Main classification of consumers and characteristics of buyers

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The consumer is the key concept of marketing. The positioning of goods and services is based on the study of its characteristics and behavior, all marketing decisions are made. Therefore, the question of classifying consumers in the market is one of the most important for a marketer. He must understand what groups the target audience of the promoted product is divided into in order to correctly build communications. Let's talk about the basic principles of classifying consumer groups, how they are characterized and how they are studied.

Consumer concept

The consumer protection law provides a generalized definition of this concept. A consumer is a person who intends to purchase a product or service to satisfy his own needs or the needs of his household. By and large, all people can beconsumers. As soon as a person has an intention to purchase something, he immediately becomes a consumer.

Since modern civilization is a consumer society, it is possible to equate the concepts of a person and a consumer. At the same time, this person must have intentions to use the goods only to satisfy personal needs. As soon as he intends to buy something for profit, for organizing a business, he ceases to be a consumer. Therefore, all markets can be divided into two groups:

• B2C is a business for the client, where we deal with the consumer;
• B2B - business for business, where a completely different motivation becomes the driving force of the buyer.

Traditionally, consumer classifications take into account only those people who purchase goods or services for their own consumption.

Consumer attributes

All major classifications of consumers are based on the basic characteristics of a person. First of all, they are needs. This is the most important consumer attribute.

Need is a shortage of some resources necessary for the full life of a person. It is always associated with physical or psychological discomfort, which forces a person to make efforts to satisfy it, that is, to remove a deficient, unpleasant state. The famous psychologist A. Maslow divided the needs into the following groups:

• Physiological. These are the needs that our body experiences in order to function well: hunger,thirst, sleep.
• The need for security. A person seeks to avoid threats to life and he alth. The instinct for self-preservation comes in many forms, from avoiding physical risks to striving to secure a certain standard of living (comfort zone).
• Social needs. A person cannot exist outside of society, so he needs to establish connections, occupy a certain position in society.
• The need for respect. A person wants others to recognize his importance, so he strives to achieve success.
• The need for self-realization. The highest need is connected with the fact that a person wants to express himself and his potential in some results of his activity.

The needs of Maslow are arranged in the form of a pyramid, as a person begins to satisfy physiological needs first, and then begins to think about spiritual needs. This idea today does not arouse unequivocal support among researchers, but in general terms it is correct.

Based on the theory of needs, the consumer has such an important attribute as motivation. To satisfy his needs, a person must perform some actions, he is looking for different opportunities, this can be called motivation for activity.

Also, the attributes of the consumer are the factors that influence his behavior. These may be social, cultural, group factors. Also, the consumer has a set of psychological and socio-demographic characteristics. All these attributes become the basis forbuilding various classifications of consumer types.

Customer characteristics

In civil law there is a concept of a buyer. It refers to one of the parties to the transaction. A buyer is a natural or legal person who purchases any goods or services for money. Moreover, it does not matter here whether the purchase is made to satisfy personal needs or the motive for making it is profit. To distinguish between concepts in terms of motivation to make a purchase, the concept of the end consumer is introduced. That is, this is a buyer who purchases goods for his needs. The classification of end consumers assumes that such a buyer has certain characteristics. He needs something, he has dominant needs, and he must also have the resources to satisfy them. Buyer's resources include money. He must be able to make a purchase, otherwise he will not be able to fulfill his function in the purchase process.

Consumer and Buyer

In ordinary consciousness, these two concepts are synonymous. However, in marketing they are distinguished. A consumer can become a buyer if he has the resources to make a purchase, there is motivation and opportunity. But the buyer may not be a consumer. So, if I buy a product to fill the shelves in my store, then I am not a consumer of these products. Differentiation of these concepts is necessary in order to understanddifference in motivation. The consumer purchases the product for himself, while the consumer properties of the product are very important to him: quality, service, functionality. And the buyer may seek to benefit from the purchase and is more interested in the price and terms of the purchase (delivery, discounts, forms of payment). Therefore, for example, the classification of energy consumers and buyers of the same resource will be very different. The uninterrupted supply of energy, its price, service maintenance of networks, and guarantee are important to the consumer. And for the buyer, all related characteristics are not important, he buys energy for resale to consumers, he is only concerned about the cost of the resource. The relationship between the buyer and the seller is regulated by the Civil Code, and the relationship between the seller and the consumer is regulated by the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights.

Consumers of goods and consumers of services

Products and services in marketing have a number of significant differences. The product is tangible, its quality is stable and can be assessed before you start using it, the appearance is constant. Goods can be stored, transferred, stored. And the service is intangible, its quality is unstable, it can be evaluated only as a result of consumption. The Service is non-transferrable and non-storable. In this regard, the consumer does not have difficulties in assessing the quality of the goods. He evaluates the product according to its consumer properties. But when assessing the quality of services can be difficult. Since its quality is elusive, each consumer can apply his own subjective evaluation parameters to it. It also complicates the construction of a classification of service consumers. Therefore, marketers usually do not single out service consumers as a separate group. They can only be divided into satisfied and dissatisfied consumers.

Consumer Research

In order to properly plan marketing communications, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the characteristics of the consumer. Their behavior is studied by a special science with the same name and through marketing research. To study, for example, electricity consumers and their classification, it is necessary to collect a range of socio-demographic data about them. Behavioral models in relation to a service or product are also studied. Obviously, when purchasing milk or a car, the consumer is guided by different motives, and the process of making a purchase decision proceeds in different ways. To build a classification of consumers, one can study their attitude to a product, brand or manufacturer, the degree of satisfaction with the quality of a service or product, the features of the process of making a purchase decision and the influence of various factors on it, consumer motivation. Also, as part of the study, market segmentation is carried out and the most suitable segment for communication is selected.

Principles of conduct

Any classification of consumer categories should take into account the basic principles of consumer behavior. They are worded as follows:

• The consumer is independent. No matter what they say that advertising makes a person buy a product, but he always makes a decision to buy on his own. No one commits any violence against him.
• The consumer is studyable. The motives of behavior, its features can and should be studied in order to better understand the needs and needs of people and help them satisfy them.
• Consumer behavior is affected. Marketing communications help a person to make a choice, navigate in a sea of goods. Studying the consumer allows you to find his need and help him to satisfy it through the purchase.
• Consumer behavior is socially legal. The consumer should not be deceived and sold to him a low-quality product. His rights are protected by law.

Types of consumer classifications

There are quite a few different ways to typify this category. The basis for the classification of consumers of services and goods may be behavioral strategies, socio-demographic and psychographic characteristics, attitudes towards new products, the degree of satisfaction. The rate of adoption of new products is divided into innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards or conservatives. According to the degree of satisfaction, consumers of services are usually divided into completely satisfied with the quality; more satisfied than not; dissatisfied rather than satisfied; dissatisfied. There are also approaches related to the assignment of consumers to different groups depending on the stage of the life cycle of the family and household. There is also a classificationconsumer. They are divided into general and special. They can also be divided into groups according to the degree of brand loy alty. In this case, disloyal consumers, adherents of other brands, neutral to all brands, loyal consumers of the brand are singled out.

Traditional classification

Building a typology of potential buyers allows you to build a competent program for promoting goods and enterprises. Classification of consumers, taking into account the characteristics of behavioral strategies, is one of the oldest. However, the benefit of it for marketing planning is small. It distinguishes the following types of consumers:

• Customized. Those who purchase goods for personal use. These loners often have a small volume, as most of this group is young people under 30 living separately from their parents. When choosing a product, they pay great attention to price, appearance, packaging, usefulness.
• Families or households. This is the most massive type of consumer of food and industrial goods. Decisions on large purchases are made collegially, the woman is most often responsible for the purchase of products. A man acquires various household items, equipment. Important consumer characteristics for them are price, brand awareness, functionality.
• Intermediaries. This group purchases goods for resale. First of all, they are interested in the cost and the discounts offered. They also prefer to buy goods for which there is already a steady demand.
• Suppliers. These consumersbuy goods to support the activities of any enterprises. For example, for a public catering point, it is necessary to purchase napkins, products, detergents, dishes, etc. They are interested in the optimal combination of price and quality in a product. These are professional buyers who are well aware of the consumer properties of goods.

Socio-demographic classifications

The most important parameters of consumers are their socio-demographic characteristics. Based on them, you can plan the price and positioning of the product. A number of features are used to classify consumers:

• Gender. It is obvious to everyone that men and women shop differently and this should be taken into account when planning marketing communications.
• Age. Despite the apparent simplicity of this parameter, there is still no single classification of consumers by age. It is customary to single out children, adolescents, youth, mature, elderly and old people. However, setting a time frame is a matter of much debate. Adjacent to age is the generational classification, which also does not have unambiguous indicators.
• Income. Another controversial position. The main problems here are also related to the establishment of boundaries. Where does the average income start? This parameter will be different for different regions and calculations.
• Social class. Each marketer should also use this indicator in accordance with their data, since there is no single principle for classifying people as middle or lower strata.
• Occupation. It's relativeestablished category. Here they single out those who work in the office, those who work in production, managers of different levels, the intelligentsia, the unemployed, the unemployed, pensioners.
• Education. One of the most understandable signs of consumer classification. In this case, people with secondary, higher, incomplete education are singled out.

Psychographic classifications

In the 70s and 80s of the XX century, the main classifications of consumers ceased to satisfy marketers. And then there is the concept of lifestyle. It is allocated on the basis of data on how a person spends the resources he has: money, time, information. On this basis, several typologies have been created. The most common of these is VALS-2 (values and life styles). It distinguishes the following types of consumers:

• Innovators. They are always ready to try new products, have a lively mind, the ability to take responsibility.
• Thinkers. Mature people, carefully weighing their actions, always approach purchases rationally.
• Achieving results. Successful people with established careers and decent incomes.
• Experimenters. Those who love to experience everything in life.
• Followers. This is a group of people who are confident in the inviolability of the foundations.
• Aspirants. These consumers care about their status, are insecure about it and aspire to a group higher than their income.
• Doers. Those who are used to doing everything on their own approach shopping with a practical measure.
• Survivors. This is a group of people with extremelysmall resources and therefore focusing only on the cost of goods.