Consumer behaviour and decision models

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Introduction

In order to remain afloat in the competitive market, marketers have to study the behaviour of their existing and potential customers keenly in order to make a critical decision on the appropriate marketing strategy. Consumers are found to remain loyal to a product over some period of time if the quality of the product is maintained or keeps improving, thus creating a positive attitude towards the product.

Consumers need to get their desired results when they consume a product, if they fail to do this, they get an alternative way to satisfy their needs. In marketing therefore, the marketers need to understand their consumers and know what appeals them as well as what their needs are (Lehmann, 2009, p 1). Customer behaviour determines the success of a marketing strategy greatly. In this respect, consumer behaviour is modelled as loyal, psychological, social or linear ODE model.

Loyalty

Some consumers tend to use a product over a very long period of time due to perceived superiority of the product over other products. Marketers of such products use this perception to generate positive attitude towards the brand. An example is the shoe polish Kiwi brand. This is usually advertised to have been around for the longest time since 1906.

Some of its adverts have remained alive since the early 1990’s. This product has never been rebranded and continues to penetrate the market while retaining the already existing brand. Another brand which has exploited the loyalty model to create positive attitude is the BIC ball pen.

It has continued to give superior writing pens which are up to speed with the changing market demands. It has continued to widen the variety of its products while retaining its brand name. This has enabled it to retain and expand its customer base. The retail shop chain, Nakumatt, in Kenya is another example of a company which uses this model as a marketing strategy.

They have the first retail supermarket chain to introduce a loyalty program where loyal customers are issued with smart cards which they use to earn smart points every time they shop at any branch of the supermarket chain. These points are redeemed from various cash prizes, shopping vouchers or even school fees vouchers. This has really created a positive attitude towards the supermarket and has worked well as a marketing strategy.

Psychology

This model suggests that the customer behaviour is influenced by the products in the shelves. The display would make the customer buy a particular product amongst many available options. How a product is displayed on the shelves actually determines the customers’ attitude towards the product. Therefore, marketers employ attractive displays to crate a positive attitude of customers towards their products.

A good example is the electronic company Sony. This company employs attractive packaging and display of its T.V. sets and music systems to create a positive attitude of customers towards their products (Donovan, 2007, p 1). This has in turn influenced more customers to buy Sony products in the market full of competing brands.

Another example is exercise book producer Kasuku. This book company uses attractive book covers to create positive attitude of customers towards their products. The majority of their customers are school children who prefer the attractively decorated book to rather dull ones and this is what creates their positive preferences of those books. The bus company in Kenya called Crown Bus is an example of a bus company which uses its looks to influence their customer’s attitude.

They have beautifully and attractively painted vehicles which stand out amongst the others. This creates a positive attitude needed to persuade customers to use these vehicles. This is a salient way of marketing though very effective since naturally people will associate clean and nicely painted vehicles with comfort and safety. Any normal human being would want these while travelling.

Linear Ode Model

In this model, customers compare products based on perceived qualities of these products, and thus shape their attitudes. Marketers use this model in advertising where they depict their products as being superior in quality in comparison to others. They depict other products as not giving the desired results while they are giving the desired results. This is prominently used in the competitive market of the detergent products (Richarme, 2005, p 1).

A classic example is the detergent JIK’ which in its adverts shows what a superior wash it gives to dishes compared with other detergents. This creates an imaginary of a perceived quality, thus making the customers shape a positive attitude towards it. In return, customers, while shopping, will certainly choose JIK over other detergents available because of the positive attitude created. Another example is the wet cell battery, Chloride Excide.

It is seen to have a long lasting effect from its advertising strategy with better performance, unlike other brands which have a shorter life span with/without good performance. This, in turns, makes customers have a positive attitude to the product. Customers will definitely decide on buying this battery, preferring it to others since they expect it to last longer and give better performance.

The shoe company, Bata also exploits this model as a marketing strategy. Their products have perceived higher quality thus in shops where there are other competing brands, customers tend to choose Bata products over the others. This brand, on top of their perceived better quality has been proven to have better quality.

