Socio-Psychology and Consumer Behavior

Socio-Psychology and Consumer Behaviour

Hello to all the readers!

Let us start this adventure of learning wherein the first topic which we will cover is about socio-psychology and the consumer behaviour.

 Consumer Psychology can be defined as the study of human behaviour regarding their buying patterns, customs and preferences, in relation to consumer products, including their reactions and choices to advertising, packaging and marketing of those products, beliefs, feelings, and perceptions of an individual, group or organisation. It can be further expanded to the processes utilised by them to select, secure, dispose and use of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society. The study of consumer behaviour draw its findings from a number of disciplines like sociology, social psychology, economics, anthropology and marketing research.

The topics or the major determinants that are taken into consideration by the consumer psychologists include the following:

1. The environmental variables such as family, media, friends and culture influencing buying decisions
2. Personal Factors and Individual Differences affecting people's buying choices
3. What motivates people to choose that particular product over the other
4. What marketers should do to effectively reach out to their target consumers
5. Understanding how and why people think and act in certain ways
6. Emphasis on Social Marketing or how ideas and messages spread among groups

Their primary function is to evaluate the decision making process that the consumers undergo while they are making a purchase, in order to build up a strategy to better reach out to them. The goal is to convince people and make a calculated emotional appeal in order to acquire a permanent consumer. Furthermore, market research analysts study market conditions and examine potential sales of products or services to help the companies understand the basic requirements of the consumer and how much they are willing to pay for the same. Consumer behaviour knowledge may be applied in solving both micro and macro marketing problems. Therefore, an understanding of the discipline is essential for the marketer who wishes to be successful in the face of competition.

Since the business enterprises need to understand their consumers in order to develop products and marketing campaigns which appeal to their target audience, consumer psychologists often spend a large amount of their time in figuring out their target audience for a particular product and the marketing messages that attract to these types of buyers. This generally includes an in-depth research in the from of experiments, phone surveys, focus groups, direct observations, questionnaires where the respondents are required to describe their past shopping behaviour, factors which influenced the decision making process as well as the future buying plans.

The researchers also gather details regarding the respondent's age, sex, race, educational qualifications, current financial situation, ethnicity, geographical location, personal preferences, demographics, personality and lifestyle. Moreover, behavioural variables like usage rates, loyalty, brand advocacy and willingness to provide referrals are all studied under market research. Social Marketing, customised marketing, brand-name shopping and the consumer's perception of the price of the commodity (expressed as the consumer's sensitivity to the price) are all considered as the main factors for understanding consumer attitudes and help them explain the reaction of market demand to the change in price.

Additionally, creating a good relationship with the target audience is important for brand management. The tangible elements of brand management include the product or service itself, its look, price as well as

packaging. The intangible elements include the experiences that the customers share with the brand and the relationship they have developed with the products and services offered by the brand. Hence, a proper market research can help the brand managers design the most effective and positive brand as well as advertising strategy.

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