Introduction
Consumer behavior refers to the way consumers select, secure, use, and dispose of products and services to satisfy needs and the impact that these processes have on the consumer and society. It involves the use and disposal of products as well as how they are purchased.
When studying consumer behavior, the marketing mix comes up as the most important determinant in the trends of consumption. The marketing mix is a framework of tactical management of the customer relationship, including product, place, price, and promotions. These are parameters that a marketer can control subject to the internal and external constraints of a marketing environment (Jobber 912).
Analyses of factors that affect the consumer behavior
Consumers tend to be influenced by the physical appearance of the product, such as the way it is –packaged. Other attributes might include quality, features, options, services, warranties, and brand name. A product should meet a particular target market needs thus, knowledge of the target market is very important to ensure that a product will appeal to consumers. Consumers tend to buy products that specifically match their demands, those that are fast-moving, and have various brands in each product category from which they select. This indicates that brands within a given product category are not all functionally substitutable (Foxall 241-57).
Consumers also purchase products according to their purchasing power. They factor in the concept of the price which can be very tricky to determine on the side of business owners. Most sellers feel they must have the lowest price around, and this may be a signal of low quality to consumers. Hence, the pricing approach used should reflect the appropriate positioning of a product in the market and it should be based on consumer demand and the competitive environment. The buyer’s perspective depends on all aspects of the product including non-price factors such as quality, healthfulness and prestige thus, the lowest priced items will not always be preferred. Consumer groups differ concerning their price demand elasticity. That is, they differ concerning how they change the quantity they buy as a function of changes in brand price (Foxall et al. 5-91)
Another factor affecting consumer behavior is the place, referring to the distribution channels used to get products to consumers. The product may be sold directly or through intermediary vendors, this implies that in the case of direct sales, the marketing strategy will greatly determine the response of consumers. The market coverage determines how a product is purchased in that consumers will tend to believe that the best product is the one that sells nationally. Thus, they tend to have a low preference for local products.
Promotions should contain clear messages to get people to understand the product. Consumers look for products that satisfy their needs hence if an advertisement does not capture them on the first incident they might not choose to purchase the product. Promotional efforts should contain clear messages targeted to a specific audience reached via an appropriate channel. Consistency in the overall marketing image will tend to capture the audience’s attention. Purchase and consumption activities occur in a continuum that ranges between relatively open to relatively closed consumer behavior settings (Schwartz and Lacey 27-42).
Conclusion
Depending on prevailing economic conditions consumers are cautious about spending and if the interest rates are high, they tend to spend less and save more. This reduces the circulation of money in the economy and their purchasing power weakens, on the other hand during inflation they spend more since the amount of money in circulation is high. Satisfaction of consumer’s demands is dependent on both the demand and supply side thus, producers need to understand better the motivators of consumption.
Works cited
Foxall, G. R. “Consumer psychology and behavior analysis” Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 14 (1994) 5-91.
Foxall, G. R. (1999). “The substitutability of brands” Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 20 (1999) 241-57.
Jobber, D. Principles and Practice of Marketing (4th ed.). London: McGraw-Hill, 2004, 912.
Schwartz, B., Lacey, H. Whatapplied studies of human operant conditioning tell us about humans and about operant conditioning. In G. Davey & C. Cullen (Eds.), umanoperant conditioning and behavior modification.Chichester: Wiley, 1988, 27- 42.