Learning in Consumer Behavior - Coursework Example

Learning in Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior is considered the process leading to acquisition of products, experiences and services aimed at satisfying certain individual needs (Solomon 1994). Form previous readings I deduce that consumer behavior revolves around the understanding of why, when, where, how, how often, how much, use or dispose of goods, services or experience. This reflects that consumer behavior is influenced by several factors categorized as the consumer’s culture, psychological factors, the decision making process and the consumer behavior outcomes as the cultural environment (Kardes, Kardes, Cronley, Cronley, Cline & Cline 2010). Experience from my course work underlines external factors such as money or the purchasing power as determinants of the decisions that consumers make as well as their motivation to purchase or experience a service. Reflection on the First Assignment Reflecting from the first assignment’s experience, I find the issue of consumer behavior rather complex because of the factors that need to be understood in order to be able to predict and ascertain the behavior of a consumer. In my first assignment, I focused on bringing to forth the relevance of consumer behavior in the context of the entire process of marketing goods or services to consumers. I learnt that marketers targeting to manipulate or exploit consumer behaviors apply knowledge on consumer behavior. Although it was easy to understand how marketers study and apply consumer behavior in developing marketing strategies or campaigns, I fail to connect the definition of consumer behavior provided by some scholars with the practical application of the concept. For example, Solomon (1994) defines consumer behavior as a process through which consumer access goods and services, purchase or experiences in a move to meet their needs. On the contrary, I am pushed to believe that focus on the drive or motivation to purchase or experience a service provides a better perspective in understanding the issue of consumer behavior. I tried to elucidate the manner in which companies or individuals charged with the responsibility of ensuring goods and services provided get right reception in the market by focusing on the mix applied in marketing campaigns. From the assignment, I conducted extensive review of various scholarly materials read in this course, out of which I deduced that evaluation of consumer behavior takes a central stage when strategizing a marketing campaign. I applied different examples to explain how proper understanding of targeted consumers’ behavior may greatly influence the ability of a company to market its products to such consumers. Consumer purchase decision is bolstered by the ability of a given product or service to measure up to the money value invested by the buyer. In this case, it became clear to me that marketers tend to invest a lot of energy and resources throughout the marketing process to ensure that their products provide value for the targeted consumers (Klein 2000). I realized that the concept of form utility further provides marketers with an opportunity to change their purchase behavior through ensuring that their product appearance is appealing to the eyes of a consumer to an extent that it can influence his or her purchase behavior. Companies or marketers should deploy unique product components of interest to a consumer that can influence his or preference development. I feel that I dwelled so much on the various types of utility as the major factors influencing consumer behavior rather than applying consumer behavior theories to understand how such theories may help a marketer to come up with strategies that can actually change an existing consumer behavior. However, understanding consumers’ perception about a given brand in the market include those of competitors may play a vital role in assisting marketers to streamline or change their brands in a manner that gives the brand a superior competitive edge in the market (Dawes 2009). I firmly agree that the concept of consumer behavior is quite complex and different marketers or scholars may try to understand their consumer behavior. However, I strongly support application of the cognitive theory in any attempt to understand consumer behavior, since this may have greater impact on the consumers’ perception about a brand (Winchester 2012). Readings In an attempt to understand and increase my knowledge on the issue of consumer behavior, and how marketers can actually manipulate such behaviors to their advantage, I have read several articles written by different scholars. I can attribute the growing number of articles about the concept on the increased interest on consumers by different companies in the wake of stiff competition in domestic and global markets. I am convinced that beginning with Rothschild and Gaidis (1981) would be more appropriate in the understanding of this topic because, this article provides the background information for understanding consumers as explained through application of the behavioral theory. The article particularly focuses on behavior modification as applied in the marketing field that was in fact the focus of the first assignment. I found this article useful in this course because I need to understand how you can identify the behavior especially if the intention of a marketer is to introduce a new product or rebrand an existing brand. Understanding of consumer behavior not only enhances the ability to market company products successfully, but also enables effective use of resources allotted for marketing or advertising function. Marketers attempt to change consumers’ behavior in different ways including the focus on different forms of utility such as the rationale utility, place utility and form utility. The transaction process is well elucidated in line with the concept of consumer behavior in where Rothschild and Gaidis (1981) assert that the process can only take place when the purchasers’ behavior is considered and stimulus associated with the product is received by the consumer thus catalyzing consumption of the product or service. The purchase behavior is experienced repeatedly if similar stimuli continue to be received by the consumer depending on its ability to satisfy his or her needs or desires. The rational behavior of consumers revolve around getting value for their money as well as buying that, which of use to them at a given time rather than spending their money on products or services that satisfy any of their needs. Before reading this article, I actually thought that the reception of a product in the market highly depended on the advertising effort put by the concerned marketers. However, from the content of this article, I now understand that the promotion process actually requires measures to establish the initial reaction towards a new product before embarking on different ways of rewarding or reshaping the consumer behavior depending on what has already taken place. Rothschild and Gaidis (1981) emphasize on the need to identify an existing consumer behavior before embarking on strategies to alter such behaviors or reinforce them. This article provide an insight to situations where companies may invest so much on advertisement of their products and still continue to record low purchases on such products. Before contemplating further on the findings of this article, Jones’ Philip article, “Advertising: Strong force or weak force? Two views an ocean apart”, served to shed more light on the issues raised in the previous article. This article provides an interesting approach to the understanding of the role of advertising in marketing. Jones (1990) actually confirms my previous belief that the reception of a product in the market is highly influenced the promotion or advertising effort put by a company. This is well depicted by the amount invested in advertisements as reported in 1998 where approximately 70 billion were used in advertising in U.S. (Jones, 1990). Through this article, I discovered that advertising serves well as a tool for reinforcing a positive consumer behavior rather than changing the existing consumer behavior. I understood that promotions and especially through word of mouth has much impact on persuading consumers to change their behavior leading to better marketability of the products to the target consumers. However, the argument presented by Jones only made great sense to me after skimming through the article by Ehrenberg, Barnard and Scriven, (1997). They disputed the role of advertising in changing an existing consumer behavior but merely reinforce the values attached to a given brand. It is through this article that I was able to find answers to questions as to why some advertising events fail to yield desired results in changing consumer behavior. This article inclines towards the argument presented as the weak theory by Jones in which the concept of applying using advertising for the wrong intentions is further covered. I have learned that focusing on advertising brands does not leading to persuasion of consumers to purchase a given brand but simply reinforce and an existing behavior. The article Differentiation or Salience by Ehrenberg, Barnard and Scriven (1997) introduces another concept of salience as the main reason as to why consumers would prefer a given brand to others despite their similarities. I previously held the opinion that the uniqueness of a brand in the market is crucial to its marketability but upon reading this article, I discovered that the idea of creating innovative brands that stand out in the market might have been passed by time especially with the ability of different competitors to come up with similar brands. I now understand a new concept, salience as a key factor in changing consumer behavior towards preference for a given brand similar to others in the market. Nevertheless, in another article by Ehrenberg (1997) advertising plays a critical role in the purchase of a new brand in the market by consumers. Through this article, I was able to understand the role of advertising in this aspect as presented through a consumer behavior model known as Awareness, Trial, Reinforcement and Nudging (ATR & N). This model reaffirms the importance of discovering the reaction towards the product and then acting to reinforce or reshape the consumer behavior as purported in the first article reflected in this discussion. I am now convinced that studying consumer behavior should receive significant attention in the marketing process, as marketers must first understand what consumer behavior to reinforce or reshape through their advertising and promotion activities. It is clear that without clear understanding of consumer behavior in a market segment may lead to nudging or diluting of a positive behavior rather than reinforcing it. Therefore, it is imperative for marketers to put more effort in understanding the behavior of the targeted consumers rather than implementing marketing strategies blindly. Other than dwelling on the topic of consumer behavior change, I also came across interesting articles on the topic of segmentation as an important concept in the marketing process. The first article on segmentation is by Kennedy and Ehrenberg (2001), which disputes a common assumption, held by numerous marketers and perhaps, personally included that different retailer’s most likely appeal to different consumers. This article is quite interesting because it actually demonstrated that consumers of competing retailers have attitudes that are similar especially in a largely intact market. I have been able to understand the importance of market segmentation in terms of brand segmentation and category segmentation in the understanding of consumer behavior. I also read another article by Hammond, Ehrenberg and Goodhardt (1996), on market segmentation through which I gained information on the importance of market segmentation when it comes to competitive brands. It is interesting how there has been limited