Effects of branding on consumer behaviour

The consumer’s attitudes, preferences, opinions, intentions, and decisions determine their behaviour. These factors regulate how consumers behave when making buying decisions. Collectively, it’s called consumer buying behaviour. Consumers use branding as a signal in order to purchase products or services. Branding helps consumers decide between products quickly and with greater certainty.

Consumers’ beliefs about the brand create the foundation of brand image and consumer perception about a product, which is transported into a brand identity. 

It can either be formed by brand positioning & marketing, where it can be shaped by environmental factors like products that are sulphur-free and chemical-free, or from word-of-mouth, advertising, usage reviews, and others. Branding as a whole affects the business, the consumers and their purchasing behaviour. 

How does branding benefit a customer? 

Branding helps identify the product and the company that consumers can easily recognise they like or dislike, and that’s why a consumer’s life becomes easy.

Secondly, branding helps consumers reduce their purchasing time and their perceived risk of purchase. When determining the product’s quality is challenging, the brand assists consumers in believing in the product, and finally, consumers gain psychological reward and pleasure from owning the brand.

It might happen when a customer buys an Aston Martin car, a Rolex watch, or Gucci handbags, for example. With branding, the world for consumers becomes easy and for companies alike. 

How does branding work?

The effects of branding on consumer behaviour act in three ways. An increase in brand awareness influences consumers’ opinions and decisions when they need to purchase that product.

Also, exposure to advertisements through social media, billboard catalogues, and logos help to build an impression in the consumer knowledge base. Because of this, the consumer can do three things when making a buying decision, even between two brooms: 

1. They believe one brand is better than the other.
2. They feel certain about their choice.
3. They make quick decisions.

A clear branding strategy makes it easy for companies to convey the brand’s message and image to their prospective customers and create a better perception of the brand in their minds.

When done right, branding will make the product more recognisable by making it stand out from its competitors. A branding strategy can be called successful if it increases customers’ loyalty toward the price of service, which can be done by creating a strong brand image and personality.  

What are brand personality and image, and how does it affect consumer behaviour?

Brand image can be defined as a unique group of associations that creates a perception about an offering within the minds of the target consumers. It is the present mindset of consumers about the brand that reflects what the brand stands for at present.

The phrase “brand personality” refers to how brands are described in terms of human characteristics.

Most of the time, it is difficult to differentiate brands based on functional characteristics. That’s why companies create the brand personality through communication, which differentiates the brand from competing brands. In many markets, there are no real differences among the competitors, so consumers begin to explore a more emotional level, where the brand personality comes in. 

When comparing the two: Brand image refers to rational measurements like quality, strength, flavour & Brand personality explains why people like some brands more than others, even when there is no physical difference between them. A brand personality is the set of human characteristics associated with a brand. 

For example, the Harley-Davidson motorcycle brand persona is of a macho freedom-seeking man, while Coke’s personality is real, and Pepsi is young, spirited, and exciting. 

Effects of branding on consumer behaviour

Branding burns thoughts and feelings deep into the consumer psyche for both good and bad. Today’s brands can be thought of as the collection of thoughts and feelings individuals have about a product, service or company. Therefore, branding is all an organisation’s activities to nurture the particular thoughts and feelings it wants to elicit in its customers. 

Branding hijacks the consumer’s thoughts and feelings to guide how they buy a brand in which they feel positive emotions and take some of the anxiety out of shopping because people become loyal to their favourite brands.

The concept of branding has been around for centuries, but it took off in the last 30 years with the rise of global capitalism. Now everything is branded from charities, universities, and celebrities to cities, countries, and even abstract concepts. It makes consumers spend more and consume too much.

At its best, branding can guide consumers into better ways of living and buying. There is branding that does well in the world, like helping people eat healthier, benefit the environment or improve fair pay and greater representation. But there is branding that does wrong and brainwashes consumers to use those products more that do more harm to them and to the environment. So, what are the ethics in consumer behaviour? 

Ethics In Consumer Behaviour

The term ethics means the basic standards by which humans decide what is right and wrong,  what is fair and unfair. Ethics do not involve the law. Something can be legal but still be unethical. For example, it is legal for a company to manufacture its t-shirts in a developing country where labour costs are low and little attention may be paid to issues such as workers’ rights and workplace safety, but is it ethical?

It is also legal for a consumer to purchase that t-shirt, but is he making an ethical choice because often, the people involved in producing these goods receive low-pay work under dangerous conditions or in unfair circumstances. Child labour may be used in producing goods, such as processing the cocoa used to make the chocolate.

The environment is also affected by consumer choices. Some goods are produced in places where environmental regulation is lacking or at a cost to the natural ecosystem. The food products that have been highly purchased may have been made in circumstances that have caused pain or harm to animals.

How to become ethical consumers?

Ethical consumption is choosing to purchase products made by companies that operate ethically; this means the goods are made without harming people, animals, or the environment. 

Every time a consumer purchases an ethically produced product, he makes a difference because the money enables the companies that operate ethically to grow and develop. It also means he’s refusing to support businesses that operate unearthly. 

Eventually, these businesses may be forced to change their ways. Many organisations offer information on ethical consumption, which can help consumers make decisions.