In order to survive and develop in the fierce market competition, operators need to constantly improve their management level and ability to adapt to market changes. An important link to test the marketing ability of operators is to look at the concept of "consumer" in their minds, because effective marketing strategies are based on the psychological understanding of consumers. In the past decade, developed countries, especially Europe, America, Japan and other countries, have made one successful case after another in market competition. The idea of marketing strategy is to study the psychological characteristics of consumers in relevant markets and formulate marketing strategies according to their characteristics in order to be invincible in the market. In contrast, although many of our operators verbally say "consumer psychology is the center", the long-term "mindset" has formed a self-centered business philosophy in their minds, and they don't understand the contemporary consumer psychology, so the market is getting smaller and smaller, and business is becoming more and more difficult. How to grasp the psychology of consumers and win the future market may give these people some enlightenment after reading this article.

Perspective of Contemporary "Consumer Psychology"

The psychological characteristics of consumers refer to: how consumers think (cognize), how they feel (experience), how they do (act) and the things and places (environment) that can affect them. It is the above differences that make consumer behavior show diversity in the face of marketing strategies, and also make the market colorful. Isn't it based on this principle that both sides are "profitable"? Therefore, an important concept of operators is how to ensure that what businesses do is consistent with what consumers think, feel and do.

At present, the marketing ideas of many operators do not really reflect the psychological characteristics of consumers, but from their own point of view, with the business philosophy of "I want consumers", the "marketing strategy" formulated is only based on the above position, combining products, prices, places and promotions (hereinafter referred to as 4P) and applying it to the market. In this way, most marketing activities are actually "product positioning" rather than "consumer psychological positioning".

People in marketing guru often say: "The only purpose of business is to create consumers." So what is such a "consumer", or what are its characteristics? It may be difficult for us to say clearly at present. But fundamentally speaking, consumers are composed of a potential group, which is driven by the desire to meet their needs. The market starts because products or services meet the needs of consumers and satisfy their desires. In the past, a common mistake made by enterprises was to create so-called consumers only according to their own subjective wishes, rather than based on market research. This kind of consumers portrayed by the wrong marketing concept can't exist in reality, or only a few consumers can't form a market.

The key to understanding "consumer psychology" is gradually formed through market research. An important purpose of market research is to analyze the present situation, characteristics and changing trend of consumer psychology. The key to studying consumer psychology is three questions: first, what consumers buy, second, why consumers buy, and third, how consumers buy. However, in real life, these three problems of consumers are influenced by many factors, such as personal factors such as age, gender, occupation, economic status and lifestyle, psychological factors such as motivation, perception, belief and attitude, and social factors such as social class, related groups, family, culture, subculture and foreign culture. Because consumers' psychology is ever-changing, the purchase behavior under the joint action of these factors is also more diverse. Because of this, if you want to have a successful work, you must really see through the consumer psychology.

Second, meet the internal needs of contemporary consumers.

Nowadays, the criteria for consumers to choose goods are no longer based on the rational concept of "good" or "bad", but on the attitude and psychological experience of "like" or "dislike". We know that Procter & Gamble has a history of more than 65,438+000 years, and now its main products have become the most popular products in China. The key to P&G's success is that P&G's products can "educate" consumers from the emotional point of view. This enterprise, which appears as a "mentor", gives consumers a healthy lifestyle, a brand-new health concept and credible health products. Consumers first accept it with a little respect, and then worship it very devoutly.

You listen to "China people, are you ready?" This is P&G's cordial greeting to us every day for many years. "Did you wash your hair?" I'll wash it for you. "Can you wash your hair?" -I'll teach you how to wash. "Is it ready?" I'll tell you how to wash it. Procter & gamble is like a gentle wife, attached to her husband's side, not only to coax, but also to practice; You not only pay attention to your life, but also take good advice. P&G not only teaches people to wash their hair, but also teaches China people to brush their teeth from generation to generation. At the same time, it has achieved unprecedented social benefits and is more long-term. Because, behind all these efforts, it is the change of consumers' life concepts and habits, the improvement of people's health awareness and level, and the civilized growth of the whole society.

Because of this, when P&G paid an advertising star to do "I wash my hair every day, what about you?" In the large-scale advertising campaign, even the name of our company was not signed. Procter & Gamble requires people to wash their hair every day, so the usage rate of shampoo is of course high, and Procter & Gamble is the biggest seller of shampoo, so it is Procter & Gamble that finally makes a profit.

Another example is the world-famous Unilever product Lipton black tea. Because tea bags contain tea dregs, they have always been rejected by authentic tea tasters. In order to attract consumers' favor, Unilever began to develop triangular three-dimensional tea bags in 2000, which contained pieces of rolled oolong tea, Wenshan tea or scented tea. Once the three-dimensional tea bag is soaked in boiling water, it will swell up, and the tea leaves inside will spread out into the original shape, which is very in line with the tastes of consumers who love China. Within a year, it achieved amazing turnover and its market share exceeded 50%. Lipton has attracted a new group of tea drinkers by introducing products with new packaging and new connotations, so that the old products will always maintain good sales. Lipton milk tea was recently introduced, which is more popular. Especially suitable for teenagers and young workers.