Sociology

This model is based on the fact that customers tend to buy products because of the influence of others. This is where a customer buys a product because others have the products and are potentially talking positively about it. A product with good reputation from the existing clientele will certainly attract more users.

Some products attract new customers when they are used by the already existing customers. The marketers will therefore employ their customers’ experience to create a positive attitude towards their products, thus their slogan is ‘If you like our products, tell others. If you do not like our products, tell us”.

An example is the detergent company, Harpic which in its adverts uses existing customers who share their experience of using the detergent to create a positive attitude. With such experienced customers, it is easy for the company to create the positive attitude needed to lure new customers (Gronroos, 2006, p 1). In their adverts of the product, they shoot the adverts at their existing clients’ houses and share their experiences. These marketers also share their experience of the product just to create the positive attitude.

Another example is the mobile phone service provider, Safaricom, and its innovative idea of M-pesa, a way of transferring money through a mobile phone for its subscribers. This company provided its customers with great experience, and thus created a positive attitude. This great idea has been easy for the marketers to sell since the existing customers talked positively about it, thus there is high uptake of the service by the potential customers while the existing are retained.

The marketers thus have had just to establish a unique identity that was used to sell the product. Another example is the pharmaceutical company, GNLD. This company deals with various health products which are marketed by their clients.

These clients who later turn to marketers use their personal experiences to create the positive attitude amongst the potential new customers. This marketing strategy has been largely successful for the company. Other models rarely included are stochastic model, information processing model, experimental model, and large system model. These are also referred to as the formal models.

Stochastic Models

This model consists of two major components, a model of individual behaviour and a rule for aggregating these individual models. The individual model describes some aspects like interpurchase time and brand choices of individual consumers’ purchase behaviour. This is where an individual’s choice of purchase will depend on the brand purchased last time, external time effects or the past history of purchase (Dean, 2010, p 1).

This model is used by the marketers of loans offered by savings and credit cooperation, Afya Sacco, for example. This organisation uses the past experiences of its clients with commercial banks Visa and the Sacco in terms of repayment period and interest rate to create the attitude that the Sacco are better amongst the customers. The Sacco also uses the changes in bank rates over time to convince their customers to borrow from them.

Another example is to be found in companies offering air travel services. A typical example is Kenya Airways which endeavours to give greater experiences to their customers thus creating a positive attitude which will ensure that customers use their services every time they travel. They also try to cushion their customers against adverse changes in costs despite the ever rising prices of fuel worldwide.

Information Processing Model

In this model, one major assumption made is that man receives continual information input from the surrounding and processes the information as an integral part choice making. By using this model, marketers give their customers the information. It is on the basis of this information given that the customers develop a positive attitude towards a product (Lancaster, n.d, p 1). An example are the marketers of the condom brand Trust.

In their adverts, they give information on the benefits of using condoms. It is on the basis of this information given to customers that they develop the positive attitude and embrace the use of condoms. Another example is the marketers of the pain relief tablets Panadol-Optizorb.

These markets advertise their products by showing how fast the pain relief tablets work and how they work in the body. It is with this kind of information that convinces the customers to take up the tablets since they already have the positive attitude developed in them towards the products.

Experimental Model

This model explores the adventurous nature of human beings. It has been established that human beings love trying new things, so do the customers. Customers are more likely to try new products in the market in order to have a change from their traditional products. This is a linear model which also falls under the category of other models which are dissimilar with regard to content but has a common formal mathematical structure.

Because of a strong tradition of linear relationships imbedded in the statistical theories of multivariate analysis, several of these models imply a linear model of behaviour. Marketers have found this model to be useful in creating positive attitude towards their products by suggesting that their new products would guarantee a whole new positive experience. An example is the mobile phone service provider YU in Kenya.

This has been the latest entrant into the competitive market of mobile phones, as a marketing strategy, it has come up with services like free mobile face-booking which were not in the market before. This has helped them to turn a significant portion of the market into their customers. Apparently, the new experience they have brought into the market was the gap that the market wanted to be filled (Perner, 2010, p 1).

