Table of Contents Page No.

1. Cultural factor 2-3

2. Social factor 4-5

3. Personal factor 6-7

4. Ways of a Company can differentiate 8-10

Itself or Its market offer

5. Difference between Brand and Brand 11

Equity

6. Criteria for choosing Brand Elements 12-14

7. Brand Development Strategies 15-19

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  Cultural factor

Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the buying behavior of the ultimate

consumer. It is the study of how an individual decides to purchase a
particular product over the other and what is the study of how an
individual decides to purchase a particular product over the other and what
are the underlying factors that mold such behavior. The marketers try to
understand the actions of the consumers in the marketplace and the
underlying motives for such actions. These motives are the factors that
influence the consumer behavior and Cultural factor is one of them.

Cultural Factors: The Cultural factors are the factors that an individual
learns at a very early stage of life due to socialization within the family
and other key institutions, such as the set of values, preferences, behavior
patterns, and perceptions are learned as the individual grows. Several
cultural factors are:

Subculture

Culture social class

Cultural
factors

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Culture: The culture refers to the beliefs, customs, rituals and practice that a
particular group of people follows. "Culture" is the most basic source of a
consumer's wants and behavior. It lives at the foundation of a consumer's
world view. Culture is mostly a learned behavior, being constructed by the
society a consumer grows up in. That society "teaches" the consumer basic
values, perceptions, wants and behaviors. What a consumer is "taught" can
vary greatly in different parts of the world. The culture varies from region to
region and even from country to country. Such as the sale of “Sarees” and
“Lungis” is more in South than the North India. Therefore, the marketer
should carefully study all the different cultures and frame the marketing
strategies accordingly.

Subculture: Every cultural group has numerous subcultures. Subcultures are

groups of people that have a set of shared values based on common life
experiences and situations. Subcultures can include different nationalities,
religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. Many of these subcultural
groups make up important customer segments. The different sub-cultures
forms several market segments whose needs can be carefully studied by the
marketer and the strategic marketing decisions can be taken accordingly.
Such as the needs of the people living in metro cities and the ones living in
B-grade cities must be identified before the launch of the marketing
campaign.

Social Class: The social class to which an individual belongs influences the
buying decision. Generally, the people belonging to the same class are said to
be sharing the similar interest, value and the behavior. Our society is
classified into three social classes upper class, middle class, and the lower
class. The consumers belonging to these classes possess different buying
behaviors. Such as an individual belonging to the upper class buy those
products or services that advocate his status while the lower class people buy
those products which satisfy their basic needs.

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  Social factors

Human beings are social animals. We need people around to talk to and
discuss various issues to reach to better solutions and ideas. We all live in a
society and it is really important for individuals to adhere to the laws and
regulations of society. The Social Factors are the factors that are prevalent in
the society where a consumer lives in. The society is composed of several
individuals that have different preferences and behaviors. These varied
behaviors influence the personal preferences of the other set of individuals as
they tend to perform those activities which are acceptable to the society.
Social Factors influencing consumer buying decision can be classified as
under:

Reference
group

Socail
factors
Role
Family and
Status

Family: The family members play a crucial role in designing one’s

preferences and behavior. It offers an environment wherein the individual
evolves, develop personality and acquire values. A child develops his buying
behavior and preferences by watching his parents and tends to buy the same

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products or services even when he grows old. The family can influence the
buying behavior of an individual in either of the two ways:

 Influences the personality, attitude, beliefs, and characteristics of the

individual.
 Influences the decision making of an individual with respect to the
purchase of certain goods and services.
It is believed that an individual passes through two families: Family of
Orientation and Family of Procreation. In the former type, it is the family
wherein an individual has taken the birth, and the parents have a strong
influence on his behavior. While in the family of procreation, it is the family
created by an individual with his spouse and children and as such the
preferences tend to change with the influence of the spouse.

Reference Group: A reference group is a group with which an individual

likes to get associated, i.e. want to be called as a member of that group. It is
observed, that all the members of the reference group share common buying
behavior and have a strong influence over each other.
The marketers should try to identify the roles within the reference group that
influences the behavior of others. Such as Initiator (who initiates the buying
decision), Influencer (whose opinion influences the buying
decision), Decision-Maker (who has the authority to take the purchase
decision) and Buyer (who ultimately buys the product).

Roles and Status: An individual’s position and role in the society also
influences his buying behavior. Such as, a person holding a supreme position
in the organization is expected to purchase those items that advocate his
status. The marketers should try to understand the individual’s position and
the role very much before the endorsement of the products.

Thus, the social factors play a crucial role in building the behavior of an
individual, and the marketers should understand it properly before designing
their marketing campaigns.

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  Personal factors

The Personal Factors are the individual factors to the consumers that
strongly influence their buying behaviors. These factors vary from person to
person those results in a different set of perceptions, attitudes and behavior
towards certain goods and services.

Some of the important personal factors are:

Income

Age
Personal Occupation
factors

Lifestyle

Income: The buying tendency of an individual is directly proportional to his

income/earnings per month. Individuals with high income would buy
expensive and premium products as compared to individuals from middle and
lower income group who would spend mostly on necessary items. You would
hardly find an individual from a low income group spending money on
designer clothes and watches. He would be more interested in buying grocery
items or products necessary for his survival.

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Occupation: The occupation of an individual plays a significant role in
influencing his/her buying decision. An individual’s nature of job has a direct
influence on the products and brands he picks for himself/herself. People tend
to buy those products and services that advocate their profession and role in
the society. For example, College goers and students would prefer casuals as
compared to professionals who would be more interested in buying formal
shirts and trousers.

Age: Age and human lifecycle also influence the buying behavior of
consumers. Teenagers would be more interested in buying bright and loud
colors as compared to a middle aged or elderly individual who would prefer
decent and subtle designs.
A bachelor would prefer spending lavishly on items like bikes, music,
clothes, parties and so on. A young single would hardly be interested in
buying a house, property, insurance policies, gold etc. An individual who has
a family, on the other hand would be more interested in buying something
which would benefit his family and make their future secure.

Lifestyle: The consumer buying behavior is influenced by his lifestyle. The

lifestyle means individual’s interest, values, opinions and activities that
reflect the manner in which he lives in the society. Such as, if the person has
a healthy lifestyle then he will avoid the junk food and consume more of
organic products.

These are some of the personal factors that influence the individual’s buying
behavior, and the marketer is required to study all these carefully before
designing the marketing campaign.

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  Ways of a Company can differentiate Itself or
Its market offer

Differentiation allows one to provide superior value to customers at an

affordable price, creating a win-win scenario that can boost the overall
profitability and viability of business. Research indicates there are six
primary ways to differentiate, including product, service, channels of
distribution, relationships, reputation/image, and price.

However, not all differentiation strategies are equally effective, and some
methods may be more important to invest in than others in order to stand out
from the competition.

Product Differentiation: Product differentiation is probably the most

visible. It includes actual physical and perceived differences, of which the
latter can be acquired through advertising. Product differentiation may take
the form of features, performance, efficacy (or the ability of the product to do
what it is purported to do), meeting specifications, or a number of other
criteria. This is the general area that most B2B marketers — and probably
most consumer marketers as well — spend the majority of their time and
dollars.

The problem, though, is that product differentiation is short-lived. It is

remarkably easy to duplicate almost any product innovation. Of course, the
western world has a sophisticated intellectual property rights ethic and legal
system that provides copyright and patent protection. From a practical
standpoint, though, these do not present challenges. In fact, many businesses
choose strategically not to patent since it tells competitors exactly how to
duplicate the advantage. At best, a product innovation is protected for the life
of the patent. At worst, when a patent does not exist, anyone with enough
capital to buy a machine may be a competitor in a matter of days or weeks

Service Differentiation: Differentiation of service includes not only delivery

and customer service, but all other supporting elements of a business such as

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training, installation, and ease of ordering. To many, these seem like the
simple components of a business — the blocking and tackling or the
foundational elements that do not require sophistication. But think about a
business like McDonald’s. Like their Big Mac or not, they know how to
differentiate on service. With very few exceptions, you will get the same
product and the same service at a McDonald’s in Texas that you will get in
Georgia, Connecticut, or California. And in each location, the fries will be
cooked the same, have the same amount of salt, and be served up equally as
fresh from the fryer.

