+44-7897-074717Research Article - Journal of Research in International Business and Management ( 2022) Volume 9, Issue 4
Received: 13-May-2022, Manuscript No. JRIBM-22-65805; Editor assigned: 16-May-2022, Pre QC No. JRIBM-22-65805(PQ); Reviewed: 30-May-2022, QC No. JRIBM-22-65805; Revised: 25-Jul-2022, Manuscript No. JRIBM-22-65805(R); Published: 01-Aug-2022, DOI: http:/dx.doi.org/10.14303//jribm.2022.016
The study aimed to identify the role of psychological marketing on the consumer in improving and making purchasing decisions. In the first round (22) experts, in the second round (20) experts, and in the third round (15) experts, and the study recommended the following: The necessity of using psychological marketing in marketing research. Interest in researching the difficulty of applying psychological marketing in major companies. Identify problems and challenges that affect purchasing decisions.
Psychological marketing, Impact, Consumer, Making decisions, Buying
Psychology is diffuse in all aspects of life around us, and perhaps the most important of them is the science of marketing. Psychologists of marketing are intensively spread in the private sector, advertising agencies and consulting companies, and this is due to the urgent need for psychology in studying consumer trends towards buying; they use psychological research to develop psychological marketing plans for the development and sale of products, and to study the success of selling products and advertising campaigns.
Marketing psychology studies the mind and the forces that drive human development and the trends, desires and needs of the individual and the group towards the purchase decision of a specific commodity and psychological marketing uses psychological factors affecting the individual, family and society (Bu et al., 2022).
Understanding consumer psychological behaviour is essential in developing marketing strategies and methods. Studying consumer behaviour may contribute to improving marketers' performance in several ways; Perhaps the most prominent of them: understanding the behaviour of consumers while shopping, their way of thinking, and the priorities of their choices in making a purchase decision for a particular commodity (Sholichah et al, 2022).
Studies of consumer behaviour in various countries of the world are receiving increasing interest, in order to identify the psychological and demographic characteristics, and to understand their future behavioral patterns, in addition to identifying the factors affecting their purchasing decisions related to goods and services that correspond to the needs and desires of different categories of consumers offered in the target markets (Rangaswamy et al., 2020).
Motivation
Psychological motivation is the first and most important factor when limiting psychological influences on consumer behaviour; The psychological motive is what may push the consumer towards the direction in a specific way to buy certain products (Jung & Jeong, 2020).
Psychological marketing plays on motivating consumers to buy certain products based on their psychological desire to achieve a certain feeling, and these needs or desires can be based on physical sensations such as: feeling thirst, hunger, personal hygiene, etc. of physical requirements.
Perception
Perception also plays a vital role in psychological marketing because of its impact on consumer behavior in choosing a product or brand. It is also described as processing consumer information at this stage where all the senses participate in receiving brand marketing communication messages, and in the marketing literature, four distinct stages occur of perception while processing consumer information; They are: sensation, attention, interpretation, and retention (Azman et al., 2018).
Feeling
Sensation describes what happens when the consumer's senses are exposed to external stimuli for a product or marketing a brand. based on all the personal senses where he enters the cafe when he draws his attention to the brand and the sounds of the coffee grinding machine, and smells the aroma of fresh coffee grinding inside the cafe, and watches these particular processes, and selects the types of coffee suitable for his own taste, and it is possible to touch this product with his hands, and listen to the appropriate music The atmosphere in the background, in addition to the design of the cafe furniture in addition to the way to display the different types of girls, and the auxiliary types of sweets and sugars that the customer may need in the sweetening process, and here the marketing worked on all the senses of the customer (Dolega et al., 2021).
Attention
Attention occurs in the processing of consumer information, and when the consumer slows down, and gives the mental processing ability to the external stimulus of a particular product, or a particular brand, as selective perception occurs when the consumer pays attention to messages that are in line with his attitudes, needs, and beliefs, and when the product conflicts with these factors The consumer draws his attention (Bueno et al., 2022).
Explanation
Interpretation occurs when a consumer assigns meaning to a sensory stimulus from marketing a particular product or brand. The consumer recalls data, recalling his memory, to retrieve past experiences about a similar product or brands. Store brand marketing often benefits from the interpretation stage when a design contains Product packaging contains similar logos, colors, and other elements of local brands that consumers are generally more familiar with (Marius et al., 2021).
