Business Studies

In your own words, define consumer behavior. Explain the role consumer behavior plays in marketing and discuss key components of consumer research that are used by marketers to ensure their messaging engages the target market. Provide specific examples to illustrate your ideas. In replies to peers, discuss whether you agree or disagree with their ideas and examples, and justify your response.

ANSWER

Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior is the actions and decision processes of people who buy goods and services for personal consumption. There are several stages a consumer goes through before they finally pick something up in the market. A person can go shopping but might not necessarily end up shopping. Various factors affect the buying decisions of individuals. Some of the factors are psychological, others are social and cultural. Marketers need to understand the psychology of consumers (Mothersbaugh et al., 2020). A market needs to understand how a consumer is influenced by their immediate environment. Families, friends and coworkers influence the shopping patterns of different individuals.

Marketers use two research methods to understand their consumers and ensure that their marketing methods will engage their target audience. The first research method is a primary research methodology, where the marketer directly interacts with their consumers for the purpose of gathering information on their products (Mothersbaugh et al., 2020). This is done using questionnaires and surveys. For example, a new clothing store can interact directly with their customers to get feedback on what their consumers know about their products, their thoughts about them and whether they find them necessary. It would be pointless to try and sell teenagers clothes that middle-aged people wear. It is also important for marketers to sell their products to their target populations. One cannot try to sell expensive clothes to low-income communities.

Secondary research can also be used to get information and create the right marketing strategies. Secondary research is information that others have collected. For example, if there is information on a certain community preferring a certain dressing style, then it is important to ensure that the marketing impresses the target population (Mothersbaugh et al., 2020).  Individuals from high-income neighborhoods are also interested in buying exclusive and unique products. Consumer behavior is therefore very important in marketing.

References

Mothersbaugh, D. L., Hawkins, D. I., Kleiser, S. B., Mothersbaugh, L. L., & Watson, C. F. (2020). Consumer behavior: Building marketing strategy. McGraw-Hill Education.