What Does a Consumer Psychologist Do?

Consumer psychology (consumer psychology) is an important branch of psychology. It studies the psychological phenomena and behavior rules of consumers in consumer activities. Consumption psychology is an emerging discipline, and its purpose is to study people's psychological activities and personal psychological characteristics in daily purchasing behaviors in the process of life consumption. The learning content of consumer psychology includes the psychological activities of consumers, the psychological characteristics of consumers' personality, the psychological factors affecting consumer behavior, the psychological activities of consumers in the purchasing process, the impact of social environment on consumer psychology, and the consumption of consumer groups Psychology and consumer behavior, consumer situation and consumer psychology, commodity factors and consumer psychology, marketing communication and consumer psychology, etc. ^[1]

Consumer psychology

(Branch of psychology)

Consumer psychology refers to what people think and think when they are consumers.

Consumption behavior refers to the consumer's need for goods or services when viewed as a consumer from the perspective of market circulation, as well as activities that transfer goods or services from the market to consumers.

Any kind of consumption activity includes both the consumer's psychological activity and the consumer's consumption behavior. Accurately grasping the psychological activities of consumers is a prerequisite for accurately understanding consumer behavior. And consumer behavior is the external manifestation of consumer psychology. Consumer behavior is more realistic than consumer psychology.

1. Realistic psychology: Consumer psychology whose main purpose is to pursue the use value of goods or services.

2. Psychology of seeking beauty: Consumption psychology whose main purpose is to pursue the artistic value and appreciation value of commodities.

3. Psychology of asking for convenience: It refers to the convenience of consumers in purchasing or carrying.

4. Psychology of comparison (show off psychology): The purpose of consumption is to satisfy the curiosity and not to be left behind. Purchasing motivation induced by showing off psychology is vanity, and often manifests itself in the purchase of precious, tight and fashionable goods. Its purchasing behavior has the characteristics of comparison and advancement.

5. Preference psychology (likes and dislikes): Consumption psychology of consumers with only certain special hobbies.

6. Herd mentality: The motivation of buying is guided by herd mentality, which often manifests as a group collective purchase. The purchase behavior has the characteristics of no purpose, contingency and impulse.

7. Pride: The motivation for buying induced by pride is local and revealing, and it often manifests itself in buying famous and local products in your hometown or a certain area. Its purchasing behavior is characteristic of gifts.

8. Possession psychology: The purchasing motivation under the control of possession psychology is frightening, and often manifests itself in the purchase of marketable securities, cultural relics, antiques, celebrities, calligraphy and paintings, and precious crafts. Its purchasing behavior has the characteristics of collection and newspaper.

9. Psychology of value preservation: The motivation of purchase under the guidance of value preservation is money-keeping, and it often manifests itself in the purchase of metal products, durable consumer goods, and daily necessities. Its purchase behavior has the characteristics of blindness, impulsivity and snap-purchase.

10. Nostalgic psychology: The purchasing motivation induced by nostalgic psychology is retro, and often manifests as the purchase of antique products of traditional commodities with only a certain historical feature. The purchase behavior has a clear purpose, specificity and ornamentality. Features.

11, love to take advantage of the psychology.

12. Fear of regret: Everyone will have a sense of fear when making a decision. He is afraid to make a wrong decision, for fear that the money he spends is wrong.

13. Face psychology: Chinese consumers have a strong face complex. Driven by face psychology, Chinese people's consumption will exceed or greatly exceed their ability to purchase or pay.

Mantissa pricing strategy for consumer psychology

Mantissa pricing, also known as fractional pricing, refers to the consumer's desire for integrity, and there are

Set a price with a certain difference from the whole number. This is a psychological pricing strategy with a strong stimulating effect.

Case: Studies by psychologists have shown that small differences in price mantissas can significantly affect consumer buying behavior. It is generally believed that the last digit of the products below Wuyuan is 9 most popular; the last digit of products above five yuan is 95, and the products with more than one hundred yuan have 98 and 99 are the best sellers. Mantissa pricing method will give consumers a psychological feeling of the lowest price after accurate calculation; sometimes it can also give consumers a feeling that the original price is discounted and the product is cheap; at the same time, customers may also be waiting for change Find and shop for other products. For example, a brand's 54cm color TV is priced at 998 yuan, giving a cheap feel. I think that as long as a few hundred yuan can buy a color TV, in fact, it is only 2 yuan less than 1,000 yuan. Mantissa pricing strategy also gives a sense of accurate pricing and trustworthiness. Mantissa pricing method in Europe, America and China often uses odd numbers as the mantissa, such as 0.99, 9.95, etc. This is mainly because consumers have a good opinion of odd numbers, and it is easy to produce a concept of low prices and lower prices. However, because of the 8 and the harmonic, the adoption rate of 8 is also higher in the pricing.

Consumption Psychology Taking Fat Price Strategy

Fat taking pricing strategy, also known as oil skimming pricing strategy, refers to the investment period or growth period of a company's product life cycle, using consumers' novelty and novelty psychology to seize favorable opportunities that have not yet emerged from fierce competition and have a purpose. A pricing strategy that sets the price high in order to obtain as much profit as possible in the short term and recover the investment as quickly as possible. Its name comes from skimming milk fat from fresh milk, which means extracting essence.

Case 1: How Kodak entered Japan. The color film produced by Kodak suddenly announced a price reduction in the early 1970s, which immediately attracted many consumers and crowded out counterparts in other countries. Kodak even monopolized the 90% of the color film market. %. By the mid-1980s, the Japanese film market was monopolized by Fuji, which overwhelmed Kodak. In this regard, Kodak conducted a careful study and found that the Japanese generally have a tendency to emphasize the quality rather than the price of the goods. Therefore, the establishment of a high-price policy has established a brand, protected reputation, and then implemented a strategy to compete with Fuji. They developed a trade joint venture in Japan that specializes in selling Kodak film at a price one-half higher than Fuji. After 5 years of hard work and competition, Kodak was finally accepted by the Japanese, entered the Japanese market, and became a company on an equal footing with Fuji, and sales also skyrocketed.

Prestige pricing strategies for consumer psychology

This is a further development of the integer pricing strategy. Consumers generally have the mentality of seeking fame. According to this psychological behavior, companies will set prestigious products at higher prices than similar products in the market, which is the prestige pricing strategy. It can effectively eliminate the psychological barriers to purchase, so that customers have a sense of trust and security in the product or retailer, and customers also get a sense of honor from it.

Case: When Microsoft's Windows98 (Chinese version) entered the Chinese market, it was priced at 1998 yuan in the beginning, which is a typical prestige pricing. In addition, for formal occasions such as suits, dresses, ties and other goods, and the service target is the consumer of the company's president, well-known lawyers, diplomats and other occupations, consumers should use prestige pricing, otherwise these consumers will not . Popularity pricing often uses integer pricing, and its high price can give customers a price and quality feel, so they can get spiritual enjoyment during the purchase process and achieve good results.

Case: If Jinlilai tie is listed, it will be positioned at high quality and high price as soon as it is on the market. For Jinlilai tie with quality problems, they will never be sold on the market. Give consumers the message that Jinlilai's tie will never have quality problems, and Jinlilai sold at a low price is not a genuine Jinlilai product. Thus safeguarding the image and status of Jinlilai. For example, a Mercedes-Benz sedan in Germany sells for 200,000 marks; a Lex watch in Switzerland sells for five digits; clothing at the Rio Fashion Center in Paris usually sells for 2,000 francs; some domestic boutiques in China also use this pricing the way. Of course, this pricing method must be used cautiously. If this method is abused by general stores and general merchandise, it will lose the market if it is not properly handled.