Analysis Of Maturation Crisis Among Adolescents Through Erikson’S Stages Of Development

Introduction

The most crucial player in the market is the consumer. Who will purchase the commodities if there is no consumer? To create an incentive, marketers must satisfy the customer's needs and desires. In a sense, the customer controls the market. To become successful and being able to have a competitive advantage it is of the highest importance to study the customer purchasing behavior. In this article, I will discuss the two concepts of consumer behavior and word-of-mouth. These two concepts describe how we consumers are influenced by external and internal forces when we are shopping. Every choice we make, we never take alone.

Consumer behavior The process, which consists of everything from recognition to the post-purchase behavior, is influenced by different factors or forces. The Psychological, social, cultural, economic and personal troops lead customers towards a particular commodity. Both the social and cultural factors are both rooted in that we are a byproduct of our surrounding. We influence each other with our personal opinions and experiences nevertheless we never intend to do so. It is part of the human nature to seek approval and confirmation from the people in our surroundings. Every value, preference, and intuition is a result of the environment were brought up. Our families, nation and religion's perceptions affect our own. A famous saying is that we become our parents, which is true to a certain extent because they taught us our core values and determined our social class at the beginning of our life. The lessons learned as children will forever be in our minds and affect how we see the world in the future and most likely affect which social class a person strive for and associates with, which ultimately affects its buying pattern. However, people also are influenced by their personal and preferences, which may differ from its surrounding because the individual factors are depending on age and lifestyle. For example, my mother and I are in completely different stages of life. We value certain purchases differently. Things I may consider essential or highly desirable, she might think is unnecessary due to her age, occupation, and lifestyle.

When the seasons change from summer to autumn, the temperature gets colder. We recognize a need for warmer clothing, a new jacket. Continuing running around in the same jeans jacket all year round would be foolish and get extremely cold. Once the need is recognized, I always begin researching online for inspiration. What are the trends this year? Subconsciously, we wish to dress similarly to the people surrounding us. Every individual is a part of different social groups, which in turn affects his or her cognitive thinking. I do not want to dress identically, but a similar piece. It is a way to show belonging and your status without having to utter a single word. Even though I consider myself an independent woman with my own opinion, I'm not. Whether we wish to or not, we have influenced the people we are surrounded by as well as the society. Every billboard, every commercial and magazine picturing people affect us. They plant a seed which grows to an image to share. Once I have found a jacket I like, warm yet fashionable, I need approval. Is it really perfect? The desire to consult a friend or a family member becomes overpowering. "We always seek confirmation from the people around us and seldom do the things that are not socially acceptable”. If I don't receive any approval before nor afterward, the purchase has occurred, I will most likely return the jacket or never wear again. Just hang in the closet as a mistake I try to hide. I have always considered myself an independent person; nevertheless I cannot go against the social norm subconsciously.

Word of mouth

Word of mouth (WOM) is an informal oral or written communication from consumers, directed toward prospective customers regarding the ownership, usage, or characteristic of particular goods and services and sellers. Essentially, it is a free and unfiltered marketing communication triggered by consumers’ experiences regarding a product or service. It is the consumers own choice to share their knowledge, as no corporation creates an incentive to communicate good or bad experiences on their behalf, it merely is one friend who coincidentally shares his or her view to another. It is common that the main factors leading to our behavior in sharing our experiences are primary our desire for social interaction, concern for other consumers, yearning for an economic incentive and potential of self-enhancement. The desire for social interaction is deeply rooted in our human nature. In today's society, shopping is a social experience. We enjoy sharing our knowledge and previous experiences to communicate. It is a way to express through storytelling and showing your social status. As consumers, we want to enhance yourself, prove that we are intelligent shoppers in a capitalist world where we are goods and services all around us in all different price points. We bond through sharing these stories and experiences of commodities, creating a sense of kinship. However, some reasons for participating in WOM are more genuine than others.

In many cases, sometimes we feel a desire to warn other consumers from purchasing a disappointing product or service, advice others of good experiences, merely venting negative feelings or help a company to improve their products or services. WOM is one of the most influential forces in the market. Research has shown that consumers entrust it to reduce the level of perceived risk and uncertainty associated with a purchase. In most cases, consumers have greater confidence in information received through personal forces and WOM is believed to have a more significant impact on the consumer than printed information regarding the product or service. I rely heavily on WOM and engage in it on a daily basis. People in your surrounding want to share their good experiences with you or help you by warning of disappointing and dissatisfying experiences. The knowledge I receive through WOM would be of great importance to me, especially if I were uncertain of the product or service. It could be a deal breaker, either encouraging or discouraging me from purchasing and participate in that future experience. WOM can also be incredibly powerful in the sense that it creates a possibility to win back customers who were dissatisfied with their experience by listening to others who were satisfied. Creating a dilemma which could result in wanting to try it once again, was my experience indeed that horrible? "On average one dissatisfied customer can be expected to tell nine other people about the experience, that resisted in the dissatisfaction. Satisfied customers, on the other hand, relate their story on an average of five other people". This statement is true to a certain extent because or desire to vent our negative feelings or to warn others of the consumption is often greater than our willingness to share experiences that met our expectations. To create a desire to communicate a good experience I have to be impressed by the consumption of the product or service. Simply meeting my needs and expectations is not sufficient. It may be sufficient if we receive a question regarding that service or product. However, for me to initiate sharing experience, it has to satisfy beyond my expectations. This willingness to engage in WOM also depends on the platform. For example, I would rather participate in sharing my opinions and experiences in person than on an online platform. Electronic WOM is becoming increasingly important to businesses due to our digital era with social networking campaigns and e-commerce. It is important to understand the social norms on an online platform or how the communication in each community acts out and support a culture of open and constructive feedback to create a competitive advantage.

