Blog - 3 ; Socio Psychology and Consumer Behavior

 

"In science, when human behavior enters the equation, things go non-linear. That's why physics is easy and sociology is hard."

- Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

 

Socio - Psychology and Consumer behavior

Understanding consumer behavior is critical to designing effective marketing plans and approaches. Consumer behavior research may assist marketers in a variety of ways, most notably in understanding the psychology behind how consumers think and reason, and ultimately choose between several options, whether they are alternative brands, products, or stores.

Studying psychological aspects of consumer behavior can help marketers better understand how customers behave while buying and the social variables that influence purchases, such as media and cultural influences. Overall, knowing consumer psychology will aid marketers in adapting their techniques and improving campaigns in order to better reach their target audiences.

The majority of purchases are made in a social situation. Furthermore, the communications that influence these decisions frequently include references to people who use the products being evaluated as well as social events where the product can be discovered. It's hardly surprising, then, that social psychology theory and research have influenced consumer behavior research. In conclusion, social psychologists have begun to study consumer phenomena, but their results have had little impact on consumer behavior. Simultaneously, consumer research has begun to delve at phenomena that have theoretical and empirical implications for social psychology research that have previously been disregarded. Purchase behavior, the impact of social influence, product/marketing messaging information processing, motivated purpose and decision making, and the evaluation of marketing and advertising communication efficacy are all covered in social and consumer psychology. Consumer psychology is the study of how our thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and perceptions affect how we buy and interact with products and services.

Consumer psychologists undertake studies all the time in order to better understand customer behavior. These professionals frequently use experiments, phone surveys, focus groups, direct observations, and questionnaires in their study. Businesses need to understand their customers in order to generate products and marketing campaigns that appeal to them, so consumer psychologists spend a lot of time researching what makes shoppers tick. This usually entails establishing a product's target demographic, which includes the average customer's gender, age, and socioeconomic status.

Maslow’s need hierarchy is the best way to know about the needs and wants of the customers as per income group which they might fall into.

 The hierarchy of needs, devised by an influential psychologist named Abraham Maslow, is the most widely used descriptor of motivation for any human behavior.

Each level of needs refers to a distinct need that people attempt to meet. Physiological, safety, belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization are the five degrees of needs.

Maslow felt that the most basic need, physiological (such as a need for goods needed to survival like food or water), should be addressed first.

The subject helps a lot to work in any industry to study the psychology of the customers that a particular wants to cater. Few of the objectives are as follows :

1) Understand how internal perceptual, cognitive, and social psychological processes interact to impact consumer behavior. Self-concept, goal motives, and brand traits that drive decision-making are all factors to consider.

2) Learn how to use statistical, research, and computer tools in academic research, consumer market research, product creation, and satisfaction surveys.

3) Understand extrinsic influences on globalization/localization of purchasing and customer decision-making, such as culture.

4) Learn about the industrial/organizational influences on consumers, such as corporate leadership and strategic organizational change management.

5) Learn about social media as a source of social impact on consumer behavior and market research.

As a result of this we can say that psychology of consumer go hand in hand with the sociological aspect as the consumer are the ones who form a society which is to be study by both psychologist as well as by sociologist. The above information mentioned clearly states that a consumer as a human is a part of society and is to be studied exclusively as well as inclusively. :) :)