The Thinking Behind Buying
The functions and processes involved in successful marketing reach across several disciplines—sociology, economics, anthropology and the creative arts, among others—to identify and communicate with customers, to generate commerce, and ultimately, to benefit a business or organization.
A successful marketing plan involves a variety of business practices, such as the use of computer science and data research for observing and predicting buying trends among consumers and identifying consumer networks; economics for assessing the competition and determining price points; graphic design and writing skills to generate marketing media, such as advertising and print materials. But perhaps most fundamental to a successful marketing campaign is the understanding of psychology as it relates to consumer behavior.
Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior
Consumer psychologists study an individual’s psychological and behavioral responses during product consumption. Research in this area is used to explain, predict, and/or influence consumer behavior. Psychology and its application to the world of marketing responds to a broad range of questions: What motivates a person to make a purchase? Are buying patterns driven by emotion or reason—or both? How might skyrocketing gas prices, global geopolitics or the Dow Jones Industrial Average, for instance, play in a person’s individual buying habits? How can marketing campaigns use language, images or sound most effectively? How do consumers prioritize product quality and how do these priorities influence decisions between product alternatives and price points? How do consumers gather and process information about a product and what happens when gaps in knowledge exist? There are several academic journals dedicated to the psychology of marketing that focus on these questions—they’re certainly worth checking out, and can give you a clearer idea of how psychology and marketing come together: Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology and Journal of Consumer Research.
Psychology can be used to anticipate and strategize for individual buyer behavior or the behavior of a group, including trends in a particular consumer base (i.e. new mothers, teens or soda drinkers) or industry (commercial printing firms that choose to use only recycled paper). Market analysts have long studied “fads”, exploring the “tipping point” of product consumption to determine when and why consumers will suddenly flock to a specific item or service—making it a commercial success. The “tipping point” is not only a mathematical but also a social phenomenon—as are current business strategies such as the “the Long Tail”, which addresses dynamics and changing behaviors in the marketplace.
Marketing and Psychology Across the Disciplines
Marketing not only relies on psychology (the study of the mind and human behavior), but also on sociology (the study of social behavior and interactions) and anthropology (the study of man, or humanity). When in the context of marketing, each discipline can be used to approach certain business solutions from different angles, offering fresh perspectives on certain problems or difficulties. For example, consider the sweeping new consumer trend to “go green,” to make buying decisions based on a product’s ability to diminish its negative impact on the environment. Using psychology, market strategists might ask the question: “At what additional expense do individual consumers prioritize savings over saving the environment?” Using sociology, on the other hand, market analysts might ask: “What brand positioning can we use to engage new moms in considering a ‘green’ diaper?” Finally, using anthropology, market experts might address the question: “In what situations does man act for the greater good?”
One avenue of research within consumer psychology is the study of brand loyalty. At its most basic level, loyalty can refer to an individual’s decision to choose Coke over Pepsi, or Jiff over Peter Pan, and even how this decision is relayed over time into generational decisions about these same items. As with politics, do consumers’ children make similar buying decisions, or do they rebel? Brand loyalty has been accessed by supermarket chains with “club member” savings incentives, and by retail stores like Gap, Barnes and Noble, or Target with reward programs tied to store-specific credit cards.
Lately, brand loyalty has been taken a step further, and consumer psychologists are seeking to understand and adapt consumers’—especially young consumers’—celebration of products as a part of their leisure time. This is especially true in the creative industries like television and film. Consumers of TV programs, for example, such as American Idol, Lost, Heroes and Survivor, are form ing online social networks that serve not only to build fan communities but also to enhance the product’s reputation and reach. For more information on how consumers are participating in communication about products in the entertainment industries, see Henry Jenkins’ book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.
Students interested in a career in consumer or marketing psychology can seek graduate training either in marketing or in psychology. Business degree graduate programs can also provide the necessary coursework. Regardless of the program pursued, students should be prepared to complete an interdisciplinary curriculum, drawing on expertise of faculty members across fields and from different academic departments. See the Psi Chi (The Honor Society of Psychology) website for more information a bout consumer psychology and psychology as it relates to marketing.
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