Well, the customer of 15 years ago was a consumer; it was very different then. We used to have mobile phones, which were very limited. A few people used to have mobile phones, and even then, if it was a mobile phone of a specific company, it was like a brick. We didn’t have such a trend of people eating outside the house. Now, even if you were walking in a small village,
People would go to restaurants by car and motorcycle on Saturdays and Sundays for outings and eat. In the same way, brands didn’t exist that much. It was 15-20 years ago. I remember that when we had to buy clothes, the way women used to buy clothes, they used to go to markets and they would show them clothes in large numbers and from them they would select a lawn suit. Now, when we have to buy clothes, what happens is that they go to the market and enter a branded shop, and the clothes that the salesmen are selling there are sold there.
They have bought and are buying clothes with great elegance in the AC environment, and the price difference is not too much. All these things have changed. The pattern of the consumer buying things has changed. Earlier, there was no value to the brand. Now there is the value of the brand. Now, you see the brand everywhere. Earlier,
people used to eat at home. You eat more food outside. Because it is considered entertainment. So, just as the market trends are changing, the consumer is changing. In the same way, the company also has to change itself. In this session, we will talk a little about the decision-making process. First, I will tell you what the traditional decision-making process was. It started with problematization.
That is, the theory that tells us that the customer is the first to recognize the problem. I have this problem for which I want to find a solution. For example, I have money, and I want to buy a car. My problem is that I want a good car.
Why do I need to go from one place to another?
When the customer recognizes the problem, the next step is information search. I have realized that I want a car. Now I am searching for information about the car. If I take the example of Lahore, I will go to Jail Road and search for the car there. It can be online. I am searching for information. So, there are ten steps called information search.
Above the third step, there is the step of evaluation of alternatives. That is, now you have done an information search. You have three, four, or five types of cars that suit your budget. Now you have different alternatives.
What do you do about the alternatives?
What do you do about the options? You want to go and ask your friends. Is this Suzuki car better or this Honda car better? Is the Japanese car better, or is the locally assembled car in Pakistan better? Which car should I buy? This is my budget. Within this, I am evaluating it. After this evaluation, the next step is the purchase, in which I actually purchase the product, and what happens to my purchase in the end? Post-purchase behavior. If you are happy with this car, you generate word of mouth. You tell people that your friend will take you with them. Brother, you bought a car. You are stressed about it.
So, please buy me this car. This is the entire decision-making process. But just as the digital environment and digital technologies have changed everything, they have also changed the consumer pattern. Nowadays, when I am teaching a general class in the university, I see that students may not have money for food, but they have one and a half to two dollars. I definitely have a mobile phone worth lakhs of rupees in my hand. And when I think back to my time when I was in college,
maybe two people in our entire class had a mobile phone, which we all shared. Let’s take a look at how digital technology has affected the decision-making process. First of all, due to digital technologies, if we fit this thing that I gave you earlier into the information pool, when you buy a car, you will also look at PakWheels, you will also look at OLX. In the context of Pakistan,
if I talk about it, you will go to YouTube and watch videos of that car. Apart from that, you will also search for things on the forums and blogs that are created. You often also see how much the car is worth. It must have been published on a UK website. Then, despite all this, you also see that parts for the car are available in Pakistan. If I live in Pakistan,
where can I get parts from overseas?
So, information search has become It has become very messed up, and it has changed consumer decision making. The second point is that you are comparing everything to competitors; that is, your consumer sitting online is not looking at how the product you are selling is compared to the product that the competitor is selling. Maybe they are not looking at your competition at all. They are searching your product in depth to see the quality of your product.
What are the reviews of people?
Do you do shipping properly or not?
Does your website work properly or not?
When you pack something and deliver it to the customer’s home, is it good?
Is the packaging good or not?
All these things are being measured. If I give you an example, I remember once I bought a shirt from an online store, and when that shirt reached home, I was looking at the quality of that shirt because the box it came in was the one I packed it and sent it in, how beautiful it is, and that box is still lying with me. Post-purchase behavior has also become very important and has changed. When a customer buys something or a mobile phone, he does not go home with an empty mobile phone.
He also takes pictures of it. He also uploads it to YouTube. People also give reviews of it and create blogs about it. And people who are different are reading it. Post-purchase behavior has also changed. It has a lot to do with digital technology.
The company that is using it is using it as a marketing tool, and in the end, the world of mice is becoming more relevant. What does it mean that when you buy something, you will give feedback about it? I went to a restaurant. I went to the restaurant and ate food. Along with eating food, I sat on Google or Facebook and gave the restaurant a star rating of four stars, five stars, and that which
What is the word of mouth generated by getting a customer?
It is also said that children are very big for future customers. The biggest example of this is that if any of you ever travel overseas or travel in Pakistan, then on the online booking websites, you first see what the rating of this hotel is, and if the rating is less than eight, then most people do not like to stay in this hotel, