Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Strategies

Question: Discuss about the Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Strategies. Answer: Introduction The reflective summary is based on how my views about the customer behaviour and marketing strategies have changed with due course of time. While working on the first assignment I have observed that there are different ways in which consumers buy their likeable products from different markets. I have also observed that the products, which the consumers buy, are put to various applications. Businesspersons and marketing professionals play an important role in formulating the decision making process of the consumers. While studying the consumer behaviour we have observed that most customers depend on the advertisements given by the brands to push their products, while some others make their choice for buying goods depending on the comments and views of marketing experts. We have observed that the marketing professionals of different medium, big or small sized organisations resort to different marketing strategies to pull customers towards them (Marketing Donut 2016). The marketing professionals decide upon their marketing mix and strategies by knowing the consumers choice and tastes. They get to know the choice and preferences of the consumer by interrogating them and conducting surveys. The markets select a group of target customers and then fetch the desired information from them by asking questions to them on their products. This is how the marketing people get the idea of the choices of their target customers. The marketing team of a brand can also throw light on the knowledge of the customers about their product. By talking to different types of customers personally the marketers also get the idea of how the customer is involved in the marketing strategy of the brand (Leonidou et al. 2013). Impact on the understanding of marketing Reading different articles and journals on the marketing strategies of different brands, I have developed a clear idea about the different strategies, which the brands adopt to pull customers towards them. I have developed the idea that by adopting a proper marketing strategy of the products the brands can choose different ways to communicate with their customers regarding the product. By adopting the correct marketing strategies, the brands get the proper idea of exactly what to produce and for whom to produce. Marketing strategies also help to reduce wastes. Consequently, this reduces the cost of production (Gummesson et al. 2014). I also learnt many other things about different marketing strategies. Some of them are the following: 1. Proper marketing strategies help the brands to increase their sales by producing for their target customers. 2. Appropriate marketing strategies help the companies to make a proper packaging of their services and products and to set the prices for their products. 3. The marketing strategies of the brands help them to understand their customers better. The brands can gather a better understanding of the segments of the markets. 4. The marketing strategies help the brands to make a plan of networking and advertising their product. They can make plans whether to adopt direct marketing techniques or to offer their products on trade shows (iastate.edu 2016). Understanding these concepts of the marketing strategies helped me change some of my views regarding this matter. Now I have a better understanding of the factors that influence the behaviour of the customers in the market. Reflection on the study of other marketing units The other marketing strategies that the brands adopt, there are some other units of marketing that I have learnt. A few other marketing units that I have learnt are discussed here: Advertising Advertising is a form of marketing strategy that the brands follow to promote and push their products into the minds of their customers. Advertisement is a paid form of promotion of the product of the brand. Advertisement highlights the attributes and features of the product that would draw the attention of the consumers to the product. The brands should follow a proper campaign for advertising focussing their target customers. The advertising message of the brand highlights the features of the products that would satisfy the needs of their target market. There are different types of advertisements that the brands offer. These include selective demand advertising, cooperative advertising, testimonials and slice of life advertising to name a few (Parente and Strausbaugh 2014). Agents Another important marketing unit is the person who helps in bringing sellers and buyers together in the market. There are different types of agents present to facilitate the business: 1. Selling agents: a person who facilitates and administers all the marketing activities for the brand is known as a selling agent. 2. Manufactures agent: This agent is a representative of sales who work independently and promotes several products that are not competitive to each other. 3. Commission agent: This is the person who sells the products on behalf of the producer (Belleflamme and Peitz 2015). Distribution Channel The channel of distribution of the product is defined as the journey of the product from the producer to its target customers. Discounts and Coupons Another important marketing unit is the discounts and coupons that the producers or brands offer to their customers. This gives an impetus to the customers to buy the products. Coupons are a certificate, which offers the customers with a reduction in the price of the product or a refund of cash. Brands offer discounts on their products that reduces the marked price of the product to some extent. Brands offer quantity discount, seasonal discount or cash discount to their customers (Kumar and Rajan 2012). Reflection on the future actions as a marketing specialist While working on the different strategies of marketing and the units of the market that play important roles in influencing the customer behaviour in the market, I have gathered the knowledge and idea about how I should act as a marketing specialist in the future. One of the most important roles of a marketing specialist is to predict for the future. The marketing professional should have the knowledge and insight to forecast what amount of the product needs to be produced in order to satisfy the demands of their target customer. Being a marketing professional the first task I would do is to collect the past data of sales figures and consumer demands and other relevant information. Then I would study and analyse the data to understand the trend of the production process. I would also need to analyse and study the market share of the brand. Then I will decide upon the segments of the market where I can promote my product. Segmentation of the market is an important part of market strat egy. Then I would identify my target customers. Then I would implement ways to push my product into the hands and minds of the target customers. I would strictly follow the methods which I described above to increase the sale of my product. Role of marketing specialist In todays business scenario, the marketing specialist of a brand performs the following functions that are listed below: 1. They conduct research in the market to find out the requirements of the consumers and their habits. 