Service Differentiation: Differentiation of service includes not only delivery

and customer service, but all other supporting elements of a business such as
training, installation, and ease of ordering. To many, these seem like the
simple components of a business — the blocking and tackling or the
foundational elements that do not require sophistication. But think about a
business like McDonald’s. Like their Big Mac or not, they know how to
differentiate on service. With very few exceptions, you will get the same
product and the same service at a McDonald’s in Texas that you will get in
Georgia, Connecticut, or California. And in each location, the fries will be
cooked the same, have the same amount of salt, and be served up equally as
fresh from the fryer. With sufficient support — that is training, joint sales
calls, supporting literature, lead sharing, etc. — a distributor can become a
staunch ally and partner of the manufacturer.

Even in a non-exclusive relationship, a committed distributor can create

advantage through joint promotions, bundling, warranty and service support,
and technical service. It is time-consuming and extremely expensive for a
competitor to pre-empt or duplicate this level of differentiation.

Relationship Differentiation: An often overlooked means of differentiation

is through company personnel. Employees, associates, or team members with
customer interface can provide and demonstrate competence, courtesy,
credibility, reliability, and responsiveness. Responsible for executing day-to-
day client-facing communication, they are the linkage between the product
and customer. If that linkage breaks down, the business is destroyed.

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In many businesses, the sales representative, CSR, or the technical service
representative becomes a trusted member of the customer’s team, ensuring
that the product is delivered on time and works as it is supposed to, while
resolving any issues quickly and accurately. Performance like this creates
emotional bonds between the vendor and customer.

Image/Reputation Differentiation: Some businesses set themselves apart by

their image either as part of another differentiation avenue or as a separate
strategic path. Normally, image is created by other forms of differentiation
such as high levels of service, superior product quality, or performance.

Image is controlled and managed by symbols used in communications,

advertising, and all types of media — written, digital, and audio, as well as
the atmosphere of the physical place where customers encounter the business.
This is not limited to retail businesses only.

Brand does not automatically differentiate a company from its competitors.

The brand has to stand for something, be recognized by the target audience,
and communicate something unique and different from the competition. That
takes a large marketing budget to pull off successfully. It is understood that it
takes seven repetitions of any message to even be heard. Branding is much
more than just creating a logo. It is the ongoing communication of your value
proposition in a meaningful and effective way.

Price Differentiation: Successfully competing on price requires recognition

that every customer has a different price they would be willing to pay for
your product. Segmentation and differentiation allows a business to come
close to maximizing the potential revenue by offering each segment a
differentiated product at a different price.

Price differentiation (or discrimination) recognizes that the value of goods is

a subjective reality, which varies by customer, use occasion, and operating
environment. In the B2B world, most prices are subject to some kind of
negotiation, and some customers are prepared to pay more than the prevailing
market price. In short, price discrimination allows a business to capture
consumer surplus — the difference between the amount consumers are
willing to pay for a good or service and the amount that they actually pay.

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 Difference between Brand and Brand
Equity
A brand is the name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies
your product, goods or service as different from those of other products or
companies in the market. As a brand begins to build or become more
recognizable by more and more people, marketers begin to build brand equity
- that is to say, value in the brand. Branding and brand equity are a huge part
of the long-term marketing strategy of a company.

Branding is the process of creating a brand out of a product that exists or is

ready to be launched. Branding has multiple elements and is typically a
process that any business needs to invest in over the lifetime of a product.
The critical aspect that many founders or brand owners forget or get confused
with is the fact that 'branding' is simply not about having a brand name, a
logo, a visual identity or a typeset. It’s about weaving a story around the
brand, which is rooted in the product's inherent functional and emotional
benefits, the problem / challenge it embarked on solving, the solutions it
creates and how, in general, it endeavors to make the life of its consumers
better.
Brand equity is a long term benefit that you get via consistent brand building
efforts. Equity is the emotional mind share that a brand commands among its
consumers, which allows it to have a strategic differentiation, strengthens
loyalty and provides the brand with an emotional advantage in highly
competitive categories.

