Consumer Behavior Of Organizations Procedures

Reflection on Change in Point of View

Discuss about the Consumer Behavior of Organizations Procedures.

Consumer behavior is defined as the study regarding the groups, individuals and the organizations and the procedures that are used in order to select, use, dispose and secure the services, products, ideas and experiences in order to satisfy the requirements and the affects that these procedures have on the society and consumer (Potter 2012). Before this assignment, I have done another assignment on the topic “How Marketers Change Consumer Behavior”. During performing this first assignment, I had just started to study this marketing course and had just started to understand the subject. But now it has been for long time I am studying the subject marketing. Therefore, doing this second assignment seems to be much easier for me.

Reflection on Change in Point of View

My first or previous assignment was regarding the marketing topic “How Marketers Change Consumer Behavior”. The first assignment was done just after I have joined the course. Thus, my idea and knowledge regarding the particular topic as well as the subject was not much strong. During my first assignment, my concept was not so clear regarding the topic, thus I quoted that “Marketers are responsible for influencing the consumers to buy their products”. But in actual I should write this with a real life example in order to explain the statement in details. In my previous assignment, I mentioned that the marketers understand the need or demand of the customers and based on this the marketers manufacture the products or provide services. However, I did not mention that the marketers generally analyze their target markets based on the concept of segmentation, targeting and positioning. All these were due to the lack of understandability and knowledge regarding the topic. Nevertheless, in the recent days, with the passage of time I have gained knowledge thus it has helped me to change my reflection and also my point of view regarding the topic.

Impact of Reading on Understanding Marketing

It is commonly said that the practical knowledge is more important than theoretical knowledge. However, for my case, it is true that the theoretical knowledge helped me a lot in understanding the field and the subject. I was a layman and thus I had no ideas regarding the particular topic or field. I used to think that the selling and marketing is a similar matter. However, after studying the course, I came to know that the aspect of selling and marketing is totally a different factor. The term selling is defined as the last step of the commerce chain where a purchaser generally exchanges the cash for service and / or good of a seller, or it is defined as the activity of trying to bring about this (Otnes and Tuncay-Zayer 2012). On the other hand, marketing is defined as the activities of an organization that are associated with the purchasing and selling of service and/ or goods (Posner 2011). The department of marketing management of an organization looks after and handles various sectors that is selling, advertising and also delivering of the goods to the people. Generally, the people who works in the marketing department of the organizations try to obtain attention of the target customers by using the packaging design, slogans, general media exposure and celebrity endorsements. The marketing concept is mainly consists of 4 P’s of marketing mix. These are – place, product, promotion and price (Malhotra 2013). By reading various books, articles and journals I have gained more knowledge. In addition to this, I have studied various terms and terminologies of marketing from the internet. This unlimited source also helped me to learn and gain more knowledge regarding the subject. The books from which I learned more or it can also be said that the books that helped me to learn and understand the subject as well as the topic and also helped me to gain more knowledge include – Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller.

Impact of Reading on Understanding Marketing

Reflection on Doing Things Differently

In this course I have studied various units of marketing. This includes – attention and comprehension, product knowledge of the consumers and the involvement, consumer decision marketing, influencing the behavior of consumer, classical and operating condition, product strategy and consumer behavior and market segmentation and positioning of product.

Attention and comprehension

In this unit I learned about the behavioral procedure of exposure that helps the consumers to come in contact with the information of marketing. This unit also helped me to understand the interrelated cognitive processes of attention that guides the customers to select some of the marketing information for future processing. On the other hand, comprehension helps the customers to interpret the meaning of the collected marketing information. Generally the concept of attention and comprehension are strongly influenced by mainly two internal elements. These are – the level of involvement of the customers and the knowledge structures that have been activated in the exposure condition (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2011).  These factors are liable for influencing the ability of the customers and their motivation in order to interpret the information. For example, the behavioral procedure of exposure of the brand Patagonia helps its customers to come in contact with the marketing information.

In this unit, detailed study of the affective responses of the customers and also the cognitive responses to the goods has been highlighted. Generally, the customers do not purchase products in order to get attributes. However, the consumers think about the goods in terms of their undesirable and desirable consequences – advantages and distinguished risks (Kotler and Armstrong 2014). The attributes of the product of an organization or a brand can be related to their personal consequences and self relevant consequences, objectives, values and needs. I have noted that attributes of some of the products are strongly related with the values and consequences and it has also been noted that some of the products are weakly related with the self relevant consequences. These are termed as high involvement and low involvement products. Therefore, for instance, it can be said that the products of the brand Patagonia are strongly related with the values and consequences. Thus, it can also be said that the products of the brand Patagonia is considered as the high involvement.

Consumer decision marketing

The procedure of buying decision of the consumers is composed of 5 steps. These include – recognition of problem or recognition of need, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, post – purchase behavior. In this unit of consumer decision marketing, I learnt about various topics of marketing like – internal stimuli, external stimuli, functional need, social need, need for change, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, internal information and external information. In terms of consumer decision marketing, the consumer decision making is an important aspect as by this process the consumers can identify their requirements and demands, can collect information, can evaluate the alternatives and can make the decision of purchasing (Kerin, Hartley and Rudelius 2011). Usually, these actions are identified by economical and psychological factors and are influenced by various environmental factors like social, group and cultural values (Pride and Ferrell 2012). For instance, the tag line of the brand Patagonia influences the customers regarding decision making and thus it helps in consumer decision making.

