Economic and market analyses attempt to identify and describe the factors
which influence market activities so that more useful predictions can be made
about future trends. Since firms prosper by serving their customers needs while
earning profits for themselves, some understanding of the behavior of customers
during various stages of buying appears to be a prerequisite for successful
trading operations. In supplying goods and services to their customers, companies
and other organizations seek to satisfy, not only economic needs, but also
those arising from social and other motivations. To achieve this task satisfactorily,
a deeper knowledge and appreciation of customer behavior is needed.
Firm should, therefore, construct profiles of their customers, which include
a comprehensive analysis of the buying situation. This systematic approach
should be based on the data from marketing research, together with
first-hand knowledge of customer behavior gained over several years.
Once brand loyalty has been achieved, consumers tend to pass
almost automatically through the early stages of the decision process without
making conscious evaluation every time they wish to buy these types of
products. Decision rules, explicit or implicit, tend to be ready-made guides to
buying behavior and act as convenient ways of simplifying the routine buying brand
of items, such as toilet soap, or `Y' brand of detergent, or with
increasing sophistication of buyers to avoid food products, which contain certain
additives regarded as harmful or undesirable. These are examples of simple decision
rules that may have quite a widespread influence in some product markets.
Through the continue purchase of a favorite brand of chocolate, beer, washing up
liquid or tights, consumers seek to meet their economic social and psychological
needs with an acceptable degree of risk. |
