Understanding Customer Behavior and Marketing Strategies

Posted on Nov 14, 2024 in Economy

Customer Classification Based on Decision-Making

There are three key figures involved in purchase decisions:

  • The Prescriber: A professional who recommends the product and whose opinion is valued by the consumer.
  • The Buyer: The person who purchases the product, who may not be the end consumer.
  • The Consumer: The individual who ultimately uses the product to meet their needs.

Buying Habits

To fully analyze consumer behavior, several questions about shopping habits must be addressed:

  1. Who buys? In many cases, the buyer and the consumer are not the same person.
  2. Where do they buy? What type of establishment do they prefer?
  3. Why do they buy? Understanding the need that motivates the purchase is crucial.
  4. How do they buy? This involves factors like the quantity of product purchased and payment methods.
  5. When do they buy? Many products and services exhibit seasonal purchase patterns.
  6. What do they buy? Sometimes, purchases are driven by the social prestige associated with a product.

Market Segmentation

Market segmentation involves dividing the market into homogeneous groups based on customer needs. Each selected group, categorized by its characteristics and degree of homogeneity, is also known as a target market.

Segmentation Criteria

To define the target audience, three sets of criteria are used to group individuals based on shared characteristics:

  • Demographic Criteria: Group individuals by variables like gender, age, and location.
  • Socioeconomic Criteria: Divide individuals based on factors like income level, consumption patterns, and social class.
  • Psychographic Criteria: Consider aspects such as personality, values, and lifestyle.

Consumers are complex and diverse, with behavior influenced by internal and external factors. Narrowing the market through segmentation can improve marketing effectiveness. Statistics are a fundamental tool for market segmentation, enabling the sorting and filtering of data to identify the desired target audience.

Marketing

The Marketing Concept

Marketing encompasses all company activities aimed at satisfying consumer needs and desires to achieve profit. This involves:

  1. A Bundle of Activities: Marketing is not a single action but a set of diverse techniques.
  2. Developing an Enterprise: Businesses employ market research and action techniques.
  3. Meeting Consumer Needs and Desires: Marketing identifies and addresses consumer needs, increasingly focusing on environmental protection.
  4. Making a Profit: While prioritizing consumer needs, businesses ultimately aim for profitability.

Importance of Marketing

A product that sells itself is a result of effective marketing that makes it known and desirable. Economic development after World War II led to a welfare society where basic needs are met. Companies must focus on consumers, tailoring products to meet their desires. With increasing product similarity, companies manufacturing high-quality products must also consider consumer preferences regarding presentation, availability, and convenience. Consequently, businesses are allocating more resources to marketing activities.

The Elements of Marketing (Marketing Mix)

The marketing mix consists of four controllable elements: product, price, promotion, and distribution.

Marketing -> Product, Price, Promotion, Distribution -> Consumer

The Product

The product is a core element of marketing policy, as it’s the means by which a company influences the market. From a marketing perspective, a product is anything that satisfies a consumer need. Consumers often don’t initially differentiate between brands and models. A product can be defined as a unit or assembly of goods or services with a high degree of substitutability. Companies strive to create monopolies by imbuing their products with unique attributes that differentiate them from competitors. Packaging and presentation are crucial, as consumers are influenced by aesthetics. A good presentation can be the stimulus that triggers a purchase. The presentation should align with product features, quality, and target audience. Given two products of equal quality, consumers often choose the one with better presentation. Similarly, between two products with the same price, consumers may prefer a more appealing product even if the quality is slightly lower. Packaging should be both attractive and practical.

Brand

A brand is a name, term, symbol, design, or combination thereof that identifies a company’s goods and services. It comprises two elements: the name and the logo. The name is the textual identifier, and the logo is the visual representation. Brands must be legally protected through registration, ensuring exclusive rights and preventing imitation. Brand names should be short, memorable, and sometimes related to a product feature. In other cases, the name may be a meaningless word. Occasionally, the product and brand names merge, and consumers refer to the product solely by its brand name due to its popularity. Companies can employ various brand strategies: