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Introduction Of Decision-Making In Consumers And Marketers Of A Business Will Lead To A Greater Impact On The Company Assignment
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The company is highly affected by the behavior of consumers towards the company's product. It is very important for every business to deeply understand consumer behavior before making any decisions related to offering products and services to the consumer market. Consumer behavior defines the analysis study of consumer’s decisions or their mentality concerning an organization or its product and services according to the consumer’s buying power, needs, and wants(Dhaliwal,et. al. 2020). The interpretation and understanding of consumer feedback, data, and behaviors that help to develop a customer support system and product/services of the company are known as consumer insights.
The pathway of the decision-making process is extremely important in a company that is dealing in both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) markets (Ren, and Toniolo, 2018). There are seven important steps in the decision-making process of a company such as identifying the decisions, collecting information, identification of alternatives, evaluating the evidence, selecting the best alternative, implementing a decision, review the decision(Snellinx,et. al. 2021). In an organizational context, a market means the area which includes a position of a company within a marketing activity occur by the company(Hatammimi, et.al. 2022). To clearly understand the above terms, the report is prepared with consumer behavior and insights, and marketing decision-making process-related topics and points.
The study will discuss the market researcher's ability of a company to map a path of right decision-making in B2C and B2B markets. The report mentioned the consumer behavior and decision-making related to the products and services of the company along with the explanation of understanding consumer decision-making for marketers of an organization which influence to map of a path to purchase.The study also highlighted the evaluation of appropriate forms of research to grasp the effects on the decision-making process, in which three topics are sun-headed. The analysis of marketers' influence on different stages in the decision-making process of the company is considered in the report. Along with this, marketing mix elements, the role of opinion leaders, and methods and models influence each stage of the decision-making process by marketers. All the above-mentioned topic is evaluated with the help of HN Globe Company which is considered a case company in the report. The HN Globe Company is an online learning platform that guides students in their learning stages(Qualifications, 2021). The case company delivers free resources to support BTEC's higher national program staff.
Analysis and explanation of path to purchase in B2C product/services
The path to purchase refers to a journey in which a consumer performs various rights and decision-making from the beginning to the end touch point with the business(Bentahar, and Pookulangara, 2019). In B2C products and services, the path to purchase defines the journey of a buyer in the company. The B2C buyer journey has three stages such as consideration stage, decision stage, and awareness stage.
Consumer decision-making for given product/services
The consumer decision-making process in a given category of a company's product and services means what a consumer chooses to buy from the available choices and substitutes in the market(L?z?roiu, et. al. 2020). To identify the consumer decision-making process the marketer has to go through the five basic stages.
Figure 1consumer desicion making process
(Source: visually, 2022)
The first stage in the consumer decision-making process is the recognition of needs and problems. In the first step, marketers of a company have to identify the needs, wants, and desires of the customers in a target market. A marketer needs to analyze the company's product and services so that they can fit the consumer's life or not. The first step helps the marketer of a company to find out the life of products and services in a targeted market.
The second step of the consumer decision-making process is information search. The stage reflects the external and internal factors used by consumers to make a decision related to purchasing products and services. In this stage, the potential consumers evaluate the information along with the merits and demerits of the company's products and services. The marketers of an organization can take good advantage of providing consumer inquiry needs, related to the products and services by the second stage.
Coming up to the third stage of a consumer decision-making process is alternative product evaluation. In this step, the consumer accessed all the available substitutes of products and services in the market and then decide the best product to purchase. From the third step, marketers can analyze the position of their product in the target market and can extract additional benefits from substitute products by which the customer is attracted to competitors' products.
The fourth step explains the purchase decision of the customer, which is the final stage of a consumer's journey. In the fourth stage, the consumer finalizes the decision related to the purchase of the decided product/services. The fourth step helps marketers to differentiate their products from other products available in the market to attract more customers.
The last stage highlighted as an evaluation of post-purchase refers to analyzing how the purchase was executed. The purchase process shows a positive and negative experience of a customer which reflects that consumer's willingness to buy or not to buy that productagain. The marketers will lead to ensure that consumer should experience positivity while purchasing their products to invite them again for buying their products/services.
Importance of understanding consumer decision-making for marketers
Consumer decision-making highly impacts the sales of business products and services in a consumer market. The company sales depend upon a customer's choice of accessible products in the market. Hence, consumers play a major role in the position of the company in the market, so a marketer needs to map a path to purchase and understand consumer decision-making(Pousttchi, and Dehnert, 2018). To maintain an organization's profit and consumer value, marketers of a company have to analyze why customers purchase specific products and no other products. For obtaining the challenging task, consumer behavior and consumer decision-making are studied by marketers to gain successful marketing of an organization.
