The socialization of a person takes place in his family. An individual’s family is his primary group.

Nothing turns from ads alone

There are a number of social, cultural, personal and psychological reasons behind why consumers buy something and choose a brand and remain loyal to a brand. Marketing scholars have done many studies to find out these reasons. The socio-economic class plays a major role in the purchasing pattern. The shopping patterns of the richer, the rich, the middle class and the poor vary. Poor or middle class people do not watch or listen to the advertisements of Mercedes cars or Harley–Davidson motorcycles. But the rich and the newly-rich from the middle class (Neo-rich) watch or listen carefully to this advertisements.

Reference groups

The socialization of a person takes place in his family. A person’s family is his primary group. Opinions of a person’s family play an important role in the purchase of goods. The choice of clothes, toys, food items for young children is made by their parents or other relatives but once the children enter adolescence their behaviour changes. They rebel and try to separate their identities. The opinions of their friends or reference groups play a big part in their buying. They also imitate the shopping habits of their classmates where they study. A person’s family is his primary group and his friends are his secondary group. We as individuals are members of many groups. Members of political parties, Rotary clubs, castes, religious denominations, trade unions, etc. also influence the purchasing power of their peers. Such groups of individuals are called secondary groups.

If the product is not brand new and many members of our reference group have purchased it, we would like to ask them a question: How was your experience with this product? Should we buy it or not and if so, where should we buy it at a lower price? Personal recommendation or advice plays a more important role in a customer’s purchase than advertising in a nutshell.

Opinion leaders

Now the concept of Opinion Leaders has emerged in the field of marketing. Your acquaintances and friends or neighbours have different opinion leaders who are experienced in different products. Opinion leaders differ on which doctor to go to, which hospital to go to in case of illness. The seller therefore tries his best to please the product by identifying the opinion leaders.

Purchase a brand new product

Since a company launches a brand new product and advertises a lot for it, its sales will not go up, so before buying a new product, the seller should know exactly what is going on in the mind of the buyer and make different types of advertisements. The five stages of purchasing a new product are as follows: (1) The customer should be aware that the new product has come in the market. In English this consciousness is called ‘Awareness’. At this stage the customer is not aware of the pros and cons of the product as the product is new. (2) In the second stage, the customer shows interest in the product. It asks a lot of questions about the product, its performance and price. Asking these questions means that he is interested in new products and has aroused curiosity. (2) Testing: At this stage the customer tests or evaluates the benefits of the new product in his mind and if the product passes the evaluation then the customer enters the fourth stage. (4) This fourth phase is trial. Purchase new toothpaste, soap, snack packets, ice cream, chocolate, body spray, etc. for its experimental use. If the item is very expensive, they try it out by renting it for a while and if they don’t like it, they want a guarantee of return. (2) In the last five stages, if the customer likes a new product, the customer adopts it. The process of adopting a product is called adoption in English. Adoption is the adoption of a new product and its frequent purchase. The seller has to understand this five step process. The seller has to create advertisements for different purposes to make the customer aware, to arouse the interest of the customer in their product, to evaluate the product in your favor, to purchase the product on trial basis and finally to become a permanent customer of your product. After buying an expensive product, the customer is often at a loss as to whether the purchase of this expensive product did a good job or cost me money. The English word for this is post cognitive dissonance. Thus all these factors are responsible behind the likes and dislikes of the product. Gujarat Samachar | Management | Dhawal Mehta | 26.12.2021