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(1) Overview of consumer behavior research

1. Consumers and Consumer Behavior

Consumers in a narrow sense refer to individuals and households (Household) who purchase and use various consumer goods or services. Consumers in a broad sense refer to individuals or organizations who purchase and use various products and services. This book mainly discusses consumer behavior from a narrow consumer perspective.

In real life, the purchase decision-maker, buyer, and user of the same consumer product or service may be the same person, or they may be different people. For example, most adult personal products are likely to be decided and purchased by the users themselves, while the users, buyers and decision-makers of most children's products are likely to be separated. Different types of purchasing participants and the roles they play in the consumer decision-making process. If the purchase decision, actual purchase and use of a product are regarded as a unified process, then people at any stage of this process can be called consumers.

Consumer behavior refers to the various actions taken by consumers to obtain, use, and dispose of consumer goods or services, including the decision-making process that precedes and determines these actions. Consumer behavior is closely linked to the exchange of products or services. Under the conditions of modern market economy, enterprises study consumer behavior with an eye on establishing and developing long-term exchange relationships with consumers. To do this, it is necessary to understand not only how consumers obtain products and services, but also how consumers consume products and how they are disposed of after use. Because the consumer's consumption experience, the way and the way consumers dispose of old products will affect the consumer's next round of purchases, that is to say, it will have a direct effect on the long-term exchange relationship between companies and consumers. Traditionally, research on consumer behavior has focused on the acquisition of products and services, while research on product consumption and disposal has been relatively neglected. With the deepening of research on consumer behavior, people are increasingly aware that consumer behavior is a whole and a process, and acquisition or purchase is only a stage of this process. Therefore, when studying consumer behavior, we should not only investigate and understand consumers' evaluation and selection activities before acquiring products and services, but also pay attention to the use and disposal of products after acquiring them. Only in this way will the understanding of consumer behavior become complete.

The individual and psychological factors that influence consumer behavior are: needs and motivations; perception; learning and memory; attitude; personality, self-concept and lifestyle. These factors not only influence and determine to some extent consumers' decision-making behavior, but they also amplify or inhibit the impact of the external environment and marketing stimuli.

The environmental factors that affect consumer behavior mainly include: culture; social class; social group; family, etc.

2. The significance of studying consumer behavior

1) Consumer behavior research is the basis for marketing decisions and formulation of marketing strategies

As can be seen from the following aspects, consumer behavior research determines marketing strategies formulation.

Market opportunity analysis: From a marketing perspective, market opportunities are unmet consumer needs. Understanding which consumer needs are not being met or not being fully met usually involves an analysis of market conditions and market trends. For example, by analyzing changes in consumers' lifestyles or consumers' income levels, we can reveal what new needs and desires consumers have that are not being met. On this basis, companies can develop new products in a targeted manner. .

Market segmentation: Market segmentation is the basis for formulating most marketing strategies. Its essence is to divide the overall market into several sub-markets. Consumers in each sub-market have the same or similar needs or behaviors. Characteristics, consumers in different sub-markets have large differences in needs and behaviors. The purpose of an enterprise's market segmentation is to find a suitable target market for itself to enter, and to formulate targeted marketing plans based on the demand characteristics of the target market, so that the unique needs of consumers in the target market can be more fully satisfied. The market can be segmented by population, personality, lifestyle, or by behavioral characteristics, such as light users, moderate users, or large users. In addition, the market can also be segmented according to the use occasion. For example, the watch can be divided into different markets according to whether it is worn on formal occasions, worn during sports, or worn on ordinary occasions.

Product and store positioning: Marketers can develop effective marketing strategies only by understanding the position of products in the minds of target consumers and understanding how their brands or stores are perceived by consumers. K-Mart is a very influential chain store in the United States. It developed from a cheap store in the 1960s to a discount store in the 1970s and 1980s. After entering the 1990s, with the changes in the business environment, Komart's decision-makers felt the need to reposition the store to make it a more tasteful store without causing the original customers to feel abandoned. To achieve this goal, Komart first needs to understand its current market position and compare it with the position of its competitors. To this end, through consumer surveys, it obtained a set of store characteristics considered very important by target consumers.

Through consumers' comparison of Komart and its competitors on these characteristics, the company gained an understanding of the following issues: Which store characteristics are considered the most critical by customers; How does Komart compare with its competitors on key characteristics? To compare the position; whether consumers in different market segments have the same view on the market position of Komart and competing stores and the importance of various store characteristics. Based on mastering this information and analyzing it, Komart developed a very targeted and practical positioning strategy. As a result, the original image was changed and the positioning was successful.

