How can an applied business psychology programme help understand consumer behaviour?

The BSc Applied Business Psychology course will introduce you to the stages consumers pass through before making a purchase. This includes:

• Problem recognition: This initial stage focuses on how consumers become aware of a need or desire that can be met by a product or service. For example, a student realises their old laptop is too slow for their coursework, which requires a new one.
• Information search: Once a need is identified, the next stage is to explore how consumers actively seek information about potential solutions. This might involve online research, consulting friends, visiting stores or watching advertisements.
• Evaluation of alternatives: This stage involves analysing the various options available based on predefined criteria like price, quality, features and brand reputation.
• Purchase decision: This stage examines the process of selecting a product or service. The final factors affecting the purchase must be identified here.
• Post-purchase evaluation: The final stage explores the consumer's reflection on their purchase. It includes assessing satisfaction levels and influencing future decisions, for example, repeat purchases and recommendations.

By understanding each stage, you can help businesses intervene with targeted marketing efforts and create positive experiences at every touchpoint, from initial awareness to post-purchase satisfaction.

2. Analysing psychological factors influencing behaviour

GBS’s applied business psychology with a foundation year programme will teach you how to identify and analyse the following crucial psychological factors at play:

• Motivation: Learning about the driving forces behind consumer behaviour, such as meeting basic needs (Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs), seeking self-fulfilment and social acceptance. An example could be marketing a security system by appealing to consumer safety.
• Learning: Exploring how consumers acquire knowledge and modify behaviour based on experience. It can be non-experiential (learning through others' experiences, such as reviews) or experiential (learning from personal use).
• Reinforcement: Focusing on how rewards and punishments (both positive and negative) shape consumers’ thoughts, opinions and future behaviour. For example, a customer finding out a product's quality claims are true results in positive reinforcement, leading to repeat purchases and potentially shared experiences with others.
• Attitudes and beliefs: Examining how consumers' thoughts, feelings and beliefs about products, services and brands influence their purchasing decisions. Changing negative attitudes and fostering positive ones is a key area of study.
• Perception: Exploring how consumers organise and interpret sensory information, shaping their thoughts and engagement with a brand. Understanding selective attention, retention and distortion helps manage information receipt.

3. Understanding the power of emotions

The programme also explores the vital role of emotions in influencing purchasing decisions, which often override rational thinking.

• Emotional drivers: Positive emotions like joy, trust and anticipation can drive purchases, while negative emotions like fear or anger can deter them. Marketing campaigns can be designed to evoke specific emotions to create stronger connections.
• Dual process theories: This framework suggests that decision-making involves both fast, intuitive, emotion-driven processes and slow, deliberate and rational ones. Understanding this allows customised marketing approaches.
• Emotional branding: Strong emotional connections between consumers and brands can build loyalty and help products differentiate themselves in competitive markets.

4. Leveraging social influence and word-of-mouth

The BSc (Hons) Applied Business Psychology course also explores how social connections and shared information shape consumer decisions.

• Reference groups and social networks: Family, friends and colleagues strongly influence preferences and habits. People often follow group norms and social media amplifies this through reviews, recommendations, and shared content.
• Opinion leaders and influencers: Certain individuals or groups hold significant sway over purchasing decisions. Reaching these influencers and understanding peer dynamics can be a powerful strategy for brands.
• Word-of-mouth (WOM): This informal communication about products, services and brands is still seen as highly influential, as it is seen as more trustworthy than traditional advertising. Negative WOM can be particularly damaging. Fostering positive brand experiences and encouraging testimonials can leverage this phenomenon.

5. Applying behavioural theories to explain consumer actions

The applied business psychology course provides you with a foundation in behavioural theories to explain consumer choices:

• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: This theory classifies human needs in a hierarchy, from basic physiological needs to self-actualisation, allowing marketers to tailor messages to specific needs and motivations as needed.
• Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB): This theory explains how intentions to perform a behaviour (like purchasing a product) are influenced by attitudes toward the behaviour, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. For example, marketing electric cars might emphasise environmental benefits - highlighting testimonials from satisfied owners and providing educational resources to overcome perceived difficulties.
• Consumer decision-making process model: This model details the five stages of decision-making (problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision and post-purchase behaviour) and emphasises that consumers generally follow these stages in order, though the process can be dynamic.

6. Exploring cognitive biases and heuristics

The honours degree in applied business psychology with a foundation year will also help you understand the systematic errors in thinking that affect consumer decision-making:

• Confirmation bias: Individuals favour information confirming existing beliefs, potentially ignoring contradictory evidence. A brand highlighting product features aligning with common beliefs, such as ethical sourcing for a coffee shop, can captivate consumers who prioritise this belief.
• Loss aversion: Consumers tend to fear losses more than they value equivalent gains. Marketers can frame offers to mitigate this, such as emphasising potential losses from not upgrading to a new product version, like missing new features or falling behind competitors.
• Anchoring bias: Consumers rely heavily on the first piece of information they encounter, such as the 'anchor,' when making purchase decisions. That is why introducing a product at a higher initial price makes following discounts seem more attractive to them.
• Scarcity bias: Scarce products are more appealing to consumers. Businesses can leverage this by introducing limited-time offers or special editions, creating a sense of urgency.

By understanding these biases, businesses can craft more effective marketing messages and strategies that resonate with consumers, influencing purchasing behaviour and brand sentiment.

7. Utilising neuromarketing insights

Neuromarketing, sometimes called consumer neuroscience, studies the brain to understand and potentially influence consumer behaviour.

• Understanding subconscious responses: Techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalogram (EEG) and eye-tracking measure brain activity and physiological responses to marketing stimuli. It can provide insights into unconscious consumers’ decision-making processes.
• Practical applications: Neuromarketing can inform various aspects of marketing, including:
  • Testing advertising effectiveness: Measuring brain activity during ad viewing can reveal true responses to different elements.
  • Improving packaging design: Analysing brain responses to prototypes can indicate which design elements attract attention and appeal to consumers.
  • Enhancing website and app design: Brain scans and facial coding can guide optimisation for better user engagement and conversion rates.

8. Developing data-driven marketing strategies

The BSc (Hons) Applied Business Psychology programme emphasises a data-driven approach to marketing, leveraging insights from various data sources:

• Collecting and analysing customer data: Gathering data from sources like website analytics, CRM systems, social media platforms and customer surveys provides a comprehensive understanding of customer behaviour and preferences.
• Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics: Using AI-powered analytics and machine learning algorithms allows for efficient analysis of large datasets, identifying patterns and predicting future behaviours.
• Personalisation and targeting: Data-driven insights enable highly personalised marketing campaigns, tailored to individual customer needs and preferences, leading to higher engagement and conversions.
• Campaign optimisation and ROI: Continuously monitoring campaign performance allows for real-time adjustments and optimisation, leading to an increased return on investment.

GBS's BSc (Hons) Applied Business Psychology with foundation year programme provides a holistic and in-depth understanding of the complex factors shaping consumer behaviour, equipping individuals with the knowledge and tools to develop effective and ethical strategies in the marketplace. Through modules that explore topics such as digital marketing strategies, human resource management and the psychology of leadership and management, you will gain insights into the psychological underpinnings of consumer actions.