Customer choice

Essay by bandiboyHigh School, 12th gradeA+, November 2013

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

Downloaded 7 times

'Through knowledge of customer buying behaviour, marketing managers can learn to manipulate customers to purchase their products'.

Assess the validity of this statement.

Businesses and marketing managers do try to influence customer choice by modifying their marketing strategies to appeal to the customer's motives. The four main factors that influence customer choice are psychological, sociocultural, economic and government.

Psychological factors

Psychological factors are influences within an individual that affect his or her buying behaviour. Perception is the process through which people select, organise and interpret information to create meaning. As individuals we often act on our perceptions of reality rather than reality itself. Consequently, marketing managers are extremely aware that they must create a positive perception about their product in the mind of the customer. For example, one person may see a Ferrari motor vehicle as a sign of achievement, while another sees it an ostentatious. A motive is the reason that makes an individual do something.

As with the customer's perception of the product, advertising also attempts to influence an individuals motives e.g. the desire to emulate a sporting hero. An attitude is a person's overall feeling about an object or activity. Negative attitudes to a business or its products often force the business to change its strategies, helping managers to boost profits if solved. Marketers will make the most of an individuals desire to express their identity through what they buy by highlighting the image value of their products (personality and self-image). This is why celebrities and sportspeople are regularly used to endorse a product e.g. Julia Roberts for Lancôme Paris.

Sociocultural influences

Sociocultural influences are forces exerted by other people and groups that affect customer behaviour. Social class refers to a person's relative rank in society, based on his or her education, income or occupation. Marketers realise...