Consumer Purchasing Strategies

Marketing is concerned with the introduction and promotion of products and services to the potential customers. It plays a prominent part in an organization as everything from sales to success depends on it. Through marketing, a business can get a chance to be discovered and recognized by a large group of people and influence them to opt for its products and services. However, what actually drives consumers to choose a particular product over others is a question which is often overlooked by marketers.

1. Engage with your Audience Online and Offline

In this digital world, everyone is hyper-connected and consume content on multiple platforms and devices. Companies can start a conversation on various social media platforms and engage their audience in it. However, consumers have now become more skeptical of businesses and more cautious with their spending on a particular product or service. So, it is important to engage customers in conversations where they perceive your message and intentions as sincere. Also, businesses should inspire them to advocate their product and service on their behalf by engaging them offline.

2. Understand the Needs of your Potential Customers

To influence consumers’ decisions about purchasing a product or service, companies need to understand their requirements and identify how to deliver a marketing message that appeals to them. Many businesses believe that they can use social media to influence or change the way customers think. But they can only win over people by creating mobile-friendly content that fits their needs and preferences. If they are not sure what consumers are looking for, then they should directly ask them through various social media platforms or emails.

3. Apply the Golden Rule

Being attractive has its perks, and it can increase a business’ likability and its trustworthiness. Striking website design has the power to influence customers and compel them to buy products and services of a particular company. Out of some of the most fantastic design techniques that are used to make a website look captivating, one is the Golden Ration. It is a design concept that is concerned with proportions in areas, such as art, design, and architecture. It can be used to work out the most visually appealing font size, proportions, margins, column widths, and line heights.

4. Use the Foot-in-the-Door Technique

This concept is used to increase compliance rates and influence consumers to make a purchase decision. In simple words, it is a tactic that aims at getting a person to a bigger request by making them agree to a modest request first. Businesses use these techniques to influence consumers behavior by asking them for something small in the first place. If they comply with their first small request, then they will be more likely to feel obliged to act consistently to the next and more significant request. So, by using this compliance tactic, companies can make the customers opt for their products and services.

5. Be Available 24/7 for your Customers

If companies want to influence consumer behavior, then they need to focus on making emotional connections with them through positive customer experiences. And that’s possible when they are available for their consumers twenty-four hours a day, and seven days a week to resolve their queries. A study found that 42% of customers who complain on social media platforms expect a response within 60 minutes. Further, 57% expect the response time at night and on weekends.

So, these were a few strategies that businesses can use to influence consumer behavior and make them choose their product or service over others. Since we are living in the digital world, more focus should be made on online marketing strategies than offline because people are good at tuning out brand-related content on social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Marketing strategies and tactics are normally based on explicit and implicit beliefs about consumer behavior. Decisions based on explicit assumptions and sound theory and research are more likely to be successful than the decisions based solely on implicit intuition.

Knowledge of consumer behavior can be an important competitive advantage while formulating marketing strategies. It can greatly reduce the odds of bad decisions and market failures. The principles of consumer behavior are useful in many areas of marketing, some of which are listed below:

Analyzing Market Opportunity

Consumer behavior helps in identifying the unfulfilled needs and wants of consumers. This requires scanning the trends and conditions operating in the market area, customer’s lifestyles, income levels and growing influences.

Selecting Target Market

The scanning and evaluating of market opportunities helps in identifying different consumer segments with different and exceptional wants and needs. Identifying these groups, learning how to make buying decisions enables the marketer to design products or services as per the requirements.

Example: Consumer studies show that many existing and potential shampoo users did not want to buy shampoo packs priced at Rs 60 or more. They would rather prefer a low price packet/sachet containing sufficient quantity for one or two washes. This resulted in companies introducing shampoo sachets at a minimal price which has provided unbelievable returns and the trick paid off wonderfully well.

Marketing-Mix Decisions

Once the unfulfilled needs and wants are identified, the marketer has to determine the precise mix of four P’s, i.e., Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

Product

A marketer needs to design products or services that would satisfy the unsatisfied needs or wants of consumers. Decisions taken for the product are related to size, shape, and features. The marketer also has to decide about packaging, important aspects of service, warranties, conditions, and accessories.

Example: Nestle first introduced Maggi noodles in masala and capsicum flavors. Subsequently, keeping consumer preferences in other regions in mind, the company introduced Garlic, Sambar, Atta Maggi, Soupy noodles, and other flavours.

Price

The second important component of marketing mix is price. Marketers must decide what price to be charged for a product or service, to stay competitive in a tough market. These decisions influence the flow of returns to the company.

Place

The next decision is related to the distribution channel, i.e., where and how to offer the products and services at the final stage. The following decisions are taken regarding the distribution mix −

• Are the products to be sold through all the retail outlets or only through the selected ones?
• Should the marketer use only the existing outlets that sell the competing brands? Or, should they indulge in new elite outlets selling only the marketer’s brands?
• Is the location of the retail outlets important from the customers’ point of view?
• Should the company think of direct marketing and selling?

Promotion

Promotion deals with building a relationship with the consumers through the channels of marketing communication. Some of the popular promotion techniques include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity, and direct marketing and selling.

The marketer has to decide which method would be most suitable to effectively reach the consumers. Should it be advertising alone or should it be combined with sales promotion techniques? The company has to know its target consumers, their location, their taste and preferences, which media do they have access to, lifestyles, etc.