Get inside the customers head

Why do Customers buy some things and not others?

• Learn to understand the psychology of marketing.
• Find out where the customer is looking, and know where to present your business.
• Course Duration: 100 hours of self paced study.

Course Structure and Lesson Content

The course comprises 8 lessons, as follows:

Lesson 1. People as Consumers

•  Scope and nature of marketing.
• Reasons for marketing.
• Types of customers: loyal, discount, needs based, wandering, impulse.
• Economic, economic, personal, apathetic shoppers.
• Understanding reward options: rational, sensory, social, ego satisfaction.
• Influence on customers.
• Physical factors.
• Consumer problems.
• Attitudes.
• Beliefs.
• Affects.
• Behavioural intention.

Lesson 2. Market Segmentation

•  Geographic.
• Demographic.
• Age.
• Sex.
• Socio-economic.
• Geodemographic.
• Psychological segmentation.
• Segmentation by usage.
• Segmentation by benefit.
• Global segmentation.
• Entry into foreign markets.
• Total Product concept.
• Personal influences.
• Diffusion of new products.

Lesson 3. Internal Influences Perception & Personality

• The senses: vision, hearing and smell.
• Multi sensual marketing.
• Thresholds of awareness.
• Sensory adaptation.
• Attention.
• Selective perception.
• Perceptual distortion.
• Perceptual cues.
• Gestalt psychology.
• The Phi phenomenon.
• Subliminal perception.
• Product image and self image.
• Personality theory and application to marketing.
• The MMPI.
• The TATT.
• The Rorschach Ink Blot Test.
• Non Freudian and Freudian theories.
• Self theory.
• Self image marketing.
• Trait theory.
• Brand personality.
• Relationship segmentation.

Lesson 4. Internal Influences - Motivation and Awareness

• Learning.
• Behavioural approach.
• Classical conditioning.
• Operant conditioning.
• Cognitive approach.
• Memory and marketing.
• Modelling.
• Motivation.
• Maslow's hierachy of needs.
• Different motivations.
• Inertia.
• Involvement.
• Antecedents of involvement.
• Properties of involvement.
• Outcomes of involvement.
• Specific needs.
• Unconscious motivation.
• Creating needs.
• Semiotics.

Lesson 5. Social Influences

• Understanding society.
• Family influences.
• Family changes.
• Family life cycle.
• Households.
• Socialisation.
• Institutional affects.
• Consumer socialisation.
• Family consumer decisions.
• Roles.
• Conflict resolution.
• Changing roles.
• Social and developmental influences.
• Influences on children.
• Marketing and advertising.
• Small groups, Formal and informal groups.
• Membership and reference groups.
• Reference groups and consumer behaviour.
• Variability of products.
• Differences in consumer susceptibility.
• Influence of social class.
• Inheritance.
• Measuring class, class categories and changing class.
• Marketing and Consumer behaviour.
• Cultural influences, communication, ideals and actualities.
• Differences in culture: sub cultures, ethnicity, changes in culture.

Lesson 6. Consumerism

• Why study the consumer.
• What is a consumer.
• History of consumerism.
• Changes in consumer experience.
• The supplier.
• Business ethics.
• International ethics.
• The market place.
• Consumer action.
• False and deceptive advertising.
• Methods of false advertising misrepresentation, insufficient details, price based methods etc.

Lesson 7. Communication and Persuasion

• Attitudes and the concept of attitude.
• How attitudes are changed.
• Practical applications for marketing.
• Message evaluation and selection.
• Message execution.
• Celebrity testimonials.
• What words sell.

Lesson 8. Deciding to Buy

• Making a decision.
• Rational decisions.
• Heuristic Procedures.
• The decision making process - step by step.
• Merchandising.
• Trend toward home shopping.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Course Aims

• Identify categories of shoppers.
• Describe the key concepts of Market Segmentation.
• Determine the role of perception and personality in the marketing process.
• Determine the factors that motivate a consumer toward a purchase.
• Define how social factors influence a consumers behaviour.
• Discuss consumerism in the context of marketing.
• Determine the factors that influence consumer attitude and marketing communication and persuasion.
• Apply the concept of multi – element buying decisions.

Determine Who Your Customers are Likely to be .... and Ensure You Can be Seen where they are looking.

People see things they want to buy in all sorts of different places; from print and broadcast media, to shop shelves, public exhibitions and the internet.  In the field of marketing; we refer to where, how, when and how much we see things; as being "product visibility".
Product visibility is something that keeps changing. In the mid 20th century, the internet was not even a factor; and in the decades to come, there may be even greater changes. The one simple fact remains though -people need to see things, usually repeatedly and in different places, before they are confident to buy. 

Social media for instance, may be the best way to connect and stay in contact with customers/clients.

A firm may have a social media presence on various social media sites as a way to interact with people. They may post information about their goods or services. They might write blogs about topics related to their services and so on. They want to encourage potential customers and current customers to stay in touch with them. A social media presence can have a profound impact on brand awareness. 

The world is changing and customers have many options. Brand loyalty is less than it was, customers can easily change brands now, so by staying in touch with customers and potential customers, a business can try to ensure that people are more loyal to their brand. For example, if a person has “liked” a facebook page about a certain brand of car, they will receive information about new cars, the colours of the cars, services offered and so on. So when the time comes to buy a new car, the information received on facebook may mean that that particular brand of car is in the forefront of their mind, so they are more likely to go back to that brand of car or even buy that car for the first time. 

If a person likes a particular author and engages with them through social media, they may receive regular tweets or facebook messages telling them about new books from that author. This can encourage a sale. Social media can therefore be an excellent way for businesses or individuals to stay in contact with people who might buy their products and services.

Paid advertising on social media platforms may also be a good option for some types of products or services. A business pays to put adverts on the social media site in question (or more than one), so that when people receive their messages or look at posts, they will also see the advert. The adverts can also be targeted to ensure that they are of interest to the customer. For example, on social media, you will tend to see adverts that relate to what you have posted about or shown interest in, or that your friends are interested in.

It is also possible to have a business page on some social media sites, which can act as a secondary (or primary) website - for example, you can have a page on social media.

People are also able to sell their goods and services directly through social media by creating online shops. So there is a lot more scope for marketing goods via social media.

The options are endless. There are a lot of social media sites out there, but anyone who is planning to use social media needs to think carefully about what they are planning to do and HOW they do it. It is easy to create accounts on every social media site that is out there and then find that there is not enough time to keep updating posts regularly. So if someone happens to look at your account, they might think, ‘well they haven’t posted for three years, so perhaps they are out of business’. It is therefore important to focus your social media input. Think about what will have the best impact for you and what you have time for. If you only have five minutes a day, would a short tweet or post on facebook be best? If you have twenty minutes a day, what about a blog? Or adding photos? It is important to develop a plan of how and what you intend to market via social media, and how much time you have to do this. Whatever time you have available short or long – you must post content that is interesting and entertaining and captures the imagination of your audience.

Also, be aware that social media changes rapidly. New social media sites appear and older social media sites go “out of fashion.” So it is important to be clear on where the best place to be seen is and that what you are offering through social media is enticing and promotes sales.

So ... Why do this course?

• Improve your career potential - understand sales and marketing.
• Find success with improved business performance from your increased knowledge.
• Increase your confidence - contribute knowledgeably at work.
• Understand the science of marketing psychology to improve your business returns.

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