Abstract
Consumer Psychology is concerned with trying to understand what goes on in the mind of the consumer. This mainly is in reference to choosing a product against another. It tries to establish what lies behind the choices a customer makes. Customer psychology dates back to the very early days, before Europeans started international trade. When communities carried on trade among one another, an understanding of what either needed was based on customer psychology. It was also highly adopted in international trade, but abused in slave trade. It facilitates today’s trade within among countries. It is due to customer psychology that products in the market have seen dramatic changes over time, new innovations coming into the market and some products getting swept off the market. It is therefore a concept as important as trade itself in the world today.
Introduction
Psychology is the scientific study of mental functions and behaviors. It aims at understanding the importance of people’s mental functioning to the society. It analyses people’s reasoning before making decisions. Consumers on the other hand are people that are the final users of products (Jude, 2000). In most cases, they are referred to as the market. They influence the trends, nature of products, prices of products and so many features of products that reach them from producers. They make decisions based on what they like; what their mind finds best. They are driven by this, which explains the nature if the market in question, in most cases.
Body
Consumer psychology is the study of consumer activities that have to do with the buying, using and disposing off of products; goods and services. This is in the view of their emotional, behavioral and cognitive responses that control these activities. Other activities concerned with consumer psychology are advertisements that include use of word of mouth, use of the website, consumer magazines among others. Consumer psychology aims at foretelling the way consumers will respond to various circumstances, including its description and influence on other forces on the market. This is done by the use of theoretical psychological approaches to comprehend consumers. It basically analyses such questions as what makes a consumer go for one product and not the other, how consumers choose products, the extent to which personal factors affect consumer choice, the process of thinking behind consumer decisions as well as what marketers do to ensure consumers go for their products and not competitors’.
The importance of consumer psychology to the society cannot be underestimated. Its understanding has been the main tool in the marketing industry. It is through it that companies determine the kind of products to supply to the market, the form in which to sell it, price it, how to display it and so on. These, if the marketers understand consumer psychology, attract market form the very customers it was intended. This is very important in ensuring that companies remain relevant in the market and continue expanding with time (Ziegenfuss, 2007). Welfare organizations have also capitalized on consumer psychology to influence their choices for best, quality and healthy products. This has been important in ensuring that people go for harmless products and those whose utility match their price. Consumer psychology is useful in development of public policy. This involves taking consumers’ mentality and reasoning into account when authorities make policies. This involves there being of regulations regarding contents of products, method of manufacturing, quality among others. With its proper understanding, business performance can be greatly improved. This is because it produces to fill the market niche.
Research on consumer psychology utilizes theories and models that involve those of personality, attitude and its changes, social class, risk taking, consumer learning amongst others. These are useful in explaining the current state of consumer psychology and predicting future trends and practices of the same. Personality has for a long time taken debate over its influence on consumer behavior. It has to do with consumers’ nature and character. It cannot be influenced much but more of comes naturally. Some people will tend like a certain color that is generally liked by people of their nature. People of a given region will generally tend to have a particular taste of commodities due to their nature. Personality is also depicted in the way some people go for a particular brand of a product like cars. These seem to have some similar emotional response towards some products, and getting attracted to them.
Personality influences consumers’ choice. Currently, people that are naturally actors will go for the trendiest product, especially clothing in the market. Those that are naturally introverts and quiet go for cool colors of clothes, which do not make them so conspicuous in the crowd. Unfortunately, sometimes getting people of a particular personality together is difficult. Personality like other factors changes with time (Jude, 2000). It could change with an individual with age or as time passes by. This influences their natural way of going for some products, so that people that are slender will go for more alcohol than those that are plump. Personality influence on consumer taste will remain constant with time, as personality over generations changes little. These remain in the same relationship, depending on the nature of a product that is current in the market.
Social class of individuals has to do with their financial status. Those that are rich are considered to be of a higher social class than low income earners. Since time in history, the low social class people always go for the low priced commodities that somehow seem to competent in quality. They are sometimes of low quality as well. They do not go for ostentation goods. Producers aiming at serving them therefore produce goods of this nature. Their choice is not influenced by what they like but by what they can afford. Somehow the market has proven to there to satisfy their demand. They are majority in developing countries.
