Online behavior tracking is a technology used by companies and advertisers to create targeted advertising and marketing campaigns. They collect information about how customers behave online, rather than just collecting demographic information. This data then use to create personalized content and nurture qualified leads for conversions.
What is Online Behavior Tracking? Types and Best Practices
They monitor users’ online browsing habits and used to analyze their interests for targeted advertising. Ultimately, following consumer behavior online is a way for companies to drive targeted traffic to their websites, decode visitor behavior online, and increase conversion rates through behavioral marketing. Typically, customer journey analytics software is used to facilitate and monitor customer experience across all possible channels.
Types of Online Behavior Tracking
There are two types of online behavior tracking, depending on where user behavior is being monitored.
On-site behavioral targeting collects data about how users behave on a company’s website. Also, This on-site behavioral tracking primarily uses for user experience (UX) personalization. This data allows advertisers to present highly relevant content and advertisements to each website visitor, ultimately increasing customer engagement and conversion rates.
Web behavioral targeting collects user behavior on an advertiser’s website to understand their interests and purchase intent. This data then use for personalization and retargeting. Show visitors highly personalized ads, increasing the likelihood of them clicking.
Benefits of Online Behavior Tracking
Building campaigns with strong behavioral targeting helps companies deliver relevant ads and emails to target audiences. They provide companies with the information they need to implement these strategies.
Better ad click-through rates: Personalized ads often perform better than regular ads. When customers click on an ad targeted to their interests, they are more likely to continue browsing the site.
Higher Conversion Rates: Tracking users’ online browsing habits helps advertisers understand consumers’ interests, wants, and wants. Also, Advertisers can then show users highly targeted ads that are more likely to convert.
How to Track Online Behavior
It is the digital search of consumer behavior. The following elements are used to collect behavioral data:
Cookies: text files with data that recognize the user’s computer to improve their browsing experience
Device ID: A number that identifies and tracks a mobile device for apps and advertisers
Mapping: Recording Behavior at a Specific Place and Time
Geolocation: Use location tracking via GPS and IP address to reveal the location of electronic devices
Best Practices for Tracking Online Behavior
It is a useful tool for companies looking to enhance their advertising ROI. To successfully track consumer behavior online, the following best practices should consider.
Be transparent:
Online behavioral tracking has benefits for consumers, too. They get a personalized browsing experience that simplifies online shopping. Even so, not every customer is willing to share their behavioral data. With this in mind, it is important for companies that use online behavioral tracking to disclose their tracking practices to customers. Companies can also provide opt-out options for customers who do not want to participate.
Improve customer experience:
The ultimate goal of online behavior tracking is to increase conversion rates, which achieve by using behavioral data to personalize the customer experience. When customers show content and ads tailored to their behavior, conversion rates and other key metrics such as customer engagement and loyalty increase.
Putting online behavior tracking insights to work:
Online behavioral tracking is just the first step. These insights must apply to elements such as ad targeting and user experience personalization for companies to achieve results.
Online Behavior Tracking Types and Best Practices; Photo by picjumbo.com from Pexels.
Understanding the importance of consumer behaviour in marketing or any organization before launching a product. If the organization failed to analyze how a customer will respond to a particular product, the company will face losses. Consumer behaviour is very complex because each consumer has a different mind and attitude towards the purchase, consumption, and disposal of products.
Here are the articles to explain, the Importance of Consumer Behaviour in Marketing!
Understanding the theories and concepts of consumer behaviour helps to market the product or services successfully. Moreover, studying consumer behaviour helps in many aspects. As there is constant change in living standards, trends, fashion, and technology change. Consumers’ attitude toward the purchase of product varies. Understanding these factors is of utmost importance because the marketing of products is largely dependent on these factors.
What is the Importance of Consumer Behaviour in Marketing? This essay discusses the value to marketers of understanding the importance of consumer behaviour concepts and theories in marketing.
Meaning and Definition of Consumer Behaviour;
Consumer Behaviour or Buyer Behaviour is referred to the behaviour. That is displayed by the individual while they are buying, consuming, or disposing of any particular product or service. These behaviors can be affected by multiple factors. Moreover, it also involves searching for a product and evaluating of product where the consumer evaluates different features, purchases, and consumption of the product. Later the post-purchase behavior of the product is studied. Which shows consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction where it involves the disposal of the product.
The customers while buying a product go through many steps. The study of consumer behaviour helps to understand how buying decision is made and how they look for a product. Moreover, understanding consumer behaviour also helps marketers to know the what, where, when, how, and why of the consumption of product consumption. These help marketers or organizations to know the reason behind the purchase of products by consumers and how it satisfies them. Among other factors, basic needs like shelter and hunger along with a craving for psychological fulfillment tends consumer to buy a certain product or service.
Importance of Consumer Behaviour to business managers in marketing;
The main purpose behind marketing a product is to satisfy the demands and wants of the Consumers. The study of consumer behavior helps to achieve this purpose. As consumers are the most important person for marketers or salespeople. Therefore they need to consider the likes and dislikes of the consumers so that they can provide them with the goods and services accordingly. The more careful analysis helps in more exact prediction about the behavior of consumers of any product or service. The study of consumer behaviors helps business managers, salespeople, and marketers in the following way.
To design the best possible product or service that fully satisfies consumers’ needs and demands.
Decide where the service or product would be made available for easy access to consumers.
Decide the price at which the consumers would be ready to buy that product or service.
To find out the best method of promotion. That will prove to be effective to attract customers to buy a product.
To understand why, when, how, what, and other factors that influence buying decisions of the consumers.
Importance of Consumer Behaviour to Marketers in marketing;
Marketers need to study consumer behaviour. They need to know consumers as individuals or groups opt for, purchase, consumer, or dispose of products and services and how they share their experiences to satisfy their wants or needs. This helps marketers to investigate and understand how consumers behave. So that they can position their products to a specific group of people or targeted individuals.
From the marketer’s viewpoint, they assume that the basic purpose of marketing is to sell goods and services to more people so that more profit could be made. This principle of making profits is heavily applied by almost all marketers. Earlier, marketers were successful in accomplishing their purpose. However, today, consumers are more aware of the use of products and other information about the product. It is not easy to sell or attract customers to buy the product. Thus, to sell a product or service or to convince consumers to buy the product. The marketers have to undergo proper research to win them over.
The following are some of the points discussed that explain the value to marketers of understanding and applying consumer behaviour concepts and theories.
Understand Buying Behaviour of consumers
Create and retain customers through online stores
Understand the factors influencing Consumer’s Buying Behaviour
Understand the consumer’s decision to dispose of a product or services
Increasing the knowledge of salesperson influence consumer to buy the product
To help marketers to the sale of products and create focused marketing strategies
To understand Buying Behaviour of consumers;
The study of consumer behaviour helps marketers to recognize and forecast the purchase behavior of consumers while they are purchasing a product. The study of consumer behavior helps marketers not only to understand what consumers purchase but helps to understand why they purchase it. Moreover, other questions like how, where, and when they purchase it are also answered. The consumption and the reasons behind the disposition of that particular product or service help marketers to be fully aware of the product that is marketed.
