Paper Sample on Consumer Psychology: The Key to Enhancing Consumer Satisfaction

Introduction

Psychology plays a vital role when it comes to influencing consumer consumption of certain products. Human psychology plays a crucial role in shaping the marketing strategy and the sales of the given organizations—various business trigger this aspect to influence consumer decisions and maintain the return rate of the clients. The aim is to enhance consumer satisfaction by making them feel the love and concern from the company offering the goods and services. The research is aimed at analyzing the various critical aspects of psychological consumption and how organizations deploy the strategies to maximize their sales.

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Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty refers to the tendency of consumers to purchase certain products from a given brand. Various business tend to come up with different creative marketing approaches such as rewarding loyal customers, incentives, and programs in order to build the relation hence enhancing brand loyalty. The consumer becomes accustomed to the additional products and services being offered by the supplier besides the main products or services being offered, and their decisions are based on the benefits derived from the company. The concept of brand loyalty tends to display emotional attachment and customer engagement, making them feel essential and values by the organization. The experience relating to the brand occurs when the consumers search for a product, shop for it, and consume the product. Consumers tend to be more attached to the brand, depending on the strength of their experiences. The decision to buy products from the brand or not to buy comes as a result of the contact made and the appealing nature of the organization's brand to the customers. Repeat purchases are then registered following the appeal of the brand after the psychological reasoning of the customer.

Consumer brand loyalty is manifested when they are in a position to pay more or higher prices for the brand, given their perceived benefit derived from the product. Commitment towards the brand can be used as a prediction on how the brand will perform in the market over a given period of time. Additionally, brand loyalty highlights specific importance or achievement of the marketing communication team within the organization. In marketing, loyalty entails the bond, commitment, and devotion of the customers towards the brand. The loyalty has a significant impact on the long term prospects of the brand and the relationship of the consumer and the organization as the secure connection is established. Loyalty involves the behavioral and attitudinal approach of the consumer. The attitudinal aspect tends to be psychological hence leading to repeat purchase behavior.

Brand loyalty is also essential in ensuring consumer retention despite the changes in the market, such as actions taken by the competitors. Any changes made by the competitors, such as a reduction in prices, do not influence the decisions made by loyal consumers. Brand loyalty gives the organization a competitive edge over the competitors in the market and creates a barrier to entry into the market. The attachment to specific brands is due to the psychological makeup of the consumer and matching the cognitive responses with the corresponding brand personalities. The consumers are mainly drawn to strong brands since this will display one of their tastes and personalities. The traits tend to resonate well with the specific individual minds indicating the decisions made by the consumer when making a purchase and their consequent returns.

Impulsivity and Risk-Taking in Youth

There is a strong relationship between risk-taking and impulsive spending among the youth. Organizations develop their marketing strategies with the aim of maximizing on the spending habits of the youth. Impulsivity entails bulk buying by the consumer under given favorable deals. Consumers tend to be lured by offers meant to show them their savings, and this alters their buying behavior and patterns. Impulsivity entails actions made by the consumers to purchase things they had not planned to buy. The practice is mainly prevalent among the youth due to their risk-taking nature. Risk-taking involves making a decision to undertake a task or action with the hope of a positive outcome. Ideally, children are perceived to be more risk-takers hence the reason for the extensive marketing targeting them (Romer, Betancourt, Brodsky, Giannetta, Yang & Hurt, 2011).

Organizations come up with strategies to tap into the spending habits of the youth, who are perceived to constitute the majority of the population and are the biggest buyers. The aim is to express to the child the derived benefit when buying the product and what they are likely to save. The impulse buying is a result of the psychological functioning of the youth engineered through the advertisements and campaigns made aimed at influencing the decision-making ability of the youth when making the purchase.

The promotional focus used by the organizations tends to bring out the risk-taking nature of the youth, leading to impulse buying—consequently, the organization's sales increases through the utilization of the appropriate marketing strategy for the youths. The marketers deploy various intrinsic factors, other than the existing socio-economic factors, on different groups to make them more appealing and generate sales for the organization. The emotional response among the youth tends to be higher compared to the other groups (Romer et. Al., 2011). The organization tends to analyze the trends in the market and the aspects associated with young people in order to make an informed decision on the marketing approach to undertake to reach the youth and influence their psychological choices.

