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Consumer Behaviour And Marketing Communication
This means that consumer behaviour can only be analyzed and understood by looking at several concepts,
models and theories, and a good approach may be to look at the various concepts in the light of both
external and internal influences of the way consumers receive marketing communication.
Behavioural elements that can influence ways consumers receive promotional communication can be
separated into two:
• EXTERNAL INFLUENCES: These include culture, values, demography, social stratification,
group influence, family life cycle, other situational and environmental factors.
• INTERNAL INFLUENCES: Consist of various psychological factors that have been
internalized by consumer as experience, beliefs and knowledge, through perception,
learning, memory, motivation, personality, lifestyles, attitudes and self-image.One of the concepts useful for understanding consumer behaviour and its implications for marketing
communication is the diffusion process. (Engel, Blackwell and Miniard, 1990)
THE DIFFUSION PROCESS
This is defined as the spread of a new idea from its source of invention or creation to its ultimate users
or adopters.
It is the communications flow about an innovation or new product which leads from the manufacturer
to the individual consumer and how related influences are spread.
The diffusion process consists of four major elements.
- An innovation.
- Its communication from a source to recipients.
- A social system in which the diffusion takes place, and
- A period of time over which the diffusion is accomplished.
Innovations are ideas which an individual perceives as new. If a product has been in the market for
several years, it will be new to a particular consumer when he first hears about it, sees, purchases, uses
or consumes it. Thus the subjective perception of the individual consumer is crucial in determining
whether a product is an innovation or not.