09:05, 13 September 2012 by Philip Connolly
What makes shoppers tick?
From supermarkets to online retailers, every time we shop we are subjected to subtle psychological tricks to make us buy more. With more information available about all of us due to how much we share online, it is becoming easier for companies to analyse their customers.
We spoke with Claire Mulligan, an organisational psychologist, about how a company can benefit from understanding consumer psychology.
Who is your customer?
One of the key parts of consumer psychology is understanding who your customer is. While an SME may not be able to afford to run focus groups, a company can gather information about their customers from online metrics or even loyalty schemes.
“Consumer technology is a way of understanding your consumers more,” said Mulligan. “It is growing with the increased used in technology. People have more access to information,they are easier to research when using social media. You have got to get into who is buying a product, get into the data. There are loads of ways of doing that, getting information on what demographics, what status they are such as job, marital status. You need to start tapping into all of this.”
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