CONSUMER INSIGHT

Marketing Strategy and Consumer Insight

[Name of the Institute]

Marketing Strategy and Consumer Insight

Consumer Insight

Marketing success of any business depends upon the product and services that a company offers. These products differentiate the image of a company from its competitors through branding. It is important for a company to evaluate and shape its strategies that they function in the best interest of the business. Developing strategies require a thorough understanding of consumers, about their perception that define their purchase behavior. In order to understand consumer perception, it is imperative that a company should be aware of their consumer insights. Insight refers to the process of gathering and articulating customer cognitions and thoughts. Insights refer to those values, beliefs, norms, ideas and conceptions that a consumer holds in his or her mind about a certain brand, product, services and commodity (Abratt, 1993, 79-84). These perceptions are held by the consumer that leads to their purchase decisions or buying behavior. Consumers, themselves are often unaware of their perceived thoughts and values that they associate to different products or brands. Such values are present in the subconscious mind of the consumers, which shapes their purchase decision and preferences over brands. It is impossible to identify consumer insights without face-to-face conversations.

Certain questions are developed in a customer survey to administer their preferences and buying behaviors. Consumer insights are gathered in conducting market researches. There may be numerous objectives behind these researches, like, identification and exploration of the prevalent market problems, defining these problems and evaluating prospected alternatives and taking customer feedback that may results from a company's strategy (Beane,1987, 20-42). Two of the most important and the most expensive research tools for a company are personal interviews and focus group interviews. Focus groups and personal interviews provide more subjective data than surveys. The results are not statistically reliable, which means that they usually do not represent a large enough segment of the population. Nevertheless, focus groups and interviews yield valuable insights into customer attitudes and are excellent ways to uncover issues related to new products or service development. Personal interviews are conducted face-to-face, and the interviewer observes not only the answers given by respondents, but also the facial expressions and body language in answering certain questions. These interviews are highly trained professionals who make sure to extract customer insight through their observation and survey questions (Bonoma,1983, 11-21).

On the other hand, focus group interviews involve 6 to 8 participants. They are presented with a certain statement or a problem from the group moderator. These respondents normally form two groups, one supporting the statement and the other augmenting the factors in the presented topic. Several aspects of the topic are presented by the moderator and the groups discussing and criticizing the topic through their perception, perceived values and intuitions. This helps in analyzing consumer held believes about a certain product or service of the company. These perceived values from personal interviews and focus groups are accumulated and presented to the company. High level authorities and planners consider ...