The Importance of Understanding Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior is a very complicated process. The behavior of the consumers or the customers changes from time to time. It is very difficult though for the customers to assess the consumer behavior and launch their product by analyzing the macro and micro environments of business. Many other things are associated with this process. The marketers need to make a complete survey of the market position and then decide to target the potential customers depending on their product orientation. The marketers use some patent theories like the theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior to assess the consumer behavior. In this portion, the relevance of these theories has to be assessed (Montano and Kasprzyk 2015).

In this portion, an argument has to be developed regarding the main topic that surrounds the discussion. The importance of consumer behavior or consumer decision making is a very important thing in the marketing aspect. Before developing the argument, a brief about consumer behavior and the two theories must be given.

The consumers in the market are regarded as the most important factor on whom the entire marketing process surrounds (Solomon 2014). They have to decide what things they want to purchase and what they want to reject. There are some basic decision making processes that needs to be followed by every consumer (Hwang and Yoon 2012). At first, the consumers should know what kind of product they want to purchase. Next, they have to collect the important information about the product and the product variants either by surveying the market himself or by gathering information from the social media (Powers er al. 2012). In the next phase, the consumers should look for other alternatives that may be available on that product from several companies. After surveying and comparing the specific product, the consumer has to make the decision of buying that product from a specific company. After the purchasing, the consumer has to make an evaluation of his purchase decision by judging how useful his product has been to him. These actions of the consumers are directed by several factors such as the economical and psychological. Though, economical factors are very important but psychological factors are very crucial too because it involves the consumer loyalty to one company and their recommendations to their known ones (Hwang and Yoon 2012).

The theory of reasoned action is one of the main theories that revolve around the consumer behavior (Montano and Kasprzyk 2015). This is the theory that helps to understand the beliefs and voluntary behaviors of the individual customer. Very often, this theory has a deep connection with the motivation of the customers. This motivation leads the consumers to perform an action i.e. purchasing of a product from the market. It has a cause-effect relationship between the ideas of the theory because the actual behavior comes after the desire to perform the behavior. This behavior is known as the behavioral intention or desire. This theory gives the suggestion that the more the intentions are strong, the more the consumer will thrive to perform the action better (Montano and Kasprzyk 2015).

The Theory of Reasoned Action

It is notable that Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) has three conditions that can affect the connection between the behavioral intention or desire and consumer behavior. These three conditions are “the measure of intention must correspond with respect to their levels of specificity”, “stability of intentions between time of measurement and performance of behavior”, “the degree to which carrying out the intention is under the volitional control of the individual”.  These conditions have direct relation between the verbal replies and the actual performing of the behavior. This theory has been used to measure the customer behavior in a marketing scenario for years now (Khan 2013).

Another implication of this theory is that this theory has predicted that behavioral intent is caused by two factors and they are the attitudes of human beings and their subjective norms.

The theory of planned behavior is a psychological theory that concerns about the ideas of behavior (Cornally 2014). This theory is an improved version of the theory of reasoned action and it improves the pattern of the earlier theory by including a control over behavior. The theory of reasoned action is generally based on the predictive power of the human beings. So, it is basically an extended version of the theory of reasoned action. Human behavior is one thing that can be described using this theory. The human behavior is guided by three kinds of things which are ‘behavioral beliefs’, ‘normative beliefs’ and ‘control beliefs’ (Vohs, Baumeister and Schmeichel 2012) Non-volitional behavior is one aspect that is explained in this kind of behavior.

Many critics have considered these two theories as the basic components for defining consumer behavior (Montano and Kasprzyk 2015).  There is a certain amount of discrepancy between attitude and behavior of the people. Behavior predicts the intention at its very best and has a direct connection with the consumer behavior. This consumer behavior is dependent on the intention of the consumer and this is controlled by his beliefs. In turn, these beliefs make him/her to purchase that particular thing. He is at first provoked by his intention and then takes his decisions by implementing the planned behavioral activities (Greaves, Zibarras and Stride 2013) 

Conclusion

In the concluding part, it can be said that in the discussion both the theories have been analyzed in brief and it can be justified because of the ideas that are extracted by analyzing the two theories. They support the basic ideas of consumer behavior and therefore, they are appropriate tools to measure consumer behavior in the course.

The Theory of Planned Behavior

In this part of the assignment, an advertisement has to be analyzed and the main point of the assignment is to analyze the topic from two perspectives and some relevant theories will have to be used to support the perspectives. These perspectives have to be interrelated to explain the ways the consumers can respond to the advertisement. Some theories have to found through research and they have to be analyzed to see how proper they are and its justifications have to be analyzed. The theories that can be chosen for evaluating the different perspectives are AIDA model, the DAGMAR model, the Ehrenberg model and the DRIP model (Wijaya 2015). These theories have to be analyzed of justifying the Nutri-grain advertisement. This will help to form an insight about the message that the advertisement wants to convey.

