CHAPTER 8

Overview

Consumer buying behavior involves their decision-making prowess that is stimulated by sensory messaging in the form of sight, sounds, smell, taste, and stories. A brand signifies a connection other than what is derived from its tangible product/services. This chapter aims to simplify the understanding of how branding affects perception and the potential it has to amplify the overall brand experience. Extensive research on the behavior of consumers is showcased whereby culture and social status are presented as examples of major factors that influence consumer buying behavior. Upon zooming out, the variants of buying behaviors are easily recognizable based on the product or service. Complex buying behavior, habitual buying behavior, and variety-seeking buying behavior are defined, followed by Howard’s three-category consumer decision-making theory of (i) routine response programmed behavior, (ii) limited decision making, and (iii) extensive decision making. Herbert’s dissonance-reducing buyer behavior is also discussed in detail, followed by an understanding of the steps in the buying decision process. The chapter continues to explore the possibilities of gauging the opportunities to serve consumers through making efforts to understand their psychology. Statistics and examples from studies showcase that social media and word of mouth are the most effective methods of growing and improving brand image. Ending with a note and short exercise on the importance of having a clear buyer persona helps any brand with the information needed to harness the power of social, word of mouth, and influencers to boost positive brand perception. Through the given exercise, the reader can expect to learn about additional benefits from quality, availability, identification, mind-share branding, cultural branding, emotional branding, viral branding, sensory branding.

 

 

 

Affecting Perception

A brand goes well past the offering of a tangible product. It is more than just the sum of its products. It has its personality representing a company’s very soul, including its vision, mission, or culture. So, it is not hard to appreciate that the brand as a personality resonates with customers personally as a mental impression or perception. Customer mind processes, like other experiences, would feel sensory messages. Hence, a brand can create a unique perception, and marketing should take full advantage of the phenomenon by exposing it to all our senses:

Factors influencing the consumer behavior toward the brand

Consumer behavior is a byproduct of myriad factors, all of which a brand may not be in control of. Culture is a chief example of what influences behavior. Culture, simply put, is our attitudes and beliefs. It is developed along with age in the society. For an individual who is still growing up, his primary influences are his members of the family.

All these nuances will somehow find their way into the buying behavior of the consumer. Besides family, friends, and other acquaintances also help shape the behavior of an individual. Culture is the overriding cause of all of a person’s wants and behavior. Culture is picked up from family, places of worship, school, peers, and colleagues. It is a heterogeneous mix of basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors. Shifts in cultures create opportunities for new products to crop up.

Social status also happens to dictate buying behavior of the consumers. Division based upon social status allows companies to position their products to appeal to people of specific social classes. Let us take the example of automobiles.

Marketing for Mercedes Benz is in sharp contrast to the marketing campaign of the likes of Honda or Toyota because they target a different set of individuals. Another powerful tool in the marketing arsenals of brands, which they often use to manipulate is the influence of social factors. To be recognized as a part of a group, or represent a certain lifestyle, one must have certain possessions. Personal and psychological factors are used in crafty manners to target very niche market segments. The broad idea is to make the product look supremely exclusive and let the same be reflected in steep prices.

What is buying behavior?

Buying behavior is the subconscious force that determines whether the consumer decides in favor of buying a product for their use or not. The few dimensions to the concept that need to be understood include:

Consumer buying behavior refers to what consumers buy at a certain point in time, which involves their decision-making prowess. Hence, it is imperative for a company to keenly analyze consumer buying behaviors as it acts as the north star for a company’s marketing strategy. Besides, it has a key role in the success of the company. Any firm needs to develop a marketing mix that aligns with the targeted customers.

There are few variants to the buying behaviors of customers based upon the nature of the product that needs to be purchased.

Consumer buying behavior is determined by the level of involvement in the purchase decision (Renjith June 2004). According to Mahatoo (1985), the nature of the decision process depends upon the product and the consumer.

