Have you ever stopped to think about what motivated you to purchase those joggers you now love? Was it motivated by logic? Was it an impulse or did you give it a thought and rationalized it? Did you see an actress wearing them? Were you impacted by an ad? Or was it the pandemic outbreak?
While you may give it a try I can assure you that figuring out consumer buying behavior is very complex. A variety of factors influence that decision. This complexity has grown thicker once we are still learning from the unclear impact of COVID-19.
One thing I’m certain of is that we should focus, more than ever, on building strategies to assure that all your touchpoints either owned or earned, online or offline, are in consonance and work as a collective endeavor.
Factors affecting consumer buying behavior
I learned from The Smart Shopper Research Kantar/Google 2019 study that “74% of purchases either at online or offline stores were searched online previously”. And that “72% of consumers start their customer journey online”. This was before COVID-19 arrival, so now more than ever the online touchpoints play an even more important role in influencing the consumer buying behavior.
Brands may spend thousands of euros on web campaigns, video ads, influencers, and social media campaigns and branding to influence the consumer to purchase their product, but not all is in CMO’s and Marketing teams’ hands. Other aspects play a fundamental role.
“We should focus, more than ever, on building strategies to assure that all your touchpoints (…) are in consonance and work as a collective endeavor.
Cultural factors, social factors, personal factors, and psychological factors interfere. Just now we are living one of those external factors. Since the pandemic outbreak burst, we have seen lawyers sell their suits and spend the income on joggers to work comfortably from home. Even Anna Wintour, US Vogue’s renowned editor-in-chief has been photographed working from home in her joggers.
So as a marketeer paying attention to these new trends that are driving and shaping consumers buying behavior, I know that a variety of factors influence, but let’s stick to the basics and be sure we not only fine-tune and tailor our marketing initiatives through all touchpoints in consonance but also be in constant alert and search of consumer new trends and consumer new behaviors and be able to adapt and give consumers what’s relevant for them.
So if you’re asking yourself how to influence consumer buying behavior, I would say be relevant, otherwise, you will be so last season.