The advertisement that has been provided is about the Nutri-grain products that are nourished with protein and help to keep the body of the human beings fit and healthy (Alemán-Mateo et al. 2012). The nutrients that are showed here are very helpful for everyone and the tagline they have used here is “Feels Great’. Two advertisements have been showed here regarding the nutri-grain products. In the first scenario, the little boy is seen with his mother where her mother was clicking photos of him on the seaside at the time he was very lean and weak. After that, his mother began to give him nutri-grain healthy drink that provided him with good amount of protein and he began to be strong and healthy.

In the second scenario, an office scene is shown where the first employee eats a bar and suddenly feels great and tells everybody (Trier and Johnston 2012).  He goes to others and they also join them by saying that. They were all feeling great. Thus, the branding of the product is done by involving the employees in an office. The two perspectives that can be chosen are the branding methods of the advertisement and the level to which it can cater to the needs of the consumers.

The first theory to be analyzed is the AIDA model (Rawal 2013). It is the abbreviated form of the theory and the full form of AIDA is Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. The customers have different needs and desires according to their social identities and the responsibility of the marketing managers is to meet those needs. They have to develop several communication strategies so that they can communicate with the consumers. It is a very common method of marketing. According to the model, a list of reactions is described after a consumer sees an advertisement. The four acronyms of the model show four different meanings (Rawal 2013).

• The first acronym ‘A’ means attention. It implies that how successful the advertisement in drawing the attraction of the consumers (Thompson and Malaviya 2013).
• ‘I’ stands for interest in the advertisement and the amount to which how much the advertisement has been able to raise the interest among the consumers about the benefit of the projects.
• ‘D’ means desire. It implies that the consumer wants to avail that particular product and service as it can cater to their needs.
• ‘A’ means action that is related to acting towards buying that product.

Analyzing an Advertisement Using the AIDA and DAGMAR Models

This model helps the marketers to set up a target market effectively as during the entire process, many prospective customers are lost (Sharma and Lambert 2013). In this case, the target group for Nutri-grain products can be targeted as the young mothers who want their children to grow healthy and strong. The purpose of using AIDA model is to attract the customers towards their products through advertisement, then they should gain interest and he will continue it. After that, he will be convinced by the advertisement to buy it and finally the act of purchasing will take place. It means that an effective advertisement must have these qualities. The employees in the office would feel energized and feel great by the bar and this would motivate them for doing better works (L?z?roiu 2015) 

Source: (Rawal 2013).

The DAGMAR model is the second theory that has to be focused in this context and it is also an abbreviated form (Wijaya 2015). The full form of this model suggests Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results. This is an important tool for measuring advertising of a company.  It is used to measure the outcomes of marketing campaigns (Parente and Strausbaugh-Hutchinson 2014) This theory helps the customers through five steps about the product and they are unaware, aware, comprehension, conviction and action. The marketers use this theory as they set specific and measurable objectives so that they can determine their success There are some steps that the marketers take to make this model effective enough. They have to set their target markets properly and then they have to make the potential customers aware of the specific products which they were unaware of until now. They have to make efforts so that the product can be comprehended by the customers and the phases end as they buy that product. In this case of Nutri-grain advertisement, the potential customers or target markets are set as the mothers and office employees (Romaniuk 2012). Mothers look after that their children are well supplied with food for better health and the employees look to enhance their work level by feeling great, as the tagline suggests. Such target markets can be made aware of these benefits and ultimately they will end up buying the product for their welfare. This will lead to the success of the product. 

Source: (Wijaya 2015). 

The third model to be used here to describe the fundamentals of advertising is the Ehrenberg model or ATR model developed by Andrew Ehrenberg  (Percy, Elliott and Rosenbaum-Elliott 2016). This theory has been very much effective in measuring the several attributes in the marketing and the advertising world. The researches he had done in this field had left a deep impact on the in the advertising areas. Thus he had contributed a great deal in these circumstances. The most common model he has used in this aspect is in his ‘weak theory’ There are four components in this model. These components are Awareness, Trial, Reinforcement and Nudging (Percy, Elliott and Rosenbaum-Elliott 2016). These are very important parts in an advertising campaign. These components are responsible for nudging the consumer behavior and it could end up in buying of the products by the customers. The ‘Awareness’ means to let the consumers know about the existence of that particular product. The second phase ‘Trial’ implies the interest of the customer in the product. The third component ‘Reinforcement’ means trust in the product and last one ‘Nudging’ means that the product is bought.

In the case of Nutri-grain advertisement, the marketers have raised awareness about the product among the consumers through the advertisements and the potential target customers will be interested in their product. They will trust the product by ‘reinforcement’ and finally the products will be sold by ‘nudging’ process (Percy, Elliott and Rosenbaum-Elliott 2016).  

