The purpose of this paper is three-fold. Firstly, it provides a summary of the article “Consumer conformity: review and applications for marketing theory and practice”, and then a highlight of the keywords that link the article with the topics of conformity and peer pressure is provided. Finally, an explanation or analysis of the article that gives the critique of the concepts in the article is provided.
Marketing applications are best explained by interpersonal influences. A considerable number of product choices and purchase decisions are guided by referent others. Individuals conform to the demands of the group in order to gain acceptance, however, there is limited literature that explains comprehensively the effect of conformity pressures in the marketplace. The foremost purpose of this article is to investigate conformity by exploring the numerous factors that prejudice individuals to be traditional to the influence of their peers. It further explains an advance theoretical model of conformity, and a suggestion of the conformity theory application in marketing is evident.
The article explores certain keywords, which include, among others, consumer conformity, brand loyalty, persuasion, social influence, and consumer conformity models. The articles point out the controversy in the definition of consumer conformity. This is attributed to the variation in factors such as referent others, persuasions, and conformity. The report further articulates that most of the consumers perceive that the use of media ads as a marketing strategy orientation in the process of product development resulted in a number of challenges and benefits. The main challenges that pertain to the adoption of this marketing strategy, as mentioned by the selected respondents, include: strategy development costs, heavy training and skills development expenses, insufficient human resources and outdated information technology infrastructure among others. The consumers also consistently perceive that with the adoption of this marketing strategy for business, a significant number of benefits could be accrued including: easy access to information, competitive advantage which in turn results to good positioning of the business in the market, improved customer services and satisfaction among others. This promote the willingness of consumers to take risks and invest in the competitive economy having realized that their sustainability in the market is dependent on how well they integrate their purchase decisions strategies (Lascu and Zinkhan 11).
The term personality may be common but its connotation to consumer behavior to many is less known. Personality is essential in determining, identifying and considerate insights in relation to consumer preferences and patterns. Personality refers to an individual’s consistent ways of reacting to the environment surrounding him. Personality derives from a combination of the social environment or external influences and biological or genetic traits of a person. The personality of a consumer is two-fold; service or product oriented. Service-oriented consumers look for relationships with the producer, manufacturer or seller of the product. On the other hand, product-oriented consumers patronize a service or product based on the commodities itself. Motivation/ persuasion, on the other hand, refer to a force that ignites behavior leading to the satisfaction of a need. The needs of consumers are hierarchical in nature, therefore, once the psychological needs are satisfied consumers shift their attention to the satisfaction of learned needs. Ideally, it suggests a build-up approach that requires the study of lot of customer data that leads to the identification of similarities that will aid in making up segments that have undifferentiated needs, through media ads it is possible to identify different consumer needs. The article had the same viewpoint when they maintain that it is more suitable to use a build-up approach as compared to a breakdown approach in turbulence markets. Segmentation process should therefore, begin with identifying the differences between customers then moving on to locate their similarities that will aid in segmentation.
The consumer undertakes a number of steps in the buying decision process. These steps will aid the consumer in executing a purchase of a good or service. The steps involves; problem recognition, that is the consumer perceives a need that wants to be satisfied; information search which entails the establishment of value; and evaluation of alternatives is the next step since it incorporates assessment of value. In addition, buying decision come next where the consumer decides to buy a given product or service. Finally, the post-purchase behavior where the consumer reacts to the decision made earlier to purchase the product or service. New technology has lead to a reduction in physical touch and personal conduct between clients and customers through internet purchase. The establishment of ever-lasting relationship with customers is possible due to customer buying characteristics such as honesty, trust, cooperation and commitment between certain customers and the company. The analysis revealed that trust as a consumer-buying characteristic plays a vital role in maintenance and development of a successful relationship in the company because of the nature of consumer buying behavior.
This article has set out to explore the impact of strategic marketing media ads on performance. The findings of the article indicate that there is a direct and positive relationship between strategic marketing media ads implementation and performance. The study leads to the conclusion that media ads implementation has a direct and positive relationship with the performance of the company, hence guaranteeing its survival.
Works Cited
Lascu, Dana-Nicoleta and Zinkhan, George. “Consumer Conformity: Review and Applications for Marketing Theory.” Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 7.3 (1999): 1-12. Print.