1. Consumers and consumer behavior

In a narrow sense, consumers refer to individuals and families who buy and use various consumer goods or services. Consumers in a broad sense refer to individuals or organizations that buy and use various products and services. This book mainly discusses consumer behavior from the narrow sense of consumers.

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

Consumer behavior refers to all kinds of behaviors taken by consumers to obtain, use and dispose of consumer goods or services, including the decision-making process that precedes and determines these behaviors. Consumer behavior is closely related to the exchange of products or services. Under the condition of modern market economy, enterprises study consumer behavior in order to establish and develop long-term exchange relations with consumers. Therefore, it is necessary to understand not only how consumers get products and services, but also how consumers consume products and how to dispose of them after they run out. Because of consumers' consumption experience, the way and feelings of consumers dealing with old products will affect consumers' next round of purchase, which will have a direct effect on the long-term exchange relationship between enterprises and consumers. Traditionally, the research on consumer behavior has always focused on the acquisition of products and services, while the research on product consumption and disposal has been relatively ignored. With the in-depth study of consumer behavior, people have more and more deeply realized that consumer behavior is a whole and a process, and acquisition or purchase is only a stage in this process. Therefore, to study consumer behavior, we should not only investigate and understand consumers' evaluation and selection activities before obtaining products and services, but also pay attention to the use and disposal of products after obtaining them. Only in this way can the understanding of consumer behavior become complete.

Individual and psychological factors affecting consumer behavior are: needs and motives; Perception; Learning and memory; Attitude; Personality, self-concept, lifestyle. These factors not only influence and determine consumers' decision-making behavior to a certain extent, but also amplify or restrain the influence of external environment and marketing stimulus.

The environmental factors that affect consumer behavior mainly include: culture; Social stratum; Social groups; Family, etc.

2. The significance of studying consumer behavior

1) consumer behavior research is the basis of marketing decision and marketing strategy formulation.

As can be seen from the following aspects, the study of consumer behavior determines the formulation of marketing strategy.

Analysis of market opportunities: From the perspective of marketing, market opportunities are unmet consumer needs. To understand which needs of consumers are not met or not fully met, it is usually necessary to analyze market conditions and market trends. For example, by analyzing the changes in consumers' lifestyles or income levels, we can reveal what new needs and desires consumers have not met. On this basis, enterprises 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 whole market into several sub-markets. Consumers in each sub-market have the same or similar demand or behavior characteristics, and consumers in different sub-markets have great differences in demand and behavior. The purpose of enterprise market segmentation is to find the target market suitable for them to enter, and formulate targeted marketing plans according to the demand characteristics of the target market, so that the unique needs of consumers in the target market can be more fully met. The market can be subdivided according to people, personality and lifestyle, and also according to behavioral characteristics, such as a small number of users, moderate users or a large number of users. In addition, the market can be subdivided according to the occasion of use. For example, watches can be divided into different markets according to whether they are worn in formal occasions, sports occasions or ordinary occasions.

Positioning of products and stores: Only by knowing the position of products in the eyes of target consumers and how their brands or stores are recognized by consumers can marketers formulate effective marketing strategies. K-Mart is an influential chain store in the United States, which developed from a cheap store in the 1960s to a discount store in the 1970s and 1980s. After entering the 1990s, with the change of business environment, Comart's decision-makers felt it necessary to reposition the store to make it a more tasteful one, without making the original customers feel abandoned. In order to achieve this goal, Comart first needs to know its current market position and compare it with its competitors. To this end, it has obtained a series of store features that are regarded as very important by the target consumers through consumer surveys. By comparing these characteristics between Comart and its competitors, the company understands the following questions: which store characteristics are regarded as the most critical by customers; In terms of key features, where does Comart compare with competitors? Do consumers in different market segments hold the same views on the market position of Comart and competitive stores and the importance of various store features? On the basis of mastering and analyzing this information, Comart has formulated a very targeted and feasible positioning strategy. Results The original image was changed and the location was successful.