Marketing mix:? New product development: By understanding consumers' needs and desires, and understanding consumers' evaluation of various product attributes, companies can develop new products accordingly. It can be said that consumer surveys are not only an important source of new product ideas, but also an important way to test whether new products can be accepted and what aspects should be further improved. General Electric's space-saving microwaves and other kitchen appliances were a huge success, conceived as a direct result of consumer complaints that their original products took up too much space. ? Product pricing: If product pricing is disconnected from consumers' affordability or consumers' perception of product value, it will be difficult for the product to open the market, no matter how good it is. Disposable diapers were priced at 10 cents a piece during the trial marketing process and are expected to sell 400 million pieces. However, the results of the test sales were only half of the expected sales, which was very unsatisfactory. After further analysis, it was found that during the entire test marketing process, the price link was not connected with consumers. Although consumers welcome this product, it is too expensive at 10 cents a piece, and many families are only willing to use it when traveling with their children or attending banquets. Through cost analysis, the company found a way to save unit product costs, and then lowered the selling price from 10 cents to 6 cents per unit. When the product was put on the market again, demand increased dramatically. Soon, more than half of the babies in the United States were wearing disposable diapers called "Beibei". It can be seen that product pricing is also inseparable from the analysis and understanding of consumers. ? Selection of distribution channels: Where consumers like to shop and how to purchase the company's products can also be learned through consumer research. Take the purchase of clothing as an example. Some consumers like to buy in specialty stores, some like to buy in large shopping malls or large department stores, and others like to buy by mail. What proportion, and which types or characteristics of consumers mainly purchase clothing through the above-mentioned channels, are issues that clothing manufacturers are very concerned about. This is because only by understanding the preferences of target consumers in terms of shopping methods and shopping locations and why they form such preferences can an enterprise's risk in selecting distribution channels be minimized. ? Formulation of advertising and promotion strategies: A thorough understanding of consumer behavior is also the basis for formulating advertising and promotion strategies. The American Sugar Federation attempts to position sugar as a safe, delicious, and essential food that provides the energy needed by the human body, and emphasizes that it is suitable for everyone, especially those who love sports. However, surveys show that many consumers have developed a negative impression of sugar. Obviously, in order to obtain the ideal product image, the Sugar Industry Association must do a lot of publicity work. The success of these promotional activities depends largely on the association's understanding of how consumers acquire and process information and the principles of consumer learning. In a word, only on the basis of understanding consumer behavior can the Sugar Industry Association's advertising and promotion efforts be successful.

2) Provide a basis for the protection of consumer rights and the formulation of relevant consumer policies

With the development of the economy and the increasing number of commercial activities that harm consumer rights, the protection of consumer rights It is becoming a topic of concern to the whole society. As members of society, consumers have a series of rights such as freely choosing products and services, obtaining safe products, and obtaining correct information. These rights of consumers also form the basis of the market economy. The government has the responsibility and obligation to prohibit fraud, monopoly, bad faith and other behaviors that harm the rights and interests of consumers. It also has the responsibility to improve consumers’ awareness and ability to protect themselves through publicity, education and other means.

What kind of laws should the government enact and what means should be used to protect consumer rights? Whether government laws and protective measures can achieve the expected goals during the implementation process can largely rely on consumer behavior. Study the information provided to find out. For example, in the process of consumer protection, many countries stipulate that food suppliers should disclose various ingredients and nutritional data on product labels so that consumers can make more informed choices. Whether such regulations actually achieve their purpose depends first on whether consumers rely on such information when making choices.

Modern marketing theory believes that understanding the needs and desires of the market and analyzing consumer behavior are the starting point of corporate marketing, and its ultimate goal is to develop marketable products to meet consumer needs. ; And a perfectly planned marketing plan must be based on careful market research. Market research can prompt the company to adjust marketing strategies in a timely manner and guide marketers to formulate reasonable product promotion and promotion plans. Today, with the rapid development of digital technology, the Internet provides a powerful tool for market research.

1. Analysis of Online Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior analysis is an important part of economic research. In the past, research in this area mainly focused on traditional shopping behavior, while online shopping and Traditional shopping activities are different. Therefore, online sellers should pay more attention to online consumer behavior.

(1) Types of online consumers

Consumers who shop online can be divided into the following types:

1. Simple

Simple customers need convenient and direct online shopping. They spend only a small amount of time online each month, but they conduct half of their transactions online. Retailers must provide real convenience for this type of person, so that they feel that buying products on your website will save more time.