Retention stage
The process of consumer perception concludes with the retention stage, where this is distinguished by storing information about the product or brand in short or longterm memory with the aim of recalling it when needed, and the marketer aims to provide positive stimuli in the stages of actions that translate into consumers storing information about the product or brand business in long-term memory.
In light of the foregoing, the problem of the study is united in the following:
Study problem
The issue of attracting the consumer to make purchasing decisions has become one of the important issues that do not stop at a certain marketing level, because it is a continuous process that needs further development and continuous renewal, in order to keep pace with the emerging marketing changes, leading to global competitiveness in psychological satisfaction and satisfying the customer’s desires.
And many conferences called for the recommendation to pay attention to psychological marketing because of its positive effects in light of the fluctuations and changes in the market that occur and accelerate making purchase decisions, and the results of previous studies indicated the relationship between psychological marketing for the consumer and making purchase decisions (He & Harris, 2020) this ; At a time when the global market is suffering from many crises that have negatively affected the psychological impact of the consumer such as the (Covid-19) crisis, the fluctuations of the oil and food market, and finally the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, all of which are crises that have changed the course of marketing and affected the purchasing decisions of many consumers (Fleming-Milici & Harris, 2020).
What prompted the researchers to apply the Delphi tool to a random sample of experts in the field of psychological marketing from university professors, and specialists in the field, in addition to a sample of decision makers in major companies and marketing officials to explore their views on identifying psychological marketing and its impact on consumers in making decisions the purchase.
The problem of the study is determined in answering the following main question:
What is the role of psychological marketing on the consumer in improving and making purchasing decisions?
The following sub-questions are derived from the main question:
1. What are the theoretical frameworks for psychological marketing?
2. What are the theoretical frameworks for making purchasing decisions?
3. What is the role of psychological marketing on the consumer in improving and making purchasing decisions?
Objectives study
1. Understand the theoretical frameworks of psychological marketing.
2. Understand the theoretical frameworks for making purchasing decisions.
3. Revealing the role of psychological marketing on the consumer in improving and making purchasing decisions.
Importance studying
Importance of the study is due to:
1. Presenting a suggested image for officials and decisionmakers in large companies towards the application and use of psychological marketing, for its contribution to improving the marketing process and making purchase decisions for the consumer.
2. Helping companies to overcome successive crises.
Terminology of study
Search terms are specified in
Psychological marketing: It is defined as the study of consumer behavior and undermining his purchase decision.
Purchasing decision: It is a dynamic process consisting of the set of steps and influences that the consumer goes through to make his decision to buy or refrain from buying.
It is also defined as: a set of stages and steps taken by the consumer in order to solve a problem related to meeting his purchasing needs and requirements (Koob, 2021).
Study approach
In accordance with the objectives of the study and answering its questions, the researchers used one of the methods of future studies, the Delphi method with its three rounds, in order to identify the role of psychological marketing on the consumer in improving and making purchase decisions.
Limits study
This study was limited to its limits:
Objective limits: Psychological marketing on the consumer - making purchase decisions.
Spatial boundaries: Major companies in the State of Kuwait.
Theoretical framework
First, psychological marketing: There are several main factors that must be taken into consideration to understand consumer behavior, namely: behavioral and cognitive, personal, social and cultural variables, and we list them as follows:
Cognitive and behavioral factors
These factors indicate how people process information each time and how they act on it; Meaning: Do we buy a particular product because the brand is attractive? And do the mentioned sign encourage us to buy?
It should also take into account the individual differences of the consumer, such as the differences between the sexes, as both men and women have their different ways of perceiving and paying attention to stimuli, such as color processing and choosing, and the debate is still open in this regard in the difference between men's products and women's products (Sedalo et al., 2022).
Personal factors
Perhaps one of the most important personal factors that govern this relationship are the individual differences between the sexes, such as: (male and female); Or different identity, or different chronological age, or different culture, or different place of birth, all of these factors may affect the purchasing decision of the customer according to his personal factor (Perner, 2010).