Consumer behavior studies also help marketers to understand the post-purchase behavior of the consumers. Thus, marketers become fully aware of every phase of the consumption process i.e., pre-purchase behavior, behavior during purchase, and post-purchase behavior. Many studies in the past show that each consumer behaves differently toward a product i.e. They buy the product for different reasons, pay different prices, used the product differently, and have different emotional attachments with the product.
To create and retain customers through online stores;
Professor Theodore Levitt says that consumer behavior is of most importance to marketers in business studies as the main aim is to create and retain customers. If the consumers are satisfied with the product, he or they will buy the same product again. Therefore, the product should be marketed by markers in such a way that convince the customer to buy the product. Thus, creating customers and retaining those customers are important.
These can be done through understanding and paying close attention to the consumer’s behavior. While making a purchase decision or buying a product in the marketplace. Moreover, the information published on the websites largely influences the customer’s buying behavior. Such information on published sources arouses consumers to buy a product or service. Moreover, updating such information will help the consumer to retain a product or re-try the product. If the product has dissatisfied them.
To understand the factors influencing Consumer’s Buying Behaviour;
Marketers need to consider the factors that affect the buying behavior of consumers before entering the market. Many factors can influence the purchase decision of consumers such as social influence, cultural influences, psychological factors, and personal factors. Understanding these factors helps marketers to market the product at the right time to the right consumers. For example, if the marketer is marketing a Halal product. The marketers first consider all the factors that can influence consumers to buy Halal products. Where they can target specific areas where Halal food is more sold.
Marketers need to pay attention to cultural influences such as religion, values, and norms of the people or societies targeted, and the lifestyle of the targeted consumers. The marketers can propose different strategies that convince the targeted consumers to buy marketed products or services. Moreover, marketers should ascertain the factors that influence and affects the purchase decision of consumers.
If the marketers failed to understand the factors that might influence consumers. They will fail to convince the consumer to purchase that product or will fail to meet the demands of consumers. Some variables cannot stand directly observed. In such cases, a thorough understanding of concepts and theories of consumer behavior helps marketers to predict the consumer’s buying behavior to a reasonable extent. Thus, understanding consumer behavior to buy a product is complex and requires marketers to continuously understand and apply various concepts and theories for successful marketing.
To increase the knowledge of salespeople to influence consumers to buy the product;
All the products and services marketed revolve around the behavior of consumers that how they will respond to them. Effective marketing of a product by salespeople may help to deliver the right product to the right people. Consumer behavior deals with the knowledge of what the consumers need and want to buy and what goods and services are available to satisfy their needs. Thus, consumer behavior deals particularly with the behavior of people i.e., consumers.
A salesperson needs to be fully aware of the customer’s requirements. So that he or she could communicate the benefits of the product to the customers. Moreover, the salesperson by understanding the consumer’s demand and need for a product can sell goods that are most closely related to their requirement. Besides understanding consumer behaviour, the salesperson should also have command over their spoken language.
This is because any miscommunication could harm the brand’s reputation. Moreover, if the consumers have more knowledge about the product than the salesperson, the sales might fail to meet their targets. Thus, analyzing consumer behavior and knowledge for effective marketing of products by salespeople is important. The salespeople must be fully aware of the consumer’s behavior in different situations. So that they could help them in meeting their demands and satisfaction.
To understand the consumer’s decision to dispose of a product or service;
Disposal of products involves the throwing away of products by consumers. This behavior of consumers is very complex and requires more importance by marketers. Understanding the consumer’s behavior about how and when consumers dispose of a product, the marketers or the companies can position themselves so that this behavior could stand limited.
If the product or service has failed to deliver the required or expected satisfaction by the consumers, the product disposes of by the customers. For this, some marketers track the follow-up from the consumers so that they can gauge the reason behind the failure of the product. Moreover, to retain customers, some marketers or organizations offer customers services like exchange of products, money-back guarantees, etc. Although, these tools are helpful to influence the post-purchase behavior of consumers to some extent.
The method of disposition varies transversely from product to product. Some of the factors that lead to consumers’ behavior to dispose of a product include psychological characteristics, situational factors, or the intrinsic factors of the product. The psychological characteristics include attitude, mood, emotion, social class, social conscience, perception, etc. Situational factors such as urgency, functional use, fashion change, etc., and intrinsic factors such as product style, durability, reliability, adaptability, replacement cost, color, size, etc. can lead to consumers’ decision to dispose of a product.
For example, the personal computers sold previously stood largely demanded by consumers. However, due to changes in size, advancing technology, affordability, and convenience; most people have switched to laptops and mobiles with operating systems have disposed of personal computers to a greater extent.
To help marketers to optimize the sale of products and create focused marketing strategies;
The theories and concepts of Consumer behavior help marketers to optimize their sales and to create efficient marketing strategies. Moreover, these theories provide marketers with information on the consumer’s behavior to spend money, likely causes that incline them to spend more money on a product, and these two pieces of information help to plan strategies that should practice by the marketers for successful marketing of a product. Studying different consumer behavior theories helps to understand the different choices that consumers make to buy a product. Some factors need to exist carefully analyzed by marketers. Which helps them to increase their sales and develop effective marketing strategies. These factors standdiscussed as follows:
Consumer’s rational behavior:
It is foremost important for a marketer to understand the situations where consumers behave rationally. Many consumer behavior theories suggest that the consumers want to get maximum benefit and satisfaction from the product by spending the minimum amount of money. This shows that consumers do not spend all their money to buy a product and keeps a certain amount of money as their savings. However, on the other hand, the consumers having limited money spend all their money on the purchase of their basic needs such as shelter, food, and clothing. Thus, the marketer must carefully analyze these two situations of consumers before marketing a product or service.
Consumer’s taste and preferences:
Understanding consumer taste and preferences help marketers to revamp their products so that they could meet customer satisfaction. These factors may change from time to time. The change in consumer behavior affected by these factors should exist carefully monitored. Marketers need carefully understand the consumer’s interest in the products by breaking down the targeted consumers into demographics, like age, occupation, and location as they contribute to investigating information about consumer preferences.
Price of Products:
Prices of products stand as a widely discussed factor in consumer behavior theories. The theories suggest that marketers should keep their prices low without affecting the quality to attract consumers. This is because consumers go mostly for products that are of low price but satisfy their demand.
Features of Product:
An increased number of features offered by the product tends to increase the price of products. In such cases, consumers go for added features in a product at an affordable price. Therefore, the markers design their products in such a way that the product gives maximum value or features to consumers at an affordable price.
Consumer’s knowledge about a product:
The marketer must know to what extent the consumers know a product. Mostly, consumers select products with which they are familiar. For example, if the consumers are aware of the health effects of eating high-fat food or fast food, marketing such a product to health-conscious consumers will end up in failure.
Summary;
In a nutshell, consumer behavior theories and concepts are of most importance to salespeople or marketers in marketing. As products stand made to cater to consumers’ needs and demands. Therefore, the products should exist carefully marketed for the achievement of organizational goals. The study of consumer behavior helps them in analyzing different factors that have influenced the buying decision of the consumers. If the marketers failed to understand these factors, they would not meet their targets.
What is the Meaning and Definition of Consumer Behavior in Marketing? Consumer behavior is the finding out about how character customers, groups, or groups select, buy, use, and dispose of ideas, goods, and offerings to fulfill their wishes and wants. It refers to the moves of the buyers in the marketplace and also the underlying factors for these actions.