Reflection on Doing Things Differently

Influencing the behavior of consumer

The behavior of the customers can be influenced by various factors. This helped me to learn and to gain more knowledge in the field of marketing. These include – purchasing power of the consumers, group influence, personal preferences, economic conditions, marketing campaigns, benefits and attitudes of the consumers, perception of the consumers regarding the brand and its products and services (Keegan and Green 2013). It also includes motivation of the consumers also affect their buying nature, psychological factors, personal factors such as – occupation, age, lifestyle, economic situation, personality, social factors include – family, reference groups, roles and status and cultural factors like – culture, social class and subculture. For instance, the tagline of the brand Patagonia has also positively affected the behavior of consumer.

Classical and operating condition

This unit helped me to study both the operant and classical learning. These learning are the psychological procedures which will lead to learning (Kotler and Keller 2012). This learning indicates the process that changes the behavior of the consumers. These include – emotions, actions, responses of glands and muscles, thoughts and results from practice or experience. In case of the brand Patagonia, these learning help to classify the demands of the customers based on their actions and emotions.

Product strategy and consumer behavior

The product strategy is the establishment of a product life-cycle and the implementation plan for future development. This strategy allows a business to zero in a particular target audiences and put highlight on the customer and product attributes. Thus, it can be said that product strategy is related with the consumer behavior as depending upon the strategy of the product, the consumers decide whether to buy a product or not (Hood 2013). Therefore, it can be said that from this particular unit, I learned about the concept and importance of product strategy and consumer behavior. For example, the consumers decide to buy the products of the brand Patagonia depending upon the product strategy of the brand.

In this unit I also gained knowledge about the concept of market segmentation and positioning of product. The concept of market segmentation is defined as the market strategy that includes the division of a wider target market into subsets of businesses, consumers and countries that have. It can also be defined as the target market that has common interests, priorities and needs. Thus, the marketers design and implement the various strategies in order to target them. Therefore, it can be said that in case of market segmentation, the marketers divide a market into many segments depending on the age, nature of the consumers, demographic and economic status of the customers (Hawkins and Mothersbaugh 2013). On the other hand, the positioning of product is defined as an important element of the marketing plan. The marketers use this element in determining the best method of communicating the attributes of products to their target consumers on the basis of the needs of the customers, competitive pressures, and availability of communication channels and carefully design the primary message (Elliott, Rundle-Thiele and Waller 2012). For example the products of the brand Patagonia are spread across the country due to its good product positioning.

Attention and Comprehension

In addition to all these units of marketing, I studied the unit named advertising and promotion. As I get interest in studying this subject, I studied this additional unit from which I came to know the importance of advertising and promotion in marketing and selling a product. This study will help me in my future studies and better understanding of the subject.

Functions of Marketing Specialist

When any organization needs unique and big ideas in order to raise the profits by increasing the sales of products and/ or services, they take help of the marketing specialist with the aim to assist the brainstorming and also implementation of news campaigns of marketing (Cateora, Gilly and Graham 2013). The marketing specialists develop, monitor and execute the plans of marketing by providing advice and direction regarding reaching the target market. The marketing specialists also help in overseeing a market campaign with marketing coordinator and marketing manager (Baines, Fill and Page 2011). However, it has been found that sometimes the duties of the marketing coordinator and the marketing manager overlap with each other but the duty of marketing specialist mainly highlight on a singular task. Nowadays, the marketing specialists play the supportive role; perform the duties starting from analysis of the market to the coordination of the events of marketing (Aaker 2013).

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that by studying all these units my concept regarding marketing and selling of products and/ or services have changed. Earlier I used to think there is no specific strategy for selling products but by these units provided me huge knowledge about marketing and selling and came to know that there are various strategies and concepts that guide an organization to perform better and also to earn profit. However, if I become a marketing specialist in future, then I will work across all the departments of an organization in order to fulfill the objectives of the firm.

References

Aaker, D. (2013). Marketing research. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Baines, P., Fill, C. and Page, K. (2011). Marketing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cateora, P., Gilly, M. and Graham, J. (2013). International marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Elliott, G., Rundle-Thiele, S. and Waller, D. (2012). Marketing. Milton, Qld.: John Wiley and Sons Australia.

Hawkins, D. and Mothersbaugh, D. (2013). Consumer behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Hood, D. (2013). The marketing manifesto. London: Kogan Page.

Keegan, W. and Green, M. (2013). Global marketing. Boston: Pearson.

Kerin, R., Hartley, S. and Rudelius, W. (2011). Marketing. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2014). Principles of marketing. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

Kotler, P. and Keller, K. (2012). Marketing management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Lamb, C., Hair, J. and McDaniel, C. (2011). Marketing. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Malhotra, N. (2013). Review of marketing research. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald.

Otnes, C. and Tuncay-Zayer, L. (2012). Gender, culture, and consumer behavior. New York: Routledge.

Posner, H. (2011). Marketing fashion. London: Laurence King Pub.

Potter, N. (2012). The library marketing toolkit. London: Facet Publishing.

Pride, W. and Ferrell, O. (2012). Marketing. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning.