"Innovation is the key to product progress.
As marketers we must understand that the success of any product lies in the consumers that use it. If the consumer is not satisfied then the product will eventually disappear. Consumer behaviour is an essential tool in developing tactics. It helps the marketer understand what the consumer wants and how he makes his decisions.
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Forming of consumer behaviour.
The consumer:.
THINKS SPEAKS ACTS BELIEVES BEHAVES.
The behaviour of the consumer differs due to differences in socio-cultural factors. For example, a university student in Dubai will be less mature in his buying behaviour as compared to a university student in the U.S.A. This is mainly due to how much you understand. A market where the consumer is highly learned, selling of products is more of a challenge to marketers, and so they have to give importance to innovation. The decision process of a learned person depends upon the innovative features of the product.
Whereas, in a market where the consumer is less learned the importance of innovation is lesser due to the fact that the consumers in this market have less knowledge.
To further understand the mind of our consumers, lets take a look at a Simple Model of Consumer Decision Making.
Table 1. A Simple Model of Consumer Decision Making.
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The above table shows us the entire consumer decision-making process. We can see that the first type of influence on the consumer comes from external sources in which a firm's marketing efforts are on top. In these efforts we see that the Product is first on the list of efforts.
When we talk about the product we have to remember that innovation is the basic necessity for the existence of a product. We must also remember that the consumer bases his decisions on innovation.
Since innovation is our main focus, let's get some details on it.
Innovation.
"New-product innovation is a critical activity for the marketer.