The Brand Equity refers to the additional value that a consumer attaches with
the brand that is unique from all the other brands available in the market. In
other words, Brand Equity means the awareness, perception, loyalty of a
customer towards the brand.

For example- The additional value a customer is willing to pay for Uncle
Chips against any local chips brand available with the shopkeeper.

Brand Equity is the goodwill that a brand has gained over time.

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 Criteria for choosing Brand Elements

To earn positive customer based equity it is essential that healthcare

providers choose brand elements keeping in view the customer brand
knowledge. The elements should be able to augment brand awareness, enable
the formation of positive, strong and exclusive healthcare brand associations,
and obtain favorable brand feelings and consumer reactions.

Brand elements are devices that identify and differentiate the brand. Multiple
brand elements application may strong the brand equity. The outcome of this
activity can be judged by what consumers would think or feel about the
product if the brand element were all they knew.
There are some general considerations that can guide us on how to effectively
choose brand elements.

 Memorable- Any image or logo that is unforgettable will easily remain

in the minds of the consumers. It should be such that it can be promptly
recalled by the consumers. This helps in building brand awareness and brand
equity. Short brand names are usually easily memorized & recalled by a large
percentage of customers. For Example: LG – Life is good

 Meaningful- The brand element should have a meaning and be able to

communicate general or specific information about the product. For example
a healthcare brand of herbal products shows green leaves as a symbol. This
suggests something about the product ingredient; that it is herbal. Thus it
makes it easy to remember along with the nature and purpose of the brand.

 Likability-It is very important that the brand elements are liked by the
consumers. They can be interesting and entertaining as well. Brand elements
can have images, colors, styles and themes that are pleasing to the

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consumers. For example, for a brand of baby care products, it is pleasing to
have a gentle appearance with mild colors.

 Transferability: is the extent to which brand elements can add brand

equity to new products of the brand in the line extensions. Another point, a
marketer needs to keep in mind is that the brand element should be able to
add brand equity across geographical boundaries and market segments. For
example, brand names like “Apple”, “Blackberry” represent fruits the world
over, thus as a brand name it doesn't restrict brands and product extensions.

 Adaptability: is the extent to which brand elements can be adapted over

time. Consumer perceptions, opinions & preferences keep changing over
time. Generally, the more flexible the brand element, the easier it is to
update from time to time to synchronize with consumers preferences and
trends. Logos and characters can be given a (slightly) new look & feel to
make them appear more modern and relevant.
For example, Coca -Cola has been consistently updating its logo over the
years to synchronize with the latest trends and opinions.

 Protect-ability: The most important aspect is that the brand element like
name, logo, character, etc. must be legally protected. They should be
registered with the concerned governing bodies. Additionally, while
choosing brand elements, healthcare providers must also check if the brand
is competitively protectable. The name, colors, packaging etc. if easily
copied, the brand can lose it uniqueness.

If the brand element is more memorable, meaningful or specific it is less

flexible. It is difficult to choose a brand element that satisfies all the
features. It is therefore better to include multiple brand elements. For
example, a brand of baby care products can have an image of a baby, with
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mild colors, tender look, soft music for the jingle, a name suggesting baby
care, etc.

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 Brand Development Strategies
Brand development is the process of creating and strengthening your
professional services brand. Developing a brand strategy can be one of the
most difficult steps in the marketing plan process. It's often the element that
causes most businesses the biggest challenge, but it's a vital step in creating
the company identity. We can break the brand development strategy into 10
steps:

1. Consider your overall business strategy.

A strong, well differentiated brand will make growing your firm much easier.
Your overall business strategy is the context for your brand development
strategy, so that’s the place to start. If you are clear about where you want to
take your firm, your brand will help you get there.

