The Psychology of Consumer Behavior and Its Importance
Ever wonder why consumers prefer one brand of product over another? Or how marketers influence consumersbuying decisions, their choices, and how they convince people to buy certain goods? If these are the questions brimming at the top of your mind, you are probably interested in digging deeper into what consumer psychology is all about. After all, understanding why customers buy products, and their likes and dislikes are the basis of successful marketing. What is consumer psychology all about? What do consumer psychologists do and what is it important for businesses? Let’s dig in!
What is consumer psychology?
When it comes to buying patterns and preferences, we are all different. However, humans tend to behave or respond in a similar manner in some circumstances. To appeal to a larger audience, marketers are looking into ways consumers respond to certain products the way they do. Understanding these subtleties and the reasons behind it are where consumer psychology begins. It seeks to explain consumers’ choices, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and what influences consumers to choose a certain product over others.
To put in other words, it studies individuals, groups, organizations, and what influences their choice, purchase, use, and disposal of certain products or services to satisfy their needs.
Not only limited to what consumers buy but also why do they buy, when do they buy, how frequent is the purchase, and much more.
Consumer psychology takes an in-depth look at these by studying the underlying cognitive process to understand what drives consumers to buy and use certain products.
What does a consumer psychologist do?
In a highly competitive market, this is an important field especially for companies trying to win as many customers as possible and get them to say “yes” to their products or services. It’s no surprise organizations, political campaigns, and nonprofit organizations all consult consumer psychologists to determine how best to market products, services, ideas, issues, candidates, and win people to their sides. Let’s briefly look into what consumer psychologist does:
- They conduct market research to identify a business target audience and their characteristics.
- They research and study consumer behaviors, their preferences, influences to understand what they are likely to purchase.
- They gather details about the target market using various research methods such as interviews, focus groups which are then analyzed for effective marketing campaigns.
- They are involved in social marketing by developing ideas, or messages and getting it across to consumers.
- They have actively involved in helping marketers reach out to their target customers, attract and engage with them thereby turning prospects to advocates.
Why is understanding consumer behavior so important for businesses?
Understanding consumer behavior is very crucial for any businesses who want to be successful This is very important as marketers need to craft creative marketing strategies to get consumers scurrying towards their products.
Although most marketers are not professional consumer psychologist, however, many are studying and incorporating this field in order to launch successful marketing campaigns. To develop and launch new products or market existing ones, understanding how the consumer behaves is a must. Here is why this field is important for your business:
To attract new customers and retain existing ones
Understanding and paying attention to consumer buying behavior is not only to attract new consumers. When the consumer is satisfied and happy with their purchase, they will willing patronize you again. What’s more? They even introduce your product or services to friends and families. You have just won advocates. Hence, having an eagles eye when it comes to consumer behavior will help you market products that will convince buyers to buy and come back again.
To attain maximum consumer satisfaction
A salesforce report has shown that 76% of consumers expect businesses to understand their unique needs and expectations. This means if you don’t understand your consumer expectations, prospects will turn to businesses who do. Consumer behavior helps you understand your audience’s unique needs and how well you can meet their expectations and even exceed them. You will be able to present products in a way that generates a maximum impact on the customer and improve customer service.
To understand and predict market trends
The study of consumer behavior helps businesses to identify and forecast consumer behavioral patterns while making purchases. This is extremely important as this will be the first signal when there is a shift in market trends. Based on the current market trends, marketers will be able to adjust their marketing programs accordingly.
To stay relevant in a competitive market
Consumers are bombarded with a lot of choices, posts, and online reviews that influence them in making buying decisions. Hence, the days of aggressive marketing are long gone. We are in the era of modern marketing. Consumers nowadays are smarter and could analyze if they are deriving maximum value from a product or not. There are businesses competing for attention and it is so easy to switch to competitors if one business is not benefitting consumers. Understanding consumer behavior helps you to meet consumer needs and serve them better than your competitors. Businesses will be able to stay relevant and rapidly adjust to the ever-changing consumer demands.