Here are the articles to explain, Meaning and Definition of Consumer Behavior in Marketing!
Marketers count on that through appreciation of what motivates the buyers to purchase precise items and services. They will be capable to determine—which merchandise is wanted in the marketplace. Which is obsolete, and how fine to current the items to the consumers.
The learn about purchaser conduct assumes that buyers are actors in the marketplace. The standpoint of position concept assumes that buyers play quite a several roles in the marketplace. Starting from the provider of the record, from the consumer to the payer, and the disposer, also buyers play these roles in the choice process.
The roles additionally range in exclusive consumption situations. For example, a mom performs the function of an influencer in a child’s buying process. Whereas she performs the position of a disposer of the merchandise fed on through the family.
Introduction to Consumer Behaviour;
Consumer Behaviour or Buyer Behaviour refers to the conduct that displays. With the aid of the character whilst they are buying, consuming, or disposing of any specific product or service. These behaviors can affect by way of more than one factor. Moreover, it additionally includes looking for a product and evaluating of product. Where the patron evaluates unique features, purchases, and consumption of the product. Later the post-purchase conduct of the product is studied. This indicates purchaser pride or dissatisfaction with the place it includes the disposal of the product.
The clients whilst shopping for a product go thru many steps. Finding out about patron conduct helps to recognize how shopping for selection stands made and how they seem to be for a product. Moreover, perception of purchaser conduct additionally helps entrepreneurs to recognize the what, where, when, how, and why of the consumption of merchandise consumption. These assist entrepreneurs or agencies to comprehend the cause at the back of the buying of merchandise by way of buyers and how it satisfies them. Among different factors, fundamental wishes like refuge and starvation alongside a craving for psychological success tends patron to purchase a positive product or service.
“consumer behavior is the actions and decision processes of people who purchase goods and services for personal consumption”.
According to Louden and Bitta;
“consumer behavior is the decision process and physical activity, which individuals engage in when evaluating, acquiring, using or disposing of goods and services”.
Consumer behavior is the finding out about how personal customers, groups, or companies select, buy, use, and dispose of ideas, goods, and offerings to fulfill their desires and wants. It refers to the moves of the buyers in the market and also the underlying explanations for these actions.
Consumer Behavior in Marketing Meaning Definition; Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash.
Behavioral Perspective in Psychology Essay; Behavioral psychology exists thought to be a perspective that mainly focuses on behaviors that have stood learned. While psychology existed mainly dominated by behaviorism in the early 20th century; it quickly started to diminish in the 1950s. Nowadays, the behavioral perspective still deals with how behaviors have existed learned, and reinforced. Behavioral principles have many times existed applied in settings of mental health; where some therapists/ counselors have used these certain techniques to try to explain and treat a lot of illnesses.
Here is the article to explain, Behavioral Perspective Psychology Types and Essay!
Since Behavioral Perspective is the way people view the psychological aspect of behavior; then it is obvious that this perspective indicates the study of observable and measurable behavior. It does this in a way only in which the environment is the only this that determines this behavior. Also included in this perspective is the natural way of man, the belief that everything stands caused by something; and the fact that change is capable of happening.
Behaviorists tend to think that the nature of man is not good or evil. They also believe in the theory of “Tabula Rasa,” also known as the blank slate theory. This theory explains that when a baby is born with no reason or knowledge; then obviously their knowledge has to be drawn from their environment and experiences.
Behaviorist B.F. Skinner goes over the fact that he believes in this concept by always stating that as far as he knows, at any point in time; his behavior has not been anything more than the product of his personal history; his genetic endowment, and the current setting he is in then.
Ideas;
The Behavioral Perspective takes some ideas from the Tabula Rasa such as conditioning; and behavior modification to merge or combine the other valuable ideas inside of the Behavioral Perspective; such as the perspective which includes the natural way of man; the belief that everything exists caused by something, and the fact that change is capable of happening. The concept that we as humans have no free will call Determinism. Also with the Tabula Rasa theory, there has been one more aspect of determinism which call conditioning.
Conditioning considers being one of the simplest forms one can do to learn. In conditioning, a certain type of behavior exists learned by a person and or animal. This type of learning exists often considered to be a direct result of the reinforcement or the connection of an unconditioned stimulus with a conditioned stimulus.
An interesting concept some behaviorists believe is that certain behaviors can counter or unlearn; through either positive or negative change in the actual reinforcement. The change in the reinforcement call behavior modification; and, the person can give an object or something that they can use to trade-in for something better every time they do the right thing.
Behavioral Approach;
The behavioral approach to understanding motivation deals with drives, both learned and unlearned, and with incentives. Drive theory involves the concepts of unlearned (or primary) drives, drive reduction, and learned (secondary) drives. It is based on the fact that all living organisms have physiological needs that must exist satisfied for survival (for example, the need for food, water, sleep, and so forth) to maintain a state of homeostasis, that is, a steady internal state.
Disruption of an organism’s homeostatic state causes a state of tension (arousal) called an unlearned, or primary, drive. If the aroused state has existed created by hunger; it calls a hunger drive, and the drive can reduce by food. Drive reduction moves toward the re-establishment of homeostasis. Drives, then, may exist thought of as the consequence of a physiological need; which an organism stands impelled to reduce or eliminate. Clark Hull, a learning theorist, developed an equation to show how learning and drive are related. Drives may also learn, or secondary. Fear (or anxiety), for example, exists often considered a secondary drive that can learn through either classical or operant conditioning.
Neal Miller’s Thories;
In Neal Miller’s well-known operant conditioning experiment, a rat existed placed in a black box and then given a mild electrical shock. Eventually, the rat learned to react to the experience of being put in a black box (with no shock given) with the response of turning a wheel to escape. In this case, the black box exists said to have elicited the learned drive of fear. Among other drives considered by some theorists to learn are the need for affiliation (that is, to belong, to have companionship), the need for security (money), and the need for achievement.
Theories of incentive motivation contend that external stimuli can motivate behavior. Humans and other animals can learn to value external stimuli (for example, the first prize in a track meet for a human and a pat on the head for a dog) and will work to get them. Incentive motivation stands sometimes called pull motivation because incentives exist said to pull in contrast with the push associated with drives. Kenneth Spence, well known for his work in incentive motivation, suggested that the incentive value of the reward strengthens the response”. The following two types of behavior from the behavioral perspective of psychology below are;
What is the Normal Behavior?
The common pattern of behavior found among the general majority stands said to be the behavior of the normal. Normal people exhibit satisfactory work capacity and earn an adequate income. They conform and adjust to their social surrounding. They are capable of establishing, satisfying, and acceptable relationships with other people; and their emotional reactions are appropriate to different situations.
Such people manage to control their emotions. Their emotional experiences do not affect their personality adjustment though they experience occasional frustrations and conflict. These people who adjust well with themselves, their surroundings, and their associates constitute the normal group. The normal group covers the great majority of people.
According to Coleman (1981), normal behavior will represent the optimal development and functioning of the individual consistent with the long-term well-being and progress of the group. Thus, people having an average amount of intelligence, personality stability, social adaptability consider normal.
What is the Abnormal Behavior?
