Businesses study consumer behavior because it benefits them before launching a product. Understanding consumer behavior is necessary because customers have different minds and attitudes towards purchase, consumption, as well as disposal of products. Businesses should be able to comprehend and interpret the theories and concepts of consumer behavior to market their brands successfully in a more competitive environment. For instance, if there is a constant variation in the trend, living standards, fashion or change in technology, understanding consumer behavior is critical towards understanding their attitudes towards the purchase of a product ( East, Wright, & Vanhuele, 2008) . Therefore, businesses should realize such factors since they assist in determining the marketing of a product. As such, understanding consumer behavior serves as an essential tool for marketing managers in meriting their sales objectives.
Understanding consumer behavior assists business managers and marketers in designing the best possible product or service that fully satisfies customer's needs and demands. Further, it enables managers to make decisions where the product or service would be made available for easy access to customers. The study of consumer behavior also allows businesses to decide the right price that customers would be able and willing to pay for a given product or service ( East, Wright, & Vanhuele, 2008) . Businesses also benefit from finding the most appropriate method of promotion that will prove to be useful and understand why other factors influence the customer purchase decisions.
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When purchasing a product or service, there are five stages that customers go through during the buying process. The initial stage is need recognition, which involves the identification of customers’ needs that marketers are required to satisfy. The second stage is information search where customers focus on looking for vital aspects of the product or service. The information about products can be obtained from friends, family members, dealers, or retailers or by examining or using the product (Goldstein, 2009). The third stage involves evaluation of alternatives after obtaining the required knowledge concerning the product or service. The fourth step is making the actual purchase decision after evaluating the alternatives. However, there is a possibility to postpone the purchase decision based on certain reasons, such as lack of sufficient information about the product or service. The post-purchase behavior is the final step because after buying a product or service, consumers may be satisfied or dissatisfied with the product or service.
Several factors influence consumers' buying behavior. This depends on the customer's experience and knowledge depending on a particular product, such as food. Some consumers may be very fast in making purchase decisions whereas may require to obtain substantial information and get more involved in the purchase decision process. As such, consumers’ level of involvement depicts importance and interest in consuming a particular product and the amount of information that is necessary to make the purchase decisions. The level of involvement may be high or low and may vary from consumer to consumer and not by the product. For instance, a decision to buy a house will require a high involvement rate for all consumers.
Customer loyalty is a term used to refer to the result of consistently having a positive emotional experience with a product based on satisfaction as well as the perceived value of experience. To build customer loyalty, it is necessary to blend the physical, emotional, as well as value elements of experience into a cohesive manner. Most often, businesses find it challenging to retain loyal customers. Goldstein (2009) observes that managing customer experience is the most effective approach that can be implemented by businesses to drive customer satisfaction, retention, as well as loyalty. Further, loyal customers are more likely to minimize the costs that are associated with educating customers and marketing, especially when they become the main promoters of the business. Given the highly competitive business environment, businesses have become highly concerned with customer experience programs that are most effective to differentiate a business from the competition. According to Goldstein (2009), it is necessary to note that differentiation effectively drives customer loyalty, especially when they are engaged on an emotional, intellectual, or spiritual level.
In essence, customer loyalty can be defined as an attitudinal or a behavioral tendency to a favor a particular product or brand over others. Customer loyalty may take place due to satisfaction with the brand or service as well as the familiarity or comfort that is associated with the brand. Customer loyalty encourages customers to make their purchase decisions more promptly and consistently (Goldstein, 2009). Similarly, customer loyalty encourages consumers to have a positive feeling about their purchase experiences, and assists in attracting more customers, particularly in the face of the competitive environment. To understand customer loyalty, it is fundamental to understand that there are different types and degrees of customer loyalty.
One of the major mistakes that businesses make today is that they mostly focus on customer satisfaction rather than loyalty. It is challenging because most people do not even understand the difference between the two terms. Most often, customer loyalty is used to measure something that is more than satisfaction, which involves the willingness to recommend a product or service to friends or family members. Customer loyalty entails the loyalty behavior which is attributed to making a repeat purchase of the current products or services rather than the brands offered by the competitors.
References
East, R., Wright, M., & Vanhuele, M. (2008). Consumer behavior: Applications in marketing . London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Goldstein, S. D. (2009). Superior customer satisfaction and loyalty: Engaging customers to drive performance . Milwaukee, Wis: ASQ Quality Press.
Keiningham, T. L., Aksoy, L., & Williams, L. (2009). Why loyalty matters: The groundbreaking approach to rediscovering happiness, meaning, and lasting fulfillment in your life and work . Dallas, TX: BenBella Books.