People in the high social class judge the quality of goods by their prices. The more expensive, the better the quality. They also go for best looking products for the mere feeling of greatness. These want to do their shopping in high class malls, supermarkets and large business units, unlike those in the low and middle social status that will be satisfied when getting their products from local retail outlets. The people in high social class want to be served in classy looking facilities, so that their restaurant services are more expensive, well decorated and have close to spoon feeding services. This is the current status of their customer psychology. They prefer travelling by air other than by vehicles, which if they do, they use personal vehicles. In the past, high social class individuals used horses for travelling while the rest of the people could use animals like bulls. They possessed a lot of precious metals, while today they hold a lot of money. They were in positions of power, which is still is in some societies.
Following this trend, in future, the customer psychology around the high class people would be the same. They will still go for more expensive products in the name of quality to obtain the very utility a person of the middle social class obtains from consumption of cheaper quality goods. The disadvantaged in the society remains those in the low social class who will have at their disposal lowest quality of goods. They are always culprits of the saying that cheap is expensive. The low quality products will offer them low utility in most cases. In future, we could expect the high social class people to travel by air planes that will be supposedly faster than the current airplanes. We could expect innovation to have had brought to being airplanes that travel long distances carrying a few people. They would therefore pay higher travelling costs than middle social class individuals that will be using the airplanes that the high social class people are currently using. They would consume food that is cooked and packed; awaiting eating. This the middle class people would obtain through buying it in processed form which they cook, while those on low class would obtain it in raw form, process it locally and proceed to cook it. Generally, social class greatly influences what consumers go for and the prices they are willing to pay. Sometimes the same product would be sold at different prices to the three groups as price they can afford would mean quality to them.
Consumer psychology is based on risk-taking nature of people as well (Passi & Aronson, 2006). Risk takers will go for products whose surety of giving back is not assured, while risk averse individuals will go for products whose giving back is assured. These especially in the investment sector do not participate much, as it involves taking up ventures whose from which capital outflow is not assured. It requires people that can plan and try to foretell the future cash flows of the particular venture, despite the uncertainty. Customers that are risk takers are fond of trying out new products. The market therefore supplies this. They go for products including machinery, electronics, and services like hairdressing and so on that is new in the market in order to try them out and see what comes of them. These basically allow innovation to continue through the way in which their brain chooses products in the market. Risk averse customers go the products that have been used and proven to be of value by other people. Their mind fears failure. These today are seen I technology in developed countries. Their consumers want to try out new products every now and then. This means that suppliers must keep at pace with the customers’ taste. Once they try the products, they are then free to be sold out to developing countries that are characterized by fear of experiencing losses in trying out new products. Their usage of the new products to them is driven by the fact that it has been tried and worked beforehand.
Risk averse customers unfortunately have fallen victims of fake products and will continue to in the future, despite the illegalization of products that do not meet importation standards. Currently, digital technology is taking suit in developing countries like Kenya, which has for a long time been used in developing countries. Risk averseness is mainly caused by poverty. In future, this will still be the trend. Technology will only find market in developed countries after it has been used in developed countries. Fashion has the same effect as well. Citizens of developing countries only feel confident in a particular fashion after it proves trendy in developed countries. Being risk averse lowers the rate of development in the society concerned.
Another factor in understanding customer psychology is the customers’ attitude. Those with positive attitude will easily take up ventures and products in anticipation for their well pay offs. Customers with positive attitude will go for products about which they are not certain. They basically lead to development in the society. Positive attitude drives customers to going for all ranges of products in all price brackets. This enables them to obtain much utility from using them. Customers with negative attitude only use particular products in the thought that the rest cannot satisfy their need (Hattwick, 1960). They feel that the products that are cheaper; way below their line of preference are of low quality and associate with poverty. They also take those that are very expensive as based on extravagance and inconsideration. This makes them rigid in the market. The market suppliers are tied to their attitude and have to supply the products which they do not hate. This state is seen in the way people of a particular age bracket will regard a given genre of music as vulgar. Due to their attitude, they can never go for the songs in the market. They believe that the music they have known since they were young is the best. This trend could change with time.
