CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Brand Loyalty and Customer Feedback

Brand Loyalty and Customer Feedback

Task 1

Introduction

As an apprentice at one of the top marketing consultants in London, my manager wants a report which explains the relevance of consumer behavior and its impact on brand loyalty for SME's dealing with B2C businesses. Creating brand loyalty is very important part of marketing a product as it affects the buyer behavior and the purchase decision-making of the customer.

Buyer Behavior and Purchase Decision-Making Process

There are several ways to explore and evaluate the customers' behavior and decision making regarding a product.

Stages of Purchase Decision-Making Process

The analysis of the stages of the buying decision, allows a better understanding of consumer buying behavior (Henderson & Paul 2008, 371). These stages are as follows:

Need Recognition & Problem Awareness

The process commence when an individual recognizes his needs. The consumer either gets aware about his basic need (hunger, pain etc) or react to a stimulus of marketing (watching a food commercial etc).

Information Search

The individual, after recognizing his needs, decides the amount of information required. If he already knows where and how to get his needs fulfilled, then he reaches a purchasing decision. Otherwise the search continues. The sources of gathering information can be personal (family, friends etc), commercial (advertising media) or related to own past experiences possible. 

Evaluation of Alternatives

In this stage, the customer evaluates different alternatives of the solution before making the purchase. The criteria of evaluation vary according to the demographic and psychological characteristics of the customer (Henderson & Paul 2008, 371).

Purchase

After the customer has gathered the information and evaluated possible alternatives, he makes a decision and makes the purchase.

Post-Purchase Evaluation

In the final stage, the customer makes post-purchase evaluation. Of the product satisfies him, he will again purchase the product and will refer the product to others around him. However, of the customer is not satisfied with the product, he will not purchase the product again and will not hesitate to express his discontent around him.

Theories of Buyer Behavior

There are many theories of buyer behavior, two of them are stated below:

Expectancy-Value theory (EVT)

There are three primary components of EVT. Firstly, an individual responds to new information regarding an item or action by developing a belief about the item or action. Secondly, an individual assigns values to every characteristic on which a belief is based on. Thirdly, a probability is modified or created on the basis of the outcome on a calculation based on values and beliefs (Nicosia 2006, 63).

Cognitive Learning Theory

Cognitive theorists believe that some aspects such as attitudes, beliefs and past experiences of people, mentally combine to generate the behavior of the buyer. According the theory, the brain or nervous system is the dominant center.

Factors Affecting Buyer Behavior

Following factors affect the behaviors of the buyer. They are as follow:

Cultural factor

The culture factors include the social class, sub culture and the culture of the consumer. These factors are mostly instinctive in our process of decision and values.

Social factors:

The social factors include influence of different groups (group members, inspirational groups, and reference groups), status, ...