The marketers need to determine the kind of decision-making behavior that is often involved with the particular product to decode and make sense of the behavior of the consumer. Howard (1989) classifies consumer buying decision into three broad categories:

However, after the purchase, the consumer might experience dissonance by hearing favorable things about other brands or noticing certain disquieting features in the product chosen by him. Now, the consumer will alert the informants who support his or her decisions. For instance, here, the consumer acted first but then acquired new beliefs and ended up with a set of attitudes. Marketing communication should feed beliefs and evaluations that help the customers feel good about the brand of their choice.

Steps for the Buying Decision Process

The consumers engage in the cerebral process to make sense of things in an intense marketing environment and make purchases. The consumer goes through a series of logical stages to arrive at the decision when he faces a problem that could be resolved through a purchase. A typical buying process consists of five stages (Micheal and Elnora 2000).

Step 1: Problem Recognition

The purchase process starts where the buyer recognizes a problem or need. The need may be triggered by internal or external stimuli. Marketers need to identify the circumstances that trigger a particular need (Micheal 2003). People have unsatisfied needs and wants to create tension or discomfort, which can be satisfied by acquiring and consuming goods and services.

Hence, the process of deciding what to buy begins when there is a need, and it can be satisfied through consumption. Mahatoo (1985) states that when the consumer becomes aware of a discrepancy between the existing state and the desired state, a need is aroused.

The existing state is the total situation of a consumer, the current needs, attitudes, motives. The desired state is the situation after the kinds of changes the consumer wishes. Both these states are the functions of consumer’s motivation, personality, and experience of cultural and social influences.

Evans and Burman (1984) define a stimulus as a cure intended to motivate a person to act. It can be social, commercial, or non-commercial. Need recognition shows a person’s readiness to act by becoming aware of a need but does not guarantee that the decision-making process will continue. Kotler (2003) suggests that by gathering information from several consumers, marketers can identify the most frequent stimuli that trigger interest in a product category, thereby developing marketing strategies that would create a spark in consumer’s interest.

Step 2: Information Search

When a consumer needs to gain knowledge about a product or service, he or she would be aroused to search for more information in the product category. Consumer information sources fall under four groups:

The relative amount and influences of these information sources vary with the product category and consumer characteristics (Peter, Daniel and Nancy 1986).

Customer decisions are based on a combination of past experiences and marketing information. Baker (2000) states that if there is a sufficiently high level of involvement with the problem, the consumers are likely to engage in a complex and extensive information search. If the involvement level is low, they are likely to use a very simple information search.

Kotler (2003) states that by gathering information the consumer learns about competing brands and their features. There will be a lot of brands available to the consumer in a product category, in which only a few brands the consumer would be aware of (awareness set). Among these brands, few brands will meet consumer’s initial buying criteria (consideration set). As the consumer gathers more information, only a few brands would remain (choice set). All the brands in the choice set might be acceptable.

Step 3: Evaluation of Alternatives

There is no single evaluation process used by all customers or by one customer in all buying situations. Consumers view each product as a bundle of attributes with varying abilities to deliver the benefits needed to satisfy them. The attributes of interest to buyers vary by product. Once a choice set has been identified, the consumer evaluates them before making a decision. The evaluation involves establishing some criteria against which each alternative is compared. The criteria that consumers use in the evaluation result from their experience and feelings toward various brands as well as the opinions of family, friends, and so on (Stanton, Etzel and Walker 1994). The product-related attributes such as quality, durability, price, design, and so on influence the buying decision of a consumer.

A way to narrow down the products in the choice set is to pick an attribute and then exclude all products in the set that do not possess that attribute (Lamb and McDaniel 1992). Thus, the choice that possesses all the required product-related attributes can be selected.

Step 4: Purchase Decision

From the evaluation process discussed, consumers will reach their final purchase decision, which is made up of five purchase subdecisions: brand decision, vendor decision, quantity decision, timing decision, and payment method decision (Joseph and Howard 1987).

