Question: How do marketers view consumers?
Marketers View Consumers as dollar bills! The more consumers they influence to buy their products the more market share (penetration) their brand will have, the more successful their company will be. Of course its not all that simple, acquiring and keeping new customers can be a daunting task without the right knowledge and tools. And even when they right tools are applied there should always be an expected rate of consumer defection. Marketers need to be familiar with how consumers behave and why. Consumer behavior is a discipline that deals with why consumers purchase or do not purchase a good or a service. (Quester et al 2011)
Marketing and consumer behavior have a very close
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Even with marketing efforts there’s always a level of defection due to a new competitor entering the market or boredom, or simply customers moving away to a new location. The best way to prevent defection and increase retention is to make your customers satisfied, as satisfied customers = Loyal Customer.
Even with 100% satisfaction there’s always the 10% to 20% typical defection level, and with when loyalty is low, Brand switching occurs which is when a consumer decides to purchase a good from a different brand than the one he or she used to purchase in the same category.
A simple way to measure brand switching is by observing repeat purchase over time. Brand switching could occur for many reasons and have different implications depending on the product. Whether its tangible or intangible, is it easily accessible to the consumer? Whether or not its matches the consumers expectations? Does deliver the promised benefits?
Brand Switching occurs in two different Market Structures |
1. Repertoire: Consumers who buy more than one brand in a category, aggregately brand sharing can be predicted.
2. Subscription: Consumers who only subscribe to one brand in a category over an extended period of time, aggregately brand switching can be predicted. E.g Banks, Insurance, Telecom Service.
Brand switching patterns are more apparent in subscription Market structure, when consumers switch between brands A to
Most successful businesses today actively develop loyal customers who buy their brands again and again. After all, getting current customers to buy more is much easier than constantly seeking new customers. Think of three brands that you buy on a regular basis. Why do you stick to these products? How could another company dislodge you?
Customer satisfaction is highly important to an organization as it leads to customer loyalty and
Losing a customer means a lot more than losing a sale, it means losing the entire future stream of purchases that the customer would make over a lifetime of patronage. There are a number of reasons why a customer may stop buying from a company; very often though that reason is linked to poor customer service as opposed to something inherently wrong with the brand itself. Customer relationships give companies a competitive edge based on the merit that if consumers are happy more often than not those consumers will continue to do business with said company. A recent study conducted by TD Canada’s customer loyalty poll asked consumers which form of appreciation are
In this instance, consumers would spend a greater amount of time researching the various competing brands before settling on a purchase. Products that fall into this category are computers, hand-phones, refrigerators etc. For me, this would be for skincare. If I had to switch from Brand A to Brand B,
Inversely, this describes the positive skewness in tracking the frequency of Coors consumption (Exhibit 2), as mean number of drinks consumed is 6.82 while the median is 6 and hence identifies the effects of outliers due to a few consumers with extremely high consumption. Furthermore, data also provides us with consumer information on major competitors as indicated to be Budweiser, Miller and Molson (Exhibit 5) which is consistent with the findings on brand loyalty showing those three brands to dominate the industry in the beer market (Exhibit 1). Therefore, three substitute brands may have a potential overlap with the market audience of Coors. This can be demonstrated in observing substitution effects of major competitor Budweiser as their users prefer Miller, Michelob and Coors when the Budweiser product is unavailable (Exhibit 6). Additionally, Coors’ second leading competitor Miller substitution rates show users willing to shift to Budweiser, Coors, and Michelob when the Miller brand is not offered (Exhibit 7). Finally, another major Molson substitution data depicts users moving to Samuel Adams, Heineken, Coors and Budweiser when Molson is unattainable (Exhibit 8). In general, it is observed that Coors and its competitors have an overwhelming substitution effect where beer consumers switch interchangeably between several brands, suggesting brands may have similar consumers associations.
Many marketers agree that by reducing customer’s to competitors defection by only 5 per cent, companies can improve profits by anywhere from 25 per cent to 95 per cent. There is no question this will be a great advantage and could benefit any retailer. It is for this very reason why consumer’s relationship marketing and using tools such as loyalty scheme is
Brand competitors and the diversity of choice that is available to consumers, puts brands under pressure to offer high quality products and service, excellent value and a wide availability (Clifton et al., 2009). Brands must differentiate themselves from the competition and create an unforgettable impression.
Kim, J., & Yoon, H. J. (2013). Association Ambiguity in Brand Extension. Journal of Advertising, 358-370.
In order to market the product into the market successfully, marketers need to have some marketing strategy to enter the desired market and make profit. Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into subsets of consumers with common needs or characteristics (Schiffman et al., 2011). Understanding the market size and segmentation is valuable, but the keys to effective targeting is to know just how valuable specific consumer groups are, and being able to quantify the impact of consumer trends ( Berry, 1999).
Primarily the loyalty is based on perception, not tangible evidence. Here we can see how important brand equity and positioning can be to a product that is otherwise probably on par with many of its competitors, but the message conveyed by the brand is quite different.
Customer loyalty is much harder to obtain that customer service satisfaction. The most important first step is to satisfy the customer by meeting their expectations. Customers only give a company one chance and if they aren’t satisfied they will not do business with that company again, as well as tell others of their experience. The next step would be to exceed the customer’s expectations. If a business goes above and beyond to assist the customer they begin to build loyalty. The next step is to truly surprise the customer. In order to dominate the marketplace the company must find a way to make them selves stand out with their product or service, accompanied with phenomenal customer service. Once this has been done customer satisfaction and loyalty will be gained. “Acquiring a new customer can cost four or five times more than keeping a current customer” (Bestmark, 2013). So it’s essential to keep the current customer’s happy and coming back for more.
It is imperative to satisfy customers and give them an amazing experience at the company. While it cost less to sell to existing customers and companies can increase profit by selling to the same customers; if customers are satisfied, there is more chance they will come back for more services or products. Satisfied customers are a free marketing for the company. However, it is the opposite if customers are dissatisfied. Dissatisfied customer will tell 8 to 10 people about his or her experience (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004). If by any reason, representatives see that the customer is not satisfy, they should act fast and fix the problem. Furthermore, there is more chance for sale representatives to sell to an existing customer that to a new customer. A good strategy for customer retention is to reward good customers. Companies can easily do
– Current market situation: detailed consumer and business market segmentation and analysis of market drivers will be undertaken to identify the most valuable
The purpose of this report is to use a variety of research techniques aimed at understanding the role that knowledge and group influences have on a consumer’s decision-making process. Additionally, the report will advise a range of recommendations that an inert brand can adopt to guarantee its inclusion in the consumer’s consideration set of brands.
The term “Brand Loyalty” also called as “Customer Loyalty” has been in the business industry since a very long time as a model to be used in conducting business. But it wasn’t until the mid to late 1900’s that the term was actually given its due importance by making it a vital part of advertising and marketing. The concept of marketing evolved substantially from being focused on sales of a product to having Customer satisfaction to be its focal point. Studies further revealed that there was a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and Brand Loyalty.