For example, a person who prefers video games will spend any money to satisfy his desire, and nothing will prevent him from satisfying his hobby, and on the other hand, a person who does not fall outside his interests will not care and does not think about spending any part of his budget on it, no matter how much discounts and temptations were made available to it before. Marketers because it is outside his interests.
The age variable must also be taken into account; It is an important variable when studying consumer behavior. It is certain that adults have different requirements from younger generations, except for anomalies whose requirements may be similar to those of young people, but they are not a large number, so analyzing age, gender or culture can lead us to the right path in consumer's behavior.
Social factors
Social factors play an important role in understanding consumer behavior, especially in the information age and the abundance of social networks; The social influencer can be a technological means such as Facebook, Twitter, or other social media, and it can be a family member (Muhammad Kartat, 2021).
It is possible to be one of the reference individuals for the individual, which is what is called (the outer group); He who wants to see himself reflected, likewise; It could be a different social class, with all that it contains: the income of that class, the standard of living, the educational level, the way of communication among them, their appearance in front of the community etc., (Akter et al., 2022).
It is clear from the above that social factors are diverse and intertwined; Therefore, social factors are more difficult to analyze than to study consumer behavior and trends, but it is a very important part that cannot be overlooked when developing psychological marketing strategies.
Cultural factors
Culture still has the greatest influence on a social level; Cultural factors play a large role in companies' interest when adapting products to specific markets, or designing strategies for international marketing (Azemi et al., 2022).
For example, if we wanted to market a product coming from North America with Spanish consumers; We must address Hofstede's cultural model, which is based on a series of degrees (individual - collective, masculinity - femininity, uncertainty – certainty etc.) What are the aspects that one culture differs from another?.
The Hofstede cultural model is one of the most widely used by many marketing professionals, and is especially important when it comes to linking the right price with multiple markets or improving advertising, classifying the population, or choosing the segment to which products will be directed (Rozado, 2020).
Characteristics affecting psychological marketing
The characteristics that affect psychological marketing can be classified into the following (Abdel Kerim Youssef Zidan, 2020).
1. Consumer characteristics: such as socioeconomic status, gender, lifestyle, and family background.
2. Store characteristics: Traditional store environments motivate the consumer to buy, and as consumers discover the store environment, they encounter many stimulus signals, which increases the likelihood of unplanned purchases.
3. Product characteristics: The nature of some products motivates consumers to buy products such as lowpriced, small-sized, lightweight, or oddly shaped products.
4. Situational factors: The advertisements for offers and discounts for stores play a big role in motivating the consumer to buy and sometimes the friendly store employee plays a big role in the purchase as well.
Therefore, it is necessary for store owners to possess the strong marketing mix within the stores in addition to studying how to create the environment and environment of the store in order to achieve higher profits by motivating consumers to purchase more.
Second: Making purchasing decisions
If marketing has a primary objective; It is reaching consumers at the moments that most influence their purchasing decisions. The product we buy is arguably just the tip of the iceberg in the complex perceptual decision-making process that takes place in our brains, which we rarely pay attention to on a daily basis; Paying attention to our internal reactions can make us more responsible consumers in our daily live.
The quality of making a purchase decision for a particular product varies from one consumer to another according to a number of factors, including the difficulty of the purchasing situation, and the number of participants in the purchase decision. However, some researchers differed in dividing the types of purchase decision, and the researchers worked hard to reach this division as follows:
Typical purchase decision
It is the least problematic purchasing situation, and the consumer is aware of the type of product and its details, and therefore is based on his previous experiences when buying the product. This type of purchasing behavior always occurs when buying a product that has a low cost in terms of money, effort or time; For example, in the case of food products (such as salt, milk, etc.), the consumer is aware of the problem, makes a decision, and makes little effort to obtain information from external sources, and evaluate alternatives, and the process of purchasing such products is repetitive and usual, and is an example of purchasing with low correlation and permanent (Barrington et al., 2017).
Limited purchase decision
It is a moderately problematic purchasing decision. In this case, the consumer is in agreement with a product because he is used to buying it, but he is not familiar with all available alternatives. Therefore, he needs to think, even in a simple way, because he is aware of the product and needs some information about competing and alternative products.
The use of such a method is encountered in many purchasing decisions of the individual and the family, and this method is based on simplifying the purchasing process by reducing information, reducing the number of alternatives, and evaluation criteria. In the limited solution method, the consumer seeks to obtain some information or relies on a friend to help him evaluate alternatives. In this way, the consumer evaluates the group of alternative brands according to few or limited advantages and the consumer often does not have much time and effort, such as deciding to choose a restaurant for a quick lunch.
Extended purchase decision
In this case of decisions, the product is expensive, such as: buying a house, a car, a plot of land, etc., and the consumer makes a great effort in research and inquiry in order to test the appropriate product (Azemi et al., 2022).
This type is evident in complex purchase cases, such as purchasing a durable good or service, as it is noted that the process of collecting information is more complex and difficult, and the consumer’s connection to the product is high and the cost of purchasing the product is high, while the time spent in purchasing will be long as the differences between the alternatives are large, and calls for Make an effort to balance all of these details with what makes the purchase of such products associated with a high degree of risk, examples of which are the purchase of cars or audio systems (Rozado, 2020) (Table 1).
| Extended Purchase Decision | Usual Purchase Decision |
|---|---|
| expensive products | low cost products |
| Low repeat purchase | High repeat purchase |
| high degree of correlation | Low correlation |
| Unfamiliar product categories or brands | Familiar product categories or brands |
| High cognitive effort, research and time spent buying | Decreased cognitive effort, research and time spent on purchasing |
Table 1. The difference between the usual purchase decision and the extended purchase decision.
The previous figure summarizes how the cost, risk, purchasing effort, and level of attachment to the product range from the usual purchasing decisions to the highly complex purchasing decisions. When the usual purchasing decision, we may find in the case of purchasing goods and services that cost less money and effort, such as purchasing soft goods, such as: foods, beverages, or Gasoline … etc., and companies operating in the market must maintain the level of quality of their brand and keep reminding customers of it and keep it in their minds through communication programs and the brand’s availability in outlets so that the consumer does not turn into a competing company in the absence of the product in nearby outlets For new businesses planning to enter highly competitive markets, they will need to rebuild the consumer buying journey through the use of free samples and discounts to encourage consumers in all target segments to try their brands, break the barrier of fear of risk, and focus communication programs on creating brand awareness and ensuring its entry into the list Legal alternatives to the consumer.
Field study procedures and results
The field study aimed to identify the role of psychological marketing on the consumer in improving and making purchasing decisions.
Study sample
The study sample consisted of faculty members, experts and specialists in the field of psychological marketing, and their number was 57.
Delphi tours
After the researchers obtained the questionnaires from the experts in the first round, and their number was 22 experts, the researchers pulled out the percentages of expert consensus on the tool, and presented them to the experts in the second round, and the number of experts in the second round was 20 experts, then The researchers modified, implemented the opinions and observations of the experts, and presented the tool to 15 experts, and then the data was processed and the percentages of agreement were calculated in the results of the previous two rounds, and then the average percentages of agreement were extracted. In the model (90.38%) and above, this is due to the convergence of expert opinions regarding the dimensions and items of the tool, which shows that it obtained relatively large degrees of agreement.
