Consumer psychology is a branch of social psychology that deals with the market behavior of consumers. It involves studying the preferences, habits and customs of, various consumer groups. It seeks to find how individuals, groups and organizations select, secure and dispose products and services. This field of study is important when it comes to designing adverts and coming up with new products (Bettman, 1986). This study attempts to understand the decision-making of the buyer by studying the characteristic of various consumers such as demographic and other variables to understand what people want and how they address their needs. The influences over consumers by such factors as friends, peers, family, and other reference groups in the society are of great consideration in evaluating the behavior of consumers.
Consumer psychology is of significance to business, as they need to understand the behavior of consumers when they are preparing a new product or service and when introducing the product to consumers. Consumer psychologists seek to understand among many other things; how consumers choose a given product or service, the emotional basis of consumers’ choices, influence of environmental factors such as media on consumer choices, the motivation of choosing a product over another and personal factors affecting the consumers choices. With information on such factors, one can choose the appropriate design for the product of a given market and establish ways through which the marketers can reach out and win consumers (Haugtvedt, et al, 2012).
Marketing in its entirety employs or is affected by psychology. A consumer can be influenced in various ways to purchase a give product; the need of a product can be kindled in a consumer who would otherwise have no need for the product, by application of some psychological concepts. First is the concept of personalization. Every person would like to be personally acknowledged and given “special’ recognition. Personal treatment creates a sense of trust between the consumer and the company; it also gives the consumer the feeling of being valued. This is usually achieved through directly sending emails to consumers, sending text messages, and addressing customers personally when selling or during promotions. Advertisements can also be tailored to give the viewers and sense of personal touch. This mechanism is of great importance in catching attention and creating loyalty among the customers (Bettman, 1986).
Reciprocity is another major psychological influence that can be used to woo consumers. This uses a simple principle of action and reaction, you give customers something and they in turn give their loyalty to the product. The basis of this marketing strategy is to satisfy an intrinsic egocentric psychological question, what is in for me? Giving customers a taste of the product can be used to achieve this strategy; it can also be applied by rewarding consistent customers and by giving gifts. Giving a consumer a product in advance also gives the consumer a feel for the product before buying it. By giving rewards and free gifts a customer feels appreciated hence become loyal. This strategy is applicable for products such as software, foodstuffs, and other that one can use and then buy. Rewards and gifts are also common with large-scale retailers (Haugtvedt, et al, 2012).
Social influence and use of authority are also important psychological factors that can be used in marketing. The idea of social influence is used by showing trying to attract people of a specific class to a product by portraying it as being appreciated by other people of the same class. Someone for instance could be invited to sign up for something by being notified that a friend has signed up for the same. A product could also be advertised by demonstrating its use for a given group of people e.g. students. The concept of authority applies when promoting a product using celebrities. For instance a football star can be used to advertise a shoe brand or a sports event. These techniques give the consumers confidence in the product and are therefore convinced to acquiring it. Through social influence, also one can be motivated to get a product just because his peers have it or because it is trending (Bettman, 1986).
Smart pricing is also an important aspect of consumer psychology that can be applied in marketing. This involves setting price tags just below a given digit value. A product for instance going for $1000 can be priced at $999.99. The original four digit price and the three digit price have very little significance in the cost but to the consumers’ mind it’s a big deal. It gives the impression that the product is much cheaper (Haugtvedt, et al, 2012). Giving limited time offers for a product of service is also an important psychological means of wooing individuals to purchase a given commodity.it gives a sense of urgency and importance to the product hence getting attention of the consumers.
As highlighted earlier, consumer psychology involves the study of consumer behavior in terms of their choice of products and services and several factors that affect them. The information on the psychological factors that guide the choices and preferences of the consumers is important in marketing communication as marketers can use this technique to effectively capture and attract the attention of consumers. Consumer psychology and marketing communication have a direct relationship. The need of good marketing communication prompts the study of customer psychology and the basis of successful marketing communication is the understanding of consumer psychology. The above concepts such as personalization, social influence, and use of authority are examples of consumer psychology concepts that can be applied for successful marketing communication for a product or a service (Haugtvedt, et al, 2012).
References
Bettman, J. R. (1986). Consumer psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 37(1), 257-289.
Haugtvedt, C. P., Herr, P. M., & Kardes, F. R. (Eds.). (2012). Handbook of consumer psychology (Vol. 4). Psychology Press.
