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Marketing Management & Consumer Behaviour

Marketing management rests upon some conception or other of how consumers behave (Foxhall).

Explain, illustrating your answer with reference to an organisation(s) of your choice, why marketers should understand consumer behaviour.

Introduction

The notion of marketing management refers to a pre-determined strategy aimed at achieving a given marketing objective. Consumer behaviour, and the study of consumer response to a company's interaction with the commercial environment, represent key deliberations and are integral to the success of a marketing strategy. Historically, the study of consumer behaviour has been rather neglected; with Dubois (2000) suggesting that it is the stepchild of the marketing discipline.

This essay seeks to explore the relationship between these two concepts, while examining some of the key reasons why marketers should attempt to understand consumer behaviour.

It could be reasonably assumed that a consumer is in the best position to make a rational product purchase if that person has access to all the information available to them. Issues such as price, quality, product brand image and others affect the attractiveness of a product and its subsequent chances of being purchased.

Understanding consumer behaviour gives marketers the chance to influence the availability of this information in a way which is beneficial to the company. Providing positive information on product attributes relative to the competition will evidently increase the affiliation and information consumers have with that product. The reasons for this are explained later in this essay.

From the perspective of the organisation, a company's ability to retain a personal relationship with its customers can be restricted when it is dealing with large numbers of people. In such situations, failure to adequately understand the target market may result in any number of negative consequences such as delivering a product to the market which consumers do not demand. Dubois (2000) suggests that understanding consumer behaviour is necessary when direct contact with those consumers is not feasible.

Consumers as Decision Makers

By analysing and predicting the way in which consumers may be likely to react to a company's marketing activity, (e.g. a new product launch) the best course of action can be ascertained (e.g. a choice between initial sales promotion or a sustained advertising campaign). Hence, understanding a consumer's likely reaction is vital to successful marketing management.

Consumers can be said to react to a product depending on their individual circumstances. Soloman et al. (1999) defined a customer thought process involving initial problem recognition, related information search, and evaluation of alternatives, and a subsequent choice of purchase. Through the various marketing communications channels, marketers are able to manipulate an information search, influence the evaluation, and to a certain extent help identify with the original problem.

A person looking to purchase a replacement video games console, for instance, will begin by assessing which one is best for them. The information search can be influenced by Microsoft, by ensuring that the appropriate amount of hype and advertising material reaches such a consumer while in this decision making process stage. Messages which they may wish to communicate to the consumer may include superior games, better technology, and value for money. By creating necessary hype about their new console, they are also able to influence the evaluation stage of the process. In this example, Microsoft is able to use a quality marketing campaign to engage a consumer's attitude and increase the chances of a successful launch for its Xbox 360 console.

Evidence set out by Soloman et al. (1999) suggests that a purchase decision strategy adopted by a consumer will depend on the relative importance they associate with that decision. A decision to purchase an iPod or Minidisc will be more carefully considered than when buying, say, an apple or a banana for lunch. Marketers should thus approach the way they react to a consumer's purchase decision making strategy depending on the consumer's level of involvement. It is likely that a person with a high involvement in their decision will be more susceptible to advertising than with a low involvement decision, so called habitual or purchase as learned behaviour (East 1997).

Cognitive and Behavioural Decision Making Processes

The role of a marketing strategy as set out above will likely differ depending on these consumer decision making processes. East (1997) identifies two competing types: that of a cognitive decision process and behaviouristic reinforcement decision making.

The cognitive approach, involving high levels of thought processing when making a buying decision, would seem to allow the greatest scope for marketer interaction (as in the Microsoft example above). Fill (2002) suggests that a cognitive based decision making process assumes that individuals attempt to control their immediate environments, in which producers play their part. This view is backed up by Foxall (1992a), as cited in East (1997), who goes as far as to suggest that consumers handle considerable quantities of information when making cognitive based purchase decisions. We hence see decision making which is close to an informed and rational thought process, open to manipulation by marketers via media such as advertising campaigns.

