The role of the Customer in Marketing

A business can never place too much emphasis on its customers. The customer is the foundation of any business’ success. One of the primary goals of any marketing strategy should be to identify and meet the needs of the consumer. Considering customer importance at all stages of the marketing process helps your company to ensure greater customer satisfaction and increase its long-term goal of repeat business.

1. Psychological Considerations

The psychological makeup of consumers plays a crucial role in developing a product and a marketing campaign that identifies and addresses consumer needs. According to Lars Perner, assistant professor of clinical marketing at the University of Southern California, some of these considerations include how consumers “think, feel, reason and select between different alternatives.” These considerations can be influenced by environment, such as culture, family and media. The purpose of marketing research is to identify these variables and to incorporate them into the campaign.

2. Marketing Considerations

Some of the considerations to take into account when marketing to your customers are honesty, integrity and clarity. Keeping consumer needs in mind is also an integral part of effective marketing. Sneaky advertising campaigns can generate quick sales, but those sales will falter as consumers realize they’ve been duped. Selling a good product marketed with integrity brings back customers. To do this, a company needs to build customer confidence in its product over time. Customer confidence is what brings consumers back to your product and ensures long-term success.

3. Word of Mouth

Underestimating the power of customer word of mouth is detrimental to your success. Consumers like to talk, whether they are talking about a product they enjoyed or a product that left them wanting. Word of mouth has a snowball effect, particularly in an age when fast worldwide communication is common. Your company can’t afford not to consider how quickly its product and reputation can be badmouthed or blacklisted. This is why marketing a product honestly and with integrity is important.

4. Customer Service

Considering customer needs during the development and promotion of a product is not the only way to emphasize customer needs. Customer considerations after the product has been marketed are important as well. Customer service and interaction with the consumer after the product has been sold not only build strong relationships with the consumer but offer companies valuable information that will help to design more effective marketing efforts in the future.

5. Marketing Research

Consumers play a major role in marketing research before a product or service is released to the public. Once you identify your target consumers, you can invite these people to participate in focus groups or send them surveys to quiz them on key elements of your marketing plan. Questioning them about the right price to charge and what marketing message appeals to them as a consumer can help guide your entire plan, particularly when releasing a new product or service.

6. Product Feedback

The consumer also plays a role in the feedback-gathering process after a company’s offering hits the market. After implementing your marketing plan and releasing the product or service, you need to track results and continually monitor consumer needs so you can improve on the offering in the future. For instance, software developers seek feedback from consumers regularly to help them develop new and improved versions of programs.

7. Bring in New Consumers

Consumers also can act as agents to further the effects of your marketing plan. With word-of-mouth marketing, consumers who have used your product review it both offline and online and can refer other consumers to the product. This marketing is free and very effective, as individuals tend to trust the word of people they know when it comes to trying new products and services.

Business Customer

A business customer is defined by the fact that she makes a purchase. Marketing activities are almost always geared towards customers, not just consumers. A business’s main objective is attracting customers to spend money on goods and services. Most businesses outside of behemoths like Coca-Cola can’t possibly market to every consumer on the planet. This means choosing who to spend marketing money on.

Marketing efforts are typically directed at customers and potential customers. If you own a beer company, it doesn’t make sense to market to consumers who don’t drink alcohol as they’re unlikely to be customers. Even the cleverest advertising probably won’t turn a teetotaller consumer into a beer-drinking customer. Resources should instead be utilized on attracting and retaining likely customers. Note also that a business customer can ultimately be a reseller or wholesaler, turning around and selling products for resale to other consumers. A consumer, on the other hand, only consumes products.