Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior can have a huge impact in determining the effectiveness of the marketing strategy implemented in an organization. The first step in designing the appropriate marketing strategy to use in promoting a certain product is to first get into the minds of potential consumers. This is because the purchasing decisions made by consumers are shaped by different factors ranging from consumer preferences to other external and internal influences in the business environments such as family, culture, and the status of the economy. Thus, before designing a marketing strategy, it is crucial for organizations to understand consumer behavior and the certain influences that determine their purchasing behavior. This way, it would be possible to align the marketing strategy with the preferences in such a way that encourages purchasing (Baltes, 2015).
The consumer purchasing habits also depend largely on consumer knowledge as well as the ability of consumers to process marketing information. Limitations in consumers’ abilities to process information may affect the outcomes of a marketing campaign. It is thus necessary for marketers to choose the most appropriate marketing campaign based on the analysis of consumer behavior. An analysis of how individuals acquire and use goods as well as the aspects of lifestyle that influence purchasing is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. This information could be valuable for an organization in identifying new opportunities in terms of marketing their products.

It could also be used in solving the problems such as undesirable marketing outcomes as the marketing strategies could be enhanced and aligned in ways that effectively reach the consumers (Armstrong, Adam, Denize, & Kotler, 2014).

In the case of Starbucks Inc, the company has an opportunity to promote the use of its coffee products by utilizing the benefits of understanding consumer behavior. By analyzing consumer behavior, Starbucks would be able to identify factors that may affect consumers’ decision-making and hence their purchasing habits. As outlined in assignment three (page 6), Starbucks is facing stiff competition from other companies that produce coffee beverages. As a result, consumers have a wide range of coffee brands to choose from when making purchasing decisions. Consumers’ decisions on what type of brand to purchasing from are determined by several forces which include psychological factors, social factors as well as environmental factors. Thus, to counter the effects of competition, Starbucks would need to develop an understanding of the consumer behavior for the different segments of its target customers. This would provide a good way for analyzing consumer needs and preferences and hence a better way of meeting these needs would be developed (Blakeman, 2015).

Starbucks would need to conduct a marketing campaign whose objectives would be to promote the company’s brand loyalty as well as attracting new customers into purchasing the company’s products. The major effect of the competition is the weakening of brand loyalty for a company. An increase in a competition provides customers with different options to choose from when shopping for goods. A customer who was used to purchasing a product from brand A may be tempted to purchase from brand B due to the marketing strategies employed by brand B. In such a case, the brand loyalty for brand A would have weakened. Brand loyalty, in this case, means having the customer’s purchase products from the company repeatedly or having usual customers purchase more quantity of a product. An understanding of consumer behavior helps firms to analyze the factors that influence customers to choose a product for a particular brand given the different brand options from which they can choose. The marketing campaign in the case of Starbucks would be intended for promoting the use of its coffee beverages thus promoting its market share. This would involve encouraging the users of the products to continue using as well as attracting potential customers (East, Singh, Wright, & Vanhuele, 2016).

Starbucks has different segmentations of its customers. A large number of the company’s customers are urbanites and college students. These groups would thus constitute the primary target audience for the marketing campaign. Many of the Starbucks customers are in urban areas. However, since Starbucks is also focused on growing its market share, it would also be important that the campaign is not limited to the urban areas. The consumers in the rural areas also constitute significantly the Starbucks’ customer base. Hence, the marketing campaign should be targeted not only to customers in the urban areas but also to customers in the rural areas. This way, Starbucks would promote the use of its products in relation to the competitors’ products (West, Ford, & Ibrahim, 2015).

One way for Starbucks to promote the use of its coffee products would be to increase the variety of products offered to customers and to familiarize customers with the products through product launches and advertisements. The major Starbucks competitors, notably McDonald’s, offer a wide variety of products hence customers have a wide range of products to satisfy their changing needs and preferences. McDonald’s has been famous for its long menu which meets the varied needs of its customers. Based on the analysis of consumer behavior, Starbuck needs to focus on product development in order to cater to the needs of all customers. Customers have varying preferences and may seek products that are not offered in the short Starbucks menu from its competitors (Ordun, 2015). Customers could be segmented into groups based on their preferences, groups whose needs would be easy to fulfill. Another way of promoting Starbucks product use is to enhance the distribution of products in untapped markets such as rural areas. Sales could be boosted through advertisements through trade shows and newsletters. Starbucks has largely focused on the urban areas leaving potential markets in rural areas which competitors are capitalizing on. Efficient distribution of products to these areas, coupled with promotion measures could increase the use of the company’s products in these markets. The type of promotion selected for a particular market should be aligned with the consumers’ information processing abilities as well as its convenience (Parente, & Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, 2014).

With the appropriate pricing as well as promotional measures such as discounting and coupons, this marketing campaign would increase the sales of Starbucks coffee products and help in fighting the rising competition. The success of the marketing campaign would be measured based on the marketing outcomes. The company would realize an increased use of its coffee beverages. There would also be an increased awareness resulting from the promotional measures employed in the marketing campaign. The marketing campaign would also promote brand loyalty as consumers would be offered a wide variety of products based on the analysis of consumer behavior. In addition to promoting brand loyalty, the success of the marketing campaign would also be measured on the basis of product adoption in the market. If new products are introduced based on the analyzed consumer behavior, the rate of adoption of these products would imply the success of the campaign. Thus, understanding consumer behavior would be necessary for Starbucks to implement the most successful marketing campaign (Gordon, & Perrey, 2015).

References
Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., & Kotler, P. (2014). Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia.
Baltes, L. P. (2015). A content marketing-the fundamental tool of digital marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V, 8(2), 111.
Blakeman, R. (2015). Advertising campaign design: Just the essentials. Routledge.
East, R., Singh, J., Wright, M., & Vanhuele, M. (2016). Consumer behavior: applications in marketing. Sage.
Gordon, J., & Perrey, J. (2015). The dawn of marketing’s new golden age. McKinsey Quarterly, 1.
Ordun, G. (2015). Millennial (Gen Y) consumer behavior their shopping preferences and perceptual maps associated with brand loyalty. Canadian Social Science, 11(4), 40-55.
Parente, D., & Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, K. (2014). Advertising campaign strategy: A guide to marketing communication plans. Cengage Learning.
West, D. C., Ford, J., & Ibrahim, E. (2015). Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage. Oxford University Press, USA.