Understanding and predicting consumer behaviour is an essential part of succeeding in business. However, how can you make sure that you can successfully predict this? The answer is, through consumer research. Without consumer research, your business will fail.
Consumer research involves investigating people (consumers) and their environment, and how that make buying decisions. By finding out everything you possibly can about your customer, you can better direct your marketing efforts to influence their behaviour in a way which is favourable to you.
The Questions Consumer Research Helps Answer
There are many questions in business, such as:
- What are consumers in my target market buying?
- When are they buying it?
- Where are they buying it?
- How often are they buying it?
- How often are they using it?
- Are they coming back for a second purchase?
- Why are they buying it?
- Why are sales falling?
Consumer research helps us understand the why questions.
The Cost Of Not Doing Consumer Research
A great example of the cost of not doing sufficient consumer research can be seen with Vegemite’s iSnack 2.0, which plummeted sales and caused somewhat of a social outrage – people were not happy.
While Vegemite improved the taste of their product, the name they gave to this new tasting product did not help the brand at all.
How did they choose the new product name, you ask?
They created a Name Me competition to name the new Vegemite. When the name “iSnack 2.0” appeared, Vegemite launched it without testing how the name would be received by consumers. If only they had created focus groups and conducted test marketing prior to releasing it, they would have avoided the fatal mistake that hurt their brand.
Patagonia & Customer Research
“These sorts of consumers like the idea of buying a product that is made by an environmentally friendly company in an environmentally friendly manner.”
Poonkulah Thangavelu
Patagonia started off as a clothing and gear brand for extreme sports, like climbing. Patagonia’s customer research has enabled them to better understand their target market consumers. Patagonia has discovered that their target market are people who happen to be environmentally friendly. Using this information, Patagonia has had massive success.
One example of this is with their “Don’t Buy This Jacket” advertisement. The advertisement spoke about the cost to the environment of one of their best-selling fleece sweaters and asked consumers to reconsider before buying the product and instead opt for a used Patagonia product. However, the company saw a 30% increase in their revenues. While this single advertisement was not necessarily the single cause of this vast increase, it definitely played a part.
As you can see, conducting consumer research can really be a make-it-or-break-it factor in succeeding in business.
Consumer Behaviour 