Name: GERVACIO, RONALD P.
Year & Course: 1- MBA
1. How do consumer characteristics influence buying behavior?
Consumer behavior refers to the selection, purchase and consumption of goods and
services for the satisfaction of their wants. There are different processes involved in
the consumer behavior. Initially the consumer tries to find what commodities he
would like to consume, then he selects only those commodities that promise greater
utility. After selecting the commodities, the consumer makes an estimate of the
available money which he can spend. Lastly, the consumer analyzes the prevailing
prices of commodities and takes the decision about the commodities he should
consume.
Consumer s buyer behaviour is influenced
by four major factors:
1) Cultural,
2) Social,
3) Personal,
4) Psychological.
These factors cause consumers to develop product and brand preferences. Although
many of these factors cannot be directly controlled by marketers, understanding of
their impact is essential as marketing mix strategies can be developed to appeal to the
preferences of the target market.
2. What major psychological processes influence consumer responses to the marketing
program?
Four key psychological processes motivation, perception, learning, and memory
fundamentally influence consumer responses to the various marketing stimuli.
A motive is a need that is sufficiently pressing to drive the person to act. A need
becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient level of intensity.
A person has many needs at any given time. Some needs are biogenic; they arise from
physiological states of tension such as hunger, thirst, or discomfort. Other needs are
psychogenic they arise from psychological states of tension such as the need for
recognition, esteem, or belonging.
The psychological forces shaping people’s behavior are largely unconscious, and
that a person cannot fully understand his or her own motivations. When a person
examines specific brands, he or she will react not only to their stated capabilities, but
also to other, less conscious cues. Shape, size, weight, material, color, and brand
name can all trigger certain associations and emotions. A technique called laddering
can be used to trace a person’s motivations from the stated instrumental ones to
the more terminal ones. Then the marketer can decide at what level to develop the
message and appeal.
Motivation researchers often collect “in-depth interviews� with a few dozen
consumers to uncover deeper motives triggered by a product. They use various
projective techniques such as word e association, sentence completion, picture
interpretation, and role playing.
Today motivational researchers can identify different motives a product can satisfy.
For example, whisky can meet the need for
social relaxation, status, or fun. Different whisky brands needs to be motivationally
positioned in one of these three appeals.
Research analyzing paper towels revealed that its appeal to mothers is in how
cleanliness plays into their instinctive desire to have their genes survive.
Human needs are arranged in a hierarchy, from the most pressing to the least
pressing. In order of importance, they are physiological needs, safety needs, social
needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. People will try to satisfy their most
important needs first. When a person succeeds in satisfying an important need, he or
she will then try to satisfy the next-most-important need. For example, a starving man
will not take an interest in the latest happenings in the art world. But when he has
enough food and water, the next most important need will become salient. Marketers
understand how various products fit into the plans, goals, and lives of consumers.
3. How do consumers make purchasing decisions?
Consumer behavior looks at the many reasons why people buy things and later
dispose of them. Consumers go through distinct buying phases when they purchases
products: (1) realizing the need or want something, (2) searching for information
about the item, (3) evaluating different products, (4) choosing a product and
purchasing it, (5) using and evaluating the product after the purchase, and (6)
disposing of the product. A consumer’s level of involvement is how interested he or
she is in buying and consuming a product. Low-involvement products are usually
inexpensive and pose a low risk to the buyer if she makes a mistake by purchasing
them. High-involvement products carry a high risk to the buyer if they fail, are
complex, or have high price tags. Limited-involvement products fall somewhere in
between.
4. How do marketers analyze consumer decision making?
The consumer decision-making process consists of five steps, which are need
recognition, information search, evaluations of alternatives, purchase and post-
purchase behavior. These steps can be a guide for marketers to understand and
communicate effectively to consumers. One note is that consumers do not always
move in the exact order through the process; it can depend on the type of product, the
buying stage of the consumer and even financial status.
5. What is so good about Market Segmentation?
Market segmentation can help you to define and better understand your target
audiences and ideal customers. If you’re a marketer, this allows you to identify the
right market for your products and then target your marketing more effectively.
Similarly, publishers can use market segmentation to offer more precisely targeted
advertising options and to customize their content for different audience groups.
Say, for example, you’re a marketer who’s advertising a new brand of dog food. You
could split an audience into segments based on whether they have a dog. You could
then segment that audience further based on what kind of dog they have and then
show them ads for food formulated for their dog’s breed. A publisher could use this
same information to show content about dogs to people who have or like dogs.
Market segmentation allows you to target your content to the right people in the right
way, rather than targeting your entire audience with a generic message. This helps
you increase the chances of people engaging with your ad or content, resulting in
more efficient campaigns and improved return on investment (ROI).
References:
https://www.citeman.com/680-key-pschological-processes-in-marketing.html
http://www.ijcrar.com/vol-2-9/Pinki%20Rani.pdf
https://www.lotame.com/what-is-market-segmentation/
https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/marketing-principles-v1.0/s06-consumer-behavior-
how-people-m.html
