Marketing Foundations & Consumer Behaviour

Marketing creates, communicates and delivers value to customers. Selling and advertising are only parts of this wider process. A business must understand customers, design an offer, set a price, distribute it, and communicate its benefit.

A need is a basic felt deprivation; a want is the culturally shaped form of meeting that need; a demand exists when a want is supported by purchasing power. The distinction helps marketers avoid confusing what people desire with what they will actually buy.

A product is anything offered to satisfy a need or want, including goods, services and experiences. Consumer and industrial offerings differ mainly in who buys them and for what purpose. Luxury offerings are typically discretionary, premium-positioned and influenced by rising income.

Customer value compares benefits received with costs incurred. Satisfaction depends on how the actual performance compares with expectations. Quality influences both value and satisfaction: it is not simply an expensive finish, but fitness for the customer’s intended use.

Exchange means obtaining something desired by offering something else. A transaction is a particular exchange with agreed terms. Relationship marketing extends attention beyond one sale to ongoing trust and repeat value.

A market consists of actual and potential buyers; an industry refers to sellers. Marketing links both through offerings, information, payments and value. This relationship makes buyer demand and producer choices interdependent.

Marketing is not confined to physical goods: organisations market services, events, experiences, people, places, properties, information, organisations and ideas. The marketer identifies an audience, a value proposition and channels to reach that audience.

The production, product, selling, marketing and societal marketing concepts emphasise different managerial priorities. Production stresses availability, product concept quality, selling concept sales pressure, marketing concept customer needs, and societal marketing long-term welfare alongside business results. Holistic marketing considers interconnected relationships and activities.

Newer marketing emphasises the customer across departments, segmented offerings, data, networks, outsourced capabilities and changing competitive conditions. These trends affect how firms organise decisions, not merely what advertisements they create.

Marketing management includes understanding markets, generating insights, designing offers, delivering value, building brands, communicating, building relationships and sustaining growth. See the slide for the lecturer’s precise checklist.

Consumer markets comprise individuals and households buying for personal consumption. In the buyer model, marketing and environmental stimuli enter the buyer’s black box; individual characteristics and decision processes then produce purchase responses. The model explains why identical advertising can create different reactions.

Culture, subculture and social class shape learned preferences. Reference groups, family, opinions, online networks, roles and status influence which products feel suitable or desirable. Social influence can alter evaluation before a person makes the purchase.

Occupation, life stage, economic situation, lifestyle, personality and self-concept shape buying decisions. Lifestyle describes activities, interests and opinions, so people with similar incomes may still buy very differently.

Motivation energises behaviour; perception filters how information is interpreted; learning changes future behaviour; and beliefs and attitudes guide evaluations. Maslow arranges needs from physiological and safety through belonging, esteem and self-actualisation. These categories help explain motives, not predict every purchase mechanically.

The initiator suggests the purchase, the influencer affects opinions, the decider chooses, the buyer pays or purchases, and the user consumes or uses the offering. These roles can belong to one person or several people.

The buying-behaviour matrix combines degree of involvement with differences among brands. High involvement with significant brand differences creates complex behaviour; high involvement with few differences produces dissonance-reducing behaviour. Low involvement creates habitual or variety-seeking behaviour depending on brand differences.

The stages are need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase behaviour. External events, perceived risk and others’ attitudes can affect the journey. After purchase, satisfaction influences reviews, loyalty and future decisions.

A customer journey describes experiences with a brand before, during and after a purchase. Marketing is therefore more than a single transaction: touchpoints such as search, service, delivery and support collectively shape perception.

The adoption process moves through awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption. Consumers differ in their willingness to adopt new products. The slide’s adopter curve identifies innovators, early adopters, early mainstream, late mainstream and lagging adopters with the familiar diffusion proportions.

Business buyers purchase for production, resale or organisational use. Compared with consumer markets, organisational buying typically involves fewer larger buyers, derived demand, professional purchasing and more formal decisions. The business-buyer model adds organisational processes and the buying centre.

A straight rebuy repeats a familiar order; a modified rebuy revises the product or supplier terms; a new-task purchase involves a first-time problem and more information gathering. The situation affects purchasing effort and the number of participants.

A buying centre includes users, influencers, buyers, deciders and gatekeepers. Environmental, organisational, interpersonal and individual factors all influence decisions. Knowing who controls information and approval is as important as identifying the company.

The process generally includes problem recognition, general need description, product specification, supplier search, proposal solicitation, supplier selection, order-routine specification and performance review. Real purchases may revisit or skip steps, especially for routine reorders.

E-procurement uses electronic channels to identify suppliers, place orders and manage purchase processes. Digital B2B marketing engages decision makers through useful information, professional networks and targeted communication. Cost, speed and information sharing are important advantages.

Institutional buyers include hospitals, schools, prisons and other organisations serving people in their care. Government buyers purchase goods and services for public functions and may follow formal procurement procedures. Their objectives can differ from ordinary consumer profit motives.

Segmentation divides an extensive market into groups with different needs, characteristics or behaviour. Consumer markets can be segmented geographically, demographically, psychographically and behaviourally. A useful segment must connect to a meaningful marketing decision.

Psychographic segmentation uses lifestyle, personality and social class. Behavioural segmentation considers occasions, desired benefits, user status, usage rate and loyalty. Different variables can overlap when building a target segment.

Business markets add industry, company size, technology, purchasing approaches and other organisational variables. International segmentation also considers economic, geographic, political/legal and cultural differences.

Segments should be measurable, accessible, substantial, differentiable and actionable. This checks whether market groups are real, reachable, economically worthwhile, distinct and serviceable.

Evaluate segment size and growth, structural attractiveness and the organisation’s objectives and resources. Strategies include undifferentiated, differentiated, concentrated and micromarketing approaches, with individual marketing as the narrowest form. Choosing depends on resources and demand differences.

Positioning is how a product occupies a distinctive place in customers’ minds. Firms identify valuable differences, choose a defensible advantage and communicate it consistently. Weak execution can produce underpositioning, overpositioning, confused positioning or doubtful positioning.

The source introduces globalisation and immersive/AI technologies as headings without developed lessons. Supplementary clarification: global platforms expose consumers to wider choices, AI can personalise discovery, AR can preview products, and VR can simulate experiences. Consider privacy and bias when evaluating their effects.