A second decision making process is one of behaviouristic or learned behaviour. This reinforcement argument focuses on the idea that a person who has a positive experience one time with a product will be more likely to purchase that product again, as they remember the positive results associated with the purchase. It could be argued that this decision making process can be nurtured by marketers by ensuring that consumers are left with positive feelings towards the product, thus increasing the chances that they will purchase it again. Likewise, a process known as shaping, identified by Skinner (cited in East 1997), in which consumers can be prompted towards particular attributes of a product (e.g. by selective advertising) provides marketers with more possibilities as regards modifying learned behaviour. The '3' Mobile Network may represent an example of this with its current marketing campaign which emphasises the ability to download music videos on mobile phones. By providing incentives to use such services, many consumers will effectively move from one 'behaviour' to another (i.e. a different use for their phone), and if downloading music videos becomes an acquired new behaviour, there is more chance that 3's service will be successful.

Consumer Attitudes

Described by Soloman et al. (1999), attitudes relate to a lasting, general evaluation of people, objects or issues. There are many models (e.g. Ajzen and Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action 1980 and Theory of Planned Behaviour 1991 - cited by East 1997) set out to describe the links between attitudes, beliefs, intentions and associated behaviours which marketers would do well to follow, but are beyond the scope of this essay. It would, however, seem logical that prevalent attitudes have a key impact on decision making, both in learned or cognitive purchase decision making.

Attitudes, as described by East (1997), refer in the commercial sense to opinions on the actual process of purchasing a given product. Hence, marketers are able to influence opinion on their products to improve the chances of a person reflecting favourably to purchasing that product. This point would seem to add further weight to Peter et al. (1999)'s assertion that Ads that consumers like seem to create more positive brand attitudes and purchase intentions than ads they don't like.

Dubois (2000) suggested that attitudes form preferences to a particular brand or product, which in turn triggers a potential purchase. This being the case, it would be the aim of a marketing strategy to create preferences for a product by altering attitudes. Dubois argues that this can be achieved via the process of persuasion; by influencing the attitudes of the audience. As identified by Peter et al. (1999), commonly successful persuasion methods include in store communication, advertising, publicity creation and personal selling.

Due to competing messages, or noise (East 1997), effective persuasion is of crucial importance in the face of competing brands or external messages. According to Zaltman (2003), poor quality thinking cannibalises high quality thinking. In order to communicate a product to the consumer in the best possible way, Zaltman et al. argue, a company must address negative or incorrect prevailing attitudes towards it. Such stigma may become attached to a brand through external sources such as negative press in the media (common with global brands like McDonalds and Nike). Understanding consumer behaviour provides organisations with the opportunity to counteract such messages as well as compete against the noise of other messages from competing organisations.

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Conclusion: Implications for Marketing Management Strategy

Whether a marketing strategy is to create awareness, improve image, create brand equity or increase sales, it has become clear that consumer response should be a vital component of the strategy. Furthermore, the importance of understanding the way a consumer behaves is also crucial to the successful formulation of a marketing communications strategy as set out by Fill (2002) and Peter et al. (1999), as consumer response must be factored in to all four stages of the process (i.e. context analysis, setting promotional objectives, devising an appropriate communications plan and evaluation of consumer response).

What becomes apparent throughout the body of research carried out by the academics highlighted in this essay is the core principles of consumer behaviour, as discussed above, and their relevance to a structured marketing management strategy. By taking the decision making processes of consumers into account, marketers are able to better tailor their marketing efforts. There would seem to be a balance marketers must strike between understanding why consumers make the decisions they do, on the one hand, while at the same time attempting to shape attitudes and hence their behaviour on the other.

Bibliography

De Mooij (2004), Consumer Behaviour and Culture Consequences for Global Marketing and Advertising, Sage Publications, London, UK

Dubois (2000), Understanding the Consumer, Pearson Education Ltd, London, UK

East, R. (1997), Consumer Behaviour: Advances and Applications in Marketing FT Prentice Hall, UK

Fill, C. (2002), Marketing Communications: Contexts, Strategies and Applications (3rd Ed.), FT Prentice Hall, UK

Peter, Olson, Grunert (1999), Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Strategy European Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, UK

Soloman, Bamossy, Askegaard (1999), Consumer Behaviour a European Perspective, Prentice Hall Inc, New Jersey, USA

Zaltman (2003), How Customers Think Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market, Harvard Business School Press, USA

Website: http://www.three.co.uk/explore/

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