The concept of abnormality stands defined as the simple exaggeration or perverted development of normal psychological behavior. In other words, it deals with the usual behavior of man. The unusual or maladapted behavior of many persons; which do not fit into our common forms of behavior stands known as abnormal behavior. Abnormality refers to maladjustment to one’s society and culture which surrounds him. It is the deviation from the normal unfavorably and pathologically.
According to Brown (1940), abnormal psychological phenomena are simple exaggerations (overdevelopment or under development) or disguised (i.e., perverted, developments) of the normal psychological phenomena.
It expects, for instance, that a normal human being would react to a snake by immediately withdrawing from it. But if the person, on the contrary, plays with the snake very happily, it is a sign of uncommon behavior; which may consider abnormal provided that experience or training does not play a part here.
Training;
A person who has been by profession trained from the very childhood to deal with snakes will not afraid of a snake and if he does not withdraw from a snake, will not consider abnormal. Coleman (1981) holds that deviant behaviors consider maladaptive because they are not only harmful to society but the individual. Maladaptive behavior impairs individual and group well being and it brings distress to the individual. It also leads to individual and group conflicts.
Page (1976) views that the abnormal group consists of individuals marked by limited intelligence, emotional instability, personality disorganization, and character defects who in most part led wretched personal lives and were social misfits and liabilities. Thus, abnormality and normality can only define in terms of conformity to the will and welfare of the group and the capacity for self-management.
A close analysis of various types of abnormal behavior indicates that abnormal behavior circumscribes a wide range of maladaptive reactions like psychoneuroses, psychoses, delinquents, sexual deviants, drug addicts, etc.
Thus, some kind of biological, social, and psychological maladjustment affects the functioning of the individual in a society. The abnormal deviants who constitute about 10 percent of the general population are classified into four main categories; such as psychoneurotic, psychotic, menially defective, and antisocial.
Focused;
The behavioral perspective stands mainly focused on the idea that psychology should only exist concerned with the measurable physical responses one has to certain environmental stimuli. This certain perspective was first introduced to the world by John Broadus Watson who lived from 1878 to 1958. He was a great student at the University of Chicago and worked to get his doctorate at the same time.
He strongly believed that the science of psychology existed meant to be a hard science as the rest of the sciences were therefore psychology should seek out observable behavior. Watson thought that psychology existed not meant to deal with mental events because to him they are un-measurable in every way except to the actual organism experiencing them.
What is Behavioral Perspective in Psychology Essay?
The behavioral implication of Control; The control system should make as fair and as meaningful as possible and must be clearly communicating to all employees. It will be easier for the employees to accept control if they have to participate in the formulation of the control system and process of implementation. Though control should aim at satisfying the needs of the members of the organization, they often take it otherwise. This may be either because of the adverse real impact of control on them or because of Misperception of the impact of control.
What is the behavioral implication of Control? Perfect Explanation.
Managers must recognize several behavioral implications in the process of control and its implementation. Although an effective control system should aid in employee motivation, it can also have negative effects on employee morale and performance. Thus, while designing the control system, it must keep in mind that almost everybody in the organization not only resents the idea of being controlling but also objects to being evaluated. It means the results of the control may not same as anticipated by those who are exercising control.
The behavioral implication of Control – List
What are the Essentials of Effective Control System? The major behavioral problems of control can analyze by taking the nature of control, perception of those who are controlling, and action taken by them.
Nature or Control:
Control often puts pressure for engaging in desirable behavior by those who are subject to control. The basic question is: will they not behave in a desirable way if there is no control? Though opinions may differ on this question, often it is recognized that people engage in that behavior, which provides them satisfaction whether control or no control.
It means if the organizational processes are in tune with the needs of the organizational participants, they can perform well in the absence of control and not in the presence of control. Behavioral scientists have concluded that people try to self-actualize but the basic problem, which comes in the way, is providing by the organization itself. They are inherently self-motivating.
For example, McGregor believes that more people behave according to the assumptions of Theory Y as compared to Theory X. In such a case, if their behavior is controlled, it may be counter-productive for the organization. The results may be against organizational interests. Thus, the basic nature of control itself against the very basic nature of the people.
However, this is not true in all cases. Many people may still behave according to the assumptions of Theory X and they need rigid control, In fact, the best control system may be one which focuses attention on the individual needs also, as discussed earlier, otherwise, it will provide more behavioral problems and may be detrimental to the organization itself.
People or Perception:
Another behavioral implication of control is the perception of people who are controlling. Though perception may be that control is against the nature of people, it is further aggravated by the fact that people perceive it to be for benefit of the organization but against them. Thus perception may be right or otherwise, that control if brings a better result, is sharing by the organization alone whereas it may, be brought by the organizational members.
The control in most of the cases is using as a pressure tactic for increasing performance. This is true also because people may produce more if they are aware that their performance is being evaluated. However, increase performance is also determining by several other factors, most important or them being how it is sharing between the organization and its members.
Thus, if they have a positive perception of this aspect also, they will engage in higher performance. In an alternative case, they will take certain actions to thwart the control action. There is another implication of people’s perception of control. The manager may develop some plan for control, but there are many un-planning controls also necessitated by the organizational requirements. Thus un-plan control is also the part of the organizational control.
It is this un-plan control that has more serious repercussion and is more counter-productive. The participants may feel that it is due to improper planning on the part of management. Thus they are controlled not because of their own shortcomings but for the shortcomings of others. Naturally, this may be more serious for those who are controlling.
Actions by Participants:
Participants in most of the cases resist control attempt. In the first case, people may try to overcome the pressure from control through fanning group. People can stand only to a certain amount of pressure. After this point is pass, it becomes intolerable to them and they will try to find out the alternatives.
One of the alternatives is the formation of the group if people cannot reduce the pressure individually. The group helps them to absorb much of the pressure and thus relieves the individual personality. It gets rid of the tension generated by the control and people feel more secure by belonging to a group, which can counteract the pressure.
They will try to escape from the purview of control and may take several actions:
Control may try to bring behavior which is satisfying to them but not necessarily satisfying to the organization.
They may engage in a behavior which may appear to be in conformity with organizational requirements but actually, it is not, and.
If these are not possible they may try to engage in behavior as required by the organization.
Now the question is:
Does the group disappear if the control pressure is off?
The answer is generally in negative because, by the time, control pressure is oft, people have socialized and identify with a particular group and the group has become attractive to them in more than one respect. Thus, they are likely to continue to be the members of the group even after the control pressure is off. Another alternative of overcoming the pressure of control is that an individual solves it at his own level.
This happens more so if control pressure affects only a few individuals. In such cases, the individuals may engage in a behavior, which on the surface seems to satisfy organizational needs but actually, it is not so. In such cases, they will try to camouflage the information meant for control like providing wrong information or coming in time at the work-place but not quite engaging in meaningful behavior or looking busy but without doing anything. This situation is also quite counterproductive.
If the individuals are not able to go for any of these alternatives. They will fall in line with organizational control attempt. This situation may, however, not take as an ideal because it may be counter-productive in the logs run; People may develop alienation to the work and to the organization which may have an adverse effect on their efficiency. Organization in such cases may lose, not only the efficiency of their members but them also.
What is the behavioral implication of Control? Perfect Explanation #Pixabay.
