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Want Success?  Understand consumer behavior.

Kevin Jackson published this article on July 1, 2012 in Build Convenience,. Total Comments: 1 | Comment

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last several decades, I’m sure you would agree with me that consumer behavior has dramatically changed. Due to technology, consumers have much more information available to them and they are taking the time to educate themselves before making a purchase decision. Consumer behavior can sometimes feel like solving a Sherlock Holmes mystery, especially if you haven’t thought about this topic in a really long time.

Let’s take a deeper dive into this subject by looking at a few consumer behavior roles. According to David Loudon and Albert Bitta’s book titled “Consumer Behavior,” there are four roles about which we should be aware:

The Initiator – This is the individual who determines that some need or want is not being met and authorizes a purchase to rectify the situation

The Influencer – This is a person who by some intentional or unintentional word or action influences the purchase decision, the actual purchase, and/or use of the product or services

The Buyer – The individual who actually makes the purchase transaction

The User – The person who is most directly involved in the consumption or use of the purchase

My advice – don’t take any of these individual roles lightly. They all serve a purpose and have great influence. My question to you is: how are you doing with reaching these individuals, knowing that they ultimately have the key to your success in their back pockets? Okay, let me ask the question in a different way: do you have the products or services that meet a need in the marketplace? Are you teamed up with the right partners (i.e. WOLF) to help make you successful? Are your marketing plans, social media strategy, location hours / availability, pricing, flexibility, customer service, etc. something that is appealing to the consumer and differentiates you from others? Always remember that it is possible that a single individual can take on several consumer behavior roles. For example: a wife (Initiator and Influencer) may ask her husband (Buyer) to go to the local independent dealer and purchase a beautiful WOLF deck because their children (Users) would enjoy the time outside with the family. Make sense?

The study of consumer behavior goes much further than this, but let’s pause here until next time to think about how we are running our businesses. A sound understanding of consumer behavior, along with appropriate action will help you drive success.

If you have comments, suggestions or tips on this subject, we would love to hear from you!