Nana Ama Asafo-Boakye ( Level 300) Weekend
Find the various types of consumers in the consumer market and the business market.
A consumer can be described as the one who consumes foods and services produced. Also, someone who has purchased goods and services for personal consumption can also be described as a consumer. A consumer then is very important because if an organization produces goods or provides services and there is no consumer, then it means that they will be running at a loss.
Consumers are the end users of goods and services while a group of customers who purchase goods for inputs example organisations and businesses are referred to as customers. Markets can be critically examined via the product itself, or end consumer or both and the most common distinction is between consumer and business markets. To also understand the types of consumers in both the consumer and business market we need to firstly define who a consumer is? And in this case a consumer according to Philip Kotler looks at a consumer as the ultimate user of the product or service; the consumer may not have paid for the product or service.
There are different types of consumers in the consumer market and these are characterized by a lot of factors that the consumer consider before making any decision to either purchase or consume certain goods. Below are some of these features:
1) A Rational Consumer:
This is the type of consumer who takes certain things into consideration like the price of the corresponding good. If the prices of those goods (that is, complementary good) are very exorbitant then he is not in a position to purchase it or his interest in those goods will not be high. For example, if the cost of electricity is too high in a given instance, then a rational consumer will be very careful in purchasing a washing machine. This kind of consumer in effect can be said to be associated with the running cost of the product to be purchased in that it will be high and therefore a rational consumer will not purchase the product with high running cost. The rational consumer therefore cannot be compared to other consumers because he applies scientific methods in forming his decision to either purchase or not.
2) An Emotionally Attached Consumer:
This type of consumer has a kind of nostalgic feelings towards a certain product, goods or services. In other words, it could be that the consumer does not have a pressing need for this product but because of the emotional attachment, maybe it reminds him of a loved one or something spectacular that happened to him while he used that product or engaged the services of a certain company. Such consumers often are likely to stick to such products and it does not matter if there is new product that has the same features, he will still prefer the brand that he is emotionally attached to. I know of a certain family that lives in Dzorwulu who will not use any toothpaste apart from Colgate and will not use any soap apart from Palm Olive and when I enquired about why they like these products, they told me that it was a family tradition and that it brought back many happy memories when they used to live in England. There are certain types of products that evoke such feelings such as fun, pride and pleasure, when consumers attach certain emotions to a product then this will influence their buying decisions, a good example is the rejection of the new coca cola brand in 1985 despite its preferred taste people still preferred the old brand because they had already certain attached emotions to the old brand.
3. The Advertisement inclined consumer:
Because advertisements are a means by which the availability and the quality of products are notified to consumers, a consumer who has a lot of interest can be influenced by advertisement. It could be that he does not have a need for that particular product but because he sees such an advertisement, he makes a decision to purchase or hire a service. Because adverts can act as a persuasive tool, it becomes a very vital inducing element in the consumer. The wordings and the pictures depicted by an advert either on the radio, television or in the print media or on the bill board can go a long way to influence the consumer. It could also be that the consumer could be going through non availability of information of a perceived need in his life, once the adverts seem to meet his need, he will go for that product. Once an advert seem to depict quality, offers and price cuts, availability of a product and the price of the product, this will aid the consumers to make quick decisions about purchasing a product. The adverts also aid in building brand preferences and loyalty through their constant and consistent campaigns.
4) Credit Facilities
There are consumers who would like to buy or consume a product because of credit facilities. For instance, if a company takes its goods and services to a certain workplace and informs them that they can purchase those goods or hire their services and pay it on hire purchase, it is likely that they will have a lot of people within that setting coming on board because of the mode of payment. The availability of credit facilities means that a consumer can purchase products on credit basis; therefore the consumer can still afford to purchase very expensive products despite his or her low income. The existence of credit facilities will influence the customers buying decision and also influence impulse buying in that the consumer will purchase goods on credit without having to consider his low income or financial constraints.
5) Need Satisfaction
Because human beings have needs that has to be satisfied, the consumer will go at great lengths to make sure his needs are met. Maslow theorized that human beings seek to satisfy lower needs and then the higher needs and he pyramidically arranged these as:
Physiological needs: These are fundamental necessitation that every human requires and these include the basic needs such as food and shelter.
Safety and Security: this include shelter and the needs to protect one from danger
Social Needs - these are the needs for one to belong to certain groups or family
Esteem Development and Realization: these are the needs for recognition and dignity
Self actualisation- these are the needs to realise our full potential.
Depending on the type of need a product is designed to satisfy it highly influences the consumers decision, consumers will tend to satisfy the lower needs then move on to the next level of needs. The motivational theory is a break through to the explanation of decisions made by consumers regarding satisfaction of need of certain products, however certain products are designed to satisfy more than one need example food may be designed to satisfy a physiological need and at the same time a social or recreational need.
All this factors contribute to the decisions consumers make when deciding on what to buy, therefore consumer’s decisions depend upon so many factors which must be taken into consideration by firms when undertaking market research in order to increase their sales volumes to attain higher profits.
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