Executive Summary
This report identifies the need to communicate effectively to consumers; the need to help consumers make informed choices; and the need to make products or services appealing to consumers as the three main reasons why marketers need to develop techniques or strategies to deal with consumer behaviour.
The report further identifies attaining a product-market fit, market segmentation, and product positioning as the three techniques or responses that marketers can develop to respond to consumer behavior. The report also indicates that marketers can use portfolio analysis and market-product analysis to enhance their understanding product performance in the existing market.
Based on the results of such analysis, marketers can determine whether they have been successful in responding to consumer behaviour. The report ends by recommending that marketers should gauge what the consumers prefer, need and are willing to pay for, and use their findings to provide goods and services that will appeal to the target market.
Reasons why marketers need to develop techniques or strategies that deal with how consumers behave
The first reason marketers need to develop techniques or strategies that deal with how consumers behave is because by so doing, they would be better positioned to communicate to specific target consumers. Specifically, and as noted by Howell (2012), consumer behaviour is influenced by interests and experiences that they (consumers) have.
Therefore, marketers will succeed in making their products or services appealing to specific market segments if they develop techniques or strategies that are of interest to such consumers. As indicated by Clemons (2008, p. 20) consumers can now access “perfect information”, and this enables them to make informed choices. A quality product or service therefore, cannot just rely on its attributes to appeal to consumer; rather, marketers must be willing to avail information regarding it to consumers.
The second reason is based on Clemons (2008, p. 32) observation that, “Information has changed consumer preferences and consumer behaviour”. For marketers to succeed in making consumers accept their product or service offers, they must develop techniques or strategies based on the understanding of changes brought about by a more informed consumer.
For example, consumers are now exposed to more choices, and this could mean that marketers need to modify product offers in order to appeal to consumer’s preferences and willingness to buy a product or service.
The third reason is that in addition to a product or service being good, the consumers have to like and even love it, if they are going to buy it. According to Clemons (2008), such is the wisdom of resonance marketing, where in addition to being better than the competition a product has to be interesting in a manner that arouses the passion of consumers.
Three techniques or strategies that marketers can apply in response to how consumers behave
Among the techniques or strategies that marketers can apply in response to how consumers behave is developing a marketing strategy. Such a strategy would have to recognise consumer’s wants, preferences, behaviour, and environment to come up with a product that is appealing in both the quality and price. McDermott (2013), for example indicates that the blackberry developers were cognizant that professionals who were its primary target, were also private people away from their work places.
The second strategy or technique in response to consumer behaviour is segmenting the consumer market, and offering highly differentiated products in response to increasing consumer awareness.
According to Clemons (2008), increased consumer awareness is brought about by increased access to information, and this means that they (consumers) have wider choices. The basic premise of market segmentation however indicates that marketers need to understand as much information about consumers in a specific segment in order to successfully design marketing programs that meet the needs therein effectively.
The third technique or strategy entails putting in place a communication strategy that intends to position the product by informing rather than pushing products to consumers. As Indicated by Clemons (2008), uncontrollable discussions among consumers are slowly replacing push-based communication that was previously used by marketers.
Discussing how medical tourism marketers are engaging prospective customers, Sobo, Herlihy and Bicker (2011, p. 129) also observe that a “consumer’s choice drives a medical travel booking”. In other words, the medical tourism marketers provide consumers will all the information needed, and based on the same, the consumers decide which among the many offers they will choose.
Portfolio analysis and market-product analysis
Portfolio analysis is defined as the critical look at the products offered by a business with an intention of identifying the well performing, the stagnant performers, and those whose performance is declining (Rafinejad 2007). Market-product analysis on the other hand is the process that companies use to determine product development, market development, market penetration, and product diversification (Pinson 2008).
Through product analysis and market-product analysis, marketers are able to understand their product performance relative to the existing market, and can determine whether they have been successful in responding to consumer behaviour. Marketers can also use the results of both the portfolio analysis and market-product analysis to come up with a strategy for responding to consumer behaviour.
An example of market-product analysis is offered by Molesworth, Nixon and Scullion (2009), who observe that in a bid to market universities to students, higher education in Britain promotes a discourse that gives consumers (students) degrees, but fails to transform them to learners/scholars.
While the authors (Molesworth et al. 2009) argue that education should probably be left out of the consumer society where demand triggers supply, the article is an illustration that by understanding the market and consumer behaviour, marketers can come up with products and marketing strategies that will appeal to consumers.
Recommendation as to how marketers should respond to consumer behaviour
Marketers should gauge what the consumers prefer, need and are willing to pay for, and use their findings to provide goods and services that will appeal to such consumers. Understanding consumer behaviour towards prices is also important since it can help marketers decide how to price their products (Rafinejad 2007).
Product quality should ideally match consumer’s expectations, while other factors such as product positioning should be in a manner that makes consumers constantly aware of the product. Marketers also need to know the types of decision making that consumers engage in. At the basic level (i.e. for routine products that are relatively low-priced), consumers are likely to exhibit routine response behaviour.
For non-routine products that are relatively high-priced, marketers should provide consumers with information that is ideally meant to help them make purchase decisions. Information provision would be in line with emergent trends, in which consumers prefer to find information and make purchase decisions based on their own understanding of the product’s properties and potential to meet their needs.
References
Clemons, E. K 2008, ‘How information changes consumer behaviour and how consumer behaviour determines corporate strategy’, Journal of Management Information Systems, vol.25, no.2, pp. 13-40.
Howell, R 2012, ‘Market segmentation: the importance of age cohorts’, Business Journal Review. Web.
McDermott, J 2013, ‘Blackberry is no longer just for the suits’, Advertising Age, vol. 84 no.6, p. 20.
Molesworth, M., Nixon, E & Scullion, R 2009, ‘Having, being and higher education: the marketisation of university and the transformation of the student into consumer’, Teaching in Higher Education, vol.14, no.3, pp. 277-287.
Pinson, L 2008, Anatomy of a business plan: the step-by step guide to building your business and securing your company’s future, 7th edn, AKA Associates, Tustin, CA.
Rafinejad, D 2007, Innovation, product development and commercialisation: case studies and key practices for market leadership, J. Ross Publishing, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Sobo, E. J., Herlihy, E & Bicker, M 2011, ‘Selling medical travel to US patient-consumers: the cultural appeal of website marketing messages’, Anthropology & Medicine, vol. 18, no.1, pp. 119-136.