Demystifying Methods of Studying Consumer Behaviour

Everything you do in marketing is based on what you know about your customers. Companies invest a lot of time and energy into learning about the buying habits of their customers. An understanding of consumer psychology is critical to developing successful marketing initiatives.

Studying consumer behavior provides insight into the psychology of customers’ purchasing decisions. The dynamic and complicated nature of consumer behavior makes generalization difficult.

Why is it important for every brand to look at how their customers behave?

• Customers’ preferences for a certain brand can be gleaned from this data.
• It aids marketing and product development.
• It provides valuable insight into potential customers’ buying habits and optimal selling prices.
• It saves time, money, and effort from being put on the wrong strategies.
• It helps to grow your revenues.
• Understanding consumer behavior helps to formulate effective customer retention strategies and create value. 
• It enhances your brand equity.

There are four broad categories of consumer behavior to consider:

1. Extended decision making

When a consumer decides to make an expensive purchase of any goods, your consumer most likely consults with family and friends to seek advice. It takes more amount of time to come to a decision compared with normal product buying. 

In extended decision-making, consumers research, read reviews, and consult others, making decision-making a time-consuming process before committing to the purchase. 

2. Limited decision making

When a consumer has limited availability of options to choose from, it takes a limited amount of time to come to a decision. 

3. Habitual buying

This kind of consumer behavior is associated with mass products. In the case of habitual buying, the consumer does not invest much time and energy in making his purchase decision. 

4. Variety seeking to buy

This kind of behavior essentially revolves around product varieties. The consumer may opt for a similar product from a different brand to seek variety. Curiosity plays a crucial role in variety-seeking behavior. 

Methods of studying consumer behavior

When you have a specific aim in mind, such as researching consumer behavior to understand how your brand’s image affects purchasing decisions, you can pick the method that best suits your needs in terms of cost, time, and other aspects. 

Methods for analyzing consumer behavior are divided into two broad categories.

Quantitative methods

Data obtained through surveys, polls, questionnaires, and other sources are analyzed using quantitative approaches. These methods are focused on objectively quantifying the data.

Surveys are popular among marketing professionals because they are quick and easy to conduct. Online surveys are used by businesses to learn more about customers’ preferences, attitudes, and perceptions of various goods and services. Surveys help reach a specific set of consumers to understand their views about your brand. 

Statistical approaches might be used to analyze the survey data. To conduct surveys with a wide and focused audience, you may use platforms like SurveyMonkey and Typeform to get the job done. Surveys are the most cost-effective and time-efficient means of gathering information about consumer behavior and lifestyle choices.

Social media networks can also be used to conduct surveys and find out what your customers are thinking. It is a simple and cost-effective way to study consumer behavior. In order to create useful products and services, you can examine consumer behavior through your brand’s social media accounts if you have a sizable number of people following you.

The advantages of quantitative approaches include:

• Intuitive to perform
• It requires less time to be cost-effective.
• It provides accurate information.
• Anonymity is possible during the process.

Qualitative methods

Qualitative research methods capture non-numerical data, such as observations, comprehensive interviews, concepts, and opinions, rather than relying just on numerical data. Quantitative methods, on the other hand, typically require less time to gather data. It’s impossible to measure qualitative research objectively.

Consumer behavior can be studied qualitatively using one of the most prominent methodologies, observations. Customers’ real-time behaviors and attitudes about your brand can be observed in a naturalistic context.

Another popular way of obtaining subjective data about your customers is conducting interviews. If you want to learn more about consumer behavior, one-on-one interviews are a great way to get it.

Focus groups can get insights into consumers’ motivations and other psychological, social, and economic factors. Questionnaires are used to gather information in focus group discussions.

Qualitative approaches have their advantages, as well. Some of these are:

• It sheds light on a lot of things.
• observations based on naturalistic principles
• Provides context in the real world

Other methods

You can use popular methods like keyword research, Google Trends, Google Analytics, Twitter trends, Government reports, and social media trends. 

These methods are easy-to-use and cost-effective in collecting data and consumer insights. 

Simple steps that help to study consumer behavior

To build successful products and brands, it is necessary to have an in-depth understanding of your consumers. Here are a few steps that are crucial in studying consumer behavior:

1. Use segmentation

Putting your consumers into a broad category may not help create impactful business strategies. It is an ideal practice to use segmentation of your consumers into smaller groups based on parameters such as demographics, interests, use of technology, and so on. Consumer segmentation helps to narrow down your research findings and provides reliable data.

2. Understand what sells for each segment:

Once you have used segmentation to narrow down various types of consumers, it is important to find out the selling points for each segment. It is essential role to build the right products for your consumers.

3. Compare qualitative findings with quantitative data:

While qualitative and quantitative methods have their own benefits, comparing findings from both methods is crucial to evaluate the credibility of the results.  

All in all, here’s what we need to know

Every company’s and product’s strategy is based on consumer behavior. Consumer behavior analysis is critical for creating successful marketing strategies and increasing earnings for your company. You can use the approaches outlined above to research your customers and acquire data that can be used as the basis for your company’s strategy.

FAQs

1. What factors affect consumer behavior?

Psychological, social, and personal factors commonly affect consumer behavior across the segments.

2. Which online tools are used for analyzing consumer behavior?

Many free or paid tools are available to study the data collected from consumer behavior studies, such as Hotjar, Brand24, and more.

3. Why do psychological factors affect consumer behavior?

Psychological factors are nothing but consumers’ beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes towards certain brands or products. To understand consumer behavior, it is essential to study underlying factors influencing consumer choices.