2. Identifying target clients.

Who are the target clients? If one says “everybody” he/she is making a very
big mistake. Research clearly shows that high growth, high profit firms are
focused on having clearly defined target clients. The narrower the focus, the
faster the growth. The more diverse the target audience, the more diluted
your marketing efforts will be. So how will one know if they have chosen the
right target client group? That’s where the next step comes in.

3. Researching the target client group.

Firms that do systematic research on their target client group grow faster and
are more profitable. Further, those that do research more frequently (at least
once per quarter) grow faster still.

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Research helps one to understand their target client’s perspective and
priorities anticipate their needs and put message in language that resonates
with them. It also tells one how they view their firm’s strengths and
current brand. As such, it dramatically lowers the marketing risk associated
with brand development.

4. Developing brand positioning.

If one is now ready to determine his firm’s brand positioning within the
professional services marketplace (also called market positioning). How is
his firm different from others and why should potential clients within his
target audience choosing to work with him?

A positioning statement is typically three to five sentences in length and

captures the essence of brand positioning. It must be grounded in reality, as
one will have to deliver on what they promise. It must also be a bit
aspirational so one have something to strive for.

5. Developing messaging strategy.

The next step is a messaging strategy that translates brand positioning into
messages to the various target audiences. The target audiences typically
include potential clients, potential employees, referral sources or other
influencers and potential partnering opportunities, to name a few of the usual
suspects.

While the core brand positioning must be the same for all audiences, each
audience will be interested in different aspects of it. The messages to each
audience will emphasize the most relevant points. Each audience will also
have specific concerns that must be addressed, and each will need different
types of evidence to support the messages. The messaging strategy should
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address all of these needs. This is an important step in making brand relevant
to the target audiences.

6. Developing name, logo and tagline.

For many firms, a name change is not required. But if it is a new firm, is
undergoing a merger or is burdened with a name that no longer suits the
positioning, a name change may be in order. Even if one doesn’t change their
firm name, a new logo and tagline may make sense to better support their
brand positioning.

Remember, name, logo and tagline are not the brand. They are ways to
communicate or symbolize a brand. One must live it to make it real.

7. Developing content marketing strategy.

Content marketing is particularly well suited to professional services firms in

the Internet age. It does all things traditional marketing does but it does them
more efficiently. It uses valuable educational content to attract, nurture and
qualify prospects. Brand strength is driven by both reputation and visibility.
Increasing visibility alone, without strengthening reputation, is rarely
successful. That’s why traditional “awareness-building” advertising or
sponsorships so often yield disappointing results. On the other hand, content
marketing increases both visibility and reputation at the same time. It is also
the perfect way to make a brand relevant to its target audiences.

8. Developing website.

Website is the single most important brand development tool. It is the place
where all the audiences turn to learn what you do, how you do it and who
your clients are. Prospective clients are not likely to choose a firm solely

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based on the website. But they may well rule one out if their site sends the
wrong message.

Further, website will be home to one’s valuable content. That content will
become the focus of their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts so that
their prospects, potential employees, and referral sources will find them and
learn about their firm. Online content is central to any modern brand
development strategy.

9. Building marketing toolkit.

The next step in the process is to build out the remainder of marketing toolkit.
This might include one-page “sales sheets” that describe core services
offerings or key markets served. In addition, there may be a brief “pitch
deck” that overviews the firm or key offerings and an e-brochure about the
firm. These are rarely printed pieces anymore.

Increasingly this marketing toolkit also includes videos. Popular video topics
include firm overviews, case studies or “meet the partner” videos. Key
services offerings are also very useful. If prepared appropriately, these tools
serve not only a business development function but also are important for
brand development.

10. Implement, track, and adjust.

This final step in the brand development process may be one of the most
important. Obviously a winning brand development strategy doesn’t do much
good if it is never implemented. A solid strategy is developed and started
with all the good intentions a firm can muster. Then reality intervenes. People
get busy with client work and brand development tasks get put off… then
forgotten.
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That’s why tracking is so important. Only by tracking the entire process can
one make sure they are drawing the right conclusions and making the right
adjustments.

These are the 10 steps brand development process to drive the growth and
profitability of a firm.

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