Download Consumer Behavior

Modern marketing techniques or strategies are responses to how
consumers try to satisfy their needs and wants
Consumer behavior is a highly complex procedure which consists of multiple activities in which
consumers engage totally for Seeking, Finding, purchasing, Usage, evaluation as well as final
disposition of his need related products as well as services with the goal of satisfying needs,
desires as well as wants of customers. Hence, Modern Marketing techniques should be focusing
on how to help consumers satisfy their needs and wants. There is a multitude of factors which
are both internal as well as external are found to be influencing consumer behavior. All of these
factors which range from short level as well as long term emotional concerns. Companies want
to understand how the procedure of any purchase decision is made. This process is very much
fundamental as this forms the setup which can be used for analysis of every product as well as
service (Suelin 2010). The intention of this discussion is to first find the reasons what certain
marketing techniques are used to deal with consumer’s behaviour, how marketers respond to
consumers and how Australian companies are working on the same. There are some ethical
issues also corresponding with delivering what is needed by client. When these companies give
customers what they need will cause issues for them, society as well as environment.
Marketing has also been given critical advices on this matter when such inadequacies rise in
products designed. This has created huge concerns for the social and environmental impacts of
consumption. If the product is unethical, then its marketing concepts and launch efforts are
also unethical in nature. Its ethicality should be examined from the start (Harris 2009).
There are specific reasons due to which modern marketing techniques have been used to adapt
the changes in different categories which have been altered the fundamental 4Ps of marketing
which isn’t recognizable. The Old Ps of Marketing which assumes Price, Promotion, Product
Design as well as Physical Placement and their distribution in the option set of customers.
These are getting obsolete as pricing is now determined by customer, promotion is determined
by online user generated content, product design is made up on how to fill the gaps in the
market so as to respond to changing customer preference, and placement has lost its relevance
as e-commerce has made every product omnipresent. These 4Ps determine the four reasons in
which modern techniques are used to deal with consumer behaviour of today’s era (Sobo,
Herlihy & Bicker 2011). Firstly, Pricing is largely set up by market as per the knowledge of the
customer as well as the competition in the market. The New York Stock Exchange uses the
equilibrium of supply and demand to price equities and related derivatives listed in the share
market which are believed by investors to be fair as well as accurate trading values of these
stocks. Orbitz also doesn’t set any prices but it tracks the real time traffic of air travellers to set
prices of air fares. This is similar to the crowd on the trading floor of the share market which
elevates or deflates a stock (Clemons 2008). Secondly, Promotion also is very much now organic
as well as largely going out of the direct Control of product organisation which has been now
set up by reported experiential descriptions of current as well as potential consumers. Once
marketing as well as advertising controlled the complete perception of an organisation as well
as its products on the customers in the market. Now every consumers has access available to
online content about the product as well as the organisation which is majorly user generated
content as well as authentic user-generated product reviews. This all has started to determine
the perceptions of about the company as well as its Offerings which are available in the market.
This is of very high importance to the success or failure to the launch of super luxury as well as
and hyper luxury novel offerings in which the complete market share of any product is
supposed to be miniscule to be compared for justification of any traditional kind of promotion
and related efforts. Most of the highly successful alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverage launch
and other high value yet very successful highest margin novel consumer product and other
service offerings in different product categories are never advertised as well as promoted on
large scale basis but they are very successful in the market due to favorable customer reviews
translating into word-of-mouth as well as and word-of-mouse promotions. When we examine
the 500 top-ranked beers in the United States of America, we found that most of them have
never been advertised. When Miller Brewing started on focusing of his beverage segment in
USA, they reduced the promotional expenditure by third but profits inversely increased by 3
times. Thirdly, Product offerings are set up by not the strengths of company in the market or by
success of competitors in the market but by novel behaviour of customer in the market place.
This is determined by the consumers and his preferences for his un-served needs by the market
offerings. New Product range of any organisation is determined by what the preferences of
customers are and how much they want to pay rather than what organisation wants to
produce, or in what the organisation is competent. Fourthly, Product placement and physical
distribution have become highly irrelevant as e – commerce has made every product
omnipresent at all times (Clemons 2008). The intention of this paragraph is to discuss why
certain modern marketing techniques are used to deal with today consumer behaviour.