Marketing mix:? New product development: by understanding the needs and desires of consumers and their evaluation of various product attributes, enterprises can develop new products accordingly. It can be said that consumer survey is not only an important source of new product creativity, but also an important way to test whether new products can be accepted and which aspects need further improvement. General Electric Company has designed space-saving microwave ovens and other kitchen supplies, which have achieved great success in the market. Its product concept directly stems from consumers' complaints that the original products occupy too much space. ? Product pricing: If product pricing is out of touch with consumers' affordability or consumers' perception of product value, it is difficult for even the best products to open the market. Diapers are priced at 10 cent during the trial sale, and it is estimated that 400 million diapers will be sold. However, the result of the trial sale is only half of the expected sales, which is not ideal. Further analysis found that in the whole trial sale process, the price link did not connect with consumers. Although consumers welcome this product, 10 cents is too expensive, and many families are only willing to use it when taking their children to travel or attend banquets. Through cost analysis, the company found a way to save the unit product cost, and then reduced the selling price from 10 cents to 6 cents. When the product was put on the market again, the demand increased greatly. Soon, more than half of the babies in the United States used this disposable diaper called Beibei. It can be seen that product pricing is also inseparable from the analysis and understanding of consumers. ? Choice of distribution channels: where consumers like to shop and how to buy their products can also be understood through the study of consumers. Take buying clothes as an example. Some consumers like to buy in specialty stores, some like to buy in large shopping malls or department stores, and some like to buy by mail. Clothing manufacturers are very concerned about the proportion and the types or characteristics of consumers who mainly buy clothes through the above channels. This is because enterprises can minimize the risk in the choice of distribution channels only by understanding the preferences of target consumers for shopping methods and shopping places and why they form such preferences. ? 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 tries to position sugar as a safe, delicious and essential food that provides energy for human body, and emphasizes that it is suitable for everyone, especially those who like sports. However, the survey shows that many consumers have formed a negative impression on sugar. Obviously, the sugar industry association must do a lot of publicity work to obtain the ideal product image. The success of these publicity activities largely depends on the association's understanding of how consumers obtain and process information and the understanding of consumer learning principles. In short, only on the basis of understanding consumer behavior can the sugar industry association succeed in advertising and promotion.

2) Provide basis for protecting consumers' rights and making relevant consumption policies.

With the development of economy, there are more and more commercial behaviors that harm consumers' rights and interests, and the protection of consumers' rights and interests is becoming a topic of concern to the whole society. As a member of society, consumers have a series of rights, such as free choice of products and services, access to safety products and access to correct information. These rights of consumers are also the foundation of market economy. The government has the responsibility and obligation to prohibit fraud, monopoly, dishonesty and other acts that harm consumers' rights and interests, and also has the responsibility to improve consumers' awareness and ability of self-protection through publicity and education.

What kind of laws the government should enact, what measures should be taken to protect consumers' rights and interests, and whether the government's laws and protective measures can achieve the expected purpose in the implementation process can be understood to a great extent with the help of the information provided by consumer behavior research. 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 a regulation really achieves its purpose depends first on whether consumers rely on such information when choosing.

Modern marketing theory holds that understanding market demand and desire and analyzing consumer behavior are the starting point of enterprise marketing, and its ultimate goal is to develop marketable goods to meet consumers' needs; A well-planned marketing plan must be based on careful market research, which can prompt the company to adjust its marketing strategy in time and guide marketers to formulate reasonable product promotion and promotion plans. With the rapid development of digital technology, the Internet provides a powerful tool for market research.

First, online consumer behavior analysis

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

(A) the types of online consumers

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

1. Simple schizophrenia

Simple customers need convenient and direct online shopping. They only spend a little time online every month, but they complete half of the online transactions. Retailers must provide real convenience for such people and make them feel that buying goods on your website will save more time.

2. Surfing type

Surfers account for 8% of ordinary netizens, but they spend 32% of their time online, and they visit four times as many web pages as other netizens. Internet users are interested in websites that are constantly updated and have innovative design features.

3. Access type

Access customers are newcomers to the Internet, accounting for 36%. They seldom shop, but prefer chatting online and sending free greeting cards. Companies with famous traditional brands should pay enough attention to this group of people, because network novices are more willing to trust their familiar brands in their lives.