2. Surfing type

Surfing type customers account for 8% of regular Internet users, but they spend 32% of the time online, and they visit four times as many web pages as other Internet users. Surfing netizens are very interested in websites that are frequently updated and have innovative design features.

3． Access type

Access type customers are new to the Internet, accounting for 36%. They rarely shop, but like to chat online and send free greeting cards. Companies with well-known traditional brands should pay enough attention to this group of people, because Internet novices are more willing to trust brands they are familiar with in life.

4. Bargaining type

Bargaining type customers account for 8% of Internet users. They have an instinct to buy cheap goods. More than half of the customers on the famous eBay website belong to this type. They like to bargain and have a strong desire to bargain. Desire wins in trading.

5. Regular and active Internet users

Regular and active Internet users are usually attracted by the content of the website. Regular netizens often visit news and business websites, while sporty netizens like sports and entertainment websites.

Currently, the challenge faced by online sellers is how to attract more Internet users and strive to turn website visitors into consumers. We believe that online sellers should focus on one or two of these types in order to be targeted.

(2) The activity process of consumers’ online shopping

Online shopping refers to users browsing and searching for relevant information in an online virtual shopping environment in order to complete shopping or related tasks. Product information, thereby providing the necessary information for purchasing decisions and implementing the decision-making and purchasing process.

Psychologists refer to consumers’ shopping activities as the problem-solving process or the information processing process of purchasing decisions. It is generally divided into three stages: demand determination, pre-purchase information search and evaluation of alternative products. . The consumer's purchasing decision-making process is actually a process of collecting relevant information and analyzing and evaluating it, which has different levels of behavior and mental load.

(3) Activities in Consumer Online Information Space

Cognition and task activities in consumer online information space can be divided into the following three ways:

1. Browsing: Informal and opportunistic, with no specific purpose, low efficiency in completing tasks and largely dependent on the external information environment, but it can form a good overview of the structure of the entire information space. At this time, the user's activities in the network information space are like casually flipping through a newspaper. He can roughly understand what the newspaper information contains. Whether he can read a certain message in detail depends on the layout position, title design and other factors of the information. .

2. Search: Find new information within a certain field. The information collected in the search helps to achieve the ultimate goal of discovering new information. When searching, users have to access many different information sources, and search activities are highly dependent on signposts. A user's search in the online information space is like consulting a newspaper based on a directory to obtain a specific type of information.

3． Search: It is the process of finding and locating specific information in a large information set. The search is more purposeful and the activity is most efficient. For example, after a user locates and searches for travel information based on the category directory, he then performs activities such as comparing and selecting among numerous travel information.

2. Research strategies on the Internet

One of the most complicated problems in conducting market research on the Internet is that you never know exactly who is the visitor to your company's site. Marketers must adopt appropriate strategies to identify visitors. Because it is not easy to ask visitors to answer relevant questions on the Internet, especially when they spend time and money online to visit other sites that have nothing to do with marketing research. Visitors are certainly not going to fill out a 20-page questionnaire asking what they like and dislike. When the questionnaire touches on income and purchasing patterns, the questionnaire is rarely taken. The main strategies for collecting visitor information on the Internet are as follows:

(1) Asking visitors via email or guest register

The Internet can create a link between marketers and customers Build a bridge of friendship. And what plays a key role in this is email and guest registers. The email can be attached with an HTML form. Customers can click on the relevant topic on the form interface and fill in the relevant information with the recipient's email address, and then send it back to the company. Marketers can obtain detailed information about visitors through emails and guest registers.

If a significant number of visitors respond, marketers can statistically analyze the company's sales.

(2) The regional average income can be determined by determining the zip code of the visitor

Marketing conditions are different in different regions, so marketing strategies should also vary from region to region. Marketers should know the average revenue in a certain region in order to adopt appropriate marketing strategies. On the Internet, after marketers determine the zip code of a visitor, they can query the area where the visitor is located and estimate the average income in the area.

(3) Provide prizes or free products to visitors

If visitors are told that they can get a prize or free products, they will definitely tell you where to send these things. at. You can easily find out their name, address and email address. This strategy has been proven to be effective, allowing marketers to increase their research productivity by reducing the number of inaccurate messages sent out by visitors concerned about their personal sites being compromised.

(4) Use software to detect whether visitors have completed the questionnaire

Visitors often omit some information accidentally or intentionally. There are software programs that marketers can use to determine whether they have filled out the questionnaire correctly. If the visitor misses something on the questionnaire, the questionnaire will be resent to the visitor for completion. If the visitor completes the questionnaire as required, they will receive a notice board on their personal computer confirming completion. However, this strategy cannot guarantee the true reliability of the information reflected on the questionnaire.

