Marketing and advertising are a new beast in this day in age. There are more theories, the evolution of technology and social media are influencing consumers, and most importantly: there is a need for a pull strategy instead of a push. This requires marketers and advertisers to go outside of their comfort zone to make information more readily available for the consumer. Whether this is through a blog, social media, or mobile-friendly website; the consumer wants to be involved with the purchasing process to understand what their options are. We are going to go through an example to understand the concepts, then we will evaluate what it means for you and your business.
Consumer Behavior Model
This model depicts how consumers normally act here are explanations of the decision-making process:
Situation: Your marketing coordinator quit last week in order to pursue their acting career in Scandinavia. While initially you believe it will be easy to replace this worker, you start noticing the work they left unfinished. Taylor was proficient and now there is a slue of unfinished projects that require experience and detail. You are now rushed to find someone that is qualified, willing, and able to pick up where Taylor left off.
- Problem recognition: The projects need to be completed to keep the business operational for your clients. This is your main concern, it does not matter how it gets done, it just needs to be done.
This is a problem that deserves your immediate attention. - Information Search: You initially think, “okay, I can handle the projects that are unfinished by myself until HR finds someone qualified to take over the position.” This is alternative #1, you then think, “maybe I should wait until someone qualified comes in to handle the task at hand”. You now have a decision to make, so you go to the next step.
- Alternative Evaluation: You run through the first alternative in your head, you contemplate and come to the conclusion that it would take HR nearly 3 months to find a qualified candidate for this position and you can not do the work of two people for that long. Alternative two has been bumped into your next step: purchase decision.
You have decided what you want and you go ahead with the decision. 
You evaluate the alternatives and decide which one to act upon.
- Purchase Decision: You have finally brought in the candidates and you decide that Alex was more qualified than Jesse, so you hire Alex.
- Post Purchase Evaluation: For the first week you examine your decision of Alex over Jesse. This is referred to as cognitive dissonance. Essentially, you justify your hiring of Alex by finding all of the good qualities they had over Jesse.
You justify your decision making any way you can.
So what does this mean to you?
Consumers go through the same process in every aspect of their daily lives. They use this to decide what mode of transportation they will use, what outfit they will wear for the day, and most importantly: what product they will buy in lieu of another.
How do you stand out?
- Out of Home Advertising?
- Social Media?
- Print Advertising?
- Digital Advertising?
- Internet Advertising?
There are many venues to take, but ultimately it is your understanding of your target audience that will give you the answer. While the decision of advertising is up to you, Corey Airport Services can certainly help if you decide print/digital advertising is your ticket to reaching your target audience.