Understanding Consumer Psychology
4 min read
Beyond the point of soliciting new business in the form of clients such as traders who are lured into trading CFDs via a certain brokerage platform, the financial sector appears to follow a different set of rules as far as what it takes to succeed. Otherwise in the consumer goods and services sector, consumer psychology can be broken down to a few elemental factors which, if mastered, can have you making a success out of any business endeavour you subsequently choose to lend your time and effort to.
Basic survival instinct
At the core of what drives consumer psychology is the need to cater to their basic survival instincts, whether in the short-term, which is a more urgent need, or indeed in the medium to longer terms. At the point of convergence between urgency and need is where the gold lies, literally. If for instance, someone is starting a new job in a brand new City, the underlying basic instincts they’re catering to are those of a longer term view, i.e. establishing a career from which they can live in the long term, but in order for them to cater to that longer-term view they have to take care of some urgent matters which also fall under the umbrella of basic survival needs, hence the appreciating and often high price of a property as well as the emergence of premium property hotspots.
Convenience
Once basic survival instincts have been catered to, consumer psychology dictates that the typical consumer turns their focus on convenience, i.e. the most efficient way of catering to their basic survival needs. This is what consumer pay for, no matter what it is they’re buying. At the end of the day, it’s more convenient for a consumer to be able to take up front-door delivery of something which they could have perhaps gotten cheaper had they jumped into their car and took a drive to the physical outlet selling whatever it is they’re taking up delivery of.
Businesses should keep in mind that customers do not jump into buying the first item they come across, as part of convenience. They try to find assurance that the product or service they are purchasing is of good quality, and for this, they often rely on customer reviews. In case of negative reviews, the consumer has to make a decision to either take a risk and make the purchase or look for a different option. But it is highly likely that if a brand has a little too much of negative reviews, the consumer will choose the latter route. This is why it is important for businesses to take active measures in order to remove negative google reviews. They can likely reach out to customers and attempt to resolve the issue. If the customer is satisfied and agrees to remove or update the review, the business can then flag the review as inappropriate and request Google to remove it.
Convenience is still the biggest selling commodity, however!
Comfort, entertainment and even luxury
Beyond the basic survival instincts having been catered to, consumer psychology has consumers seeking to environment we all find ourselves in, which is why people love freebies so much. It’s not so much about enjoying the fruits of your labour or seeking fulfilment, or something like basking in the so-called “dignity of labour.” If it was then we wouldn’t have greedy politicians taking kick-backs and living lavishly off of what is some easy money.
The two centres of economic power
This leads us to the emergence of the existence of two centres of power, one being the power of consumers to be productive and generate the means with which they’re going to appease the other centre of power, which is their so-called spending power. If consumers cannot take control of the means of production of the goods and services they otherwise spend their money on, in their minds they have the power to reward their hard work by spending on anything and everything they can afford to buy. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
