Brands pursue consumers to buy them and consumers react in a variety of ways when they shop for a category/brand or look for information. How does the art of persuasion work for marketers and how are diverse segments of consumers persuaded? These are interesting aspects of consumer behaviour as situations differ and motives of consumers differ. To complicate things, consumers decide using information, their own thinking and emotions too.

Consumer mindset The word consumer mindset is commonly used to denote the behavioural aspects of consumers. Consumers buying milk additives such as Horlicks or Bournvita are different from those buying Tropicana juice though both these segments may be intending to buy nutrition for their children. A consumer buying an iPhone paying a premium over other brands may buy it without much analysis while another might. While both may buy the sophisticated phone for its benefits, yet another consumer may buy it purely for emotional reasons like the pride he gets out of the possession when he is seen with the phone.

The point to be emphasised is that there is no one mindset called a consumer mindset – this depends on the nature of the category/brand and the intent of the marketer with respect to the direction used to persuade the consumer.

In today’s context it is not just enough for a brand to be actively present in the consideration set, a brand has to use intricate aspects of psychology to ensure that it has an edge (not the brand differentiation alone) over other brands when a target segment is considering the brand.

Such an approach has a far reaching implication on the advertising, online, offline or even word of mouth among consumers and prospects when digital media is used. This is also the reason why consumer psychographics should be a part of the big data. One fundamental challenge for a brand is to identify and execute several promotional campaigns that have an online and offline synergy, not from the viewpoint of conventional segmentation but from that of receptivity to different kinds of messages. Why should a toothpaste brand carry the stereotypical benefit (functional or emotional) brand story for the entire set of prospects?

Influencing consumer mindset There are different ways to influence a consumer mindset when the understanding of it is clear. A few suggestive aspects on influencing the mindset may be useful to understand the point (with some examples).

Do consumers have difficulty in understanding the category and are faced with a barrage of brand claims?

Let us consider the nutrition space with regard to beverages. There are consumers who prefer hot beverages and those who prefer cold ones. There are children and adults in the target segment. There are categories that are close substitutes of each other. How do consumers weigh the options? Do they go by brand name or by ingredients or by word of mouth?

This becomes a difficult task given the fact that results of the category cannot be verified directly with respect to most of the consumers. Horlick’s “Taller, Stronger and Sharper” message provides a focus and relevance that may be compelling for mothers. Its women’s variant has an ad that is about calcium absorption with respect to 30-plus women and how its ‘Calseal’ proposition makes the absorption possible. Its junior variant is about how brain connections get formed at an early age. The ad provides an example of a sharp child who identifies the number 10 and rainbow colours in a way that is unusually clever.

Complex category, digital route Asus, a Taiwanese brand was initially manufacturing notebooks and gaming consoles for other companies. The brand went on to launch its EeePC in 2007 that attracted bloggers. Its features and benefits, and more importantly, the value perception, was shaped by online reviewers. By 2012, the brand globally had the fifth rank in terms of PC shipments. This was the case of an unknown brand that attracted attention on digital media and consumer acceptance followed due to the word of mouth by reviewers who were opinion leaders. This is very different from the persuasion achieved through the brand’s promotion. This is in contrast to the several brands that had failed to persuade consumers despite tall ad claims in the category.

Benefits from status quo thinking

How do consumers think about the category or the product or the brand? This forms an important part of the persuasive technique employed by the brand. Apple’s products are innovative and offer a symbolic, aspirational benefit. Their tangible and intangible benefits had combined well in all the products to generate the word of mouth across the globe.

Titan watches during the Eighties used a persuasion that challenged the stereotypical perception of consumers with respect to watches. It was widely perceived that watches with respect to functional aspects or status were associated with foreign-made watches. This is an interesting strategy, as fitting into the stereotype is easier than challenging it. The brand came out with an ad that read “ Titan Quartz, the international watch you can pay for in rupees” at a time when the iconic HMT was the time-keeper of the nation with a strong ethnic association.

The art of persuasion in the branding domain requires an in-depth knowledge of the science behind consumer behaviour.

Ramesh Kumar is Professor, IIMB Chair of Excellence, Bangalore

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