brand segmentation despite the existence of similar brands competing within the same market segment. Marketers majorly focus on market segmentation with little or no attention to brand segmentation. The lack of brand segmentation explains the limited a product category in general due to lack of competition within the market. Since similar brands attract consumers with similar attitudes and preferences, competition for such brands especially when competing in the same market segment is greatly undermined (Hammond, Ehrenberg & Goodhardt1996). Segmentation of brands or markets makes it easier for marketers to discover consumer behaviors easily and manipulate them to their advantage within the segment. Through these readings, I have learnt that marketers can actually influence consumer behavior in different ways thereby providing an opportunity for marketers to focus significantly on understanding consumer behavior before launching their marketing strategies. Impact of the Readings on Future Marketers With the number of entrepreneurs supplying or dealing with similar products and services on the rise, it is imperative for marketers or businesspersons to understand factors influencing the consumer purchase decision in order to design the best strategy for meeting consumer demands. It is critical for marketers to understand consumers’ drive to purchase a product. Additionally, understanding the factors influencing marketing like experience a given service confers onto consumers is paramount, if plans or strategies are to yield the desired results. The various articles on consumer behavior available from different sources provide future marketers with a great source of knowledge capable of enabling them to establish improved and effective marketing plans. I have discovered that this topic not only deals with what ought to be done to improve the previous and the current market situation but also points out some of the common mistakes made by contemporary marketers. Highlighting such areas of weakness in the marketing process will enable future marketers avoid similar mistakes thereby leading to better ways of reaching out to customers and establishment of healthy competition. With advertising still recognized as one of the effective strategies for reaching consumers, readings in this unit reveal some of the wrong application of the strategy that often result in high costs but limited effectiveness in understanding and influencing consumers. As a future marketer, I now understand that advertising is not effective in persuading or influencing consumer behavior but a way of reinforcing a positive consumer purchase behavior identified in the market. Companies need to invest significantly on strategies that encourage the understanding of consumer behavior such as promotion with significant emphasis on word of mouth. It is also clear that future marketers should also focus on brand segmentation rather the contemporary market segmentation. It is evident that for competing brands to compete effectively, and segmentation is as important as market segmentation and marketers need to exploit this concept in marketing brands that may resemble existing brands in the market. Therefore, the concept of consumer behavior remains significantly relevant in the marketing field and should be seriously explored to provide insights on the best strategy to reach and understand consumers. Conclusion Consumers exhibit a particular sequence of purchases or proportion of purchases that may be predictive of consumer behaviors such a brand loyalty. Consumer behavior can be determined through listening carefully to what the customers say about a product or service. The focus here is to consumers feeling through assessment of her voice and comments about a product or service. Understanding of consumer behavior facilitates effective use of advertising and promotion resources through ensuring that such activities are well planned in order to yield the desired result in the most efficient and effective way possible. Consumer behavior is not only of great importance to marketers and companies but also crucial to consumer protection agencies, ethicists, public policy makers and regulators and consumer advocacy groups who protect consumers from any unsafe offerings or decisions by marketers. Understanding consumer behavior enables marketers to strategize on the best way to reach out to the clients. It also assists in establishing ways of changing unfavorable consumer behaviors as well as reinforcing positive behavior patterns. References Dawes, J 2009, ‘The effect of service price increases on customer retention: the moderating role of customer tenure and relationship breadth’, Journal of Service Research, vol. 11. Ehrenberg, A, Barnard, N & Scriven, J 1997, ‘Differentiation or salience’, Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 7-14. Ehrenberg, A 1997, How do consumers come to buy a new brand? Oxon: NTC Publications Ltd. Hammond, K, Ehrenberg, A & Goodhardt, G1996, ‘Market segmentation for competitive brands’, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 30, no. 12, pp. 39-49. Jones, P 1990, ‘Advertising: strong force or weak force? two views an ocean apart’, International Journal of Advertising, vol. 9, no. 3. Kardes, F, Kardes, F, Cronley, M, Cronley, M, Cline, T & Cline, T 2010, Consumer behavior, Cengage Learning, Stamford. Kennedy, R & Ehrenberg, A 2001, ‘Competing retailers generally have the same sorts of shoppers’, Journal of Marketing Communications, vol. 7, 19-26. Klein, A 2000, ‘On a roll: the techies grumbled, but Polaroid's pocket turned into a huge hit’, The Wall Street Journal: A1. Rothschild, M & Gaidis, W 1981, ‘Behavioral learning theory: its relevance to marketing and promotions’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 45, pp. 70-78. Solomon, M 1994, Consumer behavior, Allyn & Bacon, London. Winchester, M 2012, BHO5574: introduction to consumer behavior, consumer behavior BHO5574, lecture 5, Victoria University, Melbourne, accessed 17 July 2012, . Read More