4. Type of negotiation

Bargaining customers account for 8% of netizens. They have an instinct to buy cheap goods. More than half of the customers on the famous Yi Bei website belong to this type. They like bargaining and have a strong desire to win in the transaction.

5. Ordinary and sports

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

At present, the challenge faced by online providers is how to attract more netizens and try to turn website visitors into consumers. We believe that online vendors should focus on one or two of them, so as to be targeted.

(B) consumer online shopping activities

Online shopping refers to the process that users browse and search related commodity information in the online virtual shopping environment in order to complete shopping or related tasks, so as to provide necessary information for purchasing decisions and implement decision-making and purchase.

Psychologists call consumers' shopping activities a problem-solving process or an information processing process of purchasing decision, which is generally divided into three stages: demand determination, information search before purchasing and evaluation of substitute goods. Consumers' purchasing decision-making process is actually a process of collecting relevant information, analyzing and evaluating, which has different degrees of behavioral and psychological load.

(C) consumer network information space activities

The cognitive and task activities of consumers' network information space can be divided into the following three ways:

1. browsing: informal and opportunistic, with no specific purpose, low efficiency in completing tasks, largely relying on external information environment, but it can better form an overview of the whole information space structure. At this point, users' activities in cyberspace are like browsing a newspaper at will. He can get a general idea of what the newspaper information includes, and whether he can read a message in detail depends on the layout position and title design of the information.

2. Search: looking for new information in a certain field. The information collected in the search helps to achieve the ultimate goal of discovering new information. When searching, users must access many different information sources, and search activities are highly dependent on landmarks. Users' search in the network information space is like consulting newspapers according to the catalogue to obtain a certain kind of specific information.

3. Search: It is the process of searching and locating specific information in a large information set. The purpose of seeking is strong and the activity efficiency is the highest. For example, after users locate tourism information according to the classified catalogue, they compare and choose among many tourism information.

Second, research strategies on the Internet

One of the most complicated problems in online market research is that you never know who the visitors of our company's website are. Marketers must adopt appropriate strategies to identify visitors. Because it is not easy to ask visitors to answer questions online, especially when they spend time and money surfing the Internet and visiting other websites unrelated to marketing research. Visitors will definitely not fill out a 20-page questionnaire and ask them what they like and dislike. When the questionnaire involves income and purchase methods, few people pay attention to it. There are several strategies to collect visitor information on the Internet:

(1) Ask visitors by email or visitor register.

Internet can build a bridge of friendship between marketers and customers. Among them, e-mail and visitor register play a key role. An HTML form can be attached to an e-mail. Customers can click on the relevant topic in the form interface, fill in the relevant information with the recipient's email address, and then send it back to the company. Marketers can get detailed information of visitors through e-mail and visitor register. If a considerable number of visitors respond, marketers can analyze the company's sales statistics.

(b) The average regional income can be determined by determining the postal code of tourists.

The marketing situation in different regions is different, so the marketing strategies in different regions should be different. Marketers should know the average income of a certain area in order to adopt appropriate marketing strategies. On the Internet, after determining the postal code of a visitor, marketers can find out the region where the visitor is located, thus estimating the average income of the region.

(three) to provide prizes or free goods to tourists

If you tell tourists that you can get prizes or free goods, they will definitely tell you where to send them. You can easily know their names, addresses and e-mail addresses. This strategy has proved to be effective. It can reduce the number of inaccurate information sent by visitors who are worried about the infringement of their personal websites, thus enabling marketers to improve the efficiency of research.

(d) Using software to detect whether the visitor has completed the questionnaire.

Visitors often miss some information unintentionally or intentionally. Marketers can use some software programs to determine whether they have filled out the questionnaire correctly. If the visitor misses something in the questionnaire, the questionnaire will be re-sent to the visitor for supplementary filling. If visitors complete the questionnaire as required, they will receive a bulletin board on their personal computers to confirm the completion. However, this strategy cannot guarantee the authenticity and reliability of the information reflected in the questionnaire.