The young generation is getting to embrace modernity and take pride in it. They will listen to almost all kind of music, which means that in future, even old people will be into genres like hip-hop. Time has its unfolding too, and could bring new genres that they may not understand with time, therefore we may not conclusively say that with time, everyone will like modern music, but the attitude will generally improve. The same applies to fashion tastes. Some people feel that some female wear is indecent while others consider it trendy (Solomon, 1985). This attitude influences what they go for in the market. Again, this moves with generations, age brackets and gender. In the past, women wore long skirts that were rather large. With time, the size of preference has reduced, leaving the long dresses and skirts being tight. In future, more people will supposedly have a positive attitude to make up due to exposure and clothing in the then modern outfits.
Beliefs and practices of customers also influence their psychology. They will always go for the products that match their beliefs, be they religious or cultural. Religious beliefs such as the kind of foods one can eat influences what followers are ready to buy from the market. Muslims do not eat pork, as they believe pigs are unclean. Christians on the other hand will take this lightly, although it applies in them too and eat a lot of pork. Muslims’ dressing is different from Christians, and Hindus’. Followers of each religion dress according to the teachings in their religion, hence this limits the type of clothing they go for in the market. A society of Muslims will mainly purchase Koran religious holy books as only they are relevant in their religious practices. Having Bibles at their disposal makes no sense, as they are useless to them. Religion also influences the people’s thinking about buying products such as musical instruments for use in worship. Cultural beliefs also dictate what a person buys. Residents of the United States will satisfactorily feed on snails, while that is almost unheard of in Africa. While most communities go for fish in the market, communities such as the Turkana of Kenya believe it is an unclean creature and will therefore never go for it in the market.
The above have happened in the past and are partially in practice to date. In future, due to exposure and much mingling with different people, people of all religions are likely to dress less according to their religious beliefs and use the clothing that will be trendy. Muslims are likely to drop their large black clothes for scanty dresses as is being witnessed currently (Solomon, 1985). Communities will appreciate each others’ foods and will start going for them in the market without worry. Barriers like racism that hindered some people from using some products will also be overcome. Traditionally, women were looked at as incapable people in the society. They are currently picking up and competing with men, but not yet at par. In future, we would expect women to be regarded as having capabilities of a man which will enable them freely go for products like vehicles which they traditionally were not known to have and are really doing it from the recent past. Customers to various products will be diversified, which will mean worlds’ economic development.
Literacy and learning levels among people influence customer psychology. This is not a major concern in developed countries as it is in developing countries, where we still have people that cannot afford even basic education. They may also not have its access due to factors like distance and culture that is against formal education. They prefer other traditional activities like farming, fishing and pastralism which they feel formal education denies their generations a chance to perfect in the ways of the community. Such people lack exposure and will never find themselves going for products outside their community. They can only be customers to products that they are exposed to.
People with high education levels on the other hand are exposed to a lot of information and practices. This makes them appreciate them. They therefore can buy products from across the board. They also understand how to best use these products.
Conclusion
In conclusion, customer psychology is influenced by several factors. An understanding of these is of great importance to policy makers and firms that aim at serving the market where these customers are (Passi & Aronson, 2006). It has really influenced the operation of both national and world economies, hence an area of great importance to the world at large.
REFERENCES
Hattwick, M. S. (1960). The new psychology of selling: Based on selling the customer the way he likes to buy. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Jude, B. (2000). The psychology of customer service. Rivonia: Zebra.
Passi, D., & Aronson, A. (2006). Winning the toughest customer. Chicago, IL: Kaplan Pub.
Solomon, M. R. (1985). The Psychology of fashion. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books.
Ziegenfuss, J. T. (2007). Customer friendly: The organizational architecture of service. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
