UNDERSTANDING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: THEIR CONSUMPTION CHAIN
Understanding issues on consumer behaviour is analogous to the tedious finding of a needle in the ocean. It is a never ending task and search for enlightenment by researchers and marketing managers alike. Yet the search has to go on continuously as the knowledge of which is so significant and influential in the art of marketing, it is the epitome of companies’ effectiveness in the formulation of marketing strategies. This paper aims to uncover hidden opportunities or to discover points of differentiation in the consumer’s consumption chain. It calls for congruency with consumer needs with an “outside-in” approach versus the often used “inside-out” or from the company-focused perspective. In the discovery process, several sub-components have been drawn up to lay the foundation upon which the marketing strategies could be crafted. Interspersed in the discussion, the specific presumed role to “affect, cognitive and experience” (Vakratsas and Ambler, 1999) which are supposedly the three components of consumer behavior were elaborated as explanation. Additionally, some hindsight on the postulated concept to integrate and synthesise the newly gained knowledge on consumer consumption behaviour with purposive marketing activities were illustrated with proven real-life examples. The study integrates the reviews of a random selection of more than twenty published literature on issues on consumer behaviour, conceptual insights gathered from MacMillan and McGrath (1997) and related marketing textbooks. Relevant implications of the study were discussed. The notion of the concept adopted in this paper to implement an “outside-in” approach to ‘pull’ the consumers by integrating their buying and consumption behavioral needs with matching and purposive marketing strategies and activities.