Marketing Managers Need to Understand Consumer Behavior

¶ … Marketing Managers Need to Understand Consumer Behavior

The essence of effective marketing is defining a unique, highly defensible market position for a given product or service, supporting it with a unique value proposition that further motivates customers to buy. Marketing managers who excel in their professions have the ability to accurately interpret the consumer decision making process and align their strategies to encourage the trial and eventual purchase of their products (Foxall, 1993). Having a solid understanding of the consumer decision making process, and within that framework, understanding how behaviors are a powerful catalyst of purchasing, are critical to the success of any marketing strategy (Rau, Samiee, 1981).

Analysis

The consumer decision making process varies by the type of product, service, level of trust a consumer has in a given brand, and the extent of substitutes that exist for a given product. All of these factors taken together create the framework of how consumer learn, try and eventually become loyal to a given product or service (Markin, 1979). For the marketing manager, knowing how each of the attributes impact the perception of their brand, including the role of substitutes, price elasticity, extent of availability and brand previous experiences all impact why and how their products get purchased (Suranyi-Unger, 1981). Knowing the consumer decision making process is comparable to understanding a theoretical roadmap of hwo to attain marketing and selling objectives over time (Zinn, Liu, 2008). The more consumer-oriented a given product or service is, the more critical it is to have this depth of consumer behavior knowledge and have a very clear understanding of the consumer decision making process. It's important for marketers to see these as all interlocking and creating a foundation for continual progress to selling goals.

Another aspect of why marketing managers need to understand consumer behavior in general and consumer decision making specifically is to tailor their advertising, marketing and selling messages to resonate strongly with the consumer (Suranyi-Unger, 1981). As more marketers are relying on digital channels including the Internet, the in-depth expertise in consumer behavior and consumer decision making is critical for the success of any multichannel marketing strategy (Wu, 2002). As these digital channels are also inherently traceable through analytics and the results of marketing strategies can be measured relatively easily, marketers can quickly determine if their knowledge of consumer behavior is as accurate as needed to induce purchase (Zinn, Liu, 2008). Many marketing organizations continually refine their consumer behavior descriptions, sometimes called personas, to gain greater insights into their consumers' thought processes (Wu, 2002). This provides companies with added insight into how best to serve their prospects with information and how to tailor their messages to win additional business.