Learning - Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behavior we are taking here as a part of Insurance CRM Software and agency management system. We talk Perception in our past posts. Today we are going to talk Learning as important aspect of consumer behavior.

Learning

A new born infant’s sucking at the feeding bottle is instinctive behavior, but a five-year old clamouring for chocolate or chewing gum is the result of learned behavior. Much of an adult’s human behavior is learned behavior.

This is a very significant fact for marketers, because it implies that consumers can be made to learn the desired behavior through interplay of motives, stimuli, cues, responses and reinforcements. A housewife has the need for cutting down the time she spends for cooking in the kitchen. When this need is strong enough to propel her to take action it becomes a motive. The motive is directed towards the stimulus object - a pressure cooker. The stimuli are the various advertisement about the product which she sees and hears. Cuse are minor stimuli that determine when, where and how the hosewife responds.

We talk more on Learning in our next post.


ref: Insurance CRM, Insurance SFA Software, agency management software

Perception - Selective Retention

we are talking here Perception as part of consumer behavior with why crm and agency management system. Today we are going to talk abot Selective Retention as important aspect of Pereception.

Selective Retention:

People forget much of the stimuli which they receive and only remtain that information which reinforces their values and decision. You are more likely to remember the positive features of brand pressure cooker since they help reassure you that the decision which you had made was correct.

ref: Insurance Software Insurance SFA, agency management system

Perception - Selective Distortion -

Perception we are talking here as part of consumer behavior with why crm and agency management system.

Today, we are going to talk about Selective Distortion.

Let us suppose you have decided to purchase a specific brand ‘A’ of pressure cooker. Since you have already made your decision you would seek only that information which reinforces the correctness of your decision.

If you hear some positive remarks made about brand ‘B’ you would tend to find some shortcoming or flaw in that brand so that you do not feel that you have made a wrong decision by buying brand ‘A’. When to fit information to suit your own ideas or personal meaning, the process is known as selective distortion. Thus, a marketer may find that his message is often not received in the intended manner but it is twisted in different ways by different consumers.


ref: crm software and sfa applications, agency management system

Perception - Selective Exposure - CRM

Perception we are talking here as part of consumer behavior which is a part of any agency management system. We talked Types of Consumers, Buyer Vs User, factor influencing consumer behavior, psychological factors , Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs, Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs -1.

We start our talk with CRM and lead organizer software and we talked CRM, Importance of Consumer Behavior , and Consumer Behavior-Introduction.

Today we are going to talk on Selective Exposure as part of Perception with reference to Consumer Behavior.

You must have noticed that when you are on the look-out for purchasing a specific product, be it camera, refrigerator, television or any other high value product or service, you suddenly, seem to notice more than the usual number of advertisement pertaining to that specific product. This is because of your selective exposure. People are more likely to notice stimuli which relate to their immediate needs. For the marketer, the implication is that he has to carefully and accurately identify his potential customers since other customers are not at all likely to notice the stimuli. Having identified the potential customers, the marketer has to ensure that the stimuli are interesting enough to attract and hold their attention.


ref: CRM & CRM Software, agency management system

Perception - Consumer Behaviour and CRM -3

CRM and lead organizer software we are talking here as a part of agency management system. In our initial post we talked CRM, Importance of Consumer Behavior , and Consumer Behavior-Introduction .
As part of Consumer Behavior, we talk Types of Consumers, Buyer Vs User, factor influencing consumer behavior, psychological factors , Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs, Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs -1 and Perception.

Everyday, every hour of our life we are being bombarded with a variety of stimuli. If we were to analyze and interpret each one of these stimuli, it may drive us crazy. But we all have in-built screening system which helps us to ‘select; and recognize’ only the relevant stimuli and ignore all the others. As a person involved in marketing, you would like to ensure that the stimuli which you are providing are not ignored by the consumers. But rather they are recognized, interpreted and retained in the consumer memory. In this context, there are three aspects of perception which are of immediate interest to the marketer. These are selective exposure, selective distortion and selective retention.
We talk on each of them in our next post.

ref: crm, lead organizer , agency management system & lead management software

Perception - Consumer Behaviour and CRM - 2

We are talking here consumer behavior as part of our talk on Why CRM. We talked CRM, Importance of Consumer Behavior , Consumer Behavior-Introduction as a part of leadorganizer and lead management with reference to Why CRM and agency management system. In our previous post, we talk about Types of Consumers, Buyer Vs User, factor influencing consumer behavior, psychological factors effecting consumer behavior, Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs and Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs - Consumer Behaviour -1.

