Consumer Behavior Theory and Its Application in Marketing Management Post COVID-19

Understanding Consumer Behavior Theory

Consumers are individuals or organizations that purchase or hire goods and services for final consumption. Hence, consumer behavior revolves around the study of purchasing a commodity or service from a consumer’s perspective, how often, when, what, why and where they purchase and use the product (Market Business News, 2022). Study of the consumer behavior theory helps the market managers to influence the consumer choices by providing them information of how their product/ service can satisfy their needs or wants. The pandemic has resulted in change of buyer’s preferences from want-driven to need-driven commodities. Marketing plays an important role to influence the consumer behavior. Outdoor marketing practices pre COVID period have become obsolete. Broadcast media advertisements create a huge impact on the consumer through various stages of awareness, interest, conviction, sales and post sales (Sama, 2019). E-commerce and digital marketing mix have conquered the market trend. Hence the changes in consumer engagement mode, method and choice have increased the challenges for marketing managers to attract and retain their customer base.

The research discusses the Consumer Behavior Theory and its application in marketing management. It states the change in trend of market preferences post COVID; and thus, focuses on how the application of Consumer Behavior Theory can provide an advantage to the marketing managers to deal with post COVID-19 challenges in the market.

From the market perspective, consumers are economic entities that buy or hire goods and services for personal usage (Market Business News, 2022). The behavior displayed by a consumer in searching, buying, using, assessing and then disposing a product, service or idea is known as consumer behavior (Erasmus & Toit, 2019). Consumer Behavior Theory is the study of identifying and analyzing consumer’s decision process while purchasing commodities so that businesses and market can formulate strategies to manipulate or act accordingly. According to the Lewin’s formula on consumer behavior theory:

Where B= Consumer Behavior, f= factors that influence the behavior, P=Personal choice, E=Environmental factors (Samli, 2013).

Understanding the nature of the buyer by applying the consumer behavior theory, and mapping his decisions or choices helps the marketer to identify the market trend, to provide the good or service in demand; and to craft efficient marketing strategies based on the consumer’s behavior predictions to attract as many target audience as possible. Marketers make attempt to influence this behavior for their profit (Asiegbu & Daubry, 2012).

In today’s time, the need to track the consumer behavior has even more increased due to the drastic change in consumer demand pattern post COVID-19. Significant researches have been made to analyze the change in consumer behavior post COVID. According to survey reports by McKinsey, consumers have reduced their shopping frequency and have shifted to e-commerce platforms. A trend of purchase of organic products focusing on community health and hygiene has accelerated with prioritization of purchase from renowned brands for quality assurance and safety (Kohli, Timelin, Fabius, & Veranen, 2020). According to a report generated by PwC, consumer shopping patterns have shifted towards spending on essential commodities with a 27% increase in purchase of groceries, 25% increase in household and hygiene supplies and an 11% increase in personal care products and pharmacy ( PwC, 2022). All these preferential changes have increased the challenges faced by managers to promote their product through marketing. The marketing trend has shifted towards digital platforms. Encouragement of virtual environment has resulted in out-of-home marketing techniques to become obsolete (Coghlan & Berg, 2020). Around 4.62 billion users use social media worldwide, out of which 29.5% focus on the ongoing trend and 26.3% search products to purchase through these sites according to GWC reports (Kepios, 2022).

Shift in Consumer Behavior Post COVID-19

Hence, to strengthen the consumer market base, and to maintain the brand reputation in this global economic recession, it has become extremely important for the businesses to implement the consumer behavior theory and digitally influence them to become a valued customer through social media platforms like instagram, facebook, etc (Coghlan & Berg, 2020). Although sufficient research has been found focusing on the application of consumer behavior theory on marketing, little have the context of analyzing its associated advantage to the managers to deal with the post COVID scenario. Hence, our paper focuses on the same.

Research Design  

The method of quantitative analysis will be used for collecting numerical and valid data and research will be done on how marketing managers have applied consumer behavior theory post COVID19 for marketing their product or service and have they received any advantage in their marketing strategy due to it, if yes what.

Data collection and analysis procedure

Primary data collection will be used to collect current data and then quantitative analysis will be performed on it since recent data of manager’s experience for marketing post COVID19 is required. The observation and facts will be statistically presented using tables and graphs for clearer representation and understanding.

Population and sampling method

Marketing managers from neighboring companies in Ireland have been approached via different social media platforms to participate in the survey. The researcher will conduct survey through questionnaire via Google Forms. The sample size for this study will be 50 people.

References

PwC. (2022). Evolving priorities: COVID-19 rapidly reshapes consumer behavior. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from PwC: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/consumer-markets/library/covid-19-consumer-behavior-survey.html

Asiegbu, I. F., & Daubry, P. (2012). Consumer Attitude: Some Reflections on Its Concept, Trilogy,Relationship with Consumer Behavior, and Marketing Implications. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(13), 38-50.

Coghlan, A., & Berg, K. (2020). The Top Marketing Challenges Amid COVID-19, and How to Overcome Them. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from Wipro Digital: https://wiprodigital.com/2020/04/29/the-top-marketing-challenges-amid-covid-19-and-how-to-overcome-them/

Erasmus, A., & Toit, D. d. (2019). Consumer Behavior Theory. In A. Erasmus, & D. d. Toit, Consumer behaviour:South African Psychology & Marketing Applications (p. 416). Oxford University Press.

Kepios. (2022). Global Social Media Stats. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from Datareportal: https://datareportal.com/social-media-users

Kohli, S., Timelin, B., Fabius, V., & Veranen, S. M. (2020). How COVID-19 is changing consumer behaviour. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from McKinsey & Company:

Market Business News. (2022). Consumers – definition and meaning. Retrieved January 30, 2022, from Market Business News : https://marketbusinessnews.com/financial-glossary/consumers-definition-meaning/

Sama, R. (2019). Impact of Media Advertisements on Consumer Behaviour. Journal of Creative Communications, 14(1), 54-68.

Samli, A. C. (2013). International Consumer Behavior in the 21st Century: Impact on Marketing. Springer Science & Business Media.