Introduction
Consumer behavior is one of the most crucial topics in business because it determines sales and profit. Consumers dictate how specific products or services are portrayed on social media (Mariani et al., 2018). Therefore, understanding their decisions requires the knowledge of psychology and neuroscience. Indeed, behavioral psychology is critical for creating effective marketing campaigns to capture customers’ attention and sell products (Ali & Anwar, 2021). It is believed that an organization’s values and beliefs are often acquired by its customers (Jones III et al., 2017). For example, if a company established itself as environmentally friendly, the buyers of its products will also consider themselves loyal citizens who care about nature (Jones III et al., 2017). Furthermore, it was found that women tend to find clean and environmentally friendly products compelling compared to their male counterparts, indicating the importance of gender in purchasing decision making (Jones III et al., 2017). Customers’ mindset and behavior are defined by cultural background, gender, and price of products, generating the approximate image of purchases that can help companies target consumers’ unique features in their marketing campaigns.
Interaction Channels with Customers
Understanding and controlling customer behavior require effective communication between producers and consumers. Previously, potential buyers could only be targeted through mass media such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and direct interaction via phone calls or door-to-door advertisements (Ali & Anwar, 2021). These advertisement tools could not predict the response and purchasing decisions of potential clients. Modern technologies transformed interaction with the target audience, allowing companies to use social media to promote their products and surveillance customer satisfaction (Ali & Anwar, 2021). Furthermore, people spend more time on the Internet; thus, they are almost constantly exposed to information about new goods and services shown in their news feed based on their online choices and searches (Ali & Anwar, 2021). Moreover, daily emails to which customers subscribe accidentally or to receive a discount for their purchase often elicit the desire to buy more products from that specific supplier (Ali & Anwar, 2021). These marketing methods work well because well-structured pricing strategies influence the human psyche, convincing customers that they received a good offer that should not be omitted.
The Effect of Cultural Background on Consumer Behavior
Culture seems to play an essential role in forming one’s behavior and preferences that may require one to purchase certain goods and services regularly. People from individualistic societies may be more concerned about the quality of products and services than representatives of collectivistic cultures (Mariani et al., 2018). For example, hotel guests from Western countries tend to be more sensitive about the design and cleanliness of the rooms compared to people from Eastern cultures (Mariani et al., 2018). Furthermore, individualistic cultures were found to complain more about hotel service than collectivists (Mariani et al., 2018). The difference in attitude and consumers’ behavior can be attributed to variations in the cultural values of the West and East. Specifically, collectivistic cultures express tolerance to physical imperfections of products or services compared to those who praise individualism.
Cultural background is responsible for the difference in offline shopping behavior among customers, but online buyers seem to acquire similar consumer practices. Highly masculine cultures tend to spend less time shopping because they value practicality and fast outcomes (Rossi, 2018). Individualistic cultures were found to be brand-oriented in offline stores (Rossi, 2018). However, according to Rossi (2018), no marked difference was found between online customers from different countries, suggesting that the Internet united all cultures and created a universal online consumer behavior. It appears that cultural variation plays a critical role in consumer decision-making in offline stores but became insignificant for online shopping.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic changed consumer behavior, making it identically unusual and unwise. When the coronavirus crisis started in March of 2020, many consumers worldwide were hoarding food products, toilet paper, and other necessary goods because of widespread fear that these items would disappear from supermarkets (Laato et al., 2020). They were also afraid that people would not be allowed to leave their houses for an extended period during the lockdown, announced by governments worldwide (Laato et al., 2020). Furthermore, people were reading terrifying blog posts that predicted the supply chain would stop, resulting in the disappearance of these products (Laato et al., 2020). Although cultural background plays a vital role in predicting customer behavior, some situations cause people to act similarly due to common evolutionarily developed neural circuits that enable the species’ survival.