Today we talk Perception as psychological factor.

Perception is the second major psychological factor that influences consumer behavior. Perception can be described as “how we see the world around us”. All the time we are receiving messages through our five organs viz., eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin, The different sights, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations that we feel are knows as stimuli.

Each person recognize, selects, organizes and interprets these stimuli in his own individual manner based on his needs, values and expectations and this is knows as perception. Since each individual’s need, motives and expectations are unique therefore each individual’s perception is unique.

Perception helps to explain the phenomenon of why different individuals respond differently to the same stimulus under the same condition. As a marketing manager, you are providing stimulus to your consumers through the physical shape, colour, size, fragrance, feel, taste of your product, it’s package, advertisements and commercials.

Your interest is to understand why and what different types of perceptions are associated with each of the stimuli so that you can highlight that particular stimulus or combination of stimuli which evokes the most favorable perception in the maximum number of consumers.

ref: CRM Software with leadorganizer, agency management software

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs - Consumer Behaviour -1

CRM we are talking here and we talk CRM, Importance of Consumer Behavior , Consumer Behavior-Introduction as a part of leadorganizer and lead management with reference to Why CRM. In our previous post, we talk about Types of Consumers, Buyer Vs User, factor influencing consumer behavior, psychological factors effecting consumer behavior and Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs.

Today we are continuing our talk on maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs helps us understand consumer motivations. It is useful for the marketer who can identify what generic level need h is product is capable of fulfilling and accordingly position his product and back it up with relevant marketing inputs.

Products such as food and cloths are purchased because they fulfill safety needs; most personal care products such as soap, toothpaste, shaving cream, perfume are bought primarily because they serve social needs. And luxury products such as jewellery, expensive clothing, fancy house and cares are bough mainly to serve ego and self-actualizations needs.

The same product can be sold to entirely distinct customer segments provided the marketer can correctly identify the need which the product is fulfilling. For instance, a cycle may be bough by different customer segments for entirely different reasons. One segment may buy to use it as a mean of commuting, for another segment, a cycle serves a recreational/leisure need while for a third segment, it fulfils the need of a health aid. Still another customer segment buys a cycle for use in competitive sport.


ref: CRM and SFA software leadorganizer

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs - Consumer Behaviour

Why CRM? We are talking here. We talked about CRM, Importance of Consumer Behavior , Consumer Behavior---Introduction as a part of leadorganizer and lead management with reference to Why CRM. In our previous post, we talk about Types of Consumers, Buyer Vs User and factor influencing consumer behavior and psychological factors effecting consumer behavior.

Today we are going to talk about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

All human need can be classified into five hierarchical categories and this hierarchy is universally applicable. These five categories are as under.

1) Physiological Needs.
2) Safety & Security Needs.
3) Social Needs.
4) Ego Needs.
5) Self actualization Needs.
The theory of hierarchy of need was propounded by Abraham Maslow. According to Maslow’s hierarchy all needs can be ranked in order of importance from the low biological need to the higher level psychological needs. Each level of unfulfilled need motivates the individual’s behaviour and as each successive level of need is fulfilled people keep moving on to the next higher level of need.
The different levels of need have been depicted as being water tight compartments. But in reality there is always overlap amongst the different levels of need. Since no need is ever totally satisfied. There is always scope for further fulfillment.

We continue our talk in next post.

ref: crm & sfa software

Psychological Factors-Consumer Behavior

We talk about Importance of Consumer Behavior , Consumer Behavior---Introduction ,CRM as a part of leadorganizer and lead management with reference to crm. In our previous post, we talk about Types of Consumers, Buyer Vs User and factor influencing consumer behavior.


Consumer Needs and Motivations
We all have needs and we consume different goods and services with the expectation that they will help fulfill these needs. When a need is sufficiently pressing, it directs the person to seek its satisfaction. It is known as Motive. All our needs can be classified into two categories-primary and secondary.

Primary need or motives are the physiological need which we are born with, such as the need for air, water, food, clothing, shelter and sex.

The secondary needs are our acquired needs which we have developed in response to the society and environment in which we live. The secondary needs are the result of the individuals’ psychological make-up and his relationship with other members of the society.

