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Why do we need to learn about consumer buying behavior? The simple answer is

that no longer can we take the customers for granted. Consumer buying

behavior determines how our consumers decide to buy our product and what are

the various factors responsible for this decision?

Out of 11000 new products introduced by 77 companies, only 56% are present after 5

years. Only 8% of new product concepts offered by 112 leading companies reached

the market. Out of that 83% failed to meet marketing objectives. What we need to

understand here is why consumers make the purchases that they make, what factors

influence consumer purchases and changing factors in our society

The central focus of marketing is the consumer. To devise good marketing plans, it is

necessary to examine consumer behavioral attributes and needs, lifestyles, and

purchase processes and then make proper marketing-mix decisions. The study of

Consumer behavior includes the study of what they buy, why they buy, how they buy,when they buy, from where they buy, and how often they buy. An open-minded

consumer-oriented approach is imperative in todays diverse global marketplace so a

firm can identify and serve its target market, minimize dissatisfaction, and stay

ahead of competitors. Final consumers purchase for personal, family, or household

use.

Major Factors affecting consumer buying behavior

Cultural factors affecting consumer buying behaviour: Cultural factors have

a significant impact on customer behavior.Culture is the most basic cause of a

persons wants and behavior. Growing up, children learn basic values, perception

and wants from the family and other important groups. Marketers are always trying

to spot cultural shifts which might point to new products that might be wanted by

customers or to increased demand.

Social factors affecting consumer buying behaviour: A customers buying

behavior is also influenced by social factors, such as the groups to which the

customer belongs and social status.

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Each culture contains sub-cultures groups of people with share values. Sub-

cultures can include nationalities, religions, racial groups, or groups of people

sharing the same geographical location. Sometimes a sub-culture will create a

substantial and distinctive market segment of its own. For example, the youth

culture or club culture has quite distinct values and buying characteristics from

the much older gray generation

Similarly, differences in social class can create customer groups. In fact, the official

six social classes in the UK are widely used to profile and predict different customer

behavior. In the UKs socioeconomic classification scheme, social class is not just

determined by income. It is measured as a combination of occupation,

income, education, wealth and other variables

What is Marketing

August 23, 2009 ByHitesh BhasinLeave a Comment

We can distinguish between a social and a managerial definition for marketing.

According to a social definition, marketing is a societal process by which individuals

and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and

exchanging products and services of value freely with others.

As a managerial definition, marketing has often been described as

the art of selling products. But Peter Drucker, a leading management theorist, says

that the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to

know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and

sells itself.

Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. The American

Marketing Association offers this managerial definition: Marketing (management) is

the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and

distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual

and organizational goals.

Coping with exchange processespart of this definitioncalls for a considerable

amount of work and skill. We see marketing management as the art and science of

applying core marketing concepts to choose target markets and get, keep, and grow

customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer

value.

Service Marketing Mix

January 2, 2011 ByHitesh Bhasin4 Comments

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The service marketing mix is also known as an extended marketing mix and is an

integral part of a service blueprint design. The service marketing mix consists of 7 Ps

as compared to the 4 Ps of a product marketing mix. Simply said, the service

marketing mix assumes the service as a product itself. However it adds 3 more Ps

which are required for optimum service delivery.

The product marketing mix consists of the 4 Ps which are Product, Pricing,

Promotions and Placement. These are discussed in my article on product marketing

mix the 4 Ps.

The extended service marketing mix places 3 further Ps which include People,

Process and Physical evidence. All of these factors are necessary for optimum service

delivery. Let us discuss the same in further detail.

Product The product in service marketing mix is intangible in nature. Like

physical products such as a soap or a detergent, service products cannot be

measured. Tourism industry or the education industry can be an excellent example. At the same time service products are heterogenous, perishable and cannot be

owned. The service product thus has to be designed with care. Generally service blue

printing is done to define the service product. For example a restaurant blue print

will be prepared before establishing a restaurant business. This service blue print

defines exactly how the product (in this case the restaurant) is going to be.

Place - Place in case of services determine where is the service product going to be

located. The best place to open up a petrol pump is on the highway or in the city. A

place where there is minimum traffic is a wrong location to start a petrol pump.

