The Art of Consumer Behavior

 Have you ever watched a Dove commercial or a Nike commercial? If so, how did they make you feel? Did they boost your confidence? Marketers do influence consumers self-esteem when they design and use these ads to reach their target audience. Many ads can trigger social comparison. The viewer will compare themselves to the actor or actress on the screen. A great example of an ad that makes men compare themselves to the actor in the ad is the Old Spice commercials. Their tagline is "The man your man could smell like." Here, the target consumer is essentially women. All women love when men smell good and look fit. They may compare their partner to the actor and buy the product because they want them to be just like the actor. When a male watches this commercial, he may compare himself to the actor. He may want to change his body wash scent, change how he looks, and perhaps become more adventurous based on the commercial. Dove promotes self-esteem in every campaign that they do. ...

 Marketers use nostalgia and retro branding to bring a consumer back in time and have them remember their older product designs. They are appealing the the consumers memories and emotions. Here are both terms defined: Nostalgia: describes the bittersweet emotion that arises when we view the past with both sadness and longing. Retro brand: an updated version of a brand from a prior historical period. A brand that uses both of these tactics often and does it well is Pepsi. In January 2019, Pepsi launched limited edition retro cans. Their slogan was "Celebrating Every Generation." The can designs were from the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 1980s. I am sure that many older consumers smiled at the older can designs and possibly remembered an event in their past where they saw the can or even drank one! By doing this, Pepsi was able to renew its relevance with the younger consumers while reconnecting with its former customers.  Gucci launched its #Forever Guilty campaign in 2019. They produc...

 There are three stages to perception. They are: exposure, attention, and interpretation. The first stage, exposure, is when the individual comes into contact with the stimulus. In our case, advertisements. Individuals may see an ad while scrolling through social media or while driving on the expressway. But they may not register the ad or pay attention to it. If the ad makes a conscious impact on a person's awareness that would be the sensory threshold. Some companies try to camouflage their product's price increases by shrinking the size of the package instead of increasing the price. That is quite clever. Can you think of any products that you have bought for years and noticed that you are getting less for your money? I have noticed that Snickers used to sell on huge candy bar but now the package is filled with two smaller snicker bars.  The second stage is attention. Ads must appeal to your senses, more specifically your sight and sound. But how many ads are too many? Acco...

 All businesses must have ethical principles. Otherwise, the government would be forced to intervene and make more laws and regulations. Obviously, businesses do not want these. Therefore, having an ethical business is good business. Consumers are actually willing to pay more for products and services from companies who are committed to positive causes. This corresponds to cause marketing. This is a strategy that businesses use to align themselves with a cause in order to generate business and good customer relationships. A few examples of this are Starbucks College Achievement Program and The Body Shop Forever Against Animal Testing Campaign. Starbucks decided to partner with Arizona State University (ASU) to create an opportunity for all U.S. employees to be eligible to earn their bachelor's degree with full tuition coverage. This is a great example of cause marketing. Many students will most likely try and work for Starbucks because of this. Parents and other individuals of soci...