Another example is the experience of Sofitel products in China. We know that 1992, the total annual sales of cosmetics in China is less than10 billion yuan. Cosmetics industry, with its huge market capacity, low entry threshold and relatively considerable profits, has become a hot industry sought after by investment experts from all sides. Softer, a famous brand, entered the field of cosmetics under such fierce competition. At that time, most of the cosmetics market emphasized a kind of spiritual feeling, but few products really put functional interest into practice, so Softer well identified the weakness of this market and competitive brands. Sofitel's market choice has two elements: one is people who need special interests, and the other is people who have purchasing power. Both markets are not very sensitive to prices, but more concerned with solving problems. Faced with a clear positioning, Softer is more concerned about how to maximize the price paid by consumers.

In view of the market differences, Sofitel took the lead in developing an unconventional soap-Sofitel seaweed slimming soap. The birth of Sofitel seaweed slimming soap took the lead in realizing the functionalization of soap and adapted to the psychological needs of consumers for safety and convenience. After initial success, Softer launched "Papaya White Skin Soap". Has the functions of decomposing melanin and removing dead skin. "Papaya white skin soap" has been welcomed by consumers, thus becoming a field that various brands are competing to develop. Sofitel once again leads the skin care trend in China market. In 2002, Sofitel facial cleanser began to enter the market in an all-round way, and ten kinds of facial cleanser to solve different skin problems were launched at once. Driven by the marketing strategy of "solving the problem of face by washing face", Softer has made great strides in the cosmetics market with its unique products. In 2003, Sofitel facial cleanser ranked first in domestic brand sales. Softer's success can not be separated from its in-depth study of the industry, competitive brands, especially the psychological needs of consumers. It can be seen that it is an important aspect of future marketing success for operators to create new demand and satisfaction strategies through divergent thinking.

3. Some features of consumer psychology are still valid, but new marketing meanings should be included.

As early as 1970s, developed countries began to combine the psychological characteristics of consumers with marketing strategies. John, a famous American marketing expert? Jones put forward some characteristics of consumer psychology on this basis. Now, although these features are still valid after decades, they need to be integrated with new marketing meanings, especially for the China market. There are only two important features to illustrate their significance.

(a) Women are still the most important group of consumers and buyers, and 70% of female buyers are young women under the age of 30.

Now most manufacturers know that the target consumers should be "women", but only this concept is still relatively weak in the market. Marketers must understand how women, as the mainstream of contemporary consumption, spend money.

According to the latest survey (2004), the income of young women (under 30 years old) is significantly higher than that of old women; The higher the education, the more money you earn and the more money you spend, which is often the "moonlight clan". The pursuit of fashion, clothing style, perfume and so on. Although this is summarized from tens of thousands of data in several cities, if we stay in these data, it will not bring unlimited business opportunities. Therefore, the key is how marketers plan to turn it into a business reality. For example, the upsurge of slimming, beauty and plastic surgery in recent years just shows that these characteristics of modern women have attracted the attention of marketers. The survey also shows that when young women choose goods, generally speaking, the factors that affect their consumption are brand, quality and price in turn, while older women are just the opposite. Of course, it's different, for example, jewelry pays attention to style and ignores brand and price; For perfume, more emphasis is placed on fragrance and brand, so I prefer foreign products. Have our operators considered these factors? Therefore, the key to female marketing in the future is to deeply understand their inner desires.

(b) Children's products, including teenagers, remain a market with great potential.

Everyone who does business knows that apart from earning money from women, the biggest market may be the children's products market. However, today's children's products have undergone tremendous changes, using American marketing expert Keith? Vicchio's words are: create "cool" products, win the hearts of children, and you win the market. What kind of goods are "cool" and full of energy? This also requires investigation and study. The following only uses a survey (1999, 10) about the coolness of middle school students in China to illustrate the characteristics of today's juvenile products market.

At present, the so-called "coolness" of domestic teenagers is: first, sensibility is more than rationality, and attractive people are more appealing; Second, the vivid and artificial style is easily accepted by teenagers; Third, sports, strong ability, indifferent temperament, and "cool" in my heart; Fourth, I like fashion and fashion best. What does this mean for marketing planning? Personally, I think there are the following points. First of all, teenagers' products must have an intuitive and very cool image. For example, planners can look for it in magazines that are fashionable, and they can also be inspired by their favorite images of film and television or sports stars, so as to innovate and make it market-oriented; The second is to create "cool" behaviors for them to imitate, such as playing computer and surfing the Internet in shopping malls, and pursuing fashion when necessary, such as changing hair color and wearing personalized clothes. There are many business opportunities in this area waiting for businesses to develop. Today, teenagers in China are overwhelmed by various exams, so they have no personality and creativity. We businessmen should consider letting them relax and do something practical to reduce the heavy study burden of teenagers. Today, it is incorrect for teenagers to pursue "coolness": this is not only the embodiment of personality, but also the liberation of personality.