Metaphor in Advertising

In marketing, metaphors are mainly applied as a way of enhancing the product’s perceived value. The approach makes the product seem to be more personal and aid in the creation of the brand image. Metaphors create symbolism, and those used in advertisement usually combines the visual image with a verbal phrase to bring out the greater effect of the product. Organizations chose to use metaphors since they resonate well with the consumer experiences, and the phrases tend to influence their perception of the products being offered. Through the metaphors, organizations create a strong presentation of their brands (Jeong, 2008).

The metaphors can be pure or fused, depending on what the organization aims at achieving. Pure metaphors represent a different thing from the product being offered by the organization. The aim of this is to promote a "boring" product and which is intangible in nature. It can also be used to make the product stand out even when it is tangible. Fused metaphors, the product is taken and combined with something else; hence the product is not replaced, but instead, it is used alongside other images to make it stand out more (Forceville, 2017).

The aim of the metaphor is to express the derived benefit through pictorial presentations to influence the psychological nature of the consumer minds. An example of a well-known and successful advertisement is the one involving the "Red Bull" drink in which the drink is viewed to be giving the "wings to fly," suggesting that the drink has the ability to lift someone up due to its caffeinated nature (Forceville, 2017).

Endowment Effect

The endowment effect entails an individual's emotional bias, which causes then to overvalue the objects or assets they own, and the value is usually irrational and higher than the real market value of the asset. It is mainly applied in behavioral economics and psychology. The endowment effect is clearly manifested when it comes to objects that tend to have symbolic significance or emotional attachment to an individual. The “loss aversion” and “ownership” are the two main causes of the endowment effect. At certain times, the owner of the assets may be forced to reject an offer even though the offer price is higher than the price the item was acquired, and this is mainly due to the endowment effect (Ericson & Fuster, 2014). The owner of the item may decide to use or consume the product themselves or wait for an ideal offer that will meet their expected value or prices.

Ownership and the loss aversion have been identified as the two key causes of the endowment effect. When it comes to ownership, people tend to value more what they have compared to the same item in the market. The value is placed on the item regardless of whether it was received as a gift or not. Loss aversion, on the other hand, explains why certain investors tend to hold on their unprofitable trades or assets since investing in the other assets in the market since they do not meet their expectations (Ericson & Fuster, 2014). The loss aversion aspect tends to be inconsistent with the economic theory that is standard in nature.

The standard economic theory explains that an individual’s willingness to pay for a community should be the same as their willingness to pay for the same. The endowment effect is psychological and applies outside the finance field. The application is evident in all the spheres of life. For instance, a university professor gifting a student from his class a well-decorated mug with the university logo makes the student value the items more. The student will dearly hold to the gift and will not part with it even at a higher value when presented, and will value it more than the average market value.

Transitional Objects

When it comes to humanity aspect, transitioning from one stage of life to another is vital in showing the progress made in life and how fast people grow. The main aim is to offer psychological comfort, and this is mainly applicable to children growing up and transitioning from one stage to another. They are usually applied in certain situations, such as during bedtime, to lure the babies to sleep.

In the psychology of children, the transition objects are usually used with the aim of taking the place of the bond that exists between the mother and the child to influence the behavior of the child with the well-known example being the teddy bear. The objects act as a transitional phase for development that exists between the external reality and the psychic. The transition is key for the complete dependence stage to the independent phase.

The transition objects are key in bringing the baby from the infant world to the new world. An illusion is created for the baby through the objects, and they see it as a result of their imagination that is as a result of their psychological development (Young, 1989). When the object is created, the child views it as being one entity with the mother only to come and realize later that they are not the same entity. The objects at the same time serve to entertain the baby and prepare them for the changes to come in the future.

Additionally, the objects can also be used for therapeutic purposes, especially in emergency vehicles such as ambulances that are equipped with toys to provide comfort to the traumatized victims as a result of accidents. The aim is to make them relaxed and transition from the distress situation they were in to the new and different environment (Voice Group, 2010). Teddy bears are also commonly used to provide comfort for the affected individuals, such as the 9/11 attack victims in which they were distributed to families, schools, and organizations traumatized by the event.

Understanding the societal needs and the need to transition from one phase to another is crucial for the marketing company to strategize and plan accordingly on the products to introduce to the market. The gap and the need exist to aid the babies to transition from one phase to another. The demand for transition ob...