Consumer Behaviour

Most marketing people are aware that it’s important for all the aspects of product marketing to be consistent. If your ad is saying that your product is used by kings and queens it’s not going to feel right if it arrives in a tatty cardboard box. Similarly, if you make luxury claims and make the price cheap consumers will be put off by the incongruence. But what about sensory consistency? Do products need to be consistent in how they are perceived by each sense; is the smell and feel as important as the look? Considerable research has been conducted on how smell can change perceptions. In one study, researchers put one new pair of running shoes in a room with a light floral smell and another identical pair in an unscented room. Afterwards 84% said they were more likely to buy the pair in the room that smelled of flowers. […]

Frequently companies are concerned about customer satisfaction. Are customers satisfied with the products and services on offer? It seems a sensible enough concern. And if you want to find out it’s a good idea to ask, isn’t it? Many organisations track satisfaction measures, both for their own company’s products or services, and for their competitors. A quantitative tracking study enables satisfaction to be gauged and tracked over time providing a gauge against which company performance can be assessed. But recent research suggests that measuring satisfaction may not be as useful as you think. It turns out that asking may well be pointless. If you work for a company that uses customer satisfaction ratings to evaluate your performance you should be very concerned by now! And if your interested in product evaluation, another area consumer research frequently investigates, you should also be concerned. Researchers presented research participants with products and asked […]

Everything’s relative. Except for truth, apparently. Philosophers point out that if you say “everything is relative” you’re making an absolute statement, rather than a relative one, and you’ve just defeated your own point. Philosophers are like that. One thing that is relative is what consumers think about the products they encounter. Which is a little odd, because we all like to believe that we know what we think; if we’re not sure of that everything feels a little precarious. However, this is just one of those conscious delusions we use to feel good about ourselves. This is all well and good when you’re simply telling yourself that you’re a great person who’s fabulous at everything, but less helpful when you want to understand consumer behaviour and exert maximum influence with your marketing. A recent study has uncovered a surprising dimension to the way in which consumers are influenced by what […]

Picture the scene, the Rolling Stones have left the stage, having got plenty of satisfaction from the reaction of the crowd and dripping with sweat, they’re ready for a refreshing beer (or six) and something to eat. “Let’s have pizza.” Mick says, spotting a pizza menu pinned to the dressing room wall. As usual he’s keen to establish himself as the leader of the group, but forgets the fact that he was once punched by Charlie Watts for asking, “Where’s my drummer?” “Yeah man, I need to eat now, man.” Keith surprisingly agrees without a fight and now no one will rock the boat by suggesting anything else. The tour manager finds his phone and gets ready to dial, before realising that this ramshackle bunch of multi-millionaires almost certainly won’t settle for any old pizza, they’ll have a favourite. So which brand of pizza will our musicians choose? Probably the […]