Similarly a software company will be better placed in a business hub with a lot of

companies nearby rather than being placed in a town or rural area.

Promotion Promotions have become a critical factor in the service marketing

mix. Services are easy to be duplicated and hence it is generally the brand which sets

a service apart from its counterpart. You will find a lot of banks and telecom

companies promoting themselves rigorously. Why is that? It is because competition

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in this service sector is generally high and promotions is necessary to survive. Thus

banks, IT companies, and dotcoms place themselves above the rest by advertising or

promotions.

Pricing Pricing in case of services is rather more difficult than in case of products.

If you were a restaurant owner, you can price people only for the food you are

serving. But then who will pay for the nice ambience you have built up for your

customers? Who will pay for the band you have for music? Thus these elements have

to be taken into consideration while costing. Generally service pricing involves taking

into consideration labor, material cost and overhead costs. By adding a profit mark

up you get your final service pricing. You can also read about pricing strategies.

Here on we start towards the extended service marketing mix.

People People is one of the elements of service marketing mix. People define a

service. If you have an IT company, your software engineers define you. If you have arestaurant, your chef and service staff defines you. If you are into banking, employees

in your branch and their behavior towards customers defines you. In case of service

marketing, people can make or break an organization. Thus many companies

nowadays are involved into specially getting their staff trained in interpersonal skills

and customer service with a focus towards customer satisfaction. In fact many

companies have to undergo accreditation to show that their staff is better than the

rest. Definitely a USP in case of services.

Process Service process is the way in which a service is delivered to the end

customer. Lets take the example of two very good companies Mcdonalds and

Fedex. Both the companies thrive on their quick service and the reason they can do

that is their confidence on their processes. On top of it, the demand of these services

is such that they have to deliver optimally without a loss in quality. Thus the process

of a service company in delivering its product is of utmost importance. It is also a

critical component in the service blueprint, wherein before establishing the service,

the company defines exactly what should be the process of the service product

reaching the end customer.

Physical Evidence The last element in the service marketing mix is a veryimportant element. As said before, services are intangible in nature. However, to

create a better customer experience tangible elements are also delivered with the

service. Take an example of a restaurant which has only chairs and tables and good

food, or a restaurant which has ambient lighting, nice music along with good seating

arrangement and this also serves good food. Which one will you prefer? The one with

the nice ambience. Thats physical evidence. Several times, physical evidence is used

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as a differentiator in service marketing. Imagine a private hospital and a government

hospital. A private hospital will have plush offices and well dressed staff. Same

cannot be said for a government hospital. Thus physical evidence acts as a

differentiator.

This is the service marketing mix (7p) which is also known as the extended

marketing

Selling concept

January 13, 2010 ByHitesh Bhasin1 Comment

During WWII world industry geared up for accelerated wartime production. When

the war was over this stimulated industrial machine turned to producing consumer

products. By the mid 50s supply was starting to out-pace demand in many

industries. Businesses had to concentrate on ways of selling their products.

Numerous sales techniques such as closing, probing, and qualifing were all

developed during this period and the sales de-partment had an exalted position in a

companys organizational structure.

The Selling Concept proposes that customers, be individual or

organizations will not buy enough of the organizations products unless they are

persuaded to do so through selling effort. So organizations should undertake selling

and promotion of their products for marketing success. The consumers typically are

inert and they need to be goaded for buying by converting their inert need in to a

buying motive through persuasion and selling action.

This approach is applicable in the cases of unsought goods like life insurance,

vacuum cleaner, fire fighting equipments including fire extinguishers. These

industries are seen having a strong network of sales force. This concept is applicable

for the firms having over capacity in which their goal is to sell what they produce

than what the customer really wants.

In a modern marketing situation the buyer has a basket to choose from and the

customer is also fed with a high decibel of advertising. So often there is a

misconception that marketing is all about selling. The problem with this approach is

that the customer will certainly buy the product after the persuasion and if

dissatisfied will not speak to others. In reality this does not happen and companies

pursuing this concept often fail in the business.

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