Which buyer readiness stage are consumers in when they are feeling favorable about the product

In the context of marketing, there are six stages through which the customer passes while purchasing or adapting any good or service.  These are considered as the psychological stages through which a person passes to decide for a product to either purchase it or not. The six stages faced by the buyers are awareness about the product, knowledge regarding the benefits, factor of interest in the product, preference given to the product over its competition, conviction of the product at the level of suitability and purchasing power. By the understanding of these stages, it helps in determining what promotional activities are going to be used and what medium would be better for a marketing campaign (Shapiro and Bonoma, 1984). A large area is covered with the marketing campaign to target the respective customers through the buyer readiness stages. Following are the stages through which the customers can passes in order to reach the actual product.

Stages of Buyer Readiness

Awareness

Awareness is the stage where the consumer have a rough idea that what re the factors of the product and services. If the customers are less aware about the product then it is the responsibility of the marketer to develop the strategies so that awareness is created advertisements and promotional strategies are used in order to attract the maximum number of customers who are potential buyers (Sirgy, 1982)

Knowledge

The second stage of the buyer readiness is knowledge where the consumer has some awareness about the product but they do not have knowledge about the offerings of the product. If in the market target group lies in this stage where they are aware about a product, so then the purpose is to spread greater knowledge. Once the client knows the name then the process of attaining knowledge starts. So an effort of advertising develops you as an expert and possibly even a specialist in one or more than one niche areas.    

Liking

[large]Liking is a stage where the consumer is aware and have complete knowledge about the product and then the consumer start relating itself with the product and establish a connection. The marketer knows about his job that at which level consumer feel its product and then they drafts campaign as accordingly. At this stage evaluation is made with the base of the consumer that whether the consumer is offering a company’s product over its competitors(Smith, 1956)

Conviction

This is the stage where the consumer is given with the very strong impact and reason to believe to purchase the product over the others, in this way conviction is built in the minds of the customers. It provides a level to the target customers to have a business with specific company. The advertising should be in a way that customer feel that this is the only comp any to be preferred.

Purchase

Purchase is following the steps of the conviction stages in which confidence about the product is built in customers and the aim of the marketer is to lead the consumer to purchase the product.

All these stages are important before implementing any marketing plan because it helps to focus on what is actually required to be done.

Referenc

• Shapiro, B. P. and Bonoma, T. V. (1984), How to Segment Industrial Markets, Harvard Business Review, May – June, pp 65-70.

• Sirgy, M.J., 1982, Self-Concept in Consumer Behaviour: A Critical Review, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 9, December, pp. 287-300.

• Smith, W. R., 1956, Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation as Alternative Marketing Strategies, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 21, July, pp. 3-8.

Once the target audience has been defined, the marketers must decide what response they seek. Of course, in many cases, they will seek a purchase response. But purchase may be only the result of a long consumer decision-making process. The marketing communicator needs to know where the target audience now stands and to what stage it needs to be moved. The target audience may be in any of six buyer-readiness stages, the stages consumers normally pass through on their way to making a purchase. These stages include awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase (see \ Figure 14.3).

The marketing communicator's target market may be totally unaware of the product, know only its name, or know only a few things about it. The communicator must first build awareness and knowledge. For example, when Apple launched the iPhone in mid-2007, it first ran a teaser ad during the Oscars [film award show] to create initial awareness and curiosity.

Author I Now that we understand Comment | how communication works, it's time to turn all of those promotion mix elements into an actual marketing communications program.

Buyer-readiness stages

The stages consumers normally pass through on their way to purchase, including awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase.

The Oscars teaser commercial featured clips of characters from famous movies and television shows answering the phone with "Hello" (to check it out, go to YouTube and search "iPhone Oscars Teaser"). At the end came a rotating image of the new iPhone with only the simple text "Hello" and "Coming in June."

Similarly, as in a business-to-business context, A IBM used teaser ads to peak interest in its new BladeCenter server technology, which integrates servers, storage, and networking applications into one system, consolidating space and eliminating cables. BladeCenter print ads in IT magazines and videos released through YouTube made no mention at all of either IBM or BladeCenter. Instead, they showed a large, mysterious ball of cables and drove curious users to a Web site—www.ibm. com/outwithcables—for answers.

Assuming that target consumers know about the product, how do they feel about it? Once potential buyers knew about the iPhone, Apple's marketers wanted to move them through successively stronger stages of feelings toward the innovative phone. These stages included liking (feeling favorable about the phone), preference (preferring iPhone to other cell phone brands), and conviction (believing that iPhone is the best cell phone for them). Apple marketers used a combination of the promotion mix tools to create positive feelings and conviction. Advertising built an emotional brand connection and illustrated the iPhone's design and features. Press releases and other public relations activities helped build up anticipation for the release of the iPhone. And a packed Web site informed potential buyers about technical specs, FAQs, software updates, and rate plans with partner AT&T.

Finally, some members of the target market might be convinced about the product, but not quite get around to making the purchase. Potential iPhone buyers might have decided to wait for more information or for the price to drop. The communicator must lead these consumers to take the final step. Actions might include offering special promotional prices, add-ons, rebates, or premiums. Apple might send out e-mails to customers of other Apple products urging them to add the eye-catching iPhone to their collection of Apple goodies.

Of course, marketing communications alone could not create positive feelings and purchases for the iPhone. The cell phone itself must provide superior value for the customer. In fact, outstanding marketing communications can actually speed the demise of a poor product. The more quickly potential buyers learn about the poor product, the more quickly they become aware of its faults. Thus, good marketing communication calls for "good deeds followed by good words."

Moving customers through the buyer-readiness stages: IBM used teaser ads to peak interest in its new BladeCenter server technology. The ads never mentioned IBM BladeCenter, instead driving curious users to a Web site (¡bm.com/outwithcabies) for answers.

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