(5) Do not mention questions that annoy potential customers

When the questionnaire mentions personal questions, visitors will generally refuse to answer. No matter in any country, some questions related to personal privacy should never appear in the questionnaire. Sensitive content such as personal income, personal fears, etc.

(6) Conduct selective surveys

People are generally willing to participate in surveys and opinion tests, especially when the questions mentioned are short and concise. An effective strategy is that when formulating a questionnaire, marketers should set up two buttons (Yes/No) after each question to allow visitors to express their opinions intuitively.

(7) Test the number of questions that visitors are willing to answer

When conducting surveys on the Internet, if too many questions are asked, the visitors will be less willing to participate. Therefore, how to grasp the information contained in the questionnaire. The number of questions becomes a skill for marketers in designing questionnaires. The optimal number of questions in a questionnaire is different in each industry. How to make the survey effective depends on marketers summarizing it from actual operations. The perfect questionnaire.

3. Steps for conducting market research on the Internet

Online research not only has certain strategies, but also has corresponding steps:

(1) Choose a search engine

Before conducting market research on the Internet, you must choose a convenient and applicable search engine. A search engine is an electronic pointer that can promptly discover the content of the object you want to research. It can read, analyze and store information obtained from millions of private web pages. This information can be identified with the help of a series of keywords and other parameters, such as the start and end dates of the survey. Using search engines, you can. Enter the relevant topic search.

(2) Determine the research objects

Generally speaking, the objects of online research can be divided into three categories: consumers of the company’s products; competitors of the company. ; Company partners and industry neutrals. Marketers should take into account these three types of objects during the market research process, but they must also focus on them.

(3) Inquiry into relevant research objects

After determining the research target, marketers send relevant inquiries to personal homepages, news groups and mailing lists on the Internet via e-mail.

Personal homepages on the Internet are very important. Marketers use search engines to visit personal sites. Consumers and potential consumers of the company's products can become research subjects, and marketers will respond accordingly via the Internet if they wish. You can ask questions about the information in the mailing list and get responses.

(4) Analyze demographic information

Demographics are an important part of market research. To count the number of people who visit our company's website, we can analyze the distribution range of customers and the location of potential consumer markets. Now there is a demographic technology on the Internet, which is the target object identification method. This technology can be applied. Track and survey visitors on the site, thus helping marketers accurately grasp the demographics of visitors.

(5) Determine applicable information services

There are many on the Internet. Comprehensive information service sites for different regions and industries. After determining the research objects and areas, marketers can select the corresponding sites for information inquiry.

When selecting information services on the Internet, marketers should consider the following factors: ⑴ Where does the information provided by the selected service come from? ⑵Does the information provided meet the research requirements? ⑶What is the update speed of information release? ⑷How is the information transmitted? Can it be transferred directly to a personal computer? ⑸Are there any special regulations when sharing information on the Internet or printing information?

Marketers should consider the above five aspects to select the most convenient and applicable information services. After determining the applicable information services, marketers should establish a specialized service system for tracking and processing information to coordinate with the progress of consumer research in order to make decisions objectively.

(6) Analyze market changes

After marketers obtain a large amount of information from the Internet, they must organize and analyze this information. In the face of a huge amount of information and data At this time, marketers can use computers to perform analysis quickly. The results of this analysis are usually reliable. After analyzing the information, marketers should write a market analysis report with pictures and texts to intuitively reflect the market dynamics, so that company decision-makers can adjust marketing strategies in a timely manner according to the company's situation.

Nowadays, many companies in the world use the Internet and other online services to conduct market research, and have achieved satisfactory results. Compared with traditional market research, online market research has the advantages of timely information, maximum sharing, convenience, low cost and objective research results. However, it is still difficult to popularize online research. Consumers are not yet accustomed to this new method of market research. Current deficiencies in network software and hardware lead to a sluggish research process and a shortage of professional network researchers. However, with the popularization and application of the Internet and the change of people's traditional ideas and concepts, market research on the Internet is gradually taking shape.

(2) Consumer decision-making process?

In addition to understanding the various factors affecting consumers and consumer purchasing patterns, business managers and marketers must also understand Consumers make purchase decisions in order to take appropriate measures to achieve the company's marketing goals. ?

1. Participants in purchasing decisions?

Although consumer consumption is based on a family, it is usually not all members of a family who participate in purchasing decisions. In many cases, it is A certain member or several members of a family, and the purchasing decision-making layer composed of several family members, also play different roles. People may play the following roles in a purchasing decision-making process:?

