Have you ever wondered how media messages impact a shopper's purchasing decisions? If so, you might be interested in consumer psychology, a rapidly growing topic. Consumer psychology is the study of how our thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and perceptions affect how we buy and interact with products and services.
What is Consumer Psychology?
Consumer psychology is the study of how our past life experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings influence how we think about and purchase items and services. It is the study of psychology of consumer behavior and the processes they used to select, use (consume), and discard items and services, as well as the emotional, mental, and behavioral responses of consumers.
Consumer behavior draws on principles from a variety of disciplines, including psychology, biology, chemistry, and economics. We'll look at the various parts and facets of consumer behavior in this tutorial, as well as the most effective methods of client segmentation.
Types of Consumer Behavior
Consumer psychology can be classified into four types:
1. Complex Purchasing Behavior
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When consumers purchase costly, infrequently purchased goods, they engage in complex purchasing behavior. They are heavily involved in the purchasing process and the research that consumers conduct before making a high-value buy. Consider the purchase of a home or a car; these are examples of sophisticated purchasing behavior.
2. Dissonance-reducing Purchasing Behavior
The consumer is strongly involved in the purchasing process, but he or she has difficulty discriminating between brands. When a customer is concerned that they may regret their decision, this is known as "dissonance."
Assume you're in the market for a lawnmower. You'll pick one based on price and convenience, but once you've made your decision, you'll want to know if you made the right one.
3. Habitual Purchasing Behavior
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It is defined by the fact that the consumer has very little participation in the product or brand category. Consider going grocery shopping: you go to the store and purchase your favorite bread. You're following a repetitive pattern rather than demonstrating significant brand loyalty.
4. Variety Seeking Behavior
Here, a customer buys a new product not because they are dissatisfied with the prior one, but because they want to try something new. When you're testing out new shower gel smells, for example.
Knowing what types of customers your e-store draws will help you categorize customer types more effectively.
What is the Significance of Consumer Psychology?
Consumer behavior research is significant because it allows marketers to better understand what factors impact consumers' purchasing decisions. By analyzing how consumers choose goods, they can fill market gaps and identify which items are needed and which are obsolete.
∙ To Develop Production Policies
This is the first and most important aspect of consumer behavior, and it means that all production policies are based on consumer preferences in order in order for a product to be marketable.
The major goal of every business is to increase production and sales, and in order to do so, any firm or corporation must gain the trust of its clients by learning about their tastes, likes, and preferences.
∙ Understand the Effect of Price on Buying
The second importance of consumer psychology is that it can help understand the effect of price on buying. When the pricing is reasonable and the product is inexpensive, more people will buy it.
Following the completion of production, the corporation must determine the pricing of our product because it aids in the division of consumer categories and the attainment of increased sales.
∙ Exploit Market Opportunities
This is the third important or significance of consumer psychology, and it means that a shift in consumer preferences might be a fantastic opportunity for a brand to introduce something that would not be possible as a market reassessment. For instance, when palm pops were first released to the market, they were a hit because of their fashionable and streamlined form.
∙ Design Marketing Mix
This is the fourth importance of consumer behavior, and it shows that consumer behavior is extremely important in the design and selection of marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion).
The product must be valuable, the price must be reasonable, and the location distribution must be extensive and appropriate. A framework for promotion should be in place.
∙ Implement STP Strategies
This is the fifth importance of customer behavior, and it refers to implementing segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies based on consumer behavior toward distinct brands. The products are targeted at customers with similar tastes and preferences and then placed in the market. As a result, creating a favorable image of a company's product in relation to competitors, as well as helping to beat them.
∙ Helps in Comprehending Diversified Preferences
This is the sixth importance of consumer psychology, and it signifies that consumer preferences are diverse and change over time. Consumers nowadays are more value-sensitive, and they want to get the most out of a certain brand's goods.
∙ Understanding the Many Roles Played by Customers
This is the seventh importance, and it signifies that consumers play a variety of roles in the decision-making process. Initiators, influencers, deciders, users, consumers, and gatekeepers are some of these positions. The consumer decision-making process can be broken down into the following steps:
- Require Recognition
- Information Lookup
- Alternatives Evaluation
- Purchase Decisions
- Post-Purchase Actions
∙ Customers Satisfaction
This is the eighth importance of consumer behavior, and it signifies that when the intended product meets the customer's expectations, the customer is satisfied. When a product meets or exceeds a customer's expectations, the result is customer joy.
There are several departments in an organization, such as buying, people, finance, production, and marketing, all of which have the goal of satisfying the needs and wishes of the customers.
What Factors Influence Consumer Psychology?
Consumer behavior can be influenced by a variety of factors, but the following are the most common ones:
1. Marketing Campaigns
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Consumer behavior and the psychology of marketing are inextricably linked. Marketing efforts have a significant impact on purchasing decisions. They can even influence consumers to switch brands or go for more expensive alternatives if done correctly and consistently with the right marketing message.
Marketing initiatives, such as Facebook advertisements for eCommerce, can also serve as reminders for products/services that need to be purchased regularly but aren't always in front of the mind for customers (like insurance, for example). A well-crafted marketing message has the power to influence impulse purchases.
2. Economic Conditions
They play a significant role in the purchase of expensive goods (such as houses or automobiles). Consumers are considered to be more confident and willing to make purchases regardless of their financial obligations when the economy is doing well.
For expensive purchases, the consumer's decision-making process is lengthier, and it can be influenced by more personal considerations at the same time.
3. Personal Preferences
Personal characteristics such as likes, dislikes, priorities, morality, and values can impact consumer psychology. Personal opinions are powerful in businesses like fashion and food.
Advertisements can certainly affect behavior, but customers' tastes play a big role in their decisions. If you're a vegan, no matter how many burger place advertisements you see, you will not start eating meat.
4. A Good Website Design
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Simply put, there is no second chance to make a good first impression. The overall style of your website impacts potential clients, and you don't want to add to their confusion by giving them too much to look at. Use professional designers to produce engaging content and visually appealing pages. But what if you don't know how to make high-quality images? Then making good use of pre-designed images is a cost-effective option that will also save you time and money.
Do you have a limited budget and don't want to go through the hassle of hiring a professional designer? Using free services like Strikingly to edit design elements for websites makes it more economical.
Strikingly is a one-click platform that offers you a strategic and unquestionably enjoyable manner of marketing. With its audience list feature, it made client segmentation a lot easier. This functionality allows users to switch between tabs in their browsers with ease. Yes, you read that correctly. There'll be no more switching between tabs. Viewing site audiences, as well as for analytics data, has never been easier with this. As part of the editor's main menu, this game-changer will be available soon. Customer psychology will be a piece of cake for anyone looking for the best for their next marketing strategy with this new key feature.
5. Group Influence
Peer pressure impacts consumer behavior as well. Our decisions are influenced by what our family members, classmates, immediate relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances think or do.
Consumer behavior is influenced by social psychology. One of these scenarios is when people prefer quick food to home-cooked meals. Social and educational variables might have an impact.
6. Purchasing Power
Last but not least, our purchasing power has a big impact on our behavior. Unless you're a billionaire, you'll think about your budget before buying a purchase. The product may be fantastic, and the marketing may be spot on, but if you don't have the funds to purchase it, you won't.
Consumers can be classified based on purchasing power, which will help marketers find qualified clients and get better results.
Conclusion
It's more than a guessing game to figure out why people buy the goods they do. Consumer psychologists are now employed by businesses to scientifically assess their customers' judgments and choices. Consider the role of consumer psychology in producing messaging and questionnaires the next time you see an advertisement or complete a consumer survey.
