Q. Show the Major applications of consumer behaviour?

Marketing strategy: The most noticeable is for marketing strategy or making better marketing campaigns. For instance by understanding that consumers are more receptive to food advertising when they are hungry we learn to schedule snack advertisements late in the afternoon. By understanding that fresh products are typically initially adopted by a few consumers and only spread later and then only gradually to the rest of the population we learn that

(1) Companies that introduce new products should be well financed so that they can stay afloat until their products become a commercial success and

(2) It is significant to please initial customers since they will in turn influence lots of subsequent customers brand choices.

Public Policy- A second application is public policy. In the 1980s Accutane a close to miracle cure for acne was introduced. Regrettably Accutane resulted in severe birth defects if taken by pregnant women.

Even though physicians were instructed to caution their female patients of this a number still became pregnant while taking the drug. To obtain consumers attention the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) took the step of requiring that extremely graphic pictures of deformed babies be shown on the medicine containers.

Social marketing- Social marketing engages getting ideas across to consumers rather than selling something. Marty Fishbein a marketing professor went on vacation to work for the Centres for Disease Control trying to reduce the incidence of transmission of diseases through illegal drug utilize. The best solution clearly would be if we could get illegal drug users to stop. This but was deemed to be infeasible. It was as well determined that the practice of sharing needles was too ingrained in the drug culture to be stopped. Consequently using knowledge of consumer attitudes Dr. Fishbein formed a campaign that encouraged the cleaning of needles in bleach prior to sharing them a goal that was believed to be more realistic.

Better Consumer- As a final benefit studying consumer behaviour should make us better consumers. Common sense suggests for instance that if you buy a 64 liquid ounce bottle of laundry detergent you must pay less per ounce than if you bought two 32 ounce bottles. In practice though you often pay a size premium by buying the larger quantity. In other sense in this case knowing this fact will sensitize you to necessitate to check the unit cost labels to determine if you are actually getting a bargain.

There are numerous units in the market that can be analyzed. Our major thrust in this course is the consumer. Nevertheless we will as well need to analyze our own firm's strengths and weaknesses and those of competing firms. Presume for instance that we make a product aimed at older consumers a growing segment. A rival firm that targets babies a shrinking market is likely to consider repositioning toward our market. To measure a competing firm's potential threat we require examining its assets (example patents, market knowledge, technology and awareness of its brands) against pressures it faces from the market. At last we require assessing conditions (the marketing environment). For instance although we may have developed a product that offers great appeal for consumers a recession may perhaps cut demand dramatically.