Consumer Traits and Behavior, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Throughout the world consumer behavioral navigates, the way products and marketers do business. From the business perspective, it attempts to understand the various ways in which consumer traits and behaviors are left through the purchasing of goods and services. Today’s consumers are showing a keen thirst for new products and services. This has opened up opportunities for consumers, marketing providers and organizations to ultimately approve or disapprove new concepts. In order for consumers to assist and view their behaviors in making proper decisions, extensive research is needed to support various roles and thoughts for product development.

Thesis

Marketers and businesses need to study consumer satisfaction in order to develop the right products to sell based on the psychological and social factors of consumers.

Sub Points

The primary objectives are to obtain information and the effects of product development regarding Consumer Traits and Behavior:

1. Explore opportunities describing consumer behavior traits and services.
2. Gain insight into people’s shopping experiences.
3. Learn how to manage consumer expectations and impulse shopping experience.

Three psychological processes that influence consumer behavior

1. Perception is what a consumer hears, sees, and smells. It can profoundly influence how and what products to buy as consumer personalities varies from person to person. It is important to know how to market to different kinds of consumers.
2. Attitude is the emotional and mental state that influences that drive consumer decisions with regard to the fact of the product.

Bertini, M., Wathieu, L., & Iyengar, S. (2012). The Discriminating Consumer: Product Proliferation and Willingness to Pay for Quality. Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), 49(1), 39-49. doi:10.1509/jmr.10.0028

This article describes how consumers can be considered discriminating when they value the differences between alternatives in a market, especially when inspecting these differences is costly. The author talks about how consumers will use quantity, quality, and price when making purchasing decisions. The article has the argument that consumers uncertain about the importance of quality in a market interpret a surprisingly dense assortment (a large number of options in a given quality interval) as a signal that they are expected, and should themselves expect, to be more discriminating in their judgments of value.

3. Motivation is the driving force of people’s decisions to help them make their impulse of strategic decisions. It is an emotional that is propel by a desire of want

Veltkamp, Martijn, Ruud Custers, Henk Aart. (2012). Motivating consumer behavior by subliminal conditioning in the absence of basic needs: Striking even while the iron is cold. Journal of Consumer Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.goallab.nl/publications/documents/Veltmamp%20Custers%20Aarts%202011%20JCP.pdf

This article is explaining the driving force behind consumer behavior where marketers he present article reports two studies testing whether subliminal conditioning. This behavior concept can motivate the behaviors of consumers through deprivation and other methods.

Three social processes that may influence consumer behavior.

1. Family, Families have some the greatest influence as they are able to bend the ears of consumers with personal stories and reviews of products that they have purchased or of interest.
2. Role and Statues, “A person’s position in each group that he participates throughout his life –family, clubs, and organizations can be defined in terms of the role and status. A role consist of activities that a person is expected to perform. Each role carries a status.”(Mba Knowledge Base.)
3. Reference Groups- “A Person’s reference groups consist of all the groups that have a direct or indirect influence on the person’s attitudes or behavior. Groups having direct influence on a person are called membership groups.”(Mba Knowledge Base.)

These social and psychology factors are noteworthy because they help influence the frequency and consistency of buying products. Businesses and researchers rely on studying these factors because they help cultivate the ideals on how to market to different groups, mothers, teenagers, African Americans, Latinos, and etc.

The relationship between consumer traits and behavior.

1. Buying decisions

a. The importance of knowing the roles that play when consumer purchase products is a vital part of a marketer’s job. The traits that influence consumer’s choices are fundamental into what drives the prices and new development.

b. Customer Satisfaction when purchasing and obtaining products is also beneficial. If the customer is satisfied their psychological factors of perception and attitude help to motivate them to buy the products again.(Dawn, Sojka, 2007)

Proctor & Gamble

a. Procter & Gamble are one of the leading manufacturers of products including baby, household, foods, and other products that are sold throughout the country. They had to learn to adapt their different advertisement and marketing campaigns to reflect the different countries where their sold their products in. The advertising departments had to be fully versed on the different rules, laws, and regulations of the different countries. P&G watched the consumer’s behavior toward their products as part of the reason for dropping certain lines of products.

Social and cultural settings influence consumer behavior.

1.Culture

a. Culture influences people behavior and decisions. Culture is comprised of different perceptions, behaviors, and values of a group of people that share identical backgrounds and heritages.

2. Subculture

a. Subcultures are groups of people that share in values, situations, and circumstances within a small society. Different subcultures help to build perhaps various markets

3. Social Class

a. Structures of social class are found in every society. These structures are based on income, education, and occupation. They share their values, cultures and behaviors that influence their decisions.

Reasons why consumers interpret marketing messages differently

1. Psychological Factors

a. Perception has much to do with how different consumer personalities intercept marketing messages if something is appealing to them then they will stop and listen

1. Images

a. Images play a pivotal role to the cognition of consumer’s behavior. (Scott, 2007) Marketing using images is crucial as they both have to catch the attention of multiple personalities and cultures.

1. Culture

a. Language

i. Language Barriers are reasons why people interpret messages different if the advertisement or marketing messages is in another language it can make it hard for consumers to understand.

b. Culture

ii. Cultural differences play a vital role as they help to influence the way consumers purchase products, familial, and peer perception is crucial in consumer’s interpretations.

Conclusion

Consumer traits and behavior are crucial in developing new products, advertisement, and marketing campaigns. As consumer behavior helps drive product trends and innovations of new products to directly serve the needs and wants of the public. An understanding of all the psychological and social factors that help [to influence consumer buying decision can help adequately satisfy the customer, and make the business profitable.