04/12/2023
“Knowledge is power”. Before writing this article, I wanted to come up with a quote that would best introduce today’s topic. After searching for a half hour, I decided that keeping it simple would provide the best entrance for the article: Knowledge is power. I am sure that you have heard this quote before, but understanding its depth in marketing will indeed make you very powerful...Today’s focus would be to start understanding your customers, their thoughts, and most importantly their buying decision process.
What are you buying? How are you buying it? Why and When? Pick the last product that you have bought and think about it for a second. What, how, why, and when. Marketers have been focusing on those 4 questions over the years and have come up with 5 distinct steps in the buying decision process: Need recognition, Information search, Evaluation, Purchase, and post Purchase.
Before every purchase, there is first a need for recognition. Whether it is a phone, coffee, or painting a house there is a need that has to be acknowledged. In this first step, there are two types of origins: External stimuli and Internal stimuli. The first one occurs when customers want to buy or paint a house for instance ( stimulated by an external source ). Internal stimuli occurs when customers feel that they need a certain product or service; whether it is to feel good, feel special, or because they simply just cannot help it. The key objective for marketers is to create what is called an ideal state through the need for recognition. In other words, help customers imagine an ideal state of being after solving their need. By creating visual content, associating brands with certain types of emotions, and mastering marketing communication, brands can provide products that appear to be the solutions to customers' needs.
Once the need recognition is established, customers often tend to research the product, but also its alternatives. This second step is called information search. They might go online or to the store. They might also look at reviews, and ask colleagues friends, or family. They might also ask themselves. Indeed, customers tend to research a product by simply diving into their memory and choosing the option that looked familiar.
By analyzing efficiently , advertising righteously , branding accordingly , and communicating properly , marketers can understand where customers are looking for information and apply this knowledge to anticipate their customers' next move. Be present before they know that is where they will be going”.
Then comes the third step: Evaluation. At this stage, customers evaluate whether the product will suit their needs. To ease your understanding you can divide this decision-making stage into 4 stages: Non-compensatory, Lexicographic, Conjunctive, and Compensatory. Imagine yourself being the CMO of a company that sells TVs.
- In the non-compensatory decision model, the weakness of a product does not compensate for its qualities. If your customer wants a smart Tv. The fact that you sell a 4K, 65-inch, NO smart TV option, will not be enough to satisfy your client.
- The lexicographic model happens when the customer focuses on the most important attribute of the product. In this example, that might be the TV size, in which case any big-size TV will satisfy your client.
- The conjunctive decision rule occurs when a product is chosen if and only if it falls between the minimum accepted cutoffs. In your case, if your client has a cutoff of a maximum of 250 dollars and a minimum 30-inch tv screen, anything that falls outside the range will be eliminated.
- Lastly, in the compensatory rule, the weakness of an attribute will be compensated by the strongest stood your products. If you sell a product at a premium, your client might still be willing to buy your tv based on its best attributes such as quality, performance, and tv size.
Those four decision rules can help markets understand their target audience but also the products and services they should provide.
The last two steps are purchase and post-purchase. During the purchase step, options are evaluated to decide when, where, and how to buy. The post-purchase determines what your buyer will do with your product. Are they satisfied, are they using it, did they throw it away? Marketers are focusing on those two last steps to make it as simple and fast as possible. Lastly, those two last steps are also worth analyzing to determine areas of improvement.
The buying decision process can be broken down into 5 steps: Need recognition, Information search, Evaluation, Purchase, and post Purchase. Understanding those five stages can help markers grasp their customer's buying behavior to anticipate their needs, wants, and concerns. Knowledge is power, study your customers and “Be present before they know that is why where they will be going”.