I find it that businesses do little to create an incentive for consumers to share their opinions electronically. For instance, the only time I do she my opinions online is when I know it will benefit me. Otherwise it’s not worth the hassle. Airbnb is a business which has succeeded in creating an incentive for consumers to share their experiences without it costing the company anything. Airbnb is the only place I have shared my experiences online. Airbnb is an online marketing place for hospitality services, most commonly used to rent vacation homes. Once the vacation is over and I have checked out, I always share my experience stay including the housing and the host in a review at Airbnb's webpage. The host will do the same for me, reviewing how I was as a customer. These reviews can be crucial for a successful Airbnb home. If a host has a lot of good reviews, he or she will become announced as "super hosts," which increase their credibility. Same goes for the consumers; they are announced "super consumers" instead. As a customer, I search for the hosts with the best reviews. I want to make sure I will have a lovely vacation and enjoy my stay. This credibility the hosts receives from previous consumers is aiding them to haul in new ones. As a prospective customer, I want someone else to be able to agree with the ad so I will not be surprised by unexpected circumstances once I'm on my vacation. The goal when participating in sharing WOM on Airbnb has never been to aid the hosts. The reasons are purely selfish. It will benefit me. On an online platform, where the only credibility is established by word of mouth from sellers or buyers, receiving praise is highly essential to stay afloat. The fact that my reviews benefit or harm the hosts merely is a byproduct of the real reason to why the review was written. If sharing my experience does not help me, why bother spending time trying communicating it at all?

The message

When we have a conversation in person, we already have a perception of this person. We have decided in an instant if we are going to trust the words coming out of their mouths. However, sharing electronically is more anonymous. You cannot see the person or its body language. It's harder to establish credibility and know the reasons to why he or she decided to share their experience. Therefore the message of the communication becomes increasingly more critical. How the experience is worded. Every message we share through WOM communication has different characteristics. The different usage of these characteristics in a message can change how a person perceives the message persuasiveness. The cognitive component of the message is the rational element, such as performance, product attributes, and price-value perception, while the affective part is the emotional element, such as depth of the message, intensity and vividness reflected in the language. Every individual color their message differently as our opinions and subconscious motivation influence it. Positive WOM message contains both cognitive and affective aspects, however, tends to have more cognitive elements. Factual, informative but with some underlying emotion.

On the other hand, negative messages tend to have more affective factors, more emotions. The reviews I produce on Airbnb are usually rather simple when the experience has been pleasant. A short and quick message were complementing the house, location, and host with a few positive attributes not mentioned in the ad. No real storytelling. However, whenever the visit have been unpleasant, the narration has increased, and I write more emotionally. You became disappointed or mad and needed to vent as well as warn others from experiencing the same experience.

Implications on businesses

Word of mouth is equally as crucial for businesses as it is for costumes. It's important for their sales and brand image to have good public relations and receive kind words from consumers. It gives the perspective costumers more information regarding a product or service as WOM is commonly more for quality information rather than price. Increased brand awareness and receiving praise from other consumers is that it can increase the new consumer's expectations on the product or service. They wish to receive the same experience or an even better one than described to them. This is high pressure on the company to exceed these expectations. Receiving a kind word from the costumes are vital for a business to thrive. It is crucial for companies to realize that consumers are not homogeneous. Every individual has different background even though they seem similar attributes. They can be divided into distinct segments, and businesses need to find out what motivates their particular user base.

Conclusion

To conclude, people influence each other, no matter whether we intend to it or not. Shopping has become more of a social experience than an individual activity because wish to stay within the social norms. How we dress and what we decide to purchase subconsciously show our social class and is usually quite similar to the people we identify ourselves with. We strive to be similar, but not identical. Word of mouth from other consumers does we consider profoundly and is extremely powerful. To a prospective consumer, the WOM can act as a deal breaker, where it pushes the potential consumer to either buy the product or service or not. This form of communication is active both in person and electronically. However, when sharing experiences online, how the message is worded says a lot regarding an event. Cognitive aspects show factual and are more informative, these are more prone to positive messages, while negative messages are more emotionally since we are disappointed. It is of great importance for businesses to understand that costumes are all different, shaped by external and internal forces because by applying this into their market segmentation it can increase the awareness and perception among costumers and prospective customers.

The very words we choose and where we direct them to mean the difference between inspiring each other and destroying businesses. A simple word can change the meaning, mood, and motivation for other consumers, but is yet something we share every day without a second thought.