Consumer Behaviour and Buying Decisions

Successful marketing requires that companies fully connect with their customers.”Consumer Behaviour “is the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants.

The starting point for understanding consumer behaviour is the stimulus-response model. Marketing and environmental stimuli enter the consumer’s consciousness and a set of psychological process combine with certain consumer characteristics to result in decision process and purchase decisions.

Four key psychological processes are motivation, perception,  learning and memory-fundamentally influence consumer responses.

In a country like India, milk is considered an important part of your diet .whether it is plain boiled milk or your favourite cutting chai, milk is an item every Indian drinks. This physiologically motivates our customer to find the need to buy milk. Amul is perceived as “the taste of India”, a brand which is trusted by millions of Indians when it comes to milk. Learning induces change in a consumer’s behaviour arising from experience. Amul has proved itself over the years to provide its customers with consistency in its products. Amul milk is known to be fresh and nutritious .Brand associations consist of all brand related thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, attitudes, that become linked to the brand. Brands like Amul ( a brand which is a year older than independent India ) stirred patriotic feelings and much later of course summed up their brand as the Pride of India.

The buyer decision process is a five stage process which consumers go through from

Pre - purchase to post - purchase. These stages are need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase behaviour.

Need recognition: with an internal stimulus one of the person’s normal needs-hunger, thirst, sex-rise to a threshold level and becomes a drive.

Need Recognition: Milk is a daily consumption item which satiates a consumers hunger .

Information: By gathering information, the consumers learn about competing brands. Because of the excellent products, the top of the mind positioning, the fantastic distribution and supply chain channels and finally the point of purchase branding and advertising of the Amul girl, Amul finds itself in a very strong position where its brand equity is concerned

Evaluation of alternative: Amul has a great competitive advantage over its competition brands Because of the large numbers of dairy suppliers; Amul has a tremendous strength and reliability in its supply chain. This makes it a very reliable brand in its consumer’s eyes. Not only its superior product quality, but also the fact that it is easily available in most regions makes it an Indian favourite brand.

Purchase decision: In the evaluation stage, the consumer’s preferences among the brand in the choice set and form an intention to buy the most preferred brand. In executing a purchase intention, the consumer may make up to five subdivisions:  brand, dealer, quantity timing and payment method.

In India milk happens to be majorly bought by the women in the family. Amul being a brand love by all, has formed a trusted milk brand image in the consumers mind. Like any FMCG company, Amul concentrates on breaking the bulk it has an efficient supply chain with distributors and retailers all throughout the country. Besides this, the company has exclusive Amul stores which sell all products of Amul brand. Thus, in the marketing strategy of Amul, distribution is strength of the brand. A consumer can buy milk any times of the day, through various outlets, in quantities they require. Milk is bought in all parts of the country; from every urban area to every small village. Amul is even a brand which is economically priced.

Post purchase behaviour: After purchase, the consumer might experience dissonance from noticing certain disquieting features. Marketing communications should supply beliefs and evaluations that re-in forces consumer’s choice and help him or her feel good about the brand.

Amul has had a record in content marketing for years. It is now becoming an example of customer service on social media. The brand has proved that it is actually using social media for listening to its customers and solving their queries on Face book. On tenth October,2014, a disgruntled customer posted pictures of Amul Gold milk. The images within the post were scary and portrayed a very negative image of the brand. Within 4 days, the brand had come out and explained itself on its Face book page. It alleviated the fears which was instilled in its customers and even gave detailed information which the consumer wanted. This restored the brands positive image and brand loyalty.