article is a review for the mini degree, "Digital Psychology and Persuasion" from CXL institute".)

Thanks :-)

Gaurav Panwar