After evaluation, the first thing in mind would be to purchase the product or not. If the decision is to buy, a series of related decisions must be made regarding the features, where and when to make the actual transaction, how to take delivery, a mode of payment, and other issues. So, a decision to purchase starts an entirely new series of decisions that may be time-consuming and difficult. Selecting a source from which a purchase can be made is also a buying decision (Stanton, Etzel and Walker 1994). A consumer’s decision to modify, postpone, or avoid a purchase decision is heavily influenced by risk.

The amount of risk varies with the extent of money at stake, the amount of attribute uncertainty, and the amount of self-confidence. Marketers must understand the factors that create a feeling of risk in the consumer, thereby providing information and support to reduce the risk (Kotler 2003).

Step 5: Postpurchase Behavior

Every customer after buying a product will experience either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Hence, the marketer’s job does not end when the product is bought; it must be monitored for postpurchase satisfaction and postpurchase actions. A very important stage of the consumer’s decision is the impact of current decisions on future purchasing behavior.

• Satisfaction

Satisfaction occurs when a product performs according to expectations. The brand chosen has served to fulfill the customer’s needs and thus reinforces the response of purchasing the brand, which also means that beliefs and attributes about the brand are positively influenced, and the likelihood of repurchase is increased.

• Dissatisfaction

Dissatisfaction occurs in the reverse situation; when the product’s performance is not up to the expectation, it leads to negative beliefs and attributes about the brand. A dissatisfied customer is not likely to recommend the product to others.

The results of satisfaction and dissatisfaction are recorded in long-term memory and become inputs to the internal search of the firm. So, the marketers must be careful in satisfying the needs and expectations of the customers.

• Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance occurs when the consumer experiences a feeling of doubt or psychological discomfort about the choice made. It is often felt right after the purchase when the consumer begins to have second thoughts about the product chosen.

Dissonance is more likely to occur in complex decision making with high-involvement purchases. Dissonance can come from a personal source from an advertisement or experience with the product.

Post purchase evaluation is important to marketers because positive evaluation increases the probability of repeat purchases and brand loyalty. Negative or doubtful thoughts increase the probability that different alternatives will be considered next time when the need arises (Husted, Varble and Lowry 1989).

One can develop cognition through senses regarding the brand experiences, which can drive a decision-making/purchase-making process. What are the significant steps customers follow whenever they set out to purchase something they might read an online review, share and compare experiences with friends and family, and/or talk to employees/customers and make judgments about the brand? You cannot stop them from doing this, And why should you when you can have these factors work to your advantage? What you can do additionally is some targeted messaging and reacting swiftly to feedback. This combination of the active messaging and responsiveness that is totally in your hands, and the brand’s interactions do not add to a customer’s overall brand perception.

Because brand perception is essential to build up brand equity, a premium value a brand provides to a business—and its impact on overall revenue, sales, and profits, it’s necessary to measure it consistently, track it over time, and identify what drives refinement and growth. You can do several things to measure how customers perceive your brand and, in this process, understand which areas you could improve.

One innovative way to do it could be getting groups of people together (big or small), either face to face or remotely, to hear the positives and negatives of your brand. People who use your product/services and would care enough to share their opinion (basically your band of loyal customers you have earned over the years). You ‘ll be able to gauge how customers feel and develop a genuine understanding of what works well and what doesn’t.

A perfect example of this process happening in real time is online brand forums (particularly useful in more complex supply chains). For instance, in an B2B2C(Manufacturer to business to consumer) chain, manufacturers may find it hard to reach their end-user customers directly only with the distributors or retailers. The end-user is on the other side of the chain and hence not directly accessible. An online forum with customers fills in the knowledge gap, suggesting numerous new ways into product development and brand strengthening (through improved connection leading to various improvements in service).

Another way to get out the go about gauging customer perception is surveys. They help you understand who your customers are and what they think of your brand directly, maybe through a set questionnaire that answers all the critical questions regarding your brand. They’re painless and straightforward to do; in a survey situation, customers with a point of view—good or bad—can respond to targeted questions and use open text to say what’s on their mind without even having to reveal their identity. To develop substantial results and analyze the data, Net Promoter Score and CSAT can be used as reliable metrics. Ideally, a business should run brand perception surveys at least quarterly. However, it expedites the process by tying them up with advertising campaigns frequently to track how your brand efforts contribute to your brand.