Another example is the pay television service provider, Go TV. This is a new entrant into the market and it is promising their customers a greater experience at a relatively cheaper price than the already existing service providers. The fact that it is a new sensation in the market and the promise of a greater experience has created the positive attitude needed to attract the customers and indeed, it is working for the marketers.

Kiss TV in Kenya is another example of a company which is employing this model to market itself. Being new in the market, it promises a greater programming, thus creating a positive attitude for its survival and prosperity in the cut throat competitive market. Viewers are more likely to want to sample the new programs which are bound to come with the new station. Therefore, their programs will also determine how successful they will be in retaining the views they will capture in the initial sampling by the viewers.

Large System Model

This is the model that contains sub-models of consumer choice characterized by a broad general structure of postulated interrelationships, which are usually verbal, with somewhat simplified formal model fit within this framework. Included in this model are, Amstutz; Farley and Ring’s linear realization of the Howard Sheth model; and Nicosia.

There is more formal mathematical diversity in this model amongst the sub models than within the other model types. However, the major coherence for this model is in the comprehensiveness of the underlying conceptual system to which the model is a first approximation. These conceptual systems are all based on the results of linear experimental models used as data point for induction.

In Amstutz’s consumer behaviour model, there is a detailed specification of individual decision processes which are aggregated. These processes include marketing factors, attitudes, media communication and word of mouth among others. This model is probabilistic. The Howard Sheth verbal theory of buyer behaviour represents a theoretical system which is also very complicated while Farley and Ring have developed eleven simultaneous regression equations as a first empirical test of the theory (Chetty, 2010, p 1).

Therefore, the Farley and Ring’s model is a simple model developed within the Howard Sheth framework. Nicosia model is developed by first having a verbal and flow chart model based on four fields. There follows the development of a system of differential equations which variables represent the inputs and outputs of the four fields.

Thus, the equations comprise a reduced formal model of the comprehensive scheme. The variables involved are buying behaviour, motivation, attitude and advertising. This model is determinative rather than probabilistic.

This model is rather a hybrid of the other models and it is always used by the marketers to create the positive attitude among customers. An example of a company using this model is the Coca-Cola Company. This soft drink company observes the buying trends of the customers and provides what the customers consume most thus ensuring constant supply and creating a positive attitude.

They have their sales agents meeting their customers, talking to them face to face to sample the customers’ experiences and expectations. Another example is the Samsung electronics company which has clinic days for its customers. They give free or subsidized services for all the electronics of Samsung brand thus creating positive attitude amongst the customers (Liu, 2000, p 1).

Conclusion

Various companies have excellently employed the study of customer behaviour to understand their customers and give them their required products. It has been shown that human beings tend to have positive attitude towards things which satisfy their needs. With the positive attitude, customers develop a sense of trust and loyalty towards the brands which satisfy their needs.

This is important in determining the success of the brand in the market. These models are developed in consideration of four basic areas which are; the general world view espoused by the model builders, the type of data used and the method of collection, how the problem of heterogeneity (individual differences) and aggregation of individuals are handled and how the models are intended to be used.

Reference List

Chetty, P. 2010, ‘Consumer behaviour models’ Project guru: knowledge tank. Web.

Dean, G. 2010, ‘Understanding consumer attitudes’, Marketography. Web.

Donovan, R. 2007, ‘Consumer behaviour and decision models’, Social marketing: principles and practice’. Web.

Gronroos, C. 2006, ‘Marketing theory’, SAGE journal: adopting a service logic for marketing. Web.

Lancaster, G., ‘Buyer behaviour’, Marketing lectures. Web.

Lehmann, D. 2009, ‘Buyer behaviour models and attributes models’, Association for consumer research. Web.

Liu, Y. 2000, ‘Acculturation and consumer behaviour: a theoretical model’, Department of marketing, Rutgers University. Web.

Perner, L 2010, ‘Consumer behaviour: the psychology of marketing’, USC Marshall, University of southern California. Web.

Richarme, M. 2005, ‘Consumer decision making models, strategies and theories, oh my!’, Decision analyst: strategic research, analytics, modelling, optimization. Web.

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