Shaping Marketing Decisions Based on Consumer Behavior Essay

Shaping Marketing Decisions Based on Consumer Behavior - Essay Example It is important to note that the buying process originates in the mind long before a customer has made a conscious effort to make a purchase, and such a decision shall be affected by personality and social-cultural factors (McKenna 2000). Consumer behavior thus is a study that attempt to assess why consumers buy where they buy, the influence that affects their purchase decision, how they view your products or services relative to those of your competitors, and most importantly, why they should stick to your products in the face of a market awash with similar products and services from your competition. It also involves an assessment of the attitudes that consumers have towards a service or a product and the role that they play in their households, as this shall affect their purchase decisions (Lele 1002). Consumer behavior is both a dynamic and complex process. It is also multidimensional and tends to greatly impact on all the marketing decisions of a firm. An evoked set is that subset of brands within a product category that is often considered by individuals when they wish to make a purchase (Campbell, 1969). Given that there is a large number of brands that are contained in each of the individual product categories, consumers thus resorts to the use of evoked sets with a view to making their purchase decisions easier. From a consumer's perspective, an evoked set could as well be regarded as an awareness set made up of particular brands within a product category that a given set of consumers are aware of (Narayana & Markin 1975). In other words, an evoked set could be viewed as those handful of choices that will often pass through our minds when we are just about to arrive at a buying decision. For instance, when someone is purchasing say, a personal computer, such brands as either Sony or Dell may come to mind. In this case, this is an evoked set. For a marketer, it is crucial that his/her products be aligned so as to constitute a valid evoked set in the minds of customers. This is all about creating a brand image of your products and services that appeal to the market. According to Lele (1992), only those brands that form an evoked set within the consumers' minds get to be purchased. Lele Further opines that if a brand or supplier is not part of an evoked set, then such a brand will either be rarely purchased by a consumer or be ignored altogether. A majority of consumers' evoked sets have at most five differing brands. Consequently, it often becomes quite tricky to have more that a similar number of firms having a widespread acceptance as being distinguished and exceptional. Owing to the multiplicity of opinions, it would not be easy to have to say, three firms or brands being a part of the perception of quite a sizable proportion of the consumer market. Due to this, most of the marketers for packaged goods often fight viciously to obtain a share of the consumers' mind, and hence their attention. When a firm fails to familiarize itself with a buyer groups' evolved set, then the achievement of its overall strategy through the use of differentiation is jeopardized (Lele 1992).