Behavioral Implications in the Process of Control:
Some of the behavioral implications of control are as follows:
Controls may influence the generation of invalid and inaccurate information. For example, if the top management habitually reduces budget requests when reviewing them (a control activity), then the lower management, when proposing a new budget or a new project may overstate the cost of resources needed. Similarly, managers may set objectives lower than what is attainable so that higher output will look better at performance appraisal time.
Controls can resent by employees if they have no control over the situation. For example, if a professor’s performance is appraising over the number of publication of books and research articles. But he is not affording the freedom of time to do so because of heavy teaching loads and excessive committee work. Then it can result in frustration which may be detrimental to the entire control system. Similarly, the manager will become highly frustrated. If his performance evaluation is based upon profits achieved by his department. But he does not have the authority and control to make operational changes such as hiring and firing of workers.
The control system must synchronize to create a balance among all affecting and inter-connected variables. The standards should complement each other and not contradict each other. For example, a control system which emphasizes increased sales as well as a reduction in advertising expenditure at the same time. May seem contradictory to the marketing manager and thus may be frustrating for him.
Organisational behaviour is generally confused with organisational theory, organisational psychology, and human resource management. This article also explains their Elements, Nature, and Importance. Organisational psychology restricts itself to psychological factors only whereas organizational behavior considers and combines all the branches of study e.g. Science, technology, economics, anthropology, psychology, and so on.
Organisational Behaviour: Elements, Nature, Need, and Importance.
It is the basis of human resource management and development. The former is concept-oriented whereas the latter is concerned with the technology of human development. The variables influencing human development are scientifically studied under organisational behaviour.
Elements of Organisational Behaviour:
The key elements in organisational behaviour are people, structure, technology, and the environment in which the organization operates.
People: People make up the internal and social systems of the organization. They consist of individuals and groups. Groups are dynamic and they work in the organization to achieve their objectives.
Structure: Structure defines the formal relationships of the people in organizations.
Technology: Technology such as machines and work processes provide the resources with which people work and affect the tasks that they perform.
Environment: All organizations operate within an external environment.
Nature of Organisational Behaviour:
Organisational behaviour in the study of human behavior in organizations. Whenever an individual joins an organization he brings with him a unique set of personal characteristics, experiences from other organizations, and a personal background.
At the first stage, organizational behavior must look at the unique perspective that each individual brings to the work setting.
In the second stage, organizational behavior is to study the dynamics of how incoming individuals interact with the broader organization. No individual can work in isolation.
He comes into contact with other individuals and the organization in a variety of ways. The individual who joins a new organization has to come into contact with the co-workers, managers, formal policies and procedures of the organization, etc.
Each individual brings to an organization a unique set of personal characteristics, experiences from other organizations, the environment surrounding the organization and they also possess a personal background. In considering the people working in an organization, organizational behavior must look at the unique perspective that each individual brings to the work setting. But individuals do not work in isolation.
They come in contact with other individuals and the organization in a variety of ways. Points of contact include managers, co-workers, formal policies and procedures of the organization, and various changes implemented by the organization. Over time, the individual, too, changes, as a function of both the personal experiences and the organization. The organization is also affected by the presence and eventual absence of the individual.
The study of organisational behaviour must consider how the individual and the organization interact. An organization, characteristically, exists before a particular person joins it and continues to exist after he leaves it. Thus, the organization itself represents a crucial third perspective from which to view organizational behavior.
Why Need for studying Organisational Behaviour?
The rules of work are different from the rules of play. The uniqueness of rules and the environment of organizations forces managers to study organisational behaviour to learn about normal and abnormal ranges of behavior.
Organizational behavior is essentially an interdisciplinary approach to study human behavior at work. It tries to integrate the relevant knowledge drawn from related disciplines like psychology, sociology, and anthropology to make them applicable for studying and analyzing organizational behavior.
Purposes of Organisational Behaviour:
More specifically, organisational behaviour serves three purposes:
What causes behaviour?
Why particular antecedents cause behaviour?
Which antecedents of behaviour can be controlled directly and which are beyond the control?
A more specific and formal course in organizational behavior helps an individual to develop more refined and workable sets of the assumption that is directly relevant to his work interactions. Organizational behavior helps in predicting human behavior in the organizational setting by drawing a clear distinction between individual behavior and group behavior.
They do not provide solutions to all complex and different behavior puzzles of organizations. It is only the intelligent judgment of the manager in dealing with a specific issue that can try to solve the problem.
They only assist in making judgments that are derived from tenable assumptions; a judgment that takes into account the important variables underlying the situation; the judgment that is assigned due recognition to the complexity of individual or group behavior; the judgment that explicitly takes into account the managers own goals, motives, hang-ups, blind spots, and weaknesses.
Organisational Behaviour; Elements, Nature, and Importance, #Pixabay.
Importance of Organisational Behaviour:
Organisational behaviour is the analysis of an organization’s structure, functions, and the behavior of its people. The behavioral study encompasses both groups as well as individuals. It is an interdisciplinary field and has its roots in sociology and psychology. Organizational behavior is based on sociology, as the word organization itself represents social collectivity. It is linked to psychology because the subject encompasses the study of people, individually and in groups at the workplace (essentially, an organization).
Individual and group behaviour is again the function of many factors, which extend to other interdisciplinary fields such as economics, political science, social anthropology, engineering, and human resource management. The scope of organizational behavior is therefore extensive. An organization needs to manage all these aspects so that it can sustain itself in a competitive market.
Some importance of OB:
The following basic importance is below;
It builds a better relationship by achieving people’s, organizational, and social objectives.
It covers a wide array of human resources like behavior, training and development, change management, leadership, teams, etc.
They bring coordination which is the essence of management.
It improves the goodwill of the organization.
It helps to achieve objectives quickly.
They make optimum utilization of resources.
It facilitates motivation.
It leads to higher efficiency.
They improve relations in the organization.
It is multidisciplinary, in the sense that it applies different techniques, methods, and theories to evaluate the performances.
Theoretically, it is difficult for us to draw a line between management and organizational behavior. It can say that one supplements the other. Some organizational behavior issues have their roots in management processes. The study of management began much before the study of organizational behavior. Studies in organizational behavior started in the middle of the twentieth century.
Organizational behavior studies, therefore, draw from management theories to understand aspects such as organizational structure, the behavior of people in an organization, and the issues concerning external and internal fit. Successful management of organizational behavior largely depends on the management practices that prevail in an organization. Understanding organizational behavior, therefore, requires a clear understanding of the basics of management.
Marketing research is key to the evolution of successful marketing strategies and programmes. It is an important tool to study buyer behavior, changes in consumer lifestyles and consumption patterns, brand loyalty and forecast market changes. Research is also used to study competition and analyze the competitor product’s positioning and how to gain a competitive advantage. Recently, marketing research is being used to help create and enhance brand equity. Also learned, Investment in Mutual Funds, Define Marketing Research, and their Process!
Learn, Explain, Define Marketing Research, and their Process!
According to Philip Kotler, Marketing research is systematic problem analysis, model building and fact finding for the purposes of important decision making and control in the marketing of goods and services.
The marketing research process is a seven-stage one. The various stages of this process are:
1. PROBLEM DEFINITION:
This is the starting point in the marketing research exercise. Invariably, in any enterprise, there are several marketing issues that may require examination, and invariably every decision maker perceives his information need as being the most important. In problem definition it is important to be specific, avoiding ambiguities and generalities. Care should also be taken, not to define problems in too narrow a field as that may distract the researcher’s perspective. This may even affect creativity in the research.
