Consumer Who? Consumer You!

By Jarrett Bregler

Hi everyone,

Today I want to talk about a fundamental quality of life, the lifelong dance of consumer consumption. Consumerism is synonymous with breathing, and it often controls our thinking and behavior like a consummate puppet master. However, by delving into one’s consumer behavior, we can learn to take back control over this commanding influence by garnering its origins and by gleaning how our wants and needs may or may not be well aligned with our consumer engagement.

Taking a Look in the Mirror

We begin this journey through peer example. By gleaning my own influences in purchasing decisions and choices and penetrating core factors that guide this decision-making, insights can be gained as to who and what is driving this behavior. The unveiling of consumer type is particularly revealing as my consumer lifestyle and psychographic attributes inform my experiences as a consumer. First, I am Home Loving and “…value product quality” (Babin & Harris, 2021, p. 128). My engagement with the world encompasses an immersement in culture, an insatiable quest for artistic gratification, the relentless pursuit of travel and global experiences, and a foundation of an adherence to the reverence of a happy familial life. My purchases reflect my investment in these activities and in expanding the interactive quality between home and the larger world. Further, I am also a need-based consumer “…with the intention of buying a specific product” (Miller, 2024). This means that the specificity of my purchase selections must align with my certainty of selection as well as my wants, needs, and values. Purchases are made decisively and with practicality in intention. Caution is part of the approach for the purpose of ensuring that the pursued specificity is attained as is customer satisfaction.

Filling the Cart for Adventure Readiness

My buying decisions illuminate a demonstration to brand loyalty through habitual buying behavior. These involve brands that address my needs embodied in my aforementioned psychographic lifestyle values. Travel gear is a pertinent example, and it is correlated with my engagement with location-based marketing. “In today’s digital age, location-based marketing has become a game-changer for businesses seeking to attract customers to their locations” (Lesieur, 2023). Moreover, companies that demonstrate high quality, exhibit value-consciousness, and provide lasting products with an efficiency in engagement to save me time and money are priorities in my purchasing approach. Concurrently, they intrigue me through their utilization of credible brand ambassadors and an engaging platform while incentivizing my interaction through the provision of loyalty programs. Personalization marketing through product suggestions that augment the quality of my lifestyle is particularly persuasive as is a fluid omnichannel experience. Essentially, I evolve into a loyal consumer when my loyalty and investment can align with companies that are partners in my quest to uphold the tenets of my lifestyle values and pursuit of quality of life endeavors.

Exhibiting Care About Me and My Future

How one arrives at their purchasing decision is correlated with a stage in the consumer buying process. The stage that leads me to my purchasing decisions reflects a contemplation of thought and not an immediacy of action in fulfilling my consumer needs and wants. It is the Evaluation stage. This is where consideration undergoes preparation for the buying decision and includes an extensive review of alternatives to elicit purchase security. The consideration is a necessary evil as it is a priority for me to engage in comparative analysis to make the most effective buying decision. This encompasses product usability, lifestyle enhancement attainment, and price/value consciousness as I am a price-sensitive consumer. Fundamentally, I must determine the perceived benefits of the purchase and how it aligns with my values-led conscious consumer behavior. This is linked with post-purchasing behavior and my need for self-gratification in the buying experience. Concurrently, it additionally extends to conscious consumerism and embarking on a consumer journey with businesses that marry my buying power with purposeful market leadership respective of sustainability and those more consistent with strategies of cause marketing. A demonstration of commitment to social and environmental well-being instills confidence in my consumer behavior and subsequent purchases.        

Figuring Out How I Tick for Their Gain

Marketing research and design predominantly influences me in making a buying decision through the observation of my buying behavior and responding to it through the development and availability of innovative products that correspond to my lifestyle needs. The research concurrently responds to my preference of efficiency in brand loyalty through product development that corresponds to these needs. Further, messaging is curtailed to my demographic through segmentation. Research and design partner to elicit personalized digitized campaigns developed to resonate with my age cohort through interactivity as well as generational preferences for brand alignment. For example, photography is a passion and BAGSMART© has designed a compact travel backpack that fits all of my necessary equipment while encouraging augmented high-tech tools that align with the demographic value of technological consumption. The interconnection between research and design overall evokes compelling visual imagery, product efficiency, and coordinated messaging illuminating the allure of travel empowerment, a psychographic value that speaks to someone like me, a member of Generation Z.

Keeping Me on the Hook as Their Loyal Consumer

Finally, with post-purchase behavior experiences, if the experience is consistently positive, I demonstrate brand advocacy through my customer retention and repeat purchase rate. If my values of quality, efficiency, and product gap responses are provided in the company engagement and customer journey, I will rebuy products that are correlated with a feeling of trust and dependability. Likewise, as the relationship becomes established, I will refer friends and family to the company. If the experience is consistent and exemplary, I will additionally post positive reviews to commend the company for its performance and to support the endorsement of the long-term availability of the product for future purchases. An investment in me through market segmentation targeting customer loyalty elucidates retention along with brand growth and profit expansion.

Hope my shared consumer behavior and experiences elicits your own contemplation regarding your behaviors, decisions, and expectations. Please stay tuned for a new blog coming your way soon where we’ll explore market segments and accompanying strategies.