The percentages of agreement of the experts in the Delphi tours on the study tool, as in Table 1, were as follows (Table 2):
| The Phrase | Total responses | The percentage of expert agreement in Delphi tours | average agreement | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| first | second | third | |||
| Forming strong relationships with the client. | 57 | 98% | 92% | 91% | 93.67% |
| Customer satisfaction is more important than competing with other companies. | 57 | 94% | 93% | 83% | 90.00% |
| Speak to customers' feelings, not their money. | 57 | 92% | 85% | 99% | 92.00% |
| Raise the feelings of customers towards the right product for them. | 57 | 88% | 91% | 85% | 88.00% |
| I try to link the product and get rid of negative feelings. | 57 | 87% | 85% | 86% | 86.00% |
| Always strive to download discounts on products constantly. | 57 | 92% | 94% | 99% | 88.33% |
| Highlight the positive psychological results when purchasing and acquiring the product. | 57 | 94% | 96% | 83% | 91.00% |
| Explain the negative psychological effects when refraining from buying the product and comparing it with other competing goods. | 57 | 93% | 95% | 81% | 89.67% |
| I address the feelings and minds of customers, not their money. | 57 | 83% | 89% | 92% | 95.80% |
| I put the means of welcoming the customer. | 57 | 96% | 98% | 85% | 93.00% |
| I set controls that I abide by in the policy of selling and returning the product. | 57 | 95% | 94% | 88% | 92.33% |
| I always make the consumer feel that his requests are available to me by adjusting his attitudes towards the product. | 57 | 98% | 92% | 91% | 92.00% |
| Psychological satisfaction of the consumer is one of the company's most important priorities. | 57 | 94% | 93% | 83% | 90.00% |
| I do not aim to sell as much as psychologically persuading the customer with what suits him. | 57 | 92% | 85% | 99% | 93.67% |
| Commit to creating a psychological atmosphere in the company such as soft music, air freshener, and appropriate lighting. | 57 | 88% | 91% | 85% | 88.00% |
| Workers listen well to consumer requests. | 57 | 87% | 85% | 86% | 86.00% |
| The consumer is always welcome even if he doesn't buy any of our products. | 57 | 92% | 94% | 99% | 95.00% |
| We always leave a positive impact on the consumer with good reception and hospitality. | 57 | 94% | 96% | 83% | 91.00% |
| Respect the consumer's negative opinions about our products and try to convince him of their reasons from the company's point of view with full respect for his different opinions. | 57 | 93% | 95% | 81% | 89.67% |
| Always in touch with our customers. | 57 | 84% | 89% | 92% | 88.33% |
Table 2. The role of psychological marketing in making purchasing decisions.
It is clear from the previous table that psychological marketing plays a major role in making purchase decisions, and it was arranged according to the opinions of the experts (Delphi) according to the percentages of the highest agreement, which are in the following order:
1. The phrase (the consumer is always welcome even if he does not purchase any of our products) came in the first place with an agreement ratio between the experts (95%), and what highlights the company’s interest in those who frequent it and dealing with them equally without differentiating between its customers who benefit from it or customers who do not purchase and showing the company's personal respect for all customers and visitors alike.
2. The phrase (I address the feelings and minds of customers, not their money) came in second place with a percentage of agreement among the experts (95.8%), which shows the saying that marketing is an art before it is a science. It is a creative process that seeks to attract the attention of the consumer towards the product or service and entice them to buy the product by addressing their feelings and minds and not what they have of money.
3. The phrase (I do not aim to sell as much as psychologically persuading the customer with what suits him) came in third place, with an agreement ratio between the experts (93.67%). The company based on the information he received about the product that he owned of his own free will without being forced by the company, which makes him repeat the buying experience again, and what is beneficial to the company in gaining a permanent customer for its products.
Psychological marketing is one of the newly developed marketing methods that have proven successful in consolidating the relationship between the consumer and the company that owns the products. The consumer is part of the company; Rather, it is a major part. Without it, the company will not continue to carry out its activity. Therefore, its views must be taken care of and respected, even if they violate the company’s policies, as he is the owner of the final product.
Addressing the company to the feelings and minds of consumers is better for it than addressing it for their money and targeting it in a psychologically unconvincing manner. Psychological persuasion of the consumer is one of the most important tasks that must be possessed by those in charge of the marketing department. Without the psychological conviction of the consumer, the sales process will fail.
Respecting consumers' opinions about the negatives of products, while giving them promises that their opinions will be taken into consideration and that it is an addition to the company's future strategy towards development. Using all means of communication to welcome consumers and let them know that they are welcome guests at all times and that they are special people for the company. Creating a psychological climate such as lighting, calm music, colors that match the products, smiling employees, tactful speech, and speaking in calm voices, all of which may contribute to improving the consumer’s mental health while roaming among the company’s products.
Recommendations
The study recommends the following:
1. The necessity of using psychological marketing in marketing research.
2. Interest in researching the difficulty of applying psychological marketing in major companies.
3. Identify problems and challenges that affect purchasing decisions.
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Citation: Hussain A (2022). Intellectual marketing and its impact on the public in making purchasing decisions. JRIBM. 9: 016.
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