Purchase behaviour of customers and the role of Reference groups in influencing the purchasing behavior of customers.
We live in a world where everything whatever happens around us causes impact on us physiologically and emotionally which in turns forms,shapes and drives our attitudes,liking for or disliking against certain things.
Actually the motive for every action is the intent or the desire to get something of a positive nature.
When ever we perform a certain action it can have two outcomes i.e Positive Reinforcement and negative reinforcement and on the outcome of the reward whether positive or negative decides whether we are going to perform the same action again or not.
On the basis of the reward outcomes one time purchases,repeat purchases and customer loyalty depends.
In simple terms we can understand it that in case of Positive reinforcement the reward is of the positive nature while negative reinforcement can be taken as a punishment.
The experience we gets stored in our memory for a long time and whenever we see or performs a certain similar type of action,the learned predisposition tells us that whether it will be beneficial or not.
Example:
Suppose Ashish in his early childhood days used to get a chocolate as a reward for performing top in the class and for his poor performance sometimes teacher used to punish him.
This "chocolate " as a reward will create a positive impact on Ashish and it will frame his attitude that by Performing outstanding in the class he shall get a chocolate. (Positive reinforcement) while if poorly performed he will get punishment from the teacher (undesired outcome) which will lead to negative reinforcement.
Hence this reward outcome desired or undesired will form his future behavior as he will like to have a good reward rather than that of bad one.
We all are consumers and we purchase different items based on our requirement from time to time.
From the low involvement products that is a Washing machine,a television or water purifier
to High Involvement products like Latops,Cars etc.we take huge precautions.
We purchase products to satisfy our needs.Basically the purchase decision is not an independent one but it is interdependent on many more factors.
It takes several things in account prior to trigger the purchase decision.
Marketer plays a vital role here also." A Marketer acts like a teacher.Marketeers are in the business of making consumers to meet their unrecognised needs,teaches them about the products that will satisfy those needs and also helps them to learn the usage of the products and also teaches them how to dispose them off."
Hence First,Marketer send its target market a communication without letting him know that he is being targetted .Let us take the example of Television Advertisements.
Example;
Let us take the example of Fair and lovely Cream.Its Target markets were the women with low self esteem.
We know that in most of the places let it be Corporates,Jobs at airlines the women with black completion are turned down irrespective of the reason that how much talented they are.
Not only to this in certain places,a women with dark complexion worries her parents because it means that they have to pay high dowry to get her married (punishment) while as the fair complexion girls are considered gift as they find jobs easily let it be at big corporate houses and even in aviation sector.
As i already told you in my earlier posts,"Jo dikhta hai woh bikta hai...."
Girl with dark complexion...Nandita Das
Girl with fair complexion...Nandita Das
It is a bias in our society that fair people gets most of the preferences and opportunities where as the industry wants the talented one irrespective of the colour of the skin what a person has got...
Hence the Fair and lovely took the initiative by targeting the self esteem of the girls with dark complexion by telling that could achieve heights.The marketers without letting the target audiences know that their self esteem is being lowered and they are being targeted as this will turn off the customers and they will simply associate black word with fair and lovely as a product.The people will tend to think that the cream is for blacks.No one wants to admit he is of dark complexion even if he knows she is not farer.No one wants to look or hear that she is ugly.
So it can be a blunder and a total failure on the product positioning.
Hence a marketer targets and lowers down the self esteem of his target consumers and then suggest measures to hike it.
Such a beautiful art is this marketing!!
See in the above given add,the marketer is indirectly telling them in a praising and in a motivating manner that no doubt they are dark buy yet they are beautiful in their own way....
Hence a marketer is making its target consumers learn.
Reference group can be of two types:
1) Primary reference group.
2) Secondary reference group.
Primary Reference group: A primary reference group includes immediate family members,friends i.e it is a group with whom an individual communicates regularly.
Secondary Reference groups: It may include or other persons with whom the interactions are very limited or less we can say.
Hence when a potential customer thinks to buy a product from the market,the biggest challenge which he faces is to buy from which company when all the competitors are on the same line,
So what a consumer does,he approaches the expert persons or opinion leaders to seek information regarding the product he wishes to buy.
Suppose i want to buy a Ferrari.I will just find someone in my immediate reference groups or someone whom we think as an opinion leader or an expert possibility who has got the good information about the cars or who has got one,will obviously not inquire about the mileage because it wont matter to a Ferrari owner but the maintenance,Post delivery service procedures,Emi's etc. and whether it will be a good decision to buy it or not.
Reference groups with whom we are associated helps framing our attitude towards a product because we often keep associated with our social groups.
We can assume it with a an another situation:
If there are families living in 10 different flats in an apartment and 8 families are using a specific car then the 9th and the 10th family are most probably going to buy the same car.Hence social groups causes great impact on the consumers mind .Moreover to protect themselves with the product dissonance they mostly take the opinion of the reference groups.