2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
Once the problem is defined, the next logical step is to state what the researcher wants to achieve. This statement is called objectives. To be meaningful and help focus the researcher’s attention, these objectives should be specific, attainable & measurable. The purpose of these objectives is to act as a guide to the researcher and help him in maintaining a focus all through the research.
3. RESEARCH DESIGN:
The third stage of the marketing research process is deciding on the research design. There are three types of research designs, namely:
(A) Exploratory:– This kind of research is conducted when the researcher does not know how & why a certain phenomenon occurs, for example, how does the consumer evaluate the quality of a bank or a hotel or an airline?
Since the prime goal of an exploratory research is to know the unknown, this research is unstructured. Focus groups, interviewing key customer groups, experts and even search for printed or published information are some common techniques.
(B) Descriptive: – This research is carried out to describe a phenomenon or market characteristics. For example, a study to understand buyer behavior & describe characteristics of the target market is descriptive research.
Continuing the above example of service quality, research was done on how consumers evaluate the quality of competing service institutions can be considered as an example of descriptive research.
(C) Causative: – this kind of research is done to establish a cause and effect relationship, for example, the influence of income & lifestyle on the purchase decision. Here the researcher may like to see the effect of rising income & changing lifestyle on consumption of select products.
4. SOURCES OF DATA:
Once the research design has been decided upon, the next stage is that of selecting the sources of data. Essentially there are two sources of data or information- secondary & primary:
Secondary data: This refers to the information that has been collected earlier by someone else. Often this includes printed or published reports, news items, industry or trade statistics etc. this also includes internal documents like invoices, sales reports, the payment history of customers etc. these are important to the researcher as they provide an insight to the problem. Often the preliminary investigation is restricted to secondary data.
Primary data: To overcome the limitations of incompatibility, obsolescence and bias, the researcher turns to the primary data. This is also resorted to when the secondary data is incomplete. Primary sources refer to data collected directly from the marketplace-customers, traders & suppliers often are the major sources. They are often reliable data sources and help in overcoming limitations of secondary data. The problem in primary data is its cost, both In terms of money & time, and often a researcher bias also creeps in.
5. DATA COLLECTION:
The researcher is now ready to take the plunge. But still, he or she needs to be clear about the following.
Procedure for data collection:
Data can be collected through any or a combination of the following techniques.
Observation: This technique involves observing how a customer behaves in the shopping area, how he or she dresses up & what does the customer say when he or she sees the product.
Experimentation: This is a technique that involves experimenting with new product ideas, advertising copies & campaigns, sales promotion ideas & even pricing & distribution strategies with the target customer group. These experiments can be conducted in an uncontrolled environment or in a controlled & simulated market environment.
Tools for data collection:
The researcher has to decide on the appropriate tool for data collection.
These tools are:-
Questionnaire – used for the survey method.
Interview schedule – used mainly for exploratory research.
Association test – primarily used in qualitative research, also called as TAT (Thematic Apperception Test).
6. DATA ANALYSIS:
The next stage is that of the data analysis. It is important to understand raw data has no usage in marketing research .hence appropriate analytical tools must be used. The most elementary is the arithmetic analysis using percentile and ratios. Statistical analysis like mean, median, mode, percentages, standard deviation and coefficient of correlations should be used wherever applicable
7. REPORT & PRESENTATION:
The last stage is that of writing out a report and making a presentation to the Decision –maker. It is important that the report has the summary, called the executive summary, giving a bird’s-eye view of the research. This is because most senior managers have little time for going through the entire report in depth. The executive summary can direct the reader’s attention to specific issues by turning to the relevant sections in the report and should not exceed a thousand words.
The report should be structured and pages chronologically numbered generally, the structure of a good report is somewhat like the following:
Learn and Study, What is the Role of Group Influence in Consumer Behavior?
So, if its true that individualism is dead and that consumer behavior is dominated by the influence of groups? There is no doubt consumer behavior is heavily influenced by groups. Individuals are always striving to conform to group behavior and to please others and this influences the purchase choices that they make. The influence of groups also helps to establish trends in lifestyle, fashion, and the assimilation of new products, into the lives of consumers. Also learned, Group Influence on the Consumer Behavior, What is the Role of Group Influence in Consumer Behavior?
The notion of ‘virtual communities’ has been around ever since the inception of the internet. Whereas people used to meet and form communities geographically, the internet allows groups of like-minded people to meet virtually through communities based on, for example, online chat rooms and forums. Here individuals, who share common interests, can make contact with each other without any geographic restrictions. The interaction between members of such groups tends to be more uninhibited that it would be in a non-virtual group, as anonymity allows people to say things to other members of the group they maybe wouldn’t say face-to-face.
Specialist social networking sites have emerged in the last ten years and now have huge numbers of members. Facebook, for example, has over 2 billion members globally and can wield enormous power over the brand consumption choices of those members. An example of the demonstration of this power was in 2007 when ninety-three different Facebook groups, containing over 14,000 members in total, petitioned for Cadbury’s Wispa chocolate bar, which had been withdrawn in 2003, to be re-introduced. Cadbury listened to what these Facebook groups were saying and decided to relaunch Wispa in late 2007.
Many large corporations have now taken a reactive, rather than proactive, stance in terms of their online social network marketing by setting set up their own ‘brand communities’. Tesco has used data from its Clubcard scheme to establish a brand community of families with babies and toddlers. When Tesco discovered that this group of regular shoppers did not think that they could place their trust in the Tesco brand for buying baby and toddler products it established the online Tesco ‘baby and toddler club’.
Membership of the club confers various benefits on families with babies and toddlers including double Clubcard point, free parking spaces right next to store entrances, and a free parenting advice magazine. This brand community initiative raises the levels of trust in the Tesco brand for baby and toddler products and increased Tesco’s market share.
Amazon.com is not just a successful online retailer, it has also created a virtual community of its customers where they can not only buy a wide range of books and electronic products but they can also engage with the Amazon brand. Customers are able to write and submit book reviews and post messages on a forum, amongst other activities.
They can even engage with their favorite authors through email addresses supplied on Amazon.com. If a consumer enters the relevant details then Amazon will also send reminders about the birthdays of family and friends and make recommendations for gifts based on past browsing experience,. Equally, every time a registered user logs on to the site he or she is presented with purchasing ideas that reflect their expressed tastes that have been demonstrated through previous online buying behavior.
Another influential group is consumer ‘tribes’, who are characterized by their active and enthusiastic consumption behavior, which is sometimes extreme in nature. They will actively resist the messages thrust at them by marketers and tend not to consume brands and products without exerting some influence of their own over those brands and products.
They will add to them and struggle with them, altering the actual, or perceived, nature of the brand or product until it blends seamlessly with their own lifestyle. Consumer ‘tribes’ have also flourished online especially through one of the most talked about online phenomena of recent times, namely ‘blogging’. Bloggers, with no particular experience or expertise, are able to disseminate all kinds of messages about brands with impunity.