The secondary need may include the need of power, prestige, esteem, affection, learning, status etc. Clothing is a primary need for all of us but the need for three piece tweed suit or jean pant o silk kimono are expressions acquired needs. The man wearing a three piece tweed suit may be seeking to fulfill his status need or his ego need by impressing his friends and family.

The theory of hierarchy of need was propounded by Abraham Maslow. We talk on this in our next post.


ref: crm, sfa, lead management, leadorganizer software for insurance industry.

Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour

We talk about Importance of Consumer Behavior , Consumer Behavior---Introduction ,CRM as a part of leadorganizer and lead management with reference to crm. In last two post, we talk about Types of Consumers and Buyer Vs User. Today, I m going to talk different factors influencing consumer behavior.

Consumer behavior is affected y a lost of variables, ranging from personal motivations, needs, attitudes and values, personality characteristics, socio-economic and cultural background, age, sex, professional status to social influences of various kinds exerted by family, friends, colleagues and society as a whole.

The combinations of these various factors produce a different impact on each one of us as manifested in our different behavior as consumers. You may think that the best way of utilizing your annual saving is to have a Christmas vacation, but your wife thinks it is wisest to invest in jewellery, while your colleague considers buying shares as the best way of spending savings. Thus you would find that each person has his or her own standards of judgments and distinct behavior in every aspect of his role as a consumer.

But at the same time, underlying the individual differences are similarities which help explain behavior of specific types or groups of people. It is these similarities which make it possible for us to classify and analyze the behavior of individual consumers.

Psychological factors such as individual consumer needs and motivations, perceptions, attitudes, the learning process and personality characteristics are the similarities which operate across different types of people and influence their behaviour. Amongst the social influences affecting behaviour, we can classify the influences of family, friends, leaders and the social class to which the consumer belongs.

We shall discuss these factors one by one and see how they influence the individual’s behaviour as a consumer.


Ref: Customer relationship management & lead management software

Buyer Versus User- Consumer Behavior

In my pervious post i talk abou Importance of Consumer Behavior , Consumer Behavior---Introduction ,CRM as a part of leadorganizer and lead management with reference to crm. In last post i talk about Types of Consumers. Today, I am going to talk about Buyer Vs User.

Often the person who purchases the product is not the person who actually consumes or uses the product. A Father buys toys and cloths for his young children. The father is the buyer but the actual consumers are the children. A car is purchased by the husband or the wife but it is used by all the members of the family. Thus, in the family context, you may either have the situation where the buyer is distinct from the consumer or the buyer is only one of the many consumers.
The question that arises is: Who should be the subject of study in consumer behavior? Should we study the buyer or the consumer? To overcome this problem, in many instances it is the household or the family and not the individual who is considered the subject of the study.

However, a person involved in marketing, should have a very sharply defined focus for marketing strategy, especially promotional strategy. You must identify the best prospect for your products-whether it is the buyer or the user. But even when the consumer is distinct from the buyer, the consumer's likes and dislikes, taste, etc influence the buyer's decision to purchase a specific product or brand. Thus many companies play it safe and focus their promotion at both the user and the buyer.


ref: customer relationship management software

Types of Consumers

In my pervious post i talk abou Importance of Consumer Behavior , Consumer Behavior---Introduction ,CRM as a part of leadorganizer and lead management with reference to crm. Here i like to talk about Types of Consumers.

All consumers can be classified into two types-personal and organizational. When you buy a shirt for your own use- you are buying in your capacity as a personal consumer. However, when you are buying a printer or a scanner for use in office than you are making the purchase in your capacity as an organizational consumer.

Whenever you buy goods and service for your own or for family use, you are a representative of a personal consumer. All individuals thus fall the category of personal consumer. All business firms, government agencies and bodies, non-business organization such as hospital, temples, and trusts are organizational consumers of goods and services purchased for running the organization.

Importance of Consumer Behavior

To successfully market to different market segments and for a successful marketing campaign management the marketing manager needs appropriate marketing strategies which he can design only when he understand the factors which account for those differences in consumer behaviors and tastes.

In today’s world of rapidly changing technology, consumer tastes are also characterized by fast changes. To survive in the market, a firm has to be constantly innovating and understand the latest consumer trends and tastes. Consumer behavior provides invaluable clues and guidelines to marketers on new technological frontiers which they should explore. For example, Mobile Phones, Lap Tops, LCD Monitors, etc.