Consumer behavior is unpredictable and irrational, still, try to understand the behavior of customers to lead a company on a successful path. It is very important for marketers to not skip any stage of the consumer decision-making process for better results in marketing. All the customers are influenced by two ways such as internal feelings and external stimuli. Internal feeling includes fatigue, thirst, or hunger, on the other hand, external stimuli include window shopping, interaction with salespersons, talking with family and friends about the products, and advertisements. Internal and external feelings affect the consumer's purchase decision for the products and services of a company.
To increase the sales of a product in a consumer market, the marketer needs to choose an effective way of positioning their products in the consumer's mind. By convincing consumers that the product is an essential need for a daily routine, the marketer can attract more consumers and perform successful marketing for an organization.
Appropriate forms of research to evaluate the influence on the decision-making process
Research affects decision-making in all areas, but research varies on the type of individual and the type of company. The appropriate forms to understand the influence on a decision-making process are discussed below, under the three heads.
Identify different stages of the consumer decision-making process influenced by different factors
As the consumer decision-making process has various steps, different factors can affect the consumer choices or decisions in buying a product(Voramontri, and Klieb, 2019). The two factors that influence different stages of the consumer decision-making process are mentioned below.
The first and foremost factor is the psychological factor, the factors include motivation, attention, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes, and memory. Talking about motivational theories, customer motivation refers to the satisfaction in both psychological and physiological needs of the consumer by purchasing and consuming products of a company. Marketers can also motivate consumers through different motivation theories such as Maslow's need hierarchy theory, means-end chains (MEC) analysis, etc. The attention of a consumer on product advertisements is very important in marketing a company. Customer attention is one of an objective of marketing to store the products in the consumer's mind.
Consumer attention toward the product is not enough for successful marketing. So the awareness and perception about the product also influence customers to buy the product and create a large customer base for a company. Through learning, marketers can see permanent changes occur in the behavior of a consumer from past behavior. The experience and information cause the learning changes in customer behavior. Trust and belief of a person can lead to regular and irregular buying habits of a customer. The attitude towards an organization or its products affects an individual choice to buy or not to buy the product. Memory plays a major role in the promotion of a company's product in the market. Continuous advertisements of a company's product affect an everlasting and long impact on the consumer's memory. Marketers have to make a strategy in which more customers should be attracted to the product and existing consumers also buy the products continuously.
The second factor is the environmental factor which also plays the main role in the consumer decision-making process. The environmental factor includes social, personal, and cultural factors. In the social factor, the marketer is pointing out the customer's motives, learning, wants, etc. which are affected by the consumer's family, friends, reference groups, opinion leaders, and social class. In personal factors, the uniqueness of a consumer is highlighted such as the person’s age, demographics, sex, etc. Cultural factors refer to the person's beliefs, values, and perception of that nation.
Differences between B2C and B2B decision-making process
Both B2B and B2C are important models for a business but both have a huge difference in the world of business. B2B stands for business-to-business model and B2C stands for a business-to-consumer model. The B2B is a business model in which one company sells its products and services to another company(R?klaitis, and Pilelien?, 2019). The B2B model operation of a company is done between two businesses by exchanging goods and services. While B2C refers to that business model in which a company sells its products directly to the end users or consumers.
B2C markets are comparatively larger than B2B markets, as in B2C markets the company's focus is mainly on a product and its merits than a customer. Whereas, in the B2B market the major focus of the company is on the product's logic and its characteristics. Every business expectation is to get a high return on investment (ROI) but in the B2B market, estimation of ROI is more critical than in the B2C market. There are huge unit transaction and a compact number of consumers in the B2B ecosystem on the other hand in the B2C ecosystem number of consumers are large and transaction units are small. In the decision-making process, the B2B markets involve top authorities of the company and it is a multiplex process that includes many people. While the B2C markets involve mostly the customers and the process of decision making in this market is less complex.
Methods and approaches of market research to understand the B2C and B2B decision-making process
There are three approaches and methods of market research such as environmental study which is also called PESTEL study, qualitative research, and quantitative research. For environmental research, the company has to pay attention to PESTLE analyses, these five forces help to understand both markets equally.
As in both B2C and B2B markets, the business has to compete with a huge number of companies; the environmental method helps the company to analyze both the internal and external environment. The qualitative research approach includes focus groups and face-to-face interviews. The decision of buying a product is usually done by the final customer in the B2C market and B2B market a decision to purchase is in hands of distinct shareholders of a company. Qualitative research helps the company to identify competitors, analyze the market dynamics, and understand the competitor's decision-making process. According to this method, the business can adopt an effective marketing strategy.
