Consumer behavior

Consumer behavior refers to the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to choose, use (consume), and dispose of products and services, including consumers’ emotional, mental, and behavioral responses.

Studying consumer behavior is important because it helps marketers understand what influences consumers’ buying decisions.

By understanding how consumers decide on a product, they can fill in the gap in the market and identify the products that are needed and the products that are obsolete. Behind apparently simple decisions, there are a range of thought processes which impact decision-making. For instance, a buyer may decide at the “spur of the moment”, based on emotion, or he may make a researched, and well-thought-out decisions.

Consumers spend time carrying out research and comparing multiple products. They check product ratings and also ask friends or sales professionals. The process takes longer to complete.

There are four factors that influence consumer behavior. These factors impact whether or not that the target customer buys the product. They are cultural, social, personal and psychological.

Personal factors associated with audience demographics such as age, culture, profession, age and background play major roles in forming consumers' interests and opinions.

There are four psychological factors that influence consumer behavior: Motivation, perception, learning, and attitude or belief system. Marketing campaigns can influence consumer behaviors because they elicit reactions, utilizing imagery and word associations tied to emotional responses.
Consumer behavior

Product deletion

Product deletion is a process of eliminating a product from the product mix, usually because it no longer satisfies a significant number of customers.  Product deletion may occur at any time. However a company generally does so when the product has reached the decline stage of the product life cycle or when sales begin showing a dramatic downward shift and profit erode.

A declining product reduces an organization’s profitability and drains resources that could be used to modify other products or develop a new one. On business armlets, product deletions may become quite complex, involving not just communication with customers, but also existing long-term contracts remaining estimated demand, carful production planning and estimated demand for spare parts. It is also complex decision that is likely to have ripple throughout the organization.

No manager will want to be associated with a product failure and may either completely abandon the sinking ship or there may be tendency to hold on and continue to channel resources to possible losing proposition.

Some organizations delete products only after the products have become heavy financial burdens. A better approach is one form of systematic review in which each product is evaluated periodically to determine its impact on the overall effectiveness of the firm’s product mix.

The product deletion process consists of four stages:
*Detection of weak products
*Analysis of the weak products identified
*decision to eliminate the product
*Implementation of the deletion decision
Product deletion