2. They develop ideas for creating campaigns for marketing. 3. They assist in both outbound and inbound marketing activities by developing contents, advertising for the product, planning and management of events. 4. They negotiate with concerned persons to execute campaigns and events for promotional purpose. 5. They coordinate with professionals for the development of their brand and generating awareness regarding the brand (Workable Blog HR Templates Hiring Tutorials Guides Customer Support 2016). These are some roles, which marketing specialists play in business in todays scenario. In order to increase the popularity of the brand they should work hard to gather more experience in the field of marketing. In future, they should have a thorough and proper understanding of the elements and units of marketing. The marketing professional in future should be able to demonstrate their experience in marketing tools and data analytics in a better way. The marketing people should have a proper understanding of details and should be well organised. They should improve their writing and communication skills in order to convince their customers to buy their product. They marketing professionals should have a mind blessed with creativity and should be commercially aware (Halinen 2012). Consumers product knowledge and involvement The marketing professionals base their strategies depending on the consumers knowledge of the product and their involvement in the production process. Customers before buying new products use their knowledge about the product to judge any new information obtained and then make up their mind whether to buy the product or not. The customers have knowledge about the form of the product, the class of the product, the model of the new product and about the brand (Olsen and Mai 2013). The customers have knowledge about certain characteristic or attributes of the product. The customers may have an idea about the benefits and consequences for using the product. The customers may also have the idea of the value that they will receive by using the product. Hence, the marketing people should keep all these aspects in mind before formulating the marketing strategies (Anon 2016). Attention and comprehension of consumers The marketing department of a brand should take into account the comprehensive ability of the consumers and their attention to the product value. By the attentive nature of the consumers, they help themselves to select some of the information, which they obtained from the market regarding the brand, and consider them for further processing. By the comprehensive nature of the consumers, they try to interpret every information that they obtain from the market. A number of factors influence these two qualities of a consumer comprehension and attention. Two most important factors among them are the involvement of the consumers and their knowledge about the product (Highered.mheducation.com 2016). Hence, the marketers should form the marketing strategies based on the above facts. Other factors influencing consumer behaviour In my study of the factors influencing consumer behaviour, there are some other important factors, which I would like to discuss in my reflective study. Some of the factors are the following; 1. Consumer decision marketing 2. Product positioning and segmentation of the market 3. Product strategy of the consumer 4. Operating conditions and classical conditioning (Anon 2016) Discussion on reactance theory I would be explaining the concept of reactance theory about the journal titled The Effects of Limits in Retail Advertisements: A Reactance Theory Perspective authored by Greg J. Lessne. The article clearly describes the concept of reactance theory as a psychological-social theory that explains how an individual would react if their independence to choose from a number of options is restricted by some external factor. The theory of reactance states that when a persons independence to exhibit a particular behaviour is curbed, then that restricted behaviour becomes more attractive to that person (Van et al. 2015). The article supports the reactance theory as it gives evidence in support of the same. The article says that in an experiment conducted on the residents of Miami, researchers imposed restriction on the use of detergents that contained phosphate. There were very few detergents available in the market that did not contain phosphate. The experimenter observed that after imposing such restriction, the residents of Miami considered phosphate detergents to be more effective than any other detergents compared to people from other places. This proves the fact that the reactance theory works on the people of Miami (Greg 2016). The teacher of the course gave an example of an advertisement tagline that the marketers of the brand Patagonia has used to their customers Do not buy this jacket. Here we can see that the market specialist of the brand is employing the reactance theory to promote and popularize their product among their customers. The marketing professionals are aware of the fact that the consumers would be more inclined to buy that jacket if they promote it in a negative way. Hence after segmenting the market and positioning their product in the minds of the customers, the marketers of Patagonia are trying to influence and manipulate the behaviour of the consumers by applying the reactance theory (Sittenthaler et al. 2014). The marketers have a clear idea about the knowledge of the products, which the customers have, and also their comprehensive and attentive power and their involvement. Conclusion This reflective writing highlights the change in the viewpoint of the author regarding the different marketing strategies followed by the marketing professionals of different brands. 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