MK 385 Consumer Behavior
In today’s world of various products and services, businesses aim to excel and lead the competition by marketing the most number of consumers, which is a full time endeavor of business. To survive in the market, a firm or an organization has to be constantly innovating and understand the latest consumer trends and tastes. Marketers need to understand consumer behavior because the decision-making process for consumers is anything but straight forward. Consumers’ behaviors and their purchasing patterns is a huge advantage to understanding the way customers think and the reason for their purchases. Therefore, the study of consumer behavior is important because it allows the marketers to understand the factors which influence the customer’s thoughts while buying any products or services. There are many factors that can affect this process as a person works through the purchase decision, such as external, internal, and marketing influences. For example, culture, group, or purchase situation are just a few of external influences. Perceptual, attitude, personality, lifestyle, roles, and motivation are a few of internal influences that can affect a consumer’s purchase decision. Marketing strategies, such as price, product, place, and promotion influences the consumer as well. The number of potential influences on consumer behavior is endless. However, by understanding the key influences, marketers can adapt and improve their efforts to take advantage in a way that will satisfy both the consumer and marketer.
Not only is understanding consumer behavior importance to marketers, it should be important to the consumer as well. Personal consumption journals are just one of the tools that consumers can use to understanding their own behavior. From the personal consumption journal many observations lead to crucial insights to make a better and informed consumer. For example, a crucial insight could be
Cited: Hawkins, M. (2010). Consumer behavior, building marketing strategy. (11 ed., pp. 42-44,360-480). New York: McGraw-Hill Inc.