An in-depth understanding of the consumer’s buying behaviour enables marketers to get an idea of what makes the consumer buy or reject their product if it satisfies their need. It enables marketers to understand not only the habits of consumers but also the factors that influence their decision to buy a specific product. 

Consumer behaviour empowers a marketer with rich insights about his target audience. The insights can be useful while they develop and launch a product into the market. Consumer buying behaviour also enables them to create the right messaging and positioning while promoting the products. It enables to create attractive marketing campaigns that resonate with the target audience and augment sale of the product. 

The study of consumer buying behaviour helps marketers to understand why customers buy their products, when they do it, and what is their frequency of purchase. It also enables them to understand their most preferred brands in the category, the price at which they are comfortable buying the product, and whether they like to purchase it online or at a physical store only after taking a close look at the product and the other options available. 

Why is consumer behaviour important?

Consumer behaviour enables a company to understand the positioning and timing of introduction of a new product. The successful launch, sales, and capture of market share are all related to how well a company has utilized its understanding of its consumer’s buying behaviour. 

As mentioned by Jack Trout in the book ‘Differentiate or Die’, the consumers already have a pre-decided preference in their mind on the products/ brands they want to purchase. To actually break their pre-conceived notions, a product or a brand must be presented with a ‘difference’. That’s where consumer buying behaviour insights can help significantly. Unless a marketer and his company can anticipate how a customer would respond to a particular proposition or differentiation strategy, the product may not get the desired response. 

Factors that influence consumer buying behaviour?

Consumers are influenced by a wide range of factors. They may have more disposable income which may lead to a change in their lifestyle and preference for more expensive brands. Technology, peer reviews, word-of-mouth, and many other factors could also make consumers change their buying behaviour. 

3 Reasons why Marketers should rely on insights from Consumer Buying behaviour?

Consumer behaviour helps a marketer to plan his strategy in order to ensure effective reach and recall among the target audience. It can also help to position the product with apt messaging or brand proposition. 

What else can understanding of consumer behaviour do for marketers?

• Consumer differentiation: A marketer can create new cohorts among the target audience if he understands consumer buying behaviour better. Each cohort or sub-group may have their unique traits and may respond better to certain aspects of the product such as price, usability, durability etc. Accordingly, a marketer can try to tweak positioning subtly and target these cohorts more precisely to drive better sales. 
• Anticipating Trends: By carefully observing and evaluating consumer buyer behaviour, marketers can understand emerging trends.  Once these trends are identified and evaluated for consistency, marketers can pivot their marketing strategies and campaigns by optimizing the use of budgets and human capital to align with these trends. With digital technologies at their disposal, marketers can ‘go-to-market’ faster with their new ideas, A/B test their strategies, and swiftly arrive at the best ones that resonate very well with their target audience and existing customers. 
• Create new and innovative products: Marketers who keep a keen eye on consumers buying behaviour can not only spot trends but also understand how to encash on some peculiar behaviours. Such marketers may identify some new opportunity or lacunae in the market that competitors may have missed or decided to overlook. It can lead them to a ‘blue ocean’ which is untapped. They can create new and innovative products to cater to this gap in the market and gain a definite edge over competing products and companies. In the process, they can gain market share and may also establish a new category in the process. 

In conclusion, understanding of consumer buying behaviour is one of the most potent weapons in the marketer’s arsenal. A marketer who understands, analyses, and applies this to his product/ brand strategy, segmentation, targeting, and positioning, can enhance sales of his products, build excellent brand recall, and also create newer variants of the products that enhance the appeal for a wider range of target audience cohorts. With digital technologies and data analytics advancements, tech-savvy marketers can further use the power of data to create remarkable products and brands.

In the last ten years, social media has taken the world by storm. There’s hardly anyone who does not use some form of social media. Whether its LinkedIn for our professional networking, or Facebook and Instagram for our personal and social interactions, WhatsApp for instant communications, or Youtube for our videos, we use social media extensively. 

Companies must also leverage the power of social media to promote their brand in the minds of their target audience. If utilized well, a good social media presence can help them to accelerate their business. As per a report by social media marketing platform Sproutsocial, 78% of consumers are willing to buy from a company that offers them a positive experience on social media. 

Hence, companies must always be on top of their ‘social media’ game. Whether it’s a disgruntled customer, or an irritated employee, everyone has access to social media and companies must be vigilant on social media at all times to address concerns. If social media is left unattended, the company may not only lose customers but also have to address damage to their brand reputation and corporate image. 

Here’s the good news. An effective social media marketing strategy that is well executed can enable a company to reap rich dividends. We list 5 tips that can be of immense help to companies: – 

1. Understand Companies strategic Goals and Objectives: A company must have a clear strategy in terms of its products or services, and growth plans. The strategic objectives must be translated to clear marketing and communication ideas so that the target audience or key stakeholders can participate in the brand story and help you to get the desired results. Effective social media marketing is not an isolated effort. It must resonate with the company’s strategy and marketing to ensure best results. 
2. Devise a Social Media Strategy based on Target Audience and Desired Goals: It is important to understand the target audience, their demographics, their most popular social media platform etc. Once a clear understanding is obtained, the objective and desired attainment from each of the company’s social media platforms must be enlisted. Once this is finalized, the company must work on the content across each social media platform. Content is the fuel that runs the social media engine. Good content which is informative, engaging, or entertaining can help companies to get good result from their social media efforts. Hence, a company and its marketing teams must ensure that great content that resonates with their target audience across social media platforms must be curated and converted into a monthly calendar. This will ensure consistency of communication as well as recall with the target audience. 
3. Create Campaigns with defined periodicity: While it is good to post daily or frequently across platforms, the audience must also have something to look forward to when they follow your company on social media. Campaigns are a great way of keeping the audience engaged. For example: – Publishing fun content on a particular day of the week. wellness tips on certain days, key technology aspects of the business on some other day etc. can be a good way to build consistency and recall among the target audience. It also enhances the chances of engagement (likes, comments, and shares) by the audience which, in turn, leads to more people liking the brand on social media. 

