Understanding The Customers Behaviors

The customer is the focal point of all business activity. As marketer, we must be clear about how customers behave. Because marketing is concerned with satisfying people’s needs, we must understand what those needs are and the ways in which people go about getting them satisfied.

Any individual has a whole range of needs that they must or would like to satisfy. An American psychologist, A.L. Maslow, has expressed these varying levels of need in a way that is still useful today in the marketing context. He has written of the ‘hierarchy of needs’. Once a pressing need is satisfied, it is no longer felt. This is why people with sufficient income to keep them well fed, safe and warm become more and more aware of other, less basic needs, such as ego satisfaction.

We also need to be aware of how people satisfy their needs. There is a multistage process, which can be expressed as follows. First is the need. A need is felt. The ways of satisfying the need are actively or passively sought. When sufficient information has been gathered and suitable alternatives examined, a decision will be taken and the purchase made. For the customer-oriented company the process does not end when the purchase is made. The customer’s need is only satisfied if the product or service does perform in the expected fashion and does indeed meet their need, not only initially but, where appropriate, over a longer period. It must perform in the expected way, and after-sales service must be adequate. Indeed, in some situations, advertising can be used to target existing customers to maintain their brand loyalty.