(5) Don't mention problems that annoy potential customers.

When personal questions are mentioned in the questionnaire, visitors generally refuse to answer them. No matter in any country, some questions involving personal privacy should not appear in the questionnaire. Such as personal income, personal fear and other sensitive content.

(6) Conducting selective surveys.

People are usually willing to take part in surveys and opinion tests, especially when the questions mentioned are short and to the point. An effective strategy is that when making a questionnaire, marketers should set two buttons (Yes/No) after each question, so that visitors can express their views intuitively.

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

When doing research on the Internet, if you ask too many questions, visitors will be reluctant to participate. Therefore, how to master the number of questions contained in the questionnaire has become a skill for marketers to design the questionnaire. The optimal number of questions in the questionnaire is different in every industry. How to make the research effective depends on the marketing staff to sum up from the actual operation and make a perfect questionnaire.

Third, the steps of online market research

Network research not only has certain strategies, but also has corresponding steps. Now described as follows:

(a) select a search engine

Choose a convenient and applicable search engine before conducting market research on the Internet. Search engine refers to an electronic pointer that can find the content of the object you want to investigate in time. It can read, analyze and store information obtained from millions of private web pages. This information can be identified by a series of keywords and other parameters, such as the start and end dates of the survey. With the help of search engine, you can enter the search of related topics.

(B) determine the research object

Generally speaking, the objects of online research can be divided into three categories: consumers of company products; Competitors of the company; Company partners and neutrals in the industry. In the process of market research, marketers should pay attention to these three kinds of objects, but they should also focus on them.

(3) Ask relevant research objects

After determining the research object, marketers send relevant queries to personal homepages, newsgroups and mailing lists on the Internet by e-mail.

Personal homepage on the Internet is very important. Marketers use search engines to access personal websites. Consumers and potential consumers of the company's products can be investigated. As long as the individuals interviewed are willing, they will respond by email through the Internet. Marketers can ask questions about the information in the mailing list and get a reply.

(d) population information analysis

Demography is a very important part of market research. Marketers mainly count the number of people who visit the company's website, so as to 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 recognition method. This technology can track visitors on the application website, thus helping marketers to accurately grasp the demographics of visitors.

(five) to determine the applicable information services.

There are many comprehensive information service websites about different regions and industries on the Internet. After determining the research object and research area, marketers can choose the corresponding site for information inquiry. When selecting information services on the Internet, marketers should consider the following factors: (1) Where does the information provided by the selected services come from? (2) Does the information provided meet the investigation requirements? (3) What is the update speed of information release? (4) How is the information transmitted? Can you send it directly to the personal computer? 5] Are there any special rules when sharing or printing information on the Internet?

Marketers should choose the most convenient and applicable information service from the above five aspects. After determining the applicable information service, marketers should establish a special service system for tracking and processing information to cooperate with the progress of consumer research and make objective decisions.

(VI) Analysis of market changes

After obtaining a large amount of information from the Internet, marketers must sort out and analyze the information. Faced with a huge amount of information and data, marketers can quickly analyze it with computers. The results of this analysis are usually true and credible. After analyzing the information, marketers should write an illustrated market analysis report to reflect the market dynamics intuitively, so that the company's decision makers can adjust their marketing strategies in time according to the company's situation.

Now, 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 survey, online market survey has the advantages of timely information, convenience, low cost and objective survey results. However, the popularization of online research is still difficult. Consumers are not used to this new market research method, and the lack of network software and hardware leads to poor research process and lack of professional network researchers. However, with the popularization and application of the Internet and the change of people's traditional ideas, market research on the Internet is gradually taking shape.

(2) consumer decision-making process?

Enterprise managers and marketers should not only understand the various factors that affect consumers and their purchasing patterns, but also understand consumers' purchasing decisions, so as to take corresponding measures to achieve the marketing objectives of enterprises. ?

1. Participants in the purchase decision?

Although consumers' consumption is family-based, usually not all members of a family participate in the purchase decision. Many times it is a member or several members of a family, and the purchasing decision-making layer composed of several family members has different roles. People may play the following roles in buying decisions:?

