Sensory Influences on Consumer Behavior: Exploring Theories and Experiences - Free Report

Consumer experience is the heart of value creation and consumer behavior. Primarily, it is the primary means by which the consumer, as well as the postindustrial societies, are understood. Based on the anti-function, function, antistructure, and corresponding dimensions of the structure, four types of consumption experience can be identified. They include adventure, stochastic, liberatory, and performance. In addition, factors that influence consumer behavior can be categorized into four. First is the cultural factor, which includes the social class system, subculture, and culture. The social factor is the next, influenced by the person's status and roles, family, and reference groups. Personal factors are the next, including self-concept, personality, lifestyle, economic circumstances, occupation, and age. Finally, psychological factors influence consumer behavior. These factors include attitudes, beliefs, learning, perception, and motivation (Strydom, 2004). This paper will describe my consumer experience as well as explain some of the theories on consumer behavior.

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The study of the processes involved when groups or individuals purchase and use a product is referred to as consumer behavior. It is imperative for marketers who would use this information for market segmentation. The segmentation can be in done along dimensions like psychology, demographics, and product usage. Consumer behavior is crucial when one wants to understand the dynamics of a population.

The sensory systems influence the decisions made by a customers on whether they will purchase a product or not. According to Blythe (2013), people go through processing information stages, and the stimuli are stored. However, this is not the case with consumers who do not process the data. The consumer is able to interpret the stimulus based on their experiences, needs, and biases. The process of perception is made up of exposure, attention, and interpretation. The consumer is first exposed to the product; they become attentive to it and finally interpret and decide whether to purchase it.

Sight is one of the channels that send external stimuli. The youths are more attracted to the bright colors and are more likely to purchase them. Also, the income of 20-year-old students is low and they go for the products that are relatively cheap. Marketers have really invested in the visual elements of packaging, store design, and advertising. The meaning of the visual channel is communicated through styling and the color they put on the product. From my experience as a consumer, I believe that these factors play a role. I have previously bought a shoe that I had not budgeted for simply because I was visually attracted to it. The colors were blending in well; therefore, I decided to purchase it. The consumer's emotions are influenced directly by colors, and research has shown that a color like blue is relaxing. At the same time, there are other colors like red, which stimulate appetite and create feelings of arousal.

Additionally, sound is another channel that sends external stimuli. There are various ways that sound can impact consumer behavior. Restaurants and stores often play background music, which is meant to create diverse moods. I have been attracted to restaurants severally merely because they have a relaxed ambiance created by the music they play. Sound symbolism influences a consumer's assumptions. To add, smell also sends an external stimulus to the consumer. Food, as well as deodorants, are some of the products that heavily rely on this channel. A consumer may decide to purchase a food product simply because they are attracted to the produced aroma. For example, specific brands of chocolate smell outstanding, and I am unable to resist them. I have experienced this with several of my peers who only take that one specific brand. Also, the fragrance that is produced by deodorants influences a consumer's decision. Particularly, those with an attractive smell and a friendly visual image are more preferred than those that do not. Research has also shown that consumers are more likely to remember the names of the brands that have pleasant scents (García-Orozco et al., 2020).

The behavioral learning theory is one of the theories that can be used to explain consumer behavior. It assumes that learning results from responses to external events, but not from the internal thought processes (Solomon, White, & Dahl, n.d). Instrumental conditioning and classical conditioning are approaches to this theory. They explain why consumers can respond to jingles, scents, brand names, and other stimuli based on the connections and the learned association they have with the brand names. However, people can take action in terms of the rewards and punishments they receive from using the products. For example, consumers who experience food poisoning from a particular brand may not consume it again. Still, those who have good experiences and receive compliments are more likely to consume the product once again. In conclusion, consumer experience, as well as consumer behavior, are essential to marketers. They determine the product's acceptability to the users, influencing the number of sales leading to an increase in the profit. Therefore, brands need to get a clear description of their target market to improve their marketing skills.

References

Blythe, J. (2013). Consumer behavior. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

García-Orozco, D., Alfaro-García, V. G., Espitia-Moreno, I. C., & Gil-Lafuente, A. M. (2020). Forgotten effects analysis of the consumer behavior of sustainable food products in Mexico. Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3233/jifs-189194

Solomon, M., White, K., & Dahl, D. Consumer behavior (7th ed.). Toronto.

Strydom, J. (2004). Introduction to marketing. Cape Town, South Africa: Juta