Social Media and Consumer Behaviour

Social Media and Consumer Behaviour

Since the rise of Facebook and other social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, the majority of the population of the world have been actively using these platforms for last few years. Facebook itself has 2.37 billion monthly active users(Hutchinson, 2019) showing the potential of consumer interaction companies have with its target audience and since the last few years, companies have been able to leverage this audience to understand and market to users on these platforms. We are going to talk about how these companies have been able to leverage consumer behaviors to introduce products in the market as well as been able to change consumer behavior using these platforms.

Approach to marketing has drastically changed since the introduction of social media. Marketing before social media was more relatable to “bowling” game which is linear and plain one directional game, whereas marketing after social media is more relatable to “pinball” game which is multi-directional, turbulent and highly interactive game(Thorsten, 2013). Many actors are in play during the game and ball can change direction at any time and the player has to be alert all the time to excel in this game. Same goes with marketing after introduction of social media where marketers and researchers are learning to play and master this game. This has been because of the increase in power of the consumer and a more active role of consumers in creating content and presenting their opinion as opposed to being a passive receiver of content created by marketers. The power to create content, conversation points and timing of the conversation has been moving from producers to consumers. Because of social media, consumers are more connected to each other which brings out more transparency in marketing since activities of marketers and consumers are visible to a larger group of other consumers and marketers and information can be passed very easily and quickly on social media(Thorsten, 2013). This has been more influential during recent years where consumers have started using their real identities instead of pseudo names and have become more extrovert personalities from being introvert ones. All these factors sum up to the complexities of the pinball game of marketing on social media and force us to revise our understanding of consumer behavior of people using social media to leverage it.

Buying Decision Process and influence of Social media

Based on research by marketing scholars, “five stage model” (figure 1) of buying decision has been developed through which consumers go through while going through a purchase. These are Problem Recognition, Information Search, Evolution of Alternatives, Purchase Decision and Post-Purchase Behaviour.

Figure 1: ‘The five stage model in consumer behavior’ Kotler (2012)

Consumers may go through these in a different order or might skip some steps based on first time or repetitive buyer and amount of time spent on each stage might be different in the online environment.

1. Problem Recognition

The buying process is the time when a consumer recognizes a problem or need which is triggered either by internal stimuli (e.g., tired, feeling cold, etc.) or external stimuli (e.g., need of a laptop for school work). Based on research, three reference groups have been recognized to which consumers are influenced in their buying behavior, namely, cultural, social, and personal. These reference groups have a direct or indirect influence on consumers’ behavior. Consumer interacts which some of these groups continuously, also called primary, such as family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, and these groups which have a considerable influence on buying behavior. There is a secondary group as well, such as religious, professional, culture that is more formal and has less interaction. Both primary and secondary groups influence consumers by exposing them to new behaviors, influence attitude, give them advice, and create peer pressure which influence product and brand choices. There is also an aspirational group which consumers usually wishes to join. Using social media, marketers need to vary of the influencing groups of the consumers while targeting them. There is a need to study these groups of their target audience, and then marketers should decide which social media channels are most optimal to capture, influence, and sustain consumer behavior of the audience.

2. Information Search

There is a high rise in search through social media and networking sites during the search phase as consumers spend a majority of their time on these platforms. Consumers feel more connected to other consumers on these platforms, and it’s much easier and convenient to get good and genuine reviews of products and brands. Influencers on these platforms can significantly impact consumer behavior of consumers without having any direct interaction with them.

If the influence of a reference group is strong, marketers can influence the leader of that group which can further influence his group in tapping the desired consumer behavior. Marketers can also influence opinion leaders. Opinion leaders are socially active individuals who have knowledge in some area. People trust the opinions of these leaders and visit the content posted by these leaders to gain more insights into a product or brand.

Because of this trend of consumers searching on social networking website, companies have evolved technologically to search detailed consumer information that was not accessible in the past. Social media platform then allows companies to search and collect data about consumer behavior, gather detailed insights, and encourage brand conversions. This information can be used by companies to leverage these platforms even better.

3. Evaluation of alternatives

Marketer generated content, generated by marketers on behalf of firms, is found to impact positively in increasing sales with engagement in social media brand communities. Consumer behavior is affected by both user-generated content and marketer generated content through information, persuasion, and viability. A large number of alternatives are usually available to consumers that are evaluated continuously while making buying decisions. Marketer generated content is often less persuasive that user-generated content as consumers are more skeptical about the marketing content by these brands as they believe that marketers exaggerate the benefits of the products without talking about the disadvantages.

With marketers developing brand communities, digitized word of mouth has become common