The last method of market research which signify the online survey is called quantitative study. The research of the B2C and B2B ecosystem is carried out through different online surveys to collect the mathematical expression of business sales and existing customers of a company. The quantitative method helps the company to analyze customer pReferences through various statistical data provided on online panels.
Evaluation of decision-making process stages influenced by marketers
The marketer of a company influences consumers in four ways in each step of customer decision-making such as preference, awareness, purchase, and purchase intention(Trim, and Lee, 2021). Marketers can change the customer's opinions towards the company's product by interacting with different customers on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
Marketing mix elements influence the decision-making process
The marketing mix has four elements which are product, place, price, and promotion. The right quantity of marketing mix elements is very important to make the profitable direction of a company(Wu, and Li, 2018). Each factor of the marketing mix influence the other elements, so constant balance across all factors is needed.
Figure 2marketing mix elements
(Source: principles of Marketing [deprecated], 2016)
The product element influences price, place, and promotion. As if the price of products is low then the quality of a product may be influenced. Same as if the product is sold at a luxury place then high quality is needed in the product. But if the marketer uses an effective promotion strategy like buy-one-get-one-free for cheap products then it will lead to high profits for the company.
The price element influence the product factor positively, if the expensive product is produced then the price will be higher and if the low-quality product is produced then the price will be lower. If the product has low or cheap prices then the discounted places and shops are effective as influenced by the price of a product. And last, the promotion element is influenced by price, if the product has high prices than the cost of a product can be reduced by the use of promotions.
The place element influences the product factor, as the area, location, and type of public influence the product selling of a business. Price is highly influenced by the place, as it is not advisable to sell expensive goods by discount retailers. If a promotion for a product is using national media then the product will be required to be available across the nation.
Promotion influences the decisions of price, place, and product elements of the company. A fresh or new product needs high promotional activity in the market than the existing products. The gift promotional strategy is best suited to the expensive products which influence the price of the company. Both the online and offline ways of product promotion of a company influence the place element in which the products should be available in the suitable market.
Role of opinion leaders in B2C and B2B decision-making process
Opinion leaders play a major role in the decision-making process in both B2C and B2B ecosystems. Opinion leaders are persons or institutes that are specialists within an industry. Opinion leaders work as a source of information for their followers and audience who trust the provided information and use it according to their interests(Oueslatiet. al. 2021). Opinion leaders can influence the decision of the audience based on industry trends, consumer behavior, and current events related to the market.
B2B marketers realised the possibilities available to present themselves as an opinion leader on social media. Opinion leaders share advanced knowledge, fresh insights, and futuristic ideas with their audience in the B2B market. At a business level, opinion leadership means the strategy that B2B companies use while executing social media marketing strategies. The major aim of opinion leadership in B2B is not the generation of current sales but to build everlasting trust-based relationships with consumers.
In B2C markets opinion leaders play an important role as social media influencers. Social media influencers create quality content on various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. By doing so, they connect with their audience, drive engagement and increase the company’s followers. Content shared by social media influencers also positions them to connect with the brands. Social media influencers impact the decision-making process of consumers by influencing them with their content shared.
Influence of marketers on each decision-making stage by applying methods and models
From the above-discussed methods and models of the B2C and B2B decision-making process, it is extracted that the marketer influences each stage of the decision-making process. In a different step of the decision-making process, marketers use advertisements to attract more customers in B2C markets, and in B2B markets the marketers develop their relations with other companies' marketers to sell the products to that business(Zak, and Hasprova, 2020). The qualitative method of research helps marketers to explain the effective quality of a product through advertisements to consumers and other businesses. Marketers also implement a different strategy to influence the public by making them emotional about their family, friends, and culture.
Marketers apply various methods to gain high attention in B2B and B2C ecosystems to compete with competitors. The different models of the decision-making process, are named command, vote, consult, and consensus models. The position of marketers in the different models of the decision-making process is to make several strategies to influence a large base of customers in purchasing a company’s product. The company's marketer's work describes an existing and upcoming customer for a company. The work of marketers is to motivate a large base of customers and businesses to buy the products of the company at any cost. A good marketing strategy made by marketers will lead to an increase in sales of the company.
Conclusion
The report is concluded that the role of decision-making in consumers and marketers of a business will lead to a greater impact on the company. Consumer behavior shows a company's position and growth possibility of business in the market. It is recommended that the company should make positive relations with the consumers to develop a good mentality for the product or company in the customer. Along with this, the report considered a pathway of the decision-making process in both the business market and consumer market. The seven steps decision-making process makes the easiest way for the company to reach out to the large base of consumers in the market. It is concluded that consumer decision-making has five steps which are very important for marketers to understand deeply.Marketers has to understand the different stages of consumer decision making process.
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