All of these behavioral changes in consumer have forced a complete revision of marketing
strategy of companies as well as the 4Ps. These changes have forced a complete revaluation in
the application of Porters work on the Five Forces Model which will help them adapt their
strategy to fight with Dynamic Competition. Resonance Marketing has put up multiple new
strategies. The first is the traditional one which works on the continuation of finding massmarket fat spot strategies. The Set fat spot brands use their earned market share for controlling
cost as well as their brands so as to earn their price. There are still some brands present which
can do this. For example, Tide detergent has successfully rescued its position which is enhanced
by the fact that detergent is still not a material expense in maximum families. Their last two or
even three generations have been using Tide which makes us believe that believe our parents
loved us and they used Tide which was for safety and health. Other brands don’t have these
kind of defensive factors, hence to complete with Tide today they need to go back in time and
remove Tide 50-60 years ago (Clemons 2008). Secondly, Sweet Spot Strategies give higher
value to new comers in the market which makes set players more vulnerable. But, they need to
set up external vigilance. Rocky Road was once a resonance marketing flavor of ice cream which
had its own set of small customers. People have made it a commodity. Ben & jerries’ have been
using resonance strategy since ages. They have used innovation and vigilance very effectively.
They are producing multiple new flavors as well as retiring old flavors. Consumers and
competitors are very much informed due to mass nature of launches and give a sudden
response. Lastly, the final strategy is about garnering new scales along with finding a new sweet
spot. Also, this works in removing constant vigilance as well as innovation. This is done by
creating platforms and products which help customers to combine multiple elements of
products to produce composite products. Dell Computers used this strategy to offer
customization in computers and customers could create new computers with different internal
configurations as per their need as well as budget (Hoffman, Kopalle and Novak 2010). Also,
any consumer society diverts in multiple methods but also rejects such kind of superficial pulls
(Molesworth, Nixon and Sullion 2009). The intention of this research is to find few ways on how
marketers are responding to customers need and wants.
Multiple Australian Companies listed in ASX 200 companies are applying Resonance Marketing
techniques for finding the best spots in the markets to compete. Harvey Norman has launched
a daily deal website which not only sells only Harvey Norman Products but give best prices in
multiple new products. This helps them to resonate with the lowest price strategy by executing
bulk buying strategy and attract more customers to it. This will also help them find the sweet
spot in the market as their stores are losing a lot of traction in the market (Zappone 2011). M2
Telecommunications, which is one of the biggest telecom brands in Australia, on the other
hand, have listened to customer voices to reignite its old Commander brand using its brand
values to strengthen relationships with existing customers. It surveyed multiple customers
before launching new brand in the market and got the response that Commander has better
mind share with Consumers so decided to take it forward (Taleviski 2012). This explains how
resonance marketing is employed by Corporates in Australia.
This essay has helped us to discover why in this dynamic environment it’s absolutely essential
for organizations to use certain marketing techniques to satisfy customer needs and wants. We
also found out how companies are using various resonance marketing techniques for delivering
to customer. We also took examples on how Harvey Norman and M2 are suing few of these
methods to satisfy customer needs and wants. In this essay, we have formed an opinion that
market is now customer driven. This companies who will adapt to this reality will succeed, other
will convert into dust.
References
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Clemons E. 2008, How Information Changes Consumer Behavior and How Consumer
Behavior Determines Corporate Strategy, Journal of Management Information Systems ,
Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 13–40.
Harris F. 2009, Product classification: an ethical perspective, The Marketing Review, Vol. 9,
No. 2, pp. 127-138
Hoffman D., Kopalle P. and Novak T. 2010, The “Right” Consumers for Better Concepts:
Identifying Consumers High in Emergent Nature to Develop New Product Concepts, Journal
of Marketing Research, Vol. XLVII, pp. 854–865
Molesworth M. Nixon E and Sullion R. 2009, “Having, being and higher education: the
marketisation of the university and the transformation of the student into consumer”,
Teaching in Higher Education, Vol. 14, No. 3,pp. 277-287
SueLin C. 2010, Understanding consumer purchase behavior in the Japanese personal
grooming sector, Journal of Yasar University, Vol. 17(5), pp. 2821‐2831
Sobo E., Herlihy E. and Bicker M 2011, Selling medical travel to US patient-consumers: the
cultural appeal of website marketing messages, Anthropology & Medicine, Vol. 18, No. 1,
pp. 119–136
Taleviski J. 2012, M2 reignites Commander brand, Retrieved from <
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/444282/m2_reignites_commander_brand_/>, Last
Accessed at 15th May 2013
Zappone C. 2011, “Harvey Norman launches daily deal website”, Retrieved from
<http://www.smh.com.au/business/harvey-norman-launches-daily-deal-website-201104071d5e9.html>, Last accessed at 15th May 2013