1) Initiator: the person who first thinks of or proposes to purchase a certain product or service. ?

2) Influencer: A person whose views or opinions have a direct or indirect impact on the final decision. ?

3) Decider: The person who can make all or part of the final decision on whether to buy, what to buy, how much to buy, when to buy, where to buy, etc. ?

4) Buyer: The person who actually purchases. ?

5) User: a person who directly consumes or uses the purchased goods or services. ?

If you understand the role that each buyer plays in purchasing decisions, and adopt targeted marketing strategies based on their role status and characteristics, you can better achieve marketing goals. For example, when buying an air conditioner, it is the child who makes the request; the husband and wife decide jointly whether to buy it, and the husband makes the decision on the brand of the air conditioner. In this way, the air conditioning company can do more brand-related publicity to the husband, so as to Arouse the husband's attention and interest in the air conditioners produced by the company; as for the wife, who has greater decision-making power in the shape and color of the air conditioner, the company can design some products that are loved by the wife in terms of shape, color, etc. This is the only way to understand Only by understanding the roles and characteristics of the participants in the purchasing decision-making process can the company develop effective production plans and marketing plans. ?

2. Types of purchasing behavior?

When consumers purchase goods, the degree of investment in purchasing will vary depending on the price and frequency of purchases. Western scholars divide consumer purchasing behavior into four types based on the degree of involvement of buyers in the purchasing process and the degree of difference between brands.

1) Complex purchasing behavior. When consumers first purchase products that are expensive, rarely purchased, risky, and highly self-expressive, they are highly involved purchases. Due to the lack of understanding of the performance of these products, for the sake of prudence, they often need to collect relevant information extensively and study carefully to develop a belief in this product, form an attitude towards the brand, and make a cautious purchase decision. ?

For this type of purchasing behavior, companies should try to help consumers understand the knowledge related to the product, and try to let them know and convince themselves of the more important performance features and advantages of this product. Let them establish a sense of trust in this product. During this period, companies should pay special attention to various forms of advertising to introduce the features of the product to purchase decision makers. ?

2) Purchase behavior that reduces the sense of dissonance. When consumers are highly involved in the purchase of a certain product but cannot see the differences between brands, they often feel dissonance with the purchased product.

Because when consumers buy some products with little brand difference, although they are cautious about their purchasing behavior, their attention is more focused on whether the brand price is favorable, whether the purchasing time and location are convenient, rather than spending a lot. Spend more energy to collect and compare information between different brands, and the time between purchasing motivation and decision to purchase is shorter. Therefore, this kind of purchasing behavior is easy to produce a sense of post-purchase dissonance: that is, after a consumer purchases a product, he or she is dissatisfied with some aspects of the product itself, or gets better information about other products, resulting in the feeling that he should not buy it. A product’s regret or psychological imbalance. In order to change this mentality and pursue psychological balance, consumers extensively collect various favorable information about purchased products to prove the correctness of their purchasing decisions. To this end, companies should help consumers eliminate imbalances and strengthen their confidence in the products they purchase by adjusting prices and sales outlet selections, and providing consumers with favorable information. ?

3) A wide range of purchasing behaviors. Also called seeking diversified purchasing behavior. If a consumer buys goods that vary greatly among brands, but there are many brands to choose from, they often do not spend too much time choosing a brand, and they do not focus on a certain product, but often change varieties. For example, when buying biscuits, they bought chocolate filling last time, but this time they want to buy cream filling. This change of variety is not due to dissatisfaction with the last biscuits purchased, but because I want to change the taste.

Faced with this wide range of purchasing behavior, when a company is in a dominant position in the market, it should pay attention to occupying a favorable position on the shelf with sufficient supply, and encourage consumers to establish habitual purchases through reminder advertisements behavior; when a company is in a non-market dominant position, it should encourage consumers to choose from a variety of varieties and try out new products by reducing product prices, free trials, and introducing the unique advantages of new products. ?

4) Habitual purchasing behavior. Consumers sometimes buy a certain product not because they particularly prefer a certain brand, but out of habit. For example, vinegar is a low-priced product with little difference between brands. When consumers buy it, most of them will not care about the brand, but choose a certain brand based on the habits formed by multiple purchases and multiple uses. . ?

In view of this kind of purchasing behavior, companies should pay special attention to leaving a deep impression on consumers. The company's advertisements should emphasize the main features of the product and win consumers with distinctive visual signs and clever image concepts. readers' favor for the company's products. To this end, corporate advertisements must be more repetitive and repeatable to deepen consumers' familiarity with the product. ?

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