Consumer Behavior And Perception Marketing Essay

Consumers all around the world are faced by the problem of lack of complete information on the products that they are interested in purchasing. It is imperative for consumers to be able to bridge this information gap and most consumers choose to go through a number of searches on the product before making up their mind to buy the said product. The emerging trend in this day’s market is the use of the internet to retrieve product information. The emergence of online marketing has been one of the push factors that have pushed consumers to the internet to gather information on a certain product that they are interested (Hauser, 1978). The internet has turned out to be a one stop source for information where consumers can get product reviews from stores or even from other products.

For example the online shop Amazon.com allows consumers to purchase goods online and then the customers on receiving and using the product they can comment on their experience with the product. This has helped boost the consumer purchasing volumes since some websites offer extra information for consumers. The offer information for example related goods to the good that the consumer is looking for. Some websites offer information for example “consumers who bought this good also bought this good”. This is acting as a source of empowerment for the consumers who are getting more aware about the goods that they are buying. Through the internet marketers for example of brands are offering information to consumers so as to give them the opportunity to make informed buys (Hauser, 1978).

Consumers learn about product information through associative learning. This is the process by which consumers try and make connections between the physical aspects of a product and how they influence the consumer to make the right choice when making a purchase. Consumers mostly rely on brands since they are sure about the information that a brand offers. This is because brands for example coca cola are highly linked to high quality goods that a consumer can trust and this influences the knowledge of the consumer. Consumer behaviour is primarily linked to their spending or purchasing behaviour (Hauser, 1978).It is the normal human tendency for human beings to remember whatever products that they purchased and enjoyed. Consumers are more likely to remember any product that they enjoyed using. This could be compacted by the use of advertising that allows the consumer to relieve the good experience that the consumer had with the product.

Mainly consumers remember reliable and well advertised brands that they associate with good quality products. It is the trend of consumers to easily forget products that they deem to be of poor quality or products that they did not enjoy. This directly affects the strategies that the company is using to push its product. Companies must be able to market their product effectively. This will make sure that the consumers associate the good being offered by the company with quality production (Hauser, 1978). The easiest way for a company to achieve this is by ensuring that they build a product brand that the consumers can associate with. This is because the company with the best brand controls all the market forces for its products and enjoys greater volume sales unlike other products. The organization must also provide complete information to the consumers so as to ensure that the consumers are able to make an informed product purchase.

Question 3:

Emotion can be defined as a strong feeling towards something, therefore consumer emotions toward a product can influence whether or not the customer will purchase the product. Emotions also affect memory and the process of evaluating alternative products (Adaval, 2003). The way a consumer reacts after an experience with a product greatly affects the way a consumer remembers a product. A bad experience may create distaste which is a feeling that will cause the consumer not to buy the product again. Consumer taste is the main determining factor that enhances consumer emotions. This is because emotions play a major role when it comes to consumers who want to purchase goods and also affects their judgment. Human emotions are generally the product of cognition. Many consumers develop tastes for goods and services based on the psychological effect of perception, learning and experience. This will in turn affect how they view a certain good or service. For example if a consumer gathers negative information about a good he or she will develop a negative emotion on the good and will prefer to find an alternative to the product (Adaval, 2003).

Question 4:

So as to be able to influence a consumers information there are two things that the company must be able to effectively implement. The most important part is the company to implement strategic policies that affect the cognitive process of the consumers (Adaval, 2003).This can be done by first having an attractive product packaging that will serve in creating positive emotions in the customers. Most consumers form opinions based on the external packaging of a product. This will help the organization to be able to create a significant opinion in the consumer that will create emotions in the consumer that will influence how the consumer buys the product. This will also influence the consumer’s preference which is a direct effect of taste. The next step is to create a positive product experience for the consumer. This means that the company must be able to come up with a good quality product that will reach all the goals and needs of the consumer. It is important to be able to please a consumer in an effort to influence their emotions and in turn influence their decision making process. Therefore the company must first attract the consumer to the product and then give the consumer value for their money. By so doing the company will be able to influence the consumer’s emotions and their purchasing power over the company’s product. This will gain the company leverage in the market (Adaval, 2003).

Question 5:

Consumer perceptions are important when it comes to the success of a product. It is important for organizations to implement strategies that influence consumer perceptions and push the product further. The first strategy that may be used to influence consumer perception is the pricing policy. The company may decide to give consumers a discount on the products price. Discount will create a perception in consumers that the product is cheap and affordable and thus will increase consumer loyalty (Krishna, 2005).The company should strive to make some compromises such as offering discounts. This will label the company as consumer and market aware. It will also make the company to look like it cares for its consumers. Another strategy that could be used is referred to as “shadow branding’ which is a marketing technique whereby the company will accept the flaws of its product and will market its opposite side. This has been known to work since at times consumers are cautious of products that appear to be perfect and flawless. For the sake of the success of the product it is important for the company to create good perceptions in the consumers so as to promote sales (Krishna, 2005).