Source: (Percy, Elliott and Rosenbaum-Elliott 2016)

DRIP model or theory is a very important theory in advertising (Copley 2014). It helps to keep the company’s products attractive, competitive and they can remain one step ahead of their rivals every time. The main strategy they use is to keep connected with their target market always by sending those emails, messages, sharing social media posts and making calls. They also use to send e-books, brochures, article reviews of their products and many other things. They use four tools to communicate and convince their customers to buy their products through advertising. These four tools are ‘Differentiate’, ‘Reinforce’, ‘Inform’ and ‘Persuade’.  In the first step of advertising, the marketers should make their products look attractive by offering the outlines and USPs. They should define their position within their markets using the 4P’s of marketing (Singh 2012). In the second phase, marketers should make sure that their brand position is strengthened by differentiating the products. Next up some strategies should be taken through proper brand positioning so that the customers would be bound to buy the concerned brand’s products because of their advertising strategies would be superior to the rivals.

In case of Nutri-grain products, consumers would be attracted towards the products because it has shown certain amount of development in terms of health. This would drive the consumers to buy the product. 

Source: (Copley 2014). 

The two perspectives chosen here are also well justified by the theories chosen. The advertising models have catered to the needs of the consumers and the Nutri-grain service products have been effective to draw the consumers’ attentions and that strengthened their brand positioning.

Conclusion

The concluding part has clarified the different models of advertising. Some theories have been discussed in order to have a better understanding of the fact that advertising has a great impact on the consumers’ minds. The advertisement of Nutri-grain products has been analyzed in each segment and its justifications have been described as well. The marketers can make use of these theories or models to analyze the different aspects of marketing strategies through advertisements. This will help to locate their target market and surely improve their brand positioning.

References

Alemán-Mateo, H., Macías, L., Esparza-Romero, J., Astiazaran-García, H. and Blancas, A.L., 2012. Physiological effects beyond the significant gain in muscle mass in sarcopenic elderly men: evidence from a randomized clinical trial using a protein-rich food. Clin Interv Aging, 7(225), p.34.

Copley, P., 2014. Marketing communications management: analysis, planning, implementation. Sage.

Cornally, N., 2014. Theory of Planned Behavior. Theories Guiding Nursing Research and Practice: Making Nursing Knowledge Development Explicit, p.69.

Greaves, M., Zibarras, L.D. and Stride, C., 2013. Using the theory of planned behavior to explore environmental behavioral intentions in the workplace. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 34, pp.109-120.

Hwang, C.L. and Yoon, K., 2012. Multiple attribute decision making: methods and applications a state-of-the-art survey (Vol. 186). Springer Science & Business Media.

Khan, H., 2013. Consumer buying behaviour. Principles of Marketing: A Value-Based Approach, p.71.

L?z?roiu, G., 2015. Employee Motivation and Job Performance. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations, (14), pp.97-102.

Montano, D.E. and Kasprzyk, D., 2015. Theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior, and the integrated behavioral model. Health behavior: Theory, research and practice

Parente, D. and Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, K., 2014. Advertising campaign strategy: A guide to marketing communication plans. Cengage Learning.

Percy, L., Elliott, R.H. and Rosenbaum-Elliott, R., 2016. Strategic advertising management. Oxford University Press.

Powers, T., Advincula, D., Austin, M.S., Graiko, S. and Snyder, J., 2012. Digital and social media in the purchase decision process. Journal of advertising research, 52(4), pp.479-489.

Rawal, P., 2013. AIDA Marketing Communication Model: Stimulating a purchase decision in the minds of the consumers through a linear progression of steps. International Journal of Multidisciplinary research in social & management sciences, 1(1), pp.37-44.

Romaniuk, J., 2012. Five steps to smarter targeting. Journal of advertising research, 52(3), pp.288-290.

Sharma, A. and Lambert, D.M., 2013. Segmentation of markets based on customer service. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management.

Singh, M., 2012. Marketing mix of 4P’s for competitive advantage. Journal of Business and Management, 3(6), pp.40-45.

Solomon, M.R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Thompson, D.V. and Malaviya, P., 2013. Consumer-generated ads: does awareness of advertising co-creation help or hurt persuasion?. Journal of Marketing, 77(3), pp.33-47.

Trier, C.M. and Johnston, C.S., 2012. Ingestion of nutrition bars high in protein or carbohydrate does not impact 24-h energy intakes in healthy young adults. Appetite, 59(3), pp.778-781.

Vohs, K.D., Baumeister, R.F. and Schmeichel, B.J., 2012. Motivation, personal beliefs, and limited resources all contribute to self-control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(4), pp.943-947.

Wijaya, B.S., 2015. The development of hierarchy of effects model in advertising. International Research Journal of Business Studies, 5(1).