Companies may also engage with their followers or fans on social media through polls, webinars, quizzes, crossword puzzles related to the business and so on. This will keep the audience engaged and will help the company to occasionally also share a company update or offers from their company’s brands. 

1. Analyse engagement data and refine the social media calendar: When a company starts interacting with its followers on various social media channels, all ideas and campaigns may not work. How does the social media marketer know this? Due to the power of data and reports that social media platforms can generate for him. Through self-service interface for data analytics, most social media platforms enable business users to gain access to the company’s social media data. It can help understand the user’s interaction and engagement across each post. Equipped with such insights, the social media marketing team can refine their social media calendar by incorporating new ideas and stopping the use of ideas which may not have been yielding great engagement. 
2. Use trending Story Ideas: – No matter which industry your company operates in, there is always something interesting happening. A social media marketing team must be constantly updated about the latest trends and happenings in its industry and convert it into engaging story ideas wherein the target audience is captivated with the story and the messaging. It is important to use the popular forms of communications such as short videos and reels to ensure that the target audience get the message within a few seconds. It would be interesting for brands to explore tie-ups with influencers, launch their own podcasts, etc. They may also want to upload some knowledge-based value that they want to share with their target audience. This could include creating an infographic or a research report which can be distributed through social media and the user may download it for free by willingly sharing his contact details with the company. 

I hope you found these tips useful. A great social media marketer must incorporate all these tips and also stay extremely updated with the latest news in the said industry to ensure consistent improvement in social media marketing and the key metrics. 

While we have written a very brief account of what could work on social media, we would surely love to hear what your views are. Since it is a topic of great interest, I am sure you would not shy away from sharing your views. Social media is definitely here to stay in some form or other. Companies that would ace their social media strategy and execution will become market leaders or at least have a significant edge over their key competitors. 

Is your company’s social media plan a great one? Please do run it through the above checklist of tips to see if it incorporates all key points and can be enhanced further.

Ever wondered why the first year of an MBA or a PDGM course teaches you about all the departments of an organization. Why do they delve into finance, marketing, HR, operations, Law, etc.? The answer lies in the fact that a business or a company is not about one area of specialization. A company does well only when all these functions can collaborate efficiently and contribute to the common goal – to accelerate business growth and to enhance operational efficiency. 

We enlist five key tips that can help you to translate your learning from MBA or PGDM into corporate success: – 

1. Understand the business model of the company – “I am an HR professional; I don’t need to sell. I am a finance person, I needn’t pay attention to marketing activities”, these statements are often heard in companies. A siloed approach, especially at the entry or middle level, is commonplace. An MBA or a PGDM comes with a basic understanding of all functions and specialization in one or two aspects of business. The first thing an MBA or PGDM student must do is to understand how their company generates revenue and makes a profit. Everything from income and revenues, to cost and expenses, as well as operating profits and margins must be understood. Any MBA or PGDM student who understands the above will be better placed for success than any of his counterparts. 
2. Know about the TAM, SAM, and SOM of the company – A PGDM or MBA student would ideally have a few days to himself/ herself from being offered a job to joining the company. They must use this time to find more about the Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) and the Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) of the company. A deep dive into this will enable them to know more about the market share that the company can obtain and its runway for growth. If they are joining a listed company, reading annual reports of the last few years could be a great exercise to understand the company in-depth and be well prepared on day one of the job.
3. Unbox and unleash yourself – It is very common for an MBA or PGDM student to think that they must stick to their area of expertise and not venture into other business areas of the company. A great way to ensure corporate success is to gain exposure to as many areas and aspects of the company and its business as possible. Never think of it as extra work. You will find use of all the work and hours that you put in later in professional life so its better to get early exposure to all areas. Breaking out of the imaginary siloes that one creates in their head can go a long way in enabling PGDM or MBA students to march ahead in their corporate careers.
4. Enhance Connections and be Curious – Networking within the organization is as important as building a professional network outside. Request the heads of departments and all key personnel in the company to spend some time with you. You will gain immensely from interactions with them. Their perspectives, ideas, and outlook will enable you to garner rich insights into the business and help you to accelerate your own growth in the company. A PGDM or MBA student must also be curious to understand how various aspects of the business works in tandem. It doesn’t cost to think like a CEO, but it will immensely help when one seeks to understand the business of a company better.
5. Be a part of community of like-minded professionals – If you are a PGDM Finance student, you must identify communities and groups (online as well as physical) wherein finance professionals collaborate. The same is true for marketing and HR MBA/PGDM students. It is important to know about the latest trends in the industry and be ahead in terms of your knowledge curve. It can help to accelerate your growth in an organization and will also ensure that you are aware of the opportunities in the industry that align with your career aspirations. 

Is this all you need to transform yourself from a bright PGDM or MBA student into a successful corporate professional? Definitely not. However, ticking the above five points could put most of your competition at bay and you will become an invaluable asset to your company as well as the industry.