Consumer behavior refers to the tendency to buy a product or service from a consumer. A person who goes out to buy a product does not necessarily buy that product itself. He/she might end up buying a different product or products. They might also end up returning empty handed not buying the product. Hence, a person goes through various stages before finally choosing a product or service and buying it. The buying decision of a customer depends on various factors. These factors can be social, psychological, cultural or personal. Marketers have to study in detail about the consumer behavior if they aim to build the popularity of their brand or product. Marketers need to get the answer to two main questions:
If you know the answer to these two questions, you are on the path to success! Marketers need to devote their time to understand the psychology of customers. They need to understand what a consumer feels about a brand or a product. Consumers are also influenced by their friends, families, and colleagues while making a buying decision
Impact Marketing Makes
Marketing of products and services has a great impact on the consumer’s behavior depending on the way it is marketed. Marketing can do two main things:
Marketing Creates Needs
Consider, for example, you watch the marketing ad of a watch on television. You might not have a plan to buy a watch as you already have one. But watching the ad, you get lured by the looks of the watch and start feeling you need it. Now, the next day, when you put on your old watch while rushing to office, you start feeling that the watch is old and doesn’t look good. The need has been implanted in your brain by the marketing ad! Now you will start noticing the watch ads and might most probably end up buying a new watch by the company whose ad you had watched. Thus, marketing creates a need and makes it want by effective marketing techniques.
Thus, marketing makes a considerable impact on consumer behavior. It can make the consumer buy a product or service even if they do not have an actual need for it. It creates a new need in the mind of the customers. Marketing helps in establishing a brand in the minds of a consumer. In some cases, the brand name is used as a synonym for the product itself, for example, we often say that we need a Xerox copy. Here the brand name becomes the product itself.