Gender Role in Purchasing Behavior
Gender also plays a role in defining how customers behave and purchase items in offline or online shops. Male and females show different consumer behavior because their self-concept and value systems may vary (Jones III et al., 2017). For example, women were found to have a stronger feeling of corporate social responsibility (Jones III et al., 2017). It may suggest that female customer is more likely to buy sustainable products that will contribute to environmental protection. However, research shows that both men and women equally buy environmentally friendly products (Jones III et al., 2017). Still, self-identity differs between men and women, affecting their choices and decisions. For instance, women may be obsessed with outfits and appearance more than male customers; thus, they often make substantial investments in clothing, cosmetics, and self-care products (Jones III et al., 2017). On the other hand, men are statistically less likely to purchase clothing and cosmetic products as frequently as females. Therefore, producers focus more on women’s fashion, making sure that advertisement notifies their target audience about new arrivals every season and the importance of looking stylishly.
The same marketing campaigns may not be effective for younger generations regardless of gender. Although young people grew up with a broader choice of products, they prefer to make less expensive purchases, demonstrating that youth is more price-conscious than their parents (Kraljević & Filipović, 2017). Specifically, female students search and buy online to save more time and money (Kraljević & Filipović, 2017). Since millennials are active users of the Internet and social media, more than 50% of them shop online (Kraljević & Filipović, 2017). Still, many survey results show that even young people trust actual stores more than digital ones (Kraljević & Filipović, 2017). Still, many of them spend a significant amount of their free time on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, WeChat, Tumblr, or other social media services, reviewing and discussing the best purchasing places. Furthermore, many millennials are more educated and aware of classic marketing manipulation techniques; thus, it may not be as effective for young people as for their parents (Kraljević & Filipović, 2017). Therefore, business owners should make an emotionally engaging advertisement to capture millennials’ attention, demonstrating the fundamental importance of their products.
Impact of the Product Cost on the Decision-Making Process
People, on average, want to buy high-quality products for the lowest possible price. Customers make their decisions based on online reviews of products and cost variations that they also search and compare on various pricing strategy websites (Maslowska et al., 2017). Suppose an item costs more than its usual market price. In that case, consumers will purchase it less because financial loss is psychologically unpleasant unless the product possesses some unique features (Maslowska et al., 2017). Therefore, companies should monitor rivals’ pricing strategies and create compelling marketing campaigns to make people purchase their products. Producers should ensure the quality of their brands to receive positive reviews from users to attract new customers constantly.
A variety of pricing strategies are used to influence consumer behavior. Specifically, price skimming, penetration, premium, psychological, and competitive pricing models can be applied by producers to increase sales and revenue (Ali & Anwar, 2021). The general idea behind all these strategies is to set prices lower than those offered by the competitors or change product costs from high to low depending on the market demand. According to Ali and Anwar (2021), price skimming, competitive pricing, and penetration model significantly influenced clients’ purchasing behavior. This study demonstrated that lowering prices is an effective psychologic tool to make consumers buy more products, leading to increased company revenue.
Large sales and price promotions may evoke spending behavior in customers in the short term. For example, according to Zhang et al. (2018), giving coupons to the study participants substantially increased their probability of buying the offered product. Furthermore, it impacted consumers’ decision to use the same platform in the subsequent months after receiving significant discounts (Zhang et al., 2018). However, periodic price reductions may train clients to become more strategic in their purchases (Zhang et al., 2018). Specifically, customers will buy certain products only during the sales period, affecting the company’s revenue during other seasons. Therefore, companies should develop their promotion plans to attract customers, keep consumers’ loyalty for an extended period, and receive high ratings for their products, attracting new clientele.
Conclusion
To sum up, consumer behavior is a complex topic that requires a thorough investigation to ensure a proper understanding of human psychology to predict their purchasing decisions. Customer behavior can be influenced by culture, gender, and pricing strategies employed by producers. People from individualistic cultures seem to be quality-oriented, and they complain more about service than collectivists. An online community developed relatively similar behavior, forming the Internet culture. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that people of all cultures show unusual consumer behavior when facing emergencies. Gender also plays an essential role in determining customer behavior. For example, men prefer to spend less time shopping than women, who, on average, have a higher interest in fashion and cosmetics; therefore, companies primarily target female consumers in their marketing campaigns. Although women were more sensitive to corporate responsibility, both genders buy an equal number of environmentally sustainable products. However, younger people show a different attitude to shopping than older generations. Specifically, millennials prefer to search for lower prices online before buying a product. Pricing strategies also affect consumers’ choices by making them spend more during sales, increasing the company’s profit.
References
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