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

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

3) Decision maker: a 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 and where to buy. ?

4) Buyers: people who actually buy. ?

5) Users: people who directly consume or use purchased goods or services. ?

Knowing the role of each buyer in purchasing decision-making and adopting targeted marketing strategies according to their role, status and characteristics can better achieve marketing goals. For example, if you buy an air conditioner, it is the child who makes this request; Whether to buy or not is decided by both husband and wife, and the brand of air conditioner is decided by the husband, so that the air conditioner company can do more publicity about the brand to her husband and arouse his concern and interest in the air conditioner produced by the company; As for the wife, she has greater decision-making power in the shape and color of air conditioners, and the company can design some products she likes in the shape and color ... Only in this way can we understand the role and characteristics of participants in the purchase decision-making process, and the company can formulate effective production plans and marketing plans. ?

2. What is the type of buying behavior?

When consumers buy goods, they will invest in different degrees because of the difference in commodity prices and purchase frequency. Western scholars divide consumers' buying behavior into four types according to the degree of buyers' involvement and the differences between brands.

1) Complex purchase behavior. When consumers buy expensive, unusual, risky and highly self-expressive goods for the first time, they are highly involved in the purchase. Due to the lack of understanding of the performance of these products, in order to be prudent, they often need to collect relevant information extensively. After careful study, they will have faith in this product, form an attitude towards the brand and make a prudent purchase decision. ?

For this type of purchase behavior, enterprises should try their best to help consumers understand the knowledge related to the product, and try their best to let them know and affirm the characteristics and advantages of the product in more important performance, so as to establish their trust in the product. During this period, enterprises should pay special attention to making various forms of advertisements to introduce the characteristics of this product to buyers. ?

2) Reduce the discordant purchase behavior. When consumers have a high degree of participation in the purchase of a product, but can't see any difference between brands, they often have an unbalanced feeling about the products they buy. Because consumers are cautious about buying some goods with little brand difference, they pay more attention to whether the brand price is favorable and whether the time and place of purchase are convenient, rather than spending a lot of energy to collect and compare information between different brands, and the time from the generation of buying machines to the decision to buy them is short. Therefore, this kind of purchase behavior is easy to produce disharmony after purchase: that is, after buying a product, or because of some aspects of the product itself, or getting better information about other products, consumers will regret not buying this product or have psychological imbalance. In order to change this psychology and pursue psychological balance, consumers widely collect all kinds of favorable information about the products they buy to prove the correctness of their purchase decisions. Therefore, enterprises should adjust the price and the choice of sales outlets, provide consumers with favorable information, help consumers eliminate unbalanced psychology and enhance their confidence in the products they buy. ?

3) The choice of buying behavior is wide. Also known as seeking diversification of buying behavior. If a consumer buys many brands, but there are many brands to choose from, he will not spend too much time choosing brands, nor will he focus on a certain product, but will often change varieties. For example, to buy cookies, they bought chocolate sandwiches last time, and they want to buy cream sandwiches this time. The change of this variety is not the dissatisfaction with the last biscuit, but the change of taste.

Faced with this extensive choice of buying behavior, when enterprises are in an advantageous position in the market, they should pay attention to occupying the favorable position of shelves with sufficient supply, and urge consumers to establish habitual buying behavior by reminding advertisements; When enterprises are in a non-market dominant position, consumers should be encouraged to choose a variety of products and try new products by reducing product prices, free trial and introducing the unique advantages of new products. ?

4) Habitual buying behavior. Consumers sometimes buy a product, not because they particularly like a certain brand, but out of habit. For example, vinegar is a commodity with low price and little brand difference. When consumers buy, most of them don't care about the brand, but choose the brand according to the habit of buying and using it many times. ?

In view of this purchase behavior, enterprises should pay special attention to impress consumers, emphasize the main characteristics of this product in their advertisements, and win the favor of consumers for their products with distinctive visual signs and ingenious image creativity. Therefore, the advertising of enterprises should be repeated and repeated in order to deepen consumers' familiarity with products. ?

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