People usually don’t feel obliged to hold back on social media. So, what you can do is track the posts, including your brand’s mention and a reaction to your branding activity across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, to analyze your social messaging performance. When you know what people think and are saying about your brand, you can respond rapidly and grow your social presence faster. Having tools like a dashboard that monitors a brand’s social presence can reveal insights such as: which social media platforms are helping your brand most; the types of content that gets popular fast; the number of mentions and the frequency of it, often in real-time; reviews, comments, and other observations; influencer reach; dwell time (how much time audience spends looking at your brand); which paid content performs best and how to optimize such payments.

Now when you know, the game is to use it properly. You have found out your brand’s perception, and you know a little more than before about what resonates with those customers; you can act on your findings.

An Ogilvy study observed 20 channels and found that social media is the easiest and the quickest way to change and increase brand perception, coming a full circle from using social media to survey brand perception to using the same to improve it.

Another consumer study from Nielsen shows that for 77 percent of the consumers, family and friends’ advice is the most effective and persuasive when looking for information about new products. This word-of-mouth branding of social is part of what makes it so effective in improving brand perception.

Therefore, knowing who your customers are, what their thoughts are about your brand, and what else they are enthusiastic about give you the exact information you need to harness the power of social, word of mouth, and influencers to boost your brand perception.

Here are some ways to do it:

Measure your brand’s uniqueness

Every other asp brand wants to lead the way in delivering quality products and fantastic customer service; what makes your brand different? Just ask yourself and out there as to what unique you have an offer; use the accurate analytics software to analyze their words, grouping them by topic to identify the most robust associations.

You’ll be able to track opinions

Track and optimize the various elements of brand perception. Brand awareness is a scale to which the target audience in the marketplace is familiar or aware of the brands in different segments. Small businesses usually find their products at a disadvantage compared with larger competitors’ alternatives, backed by millions of dollars in advertising. Brand awareness has several unique effects on consumers’ perceptions of different brands. So, managing to build brand awareness is crucial for small business success. Key takeaways from this exercise is to build a strong brand perception, which results in some additional benefits

Quality

Consumers expect highly advertised brands to offer higher-quality products than generic products or brands they have not seen before. Consumers make the obvious choice when presented with a mix of options for individual products, ranging from highly advertised and recognizable brands to generic products. Shoppers are likely to view the higher-priced brands with a name as superior to generic brands (nameless), even assuming both brands contain the same ingredients or are manufactured in the same factory.

Availability

Highly advertised brands are commonly broadly distributed and more comfortable to recognize, hence a relation between well-known brands and easy availability. Creating an assumption that well-known brands can be found in a variety of outlets, let’s talk about Budweiser and the Baltika. These are the brands of alcoholic beverages, for example. Consumers in the United States assume that the highly recognized Budweiser brand can be bought at any grocery or liquor store. On the other hand, Baltika can only be found in a picked few specialty liquor stores in the United States. Hence consumers in the United States looking for beer are more likely to utter that they need Budweiser rather than Baltika.

Identification

Famous brands with the highest level of brand awareness already achieved can build a sense of identity with consumer groups so that these brands are seen as marks of pride and association. For example, the Nike brand dominated the basketball shoe product category with its Air Jordans for more than 20 years. As a result, every severe basketball player felt that he had possessed a pair of Air Jordan in the product’s back then to reflect his passion for the sport. Choosing the top-notch strategy for your company to build a desirable perception is only possible when you map the parameters of your product/service and market to the appropriate model 1:1

Mind-share branding

Success in this category is achieved by owning and perpetually expressing a set of abstract associations that customers denote to the product or service. However, the perceived benefits of buying and using the products (i.e., consistently low price, great selection) are very tangible to the customers. As the company demonstrates the “brand DNA” in every transaction, it becomes firmly ingrained in the customer’s mind as the only viable option in that particular product category.