They wield incredible power over the uniform, tribes of postmodern consumers and their blogging efforts mean that brands are no longer fully able to control their marketing communications activity. However, some of the more savvy marketers have recognized this threat to the integrity of their brand messages and have responded with their own blogs. For example, the internet service provider, AOL, used the medium of blogging in an attempt to defend its brand against tribes of malicious bloggers.
The company’s ‘Discuss’ blog urged consumers to reassess their opinions of its broadband service by probing views within different consumer groupings to stimulate interest in topics that would not usually be included in the content of offline marketing activity. The ‘Discuss’ blog was a great success and achieved over one thousand postings and more than one hundred thousand hits in its first few weeks online.
Each broad culture will contain ‘sub-cultures’, which are differentiated by religious beliefs or race, or can be groups of people who simply have the same values, attitudes and beliefs. The influence of ‘sub-cultures’ over consumer behavior thus: members of a subculture often signal their membership by making distinctive and symbolic tangible (purchasing) choices in, for example, clothing styles, hairstyles and footwear.
A clearly identifiable sub culture is ‘youth culture’, which exhibits distinctive attitudes and purchasing behavior and is widely recognized by marketers as a highly valuable global market segment. Members of the youth culture group will often be highly aware of high profile and heavily advertised brands and will have positive and aspirational attitudes to purchasing such brands in order to signal their membership of the subculture.
Style is perhaps the single largest indicator of membership of ‘youth culture’ and has been evidenced by the past emergence of sub groups of youth culture, such as hippies, mods, rockers and punks. Although these groups wanted to be seen as rebellious they in fact depended, ironically, on consumer goods, such as clothing and music, to re-enforce their identities.
The association of youth sub culture with music has long been exploited by marketers. For example, Brown and Williamson, manufacturers of the ‘Kool’ brand of menthol cigarettes, started sponsoring music concerts in the 1970’s because of the ability of such events to communicate with adolescents. In 2004 Kool’s marketers felt that music would be a powerful medium for conveying emotional messages about cigarettes and building a brand image and so the ‘Kool Mixx’ concerts were launched. These targeted young American males, by exploiting the new musical genre of ‘hip-hop’, which had wide appeal with youth culture.
There are other groups that influence young people as they become more autonomous from their parents. So called ‘reference groups’ play an increasingly important role in the development of young people. A reference group can be defined as an actual or imaginary individual or group conceived of having significant relevance upon an individual’s evaluations, aspirations, or behavior. Most individuals are adverse to behavior that goes against the consensus of their reference group or groups.
For example teenagers, as consumers, are more relaxed when they are with members of a reference group than when they are on their own. When a consumer lacks confidence in his or her purchase decision-making ability, they look to their reference group for guidance and advice. Reference groups for teenagers will typically include family members and friends as well as their music and sports idols.
The concept of ‘self’, is a psychological concept that is involved with motivating consumer behavior and an individual’s ‘self-esteem. A favorable self-esteem is generally regarded as being crucial to success in life. Teenagers, particularly, are likely to be very aware of their self-esteem, or lack of it, due to both the physiological changes taking place in their bodies, at and beyond puberty, and the attitudes, opinions, and beliefs of others.
In consumer behavioral terms these esteem needs can be the motivation for the acquisition of so called ‘luxury’ products, such as branded fashion and clothing, which can help a young person gain recognition and status within his or her key reference groups For example, teenage school children will often connect with reference groups of their peers. Members of these reference groups may decide to dress in particular kind of way and often will wear items of designer-brand footwear and clothes.
These teenagers consumers will seek to own the brands that their heroes in sports, film music own. The principle being that, by owning such brands, they can improve, by association, both their self esteem and their standing in the reference group. ‘Tag-Hauer’ is a good example of a brand that exploits this need for an association to with a celebrity reference group Brad Pitt and Lewis Hamilton are two of the celebrities that endorse the Tag-Hauer brand through advertising which is principally aimed at young adult males.
Despite the huge weight of evidence to support the claim that individualism in consumer behavioral terms is dead, and that the age of the group is with us, it should be remembered that individuals still retain the ability to make their own decisions about what they buy and who they buy it from. Highly impulsive, individual buyers are likely not to reflect on their purchase decisions and emotions will be a prime force in attracting them to a particular purchase.
Individualism is influenced largely by culture and occurs most frequently in those cultures where it is most highly-prized, such as in the USA. Here it is reckoned that impulsive consumer behavior accounts for over $4 billion of sales annually and over 80% of all purchases in some product categories, for example, magazines and sweets.
In conclusion, it can be seen that regardless of nationality, race or gender, the influence of the group over consumer behavior is highly significant. The emergence of the internet has caused a huge surge in group influence especially amongst teenagers and young adults. These individuals are also highly susceptible to the influence of reference groups and will often seek the approval of their peers before making a purchasing decision. Marketers have not just responded to the demands of virtual groups of consumers but have also risen to the challenge of influencing group behavior themselves.
Again, the internet has been of assistance in helping them to deliver their brand messages and respond to consumer needs and wants through independent social networking sites, such as Facebook, and, increasingly through the established of their own brand communities. None of this is to say, however, that individualism is necessarily dead as evidenced by the fact that many consumers still make impulsive buying decisions without reference to any group behavior.
Learn and Study, How to Group Influence on the Consumer Behavior?
Each consumer in society is a member of different groups depending on their culture, various subcultures or even social class can influence their consumer purchase. A group can be formed when two or more individuals share a set of norms and beliefs. A group becomes a reference group when an individual recognizes with the group and takes on many of the values, attitudes or personal standards of group members and use it as the base of his/her day to day behavior. A reference group is defined as having significant relevance upon an ‘individual’s evaluations, aspirations or behavior influencing the consumer. Also learned, Power of Dreams, How to Group Influence on the Consumer Behavior?
The nature of reference group influence can take three forms, this is because some groups and individuals are able to influence greater than others and affect a range of consumption.
#Informational influence:
This is when the reference group is used as a knowledgeable source in the different parts of the buyer’s decision process. This type of influence emerges when an individual or the member uses the behaviors and beliefs of the reference group as dependable sources. This influence is based either on the similarity of the buyer’s desires with the ones of the group members. For example in the biker subculture, the members all share similar desires for purchasing Harley Davidson products therefore influencing the individual decision process in selecting certain products. The members in baby boomer subculture are also likely to purchase similar latest fashion products.
#Normative influence known as (utilitarian influence):
The reference group creates a level of values and norms of an individual, in the process of purchasing brands or products. For example, both the Harley Davidson biker subculture and baby boomer subculture will have an influence on the member’s decisions on which types of products to a consumer to fit in with the values and attitudes of the subculture. Harley Davidson subculture values can affect the characteristics of the member’s lives such as their ‘social, political and spiritual’ aspects.
#Identification influence known as (value-expressive influence):
The reference group is used to confirm the consumer’s attitudes, norms and actual behavior. The individual behaves reliable with the group’s norms and beliefs because the individual’s and the group’s norms, attitudes and beliefs are the same. For example, this can be seen in Harley Davidson subculture in which the members view the subculture as a ‘religious icon’ sharing the same values and norms as other members.
The group’s power of influence on consumer’s behavior will depend on a number of factors. For example degree of visibility of the product or trademark used by the group members. The group’s power of influence is higher for the products used visibly such as shoes, cars and fashion products compared to non-visibly products. In the Harley Davidson subculture, their power to influence other members is through visible displays such as tattoos and motorcycle customization, this is done to emphasize the commitment to the group. The product’s degree of necessity for example the group’s power of influence is higher for the luxury products such as jewels, fashion etc and lower for necessity products. For example, the baby boomers subcultures are likely to influence other members in purchasing luxury products than necessity products.