Marketers face a challenging situation when directing a certain information of the product to the reference groups.It is not necessary that the reference group may understand or perceive the message of the marketer in the same sense as it has been transmitted and transmit the same to the target persons in a positive manner.Different people have different thinking ability which depends on their ability to think,understand which is based on their perceptions,valuation,beliefs,understanding,learning about a brand or a product.
Hence challenge lies with forwarding the same intent of the marketer to the reference groups and target groups in which it is transmitted and to ensure that the audiences perceive the same picture as marketer wants them to see it.
The lengthy advertisements you must have seen on the Television that lasts for 30 min showing every detail of the product ,its specifications,pricing,warranty,purchase information,warranty information,delivery information,Payment terms are not for normal consumers.
Those advertisements are called "Infomercials".
They are shown to develop and change the attitude, Perception of the reference groups and opinion leaders positively about the product and the brand itself.
As it is said that,A negative word of mouth travels 10X faster than a positive word of mouth.
to High Involvement products like Latops,Cars etc.we take huge precautions.
It takes several things in account prior to trigger the purchase decision.
Marketer plays a vital role here also." A Marketer acts like a teacher.Marketeers are in the business of making consumers to meet their unrecognised needs,teaches them about the products that will satisfy those needs and also helps them to learn the usage of the products and also teaches them how to dispose them off."
Hence First,Marketer send its target market a communication without letting him know that he is being targetted .Let us take the example of Television Advertisements.
Example;
Let us take the example of Fair and lovely Cream.Its Target markets were the women with low self esteem.
We know that in most of the places let it be Corporates,Jobs at airlines the women with black completion are turned down irrespective of the reason that how much talented they are.
Not only to this in certain places,a women with dark complexion worries her parents because it means that they have to pay high dowry to get her married (punishment) while as the fair complexion girls are considered gift as they find jobs easily let it be at big corporate houses and even in aviation sector.
As i already told you in my earlier posts,"Jo dikhta hai woh bikta hai...."Girl with dark complexion...Nandita Das
Girl with fair complexion...Nandita Das
It is a bias in our society that fair people gets most of the preferences and opportunities where as the industry wants the talented one irrespective of the colour of the skin what a person has got...
Hence the Fair and lovely took the initiative by targeting the self esteem of the girls with dark complexion by telling that could achieve heights.The marketers without letting the target audiences know that their self esteem is being lowered and they are being targeted as this will turn off the customers and they will simply associate black word with fair and lovely as a product.The people will tend to think that the cream is for blacks.No one wants to admit he is of dark complexion even if he knows she is not farer.No one wants to look or hear that she is ugly.
So it can be a blunder and a total failure on the product positioning.
Hence a marketer targets and lowers down the self esteem of his target consumers and then suggest measures to hike it.
Such a beautiful art is this marketing!!
See in the above given add,the marketer is indirectly telling them in a praising and in a motivating manner that no doubt they are dark buy yet they are beautiful in their own way....
Hence a marketer is making its target consumers learn.
Reference group can be of two types:
1) Primary reference group.
2) Secondary reference group.
Primary Reference group: A primary reference group includes immediate family members,friends i.e it is a group with whom an individual communicates regularly.
Secondary Reference groups: It may include or other persons with whom the interactions are very limited or less we can say.
Hence when a potential customer thinks to buy a product from the market,the biggest challenge which he faces is to buy from which company when all the competitors are on the same line,
So what a consumer does,he approaches the expert persons or opinion leaders to seek information regarding the product he wishes to buy.
Suppose i want to buy a Ferrari.I will just find someone in my immediate reference groups or someone whom we think as an opinion leader or an expert possibility who has got the good information about the cars or who has got one,will obviously not inquire about the mileage because it wont matter to a Ferrari owner but the maintenance,Post delivery service procedures,Emi's etc. and whether it will be a good decision to buy it or not.
Reference groups with whom we are associated helps framing our attitude towards a product because we often keep associated with our social groups.
We can assume it with a an another situation:
If there are families living in 10 different flats in an apartment and 8 families are using a specific car then the 9th and the 10th family are most probably going to buy the same car.Hence social groups causes great impact on the consumers mind .Moreover to protect themselves with the product dissonance they mostly take the opinion of the reference groups.
Marketers face a challenging situation when directing a certain information of the product to the reference groups.It is not necessary that the reference group may understand or perceive the message of the marketer in the same sense as it has been transmitted and transmit the same to the target persons in a positive manner.Different people have different thinking ability which depends on their ability to think,understand which is based on their perceptions,valuation,beliefs,understanding,learning about a brand or a product.
Hence challenge lies with forwarding the same intent of the marketer to the reference groups and target groups in which it is transmitted and to ensure that the audiences perceive the same picture as marketer wants them to see it.
The lengthy advertisements you must have seen on the Television that lasts for 30 min showing every detail of the product ,its specifications,pricing,warranty,purchase information,warranty information,delivery information,Payment terms are not for normal consumers.
Those advertisements are called "Infomercials".
They are shown to develop and change the attitude, Perception of the reference groups and opinion leaders positively about the product and the brand itself.
As it is said that,A negative word of mouth travels 10X faster than a positive word of mouth.
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