Blog Three: Consumer Behavior

An important tool in building an effective marketing strategy is understanding consumer behavior. This is where psychology ties into marketing, in understanding the thought processes and actions of consumers. Consumer behavior refers to the social and environmental conditions, actions, thought processes, and evaluation one takes on in purchasing and using a product. Sidenote- as an avid shopper this part of marketing fascinates me!

Consumers can first be influenced by the situations surrounding their purchases. There are 5 different situations which pose an effect on consumer behavior; purchase tasks- the reason the consumer is shopping, social surroundings- who the consumer is shopping with, physical surroundings- the lighting, volume, crowds, etc,temporal effects- the time of day or amount of time the consumer has, and antecedent states- the consumers mood, amount of money on hand, etc.

The act of making a purchase is an obvious component of consumer behavior. What we cannot always see is the decision process that takes place in a consumers mind. This process that takes place is referred to as the consumer purchase decision process which refers to the stages a consumer goes through in making a  buying decision. The stages of the consumer buying decision process are as follows:

Step 1: Problem Recognition- consumers identify a product or service that they may need and are compelled to satisfy this.
Step 2: Information Search- consumers conduct both internal searches- recalling their memory for previous experiences with certain brands, and external sources- gathering information about a product or brand from the internet, peers, salespersons, etc, to help sway their purchase decision.
Step 3: Alternative Evaluation- in this step of the consumer buying decision process the value of the product or service is addressed and alternative brands or resources known as the consideration set are identified.
Step 4: Purchase Decision- the consumer makes a decision about what product will deliver the most value to them and purchases that product.
Step 5: Post-Purchase Evaluation- upon use of the product, the consumer decides whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with their purchase.

The post-purchase evaluation is extremely important to companies in demonstrating the level of customer satisfaction with the product. If a customer is satisfied with their purchase, they will tell 3 people about it, however, if the customer is dissatisfied with either the product, service received, or both, they will share this news with 9 people. This type of word-of-mouth or buzz marketing, is extremely important to the future of a product.

If a customer is unsure whether they are satisfied with the decision that they made, for example they purchased the new Windows phone instead of the new iPhone and are debating whether or not they made the right decision, they are said to be experiencing cognitive dissonance, or post-purchase anxiety. Once a customer has experienced cognitive dissonance from a purchase of a specific product, is hard to regain their brand loyalty. This is why in the more expensive and long-term purchases, known as extended purchases, through which consumers go through each stage of the consumer buying decision process, a high-involvement marketing strategy is employed using comparative ads (like the one shown below) and focused personal selling to help "seal the deal" for consumers.

Blog Two: What is Marketing?

Because the primary focus of this blog is marketing, I thought it might be a good idea to first define what marketing is all about. We are all exposed to marketing on a daily basis, the most obvious of which is through advertisements in the form of television ads, internet ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, magazine ads, and the list goes on and on. The point that I am trying to make is that Marketing is everywhere! 

So what exactly is marketing? Well, marketing is a process as well as a set of techniques that are employed to promote a product, service, or even an idea, through what is referred to as the marketing mix (which I'll get to in a minute) so as to grasp a consumer's attention and boost sales, and therefore pose a benefit to all parties involved. Marketing seeks to discover what a consumer wants and/or needs and fill those needs by delivering a product. It does so by selecting a target market- that is the set demographic or group of consumers that a product, and thus the marketing program, is aimed towards. 

A marketing program is composed of four distinct factors that work together to satisfy a consumer; product, price, place, and promotion. This is known as the marketing mix, or simply put- the 4 P's of Marketing:

Product: Product refers to the consumer good, service or idea that is being "sold." 

Price: Price refers to the value of the product, service, or idea in the eye of the consumer.

Place: Place refers to where the consumer is able to obtain said product or service. 

Promotion: Promotion refers to the means of communication of the product, service, or idea to consumers.  

I have formed an abbreviated definition referring to what marketing is. I will now reference the definition of marketing provided by the American Marketing Association (AMA), "marketing is the activity for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that benefit its customers, the organization, its stakeholders, and society at large."*

The AMA's definition of marketing covers each element of the 4 P's; "creating" refers to the actual product, service, or idea, "communicating" refers to the promotion of the product, service, or idea, "delivering" refers to the place in which consumers can access the product or service, and "exchanging" refers to the price of the product, service, or idea. 

Clearly, addressing each of the 4 P's is essential in any successful marketing strategy. To help you remember what these 4 P's are and what exactly they are about here is a song I found about the 4 P's to the tune of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi."

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I hope you enjoyed this post and learned a little bit about marketing in the process! 

*Marketing, 11th Edition. Roger Kerin, Steven Hartley, and William Rudlius. McGraw-Hill: New York, 2012. 

Blog One: Introduction

Hello Everyone! Welcome to my first blog ever! My name is Kate Gleason and I just started my junior year at Saint Michael's College. I am majoring in Media Studies, Journalism, and Digital Arts (MJD) and minoring in Business Administration. My goal is to end up with a career in Marketing.

Though this blog is for the reading pleasures of friends, family, and peers, it is also a requirement of the BU 215 Marketing course I am taking this semester. That being said, I will try to keep this as fun and interesting as possible, so I am dedicating my first blog post to teach you all a little bit about my life as a Saint Mike's student, and my goals for this process.

I have made the 13 minute commute from my hometown of South Burlington, Vermont to Saint Mike's and I love going to school in the same area that I grew up in! I believe it has helped me tremendously in my courses, especially as a media studies major I am better able to understand and apply concepts learned in class to local organizations. My goal is that by the end of this semester I can use this knowledge of local businesses and organizations, as well as my connections in this area, to my professional advantage in securing an internship related to marketing for the spring semester.

This semester I made the decision to finish out the rest of the required courses for my business minor; I am taking Marketing, Management, and Managerial Accounting. The fourth course I am taking is a science course to fulfill Saint Mike's liberal studies requirement of a laboratory science. It was a big risk taking a semester off of courses in the MJD department, but I have thoroughly enjoyed my business courses so far and I am hoping this risk pays off and I enjoy everything that I learn this semester!  

I believe that what I have learned so far in my MJD courses closely relate to the marketing field. In the two foundation courses of the MJD major, Media Revolutions and Digital Media we learn about the effects of media on our daily lives, including the way advertisements are targeted towards specific audiences whether or not said audience is aware of this occurring.  A great demonstration of this strategic placement is shown the following clip from a popular movie called Blades of Glory in which product placement is extremely prevalent. In watching this movie for pleasure I did not first notice this, but in looking at this clip again I have realized how cleverly these companies placed themselves into this scene as well as the script. Marketing where and when the viewer may have least expected it, the most clever of its kind.