The group’s power of influence will depend on the individual’s degree of involvement for example if an individual is reliant to a group; it is more likely to conform to the group. The group’s influence will depend on the degree of confident of the buyer during the buying process. The group influence is noticeable when there are specialized products such as PC sets or mobiles. These are the products for which the buyer depends on the expert knowledge of the reference group. The influence of the reference groups is not influential for all types of products or services that consumers purchase.
For example, products that are not complex, that are low in perceived risk are unlikely to be influenced by the reference groups. The impact of the reference groups can vary. Reference group might determine the choosing of a certain kind of product instead of others. It can further influence the option of a brand or trademark of a product such as Iphone or Blackberry. An individual will want to belong to a group because of their significance and position they obtain. They will want to be associated with groups that have an attractive social position. Due to the unique characteristics, certain groups are seen to have a greater social power influence than other groups.
Groups have power due to their ability to influence individuals to become members. The group’s ability to influence the behavior of various individuals that are members or non-members of the group is called social power and can have a number of types. These social powers can influence the consumer behavior in buying certain products and brands. Research found that reference groups are very important for marketers. This is because they can influence and inform members to purchase specific products and brands. It can provide the members with factors to compare with their own values, with the values and behavior of the group. This can therefore influence the members to adopt the groups’ values and attitudes
Group influence is “non controllable” by the marketer but must be taken into consideration when designing new products. The marketer will need to seek out to understand all the group influences that affect consumers so that the marketing mix can be adjusted to give the maximum effect. Consumer behavior is greatly influenced by cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors. Culture is the most fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior. Culture contains smaller subcultures or groups of people with shared values systems based on common life experiences and situations. These subcultures can influence the consumer behavior. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups and geographic regions.
Age subculture (age cohort) is an example of how consumers cultural bond with each other. This is because these consumers are more likely to face similar experiences and share common memories by growing up and living in the same time frame. Many subcultures make up important market segments and marketers often need to design products and marketing programmers’ tailored to their needs and want. For example the automobile industry are taking on the baby boomer subculture market and dealing with boomers changing needs in the industry. Toyota’s campaign of the redesign of the new Avalon was to provide a youthful image that reminds the baby boomers of the late 1960s.
Role of Price Perception in Consumer Buying Process with Consumer Behavior
The price perception has been one of the most important research issues on the consumer behavior for last many years. The concept of reference point is very important in this regard and efforts have been made in order to define it. Consumers establish their reference points according to their personal understanding, annotations, the existing knowledge of prices and their subjective interpretation. Why You Should Be Balancing Your Books on Every Single Month? Definition of Price Perception.
The reference points are dependent of two factors: the kind of information i.e. external or internal and behavioral process of formation of references. The internal reference point comes from the consumer estimation of price in his mind. The two factors contextual and temporal are involved in this formation. The first factor is related to the perception of different prices within the same category of product while buying.
The temporal factor depends on the past buying experiences of the customer. The importance of both these factors varies according to the customer’s characteristics. For instance, consumer who purchased the one product more frequently will remember its price more clearly and as a result temporal factor will be more important. External information comes from the marketing and internal form other sources.
It means any message of the price consumer receives through external channel and which he uses to make comparisons. The seller can control the external information by the marketing efforts i.e. through advertising and some internal factors may be beyond their control. But the information must be credible so that the consumer can use it in making his assessment of the product.
The external reference point can be the price suggested by the seller on the product’s packaging, or the brand which is more frequently purchased or the price of the dominating brand. The main aim of the external reference point is to increase the internal reference price so that customer perceive existing price as attractive and buy the product
According to a research study, price perception is clearly more relevant factor in purchasing decision than reality. Research was conducted in five countries to measure the extent to which perception of price is important for retailers. Three factors were identified which are responsible for price perception.
The first one is the clarity with which price is communicated, second is price communication on entry points and the third is overall environment. The research indicated the fact that the retailers who are perceived as more expensive than others are unable to compete effectively in the market.
A study conducted on entry level price communication difference of Zara and H&M is a good example on price perception. According to the study, Zara was found to be 31% more costly than H&M, but the customers’ perception of this difference quite low as compared to the actual figure.
This reveals the Zara’s ability to manage its perception through effective and clear communication of prices. They have been successful in portraying their prices as nearly equal to competitor but in actual their prices are relatively high. The magic of perception has worked really well in this case which reveals the importance of perception the consumers.
Another classic example is the price perception of Argos which shows how they have been able to build their price perception that is better than reality. They have been able to communicate their price position in a way that results in a cheaper price perception than reality. Their advertising strategy was price centered along with prominent supply of low priced goods in order to create a cheap price perception of their goods.
In this way, the have been able to portray themselves as low-priced as compared to competitors while the reality may be different. However, the company has to work continuously in order to maintain that perception. How To Make Your Small Business Stand Out? Many Ways You Can Try IT!
Role of Perception in Consumer Behavior
The perceptions consumers have of a business and its products or service have a dramatic effect on buying behavior. That’s why businesses spend so much money marketing themselves, honing their customer service and doing whatever else they can to favorably influence the perceptions of target consumers. With careful planning and execution, a business can influence those perceptions and foster profitable consumer behaviors.
Influencing Perception
Consumers continually synthesize all the information they have about a company to form a decision about whether that company offers value. In a sense, consumer perception is an approximation of reality, notes the book “Consumer Behaviour,” by Atul Kr. Sharma. Businesses attempt to influence this perception of reality, sometimes through trickery and manipulation but often just by presenting themselves in the best possible light. For example, advertisements often trumpet the quality and convenience of a product or service, hoping to foster a consumer perception of high value, which can pay off with increased sales.
Reaching Consumers
A key factor in influencing consumer perception is exposure. The more information consumers have about a product, the more comfortable they are buying it. As a result, businesses do all they can to publicize their offerings. Positive Relationships with Individual and Organization Outside, However, this causes a problem: When every business bombards consumers with marketing messages, consumers tend to tune out. To influence consumer perception, a business not only must expose its product to consumers, it also must make its product stand out from the crowd.
Risk Perception
Consumer risk perception is another factor businesses must take into account when trying to encourage buying behaviors. The more risky a proposition is, the more difficult it is to get consumers to act. If consumers aren’t familiar with a brand of product, they can’t assess the risk involved; it could be poorly built, for instance, or too costly compared to substitutes. Businesses can overcome this hesitancy by offering as much product information as possible in the form of advertisements or by encouraging product reviews. Allowing potential customers to handle the product in stores or test it at home also decreases risk perception, as does offering a flexible return policy.
Customer Retention
Successful businesses don’t relax once a customer makes a purchase. Rather, they continue to foster perceptions that result in profitable behaviors. Once consumers have tried a product, the task becomes maintaining a good reputation and establishing brand loyalty. Offering superior customer service is an effective tactic because it maintains the perception that the business cares about its customers’ best interests. In return, customers become loyal to the business, which secures a consistent revenue stream for the company and makes it more difficult for competitors to poach customers.
