UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMERS
Introduction
For managing the customer in an appropriate manner it is significant for the businesses to understand their customers in an appropriate manner. The customer buying behaviour and their perspective towards the products and services offered to them is very important for the firms (Trudel, 2019). This report is an essay which will explore about different concepts related to the customers and the different perceptual processes in understanding consumers. Moreover the essay will explore about understanding the customers in the tourism sector and business management. Managing the wide and diverse customers of tourism industry is an challenging task for the firms operating in this industry. This essay will discuss about the contemporary perspective on consumption, consumers in society and impact of individual decision making on the buying behaviour of the customers.
Contemporary Perspectives on consumption
Understanding the customer is a matter of concern for the sellers. Due to this reason a lot of research is being conducted in this area. There are two different perspectives which offer an basic ideas related to the customer behavior and their buying patterns. In the recent decades consumption had now become a significant part of everyone's day to day life. The classical and the contemporary perspective of consumption focus on exploring that how the customers are moving towards an purchase decision. This perspective is well explained in “The why of consumption: Contemporary perspective of consumer motives, goals and desires”- a book by Hoffman and others (Moisander et. al. 2020). Culture is having an significant role to play in everyone's life. The contemporary perspective of the consumption is based on this concept that the buying behavior and the consumption of the customers is based on the customers culture and practices.
Businesses operating in all the industries are not focusing more on understanding their customers in the basis of their culture. This helps them in connecting well with the customers by offering them more customized experience related to the products and services offered to them. The perspective is well applied to the tourism industry as well. There are different factors such as shared values, mutual interest, culture and beliefs which are acting as a tourist motivation for the customers. So according to the contemporary perspective of consumption it is important for the businesses to understand that what are the different motivation of the customers which are creating an need or urge in them to make a purchase.
Individual Decision-Making and Involvement
All the customers are having their needs and motivates for a product and service. This is having an significant role to play on the individual decision making and involvement in the consumption. Every single customer is having their own ideas and believe related to the products and services. This is having a major role to play in the buying process of the customer. The level of involvement of the customer is also very important. This concept explains that how important the particular product and service is to the customer. Along with this the personal interest of the customers in the context of the particular product or service also affects the consumption patterns of the customer (Mou and Benyoucef, 2021).
When it comes to tourist customers then all the tourists are having different motives for making the tourist decision. There can be different reasons for their due to which they are having an travel. In this context it is very important for the businesses to understand that all the individuals are unique so they need to use this concept while marketing their products and services. All the possible motivated and the interests which a target customer can have need to be fulfilled then only the product or the services with attract the customers in an appropriate manner.
Importance of Perceptual Processes in understanding individual consumers
Understanding the consumer behavior is a challenging task for the businesses. The customer goes through an entire buying journey while making a purchase and having different perception towards the products during the entire buying process. When the customers get in contact to the product then the perception helps them in connecting to the products. According to the perceptual concept of understanding individual customers it is important for the company to focus on all the different stages of the perception which takes place during the consumer information processing (New, 2020). This concept is widely being used in the marketing where the companies focuses on all the four stages of the perceptual process which are sensation, attention, interpretation and retention.
In general terms perceptual process can be understood as the sequence of the stages through which an individual goes when it come in contact to the environment and then the environment leads to our perception of stimulus and these stimulus leads to actions. The marketers needs to understand that it is important for them that how they interacts and comes in contact to the customers through the marketing stimulus as these stimulus would be leading the customers towards making a purchase decision related to the products and services.
Consumers in Society
There are different types of customers on the society. It is important to understand the type of customers and this will help the businesses in doing effective marketing and promoting their goods and services in more appropriate manner. But the customers in the society are being divided into the different social groups. For an instance family, close friends, neighbor and work group are some of the social groups which are having an major impact on the buying behavior of the customer. Customers are having an habit to share their experiences with others and this leads to have an major impact on the marketing of the products and branding as well.
The marketers need to understand these different social groups in the society and need to explore that how important every single customer is for them. This will help them in understanding their customers and influencing them in an appropriate manner. The entire consumers’ society in which the buying and sellers are interacting with each other is very important for the businesses (Han, 2021). The different factors of the society in which the customers are living is also sharing their buying behavior. So the firms need to understand that how they can create a positive image for their products and services in the society for influence the buying behavior of the customers.
Where it is heading - Future Trends in Consumer Behavior
In the recent decades the consumer behavior had changed to a greater extent. With the ongoing technological advancement and modernization the needs and desires of the customer are also changing. This is creating a major challenge for the businesses in understanding their customers and their buying behavior. There are different factors which are now emerging for the consumers and are having a major impact on their consumer behavior. In today's world the customers are becoming more heath conscious. This is an important future trend which will be seen in the consumer behavior. In this context the businesses operating in the food sector or the food offering sector such as hotels and restaurants needs to understand that now their products needs to be more healthy. Apart from this now the customers are more focusing on transparency, moving towards online buying, focusing on buying the most important products and focused more on having better interaction with the brands.
The move towards technologies had made a major increase in the demand of online shopping. After the covid-19 pandemic the online shopping market and digital marketing had gained a lot of importance from the customer point of view and these needs to be considered by the companies operating in different industries. Along with this customers are now focusing on having an experience related to the products while making a purchase. Sustainability is also a major trend which is emerging in consumer behavior because now the customers are more concerned about the environment (Amberg and Fogarassy, 2019). Due to this reason it is very important for the firms to focus on all the major trends which are shaping the customer behavior and their buying process to a greater extent.
Conclusion
From the above mentioned discussion it is clear that the customer can have different perspective towards the products and services. It is significant for the companies to understand their customers by applying different concepts which are affecting the buying behaviour, consumer perspective and their overall experience with the brand. From this it can be concluded that all the firms operating in the different industries need to work on understanding their customers for attracting and retaining them in an effective manner. Along with this the firms operating in the tourism industry need to focus on offering the best possible experience to their customers at every point of contact. This would help them in shaping the perspective of the customers related to the products and services. Also the above mentioned concepts need to be applied by the hospitality service offering firms for understanding their customers in an appropriate manner.
References
Amberg, N. and Fogarassy, C., 2019. Green consumer behavior in the cosmetics market. Resources, 8(3), p.137.
Han, H., 2021. Consumer behavior and environmental sustainability in tourism and hospitality: A review of theories, concepts, and latest research. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29(7), pp.1021-1042.
Moisander, J., Närvänen, E. and Valtonen, A., 2020. Interpretive marketing research: Using ethnography in strategic market development.
Mou, J. and Benyoucef, M., 2021. Consumer behavior in social commerce: Results from a meta-analysis. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 167, p.120734.
New, H., 2020. Consumer behavior.
Trudel, R., 2019. Sustainable consumer behavior. Consumer psychology review, 2(1), pp.85-96.