Consumer behavior is a process, and purchase forms one part of this process. There are various endogenous psychological and exogenous environmental factors which influence this process. All these factors and the type of influence which they exert on an individual’s consumption behavior can be understood and analyzed.

ref:
customer relationship management

Consumer Behavior---Introduction

Leadorganizer and Lead Management are heart of any customer relationship, agency management system and marketing strategies. Leadorganizer means how to manage your leads. Businesses must have leadorganizer or lead management software to manage their leads. What is a lead? A Lead is a prospect for any business. It is very important for marketing executive/management to understand prospect requirements and consumer behavior. First let us understand consumer behavior.

‘What’ products and services do we buy, ‘why’ do we buy, ‘how often’ do we buy, from ‘where do we buy, ‘how do we buy, etc. are the issues which are dealt with in the discipline of consumer behavior. Consumer behavior can be defined as those acts of individuals (consumers) directly involved in obtaining, using, and disposing of economic goods and services, including the decision processes that precede and determine these acts. Just by human nature, consumers can be spontaneous, unpredictable, and selfish.

One thing that we have in common is that we are all consumers. In fact everybody in this world is a consumer. Everyday of our life we are buying and consuming an incredible variety of goods and services. However, we all have different tastes, likes and dislikes and adopt different behavior patterns while making purchase decisions. One may preferred to use colgate toothpaste, Dove soap, Head & Shoulder shampoo while your spouse may prefer another type for same requirement. Similarly, you may have a certain set of preferences in food, clothing, books, magazines, recreational activities, forms of savings and the stores from where you prefer to shop, which may be different not only from those of your spouse but also your friends, neighbors and colleagues. Each consumer is unique and this uniqueness is reflected in the consumption behavior and pattern and process of purchase. The study of consumer behavior provides us with reasons why consumers differ from one another in buying and using products and services. Customers and their behaviors comprise of many attributes and differentials. These differences are not just associated with demographics, groups or any one particular item. There is a complex development of behaviors that exist in the consumer markets.

In the world we live today, businesses and top Marketing executives must understand what differentiates their companies or their products from others and must understand the needs of the consumers in their markets. If they able to understand their product and consumer’s need, than it’s very easy for them to develop a strategic plan and create a market niche and develop their customer base with very good customer relations. Customer Relationship Management can help them to take competitive advantage in the market. Customer Relations depend on understanding the customer and their reactions to the environment which will at last prolong the life of customer relationship between company and their customers.


Understanding the customer need can be a starting point for majority businesses. There are possibilities of gap occurs between customers expectation and what businesses think customers expect. It result into overlook or not understanding customer's perceptions and real requirement.

ref: agency management software

CRM

What is CRM?

There are three aspects of CRM(Customer Relationship Management) which can each be implemented in isolation from each other:

• Operational - automation or support of customer processes that include a company’s sales or service representative



• Collaborative - direct communication with customers that does not include a company’s sales or service representative



• Analytical - analysis of customer data for a broad range of purposes

Operational
Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, including sales, marketing and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a customer's contact history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database as necessary.
One of the main benefits of this contact history is that customers can interact with different people or different contact channels in a company over time without having to repeat the history of their interaction each time.Many call centers use some kind of CRM software to support their call center agents.

Collaborative
Collaborative CRM covers the direct interaction with customers, for a variety of different purposes, including feedback and issue-reporting. Interaction can be through a variety of channels, such as web pages, email, automated phone or SMS.The objectives of collaborative CRM can be broad, including cost reduction and service improvements.

Analytical
Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes:

• Design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimise marketing effectiveness


• Design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling, retention


• Analysis of customer behavior to aid product and service decision making (e.g. pricing, new product development etc.)


• Management decisions, e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis
  Prediction of the probability of customer defection.

Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of predictive analytics.

Key functionalities of Any CRM:--

A typical CRM system is subdivided into three basic sub modules:

1. Marketing
2. Sales
3. Service

More on Functionalities of CRM come next time.

WHY CRM ?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the way in which businesses acquire, document, and assess their potential customers, and maintain relationships with their clientele. CRM systems aid businesses in scheduling and maintaining their clients in order to build a long lasting and trusting business relationship more efficiently than ever before. Without such a system, any businesses would constantly be rewriting the same information on different documents.

With a CRM system, fields are automatically populated by the information that is repetitive (Name, D.O.B., etc.) such that agents save vast amounts of time and energy on these forms, time and energy that is then reassigned to attaining new cases.

Reference:

1)http://en.wikipedia.org

2)http://www.leadorganizer.net