The Professor will speak at the upcoming RE VISION conference on May 4 where she will explain how to stop thinking about consumers as “walking wallets” and instead factor the often-messy decision-making process into building effective campaigns.
Media has the power to drive brand growth. But before we can get growth, we need to ‘get’ the consumer. Without understanding how audiences really think, feel and respond to advertising you can’t grow a brand. And it goes without saying that consumers don’t all think alike.
Renowned consumer psychologist, Professor Jana Bowden from Macquarie University Business School, stresses the importance of the human element in creating effective marketing campaigns.
"We all love the concept of hard data. But it's important to also understand that actual humans make up the numbers,” she says. “Who is that consumer? What is their tapestry of thoughts of emotions, and cognitions, that are driving purchase behaviour?"
According to Professor Bowden, consumer mindset, preferences, and the way people see brands are constantly changing. “And don’t forget to throw into the mix changing and fluctuating economic conditions, cultural conditions and social contexts,” she says.
Research shows that only six per cent of advertisers understand the mindset of their consumers well, yet 45 per cent of marketers claim to know how consumers interact across media channels. Professor Bowden sees a disconnect between these two figures.
“This gap represents a significant issue because we really need to know what is driving that consumer mindset to then understand how people are interacting with media channels,” she said.
To complicate matters, Professor Bowden says the idea that the path to purchase can be summarised in a neat series of steps is misguided.
“Consumers don't operate in this way. They're quite complex in how they think about things. They don't box sources of media into parts of their decision-making process,” she says.
TV, for example, cannot simply be viewed as only impacting the top of the funnel.
Professor Bowden explains: “Does the consumer only become aware of a TV ad at the level of awareness? Or does TV have an impact throughout the decision-making process?”
These misconceptions are dangerous for marketers. “What we need is a critical lens. We need to question our assumptions about how consumers behave, how we should advertise to them, and how we should use our media channels. And most importantly we need to be able to separate fact from fiction,” says Professor Bowden.
When considering how to build effective campaigns, she urges marketers to stop thinking about consumers as “walking wallets” and factor in the messy and often irrational ways they make purchase decisions.
Only once we do that can we truly select the right channels to make campaigns that impact the business metrics that matter.
To find out how you can put this thinking into practice, join Professor Bowden at ThinkTV’s RE VISION on Thursday 4 May.
Registrations are closing soon. Click here to register now.
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