How exactly does a brand change the way that consumers behave?
Well, there are clearly a number of thought processes, both conscious and sub-conscious that the consumer goes through that determine their own personal reaction. Consumers can be reasonably articulate in explaining what they perceive about products, packs, ads etc and consequently research has focussed on this element of the process as a convenient means to try and understand the likely impact on consumer behaviour.
However, the reality is that no matter how rational we like to think of ourselves, we still buy things that we don't like and we don't buy things that we do like! Therefore how can measuring 'liking' alone be an accurate predictor of consumer behaviour?
The diagram provides a simplified schematic of the linkages between brand (physical object) and consumer behaviour:
Why does this matter?
Research has traditionally focussed on understanding consumer perceptions of different elements of a brand. We know a good deal about the relationships between brands and consumer perception and have reasonably reliable tools to help us explore this e.g. sensory profiling.
However, what really matters is how these perceptions are conceptualised in the consumers mind. We currently know relatively little about this sub-conscious process, but it is clear that these conceptualisations are key to creating emotional shift and consequently changing consumer behaviour.
Brandphonics® focuses on understanding how brands are conceptualised by consumers rather than how they are perceived. This new insight allows brand owners to effectively engineer their brands to incorporate the right conceptual triggers that ultimately influence consumer behaviour.
Tags: brand, behaviour, Brandphonics