Interestingly, mind-share branding works equally well at opposite ends of the product spectrum. Functional and low-involvement product categories (such as Tide, Southwest Airlines, and Wal*Mart) and complicated, high-involvement product categories (such as Dell computers) can both prosper under a mind-share brand strategy. At each end, however, the goal—and primary benefit—is to simplify the buying decision for the customer.

Cultural branding

Cultural branding is a definitive American way of all branding strategies because it uses cultural icons to establish and sustain a brand myth with which individual consumers can passionately identify. To put it succinctly in two words—“brand religion.” The focus is not ever on the product or service itself and is instead on the relationship between the cultural icon and the product and the brand myth that the consumer opts for. The most successful brand myths address acute contradictions in society that echo deeply with the thought process of common people too.

Culturally branded companies can be identified in every category, ranging from home décor, fashion, and automobiles to food/beverages, entertainment/leisure, and social movements. What kind of person responds to cultural branding? It’s the meek, mild-mannered accountant who buys the Harley–Davidson hog to unleash his “inner self” on weekends. It’s the budding playground hoopster who just knows that he will never reach the NBA unless he wears Nike Air Jordan. It’s the thirsty consumer reaching for an ice-cold Coca Cola because “it’s the real thing.”

Emotional branding

Want your customers to consider you a pal rather than just another random faceless entity they buy from? Then emotional branding strategy is the name of the game you ought to play. Here, the goal is to build intense interpersonal connections with each individual who interacts with the brand so that you end up with a relationship partner rather than a customer. Emotional brands have real personalities. They are often expressed through a character or persona (Mickey Mouse, Ronald McDonald) that appeals to people of all ages. Emotional brands work best with services, retailers, and specialty goods—such as Disney and Starbucks—where the company can tap into powerful emotions and create compelling experiences that evoke strong loyalty to the brand.

Emotional branding is a term used within marketing communication that refers to the practice of building brands that appeal directly to a consumer’s emotional state, needs, and aspirations.

Viral branding

Courtesy of all the media buzz, viral branding has rocketed to the top of the charts as the latest brand strategy of choice. However, the fact that the media has embraced it should imply it to be an automatic choice for all the companies as well. As the name implies, viral branding works by spreading the word through “brand viruses” such as influential spokespeople, early adopters, and other forms of grassroots marketing. Accordingly, it achieves the best results with new fashions, new technologies, and premium and superpremium brands that eschew mainstream markets.

Viral branding appeals to those who aspire or resonate with the cool, hip, and with trend vibe. It appeals to those who get a charge from “discovering” a new brand and leading the bandwagon of early brand advocates. Who stands out in the viral branding category? Google, Hotmail, Absolut Vodka, and Vonage immediately come to mind.

Sensory branding

Singapore Airlines and Kellogg’s Cornflakes in the same branding category? Absolutely! Hold the gaze long enough and you can fathom how exactly. Sensory branding takes the focus off the product or service itself and puts the limelight on the sensory experience it creates for the consumer. Therefore, the index entry for this category chronicles a diverse range of products and services, from fashion, cosmetics, and high-end retail to automotive and travel/hospitality.

Sensory branding goes beyond the ordinary to create a full connection with one’s environment through the senses. We’re talking full-on sensory engagement here! Not just with the overstimulated senses of sight and sound, but also connecting with touch, taste, and smell. In some categories, the buying experience (how, when, and where the product is purchased) helps to build the brand. Here the brand doesn’t begin until customers use the product or service. The result is an experience so pristine, rich, and satisfying that customers refuse to consider any other option.

All strong brands are imbued with a clear focus on one of these models. However, while it’s usually best to focus your branding efforts on one model, aspects of the other models can be cherry-picked to strengthen a brand further.

For example, the mind-share model of branding tends to rely on the sight and sound senses. But, it’s wiser to add a distinctive touch or smell from the sensory model to compound further. Regardless of the strategy chosen, building a strong brand depends upon applying the appropriate model to your product category, the unique circumstances of your customers, and your market to build a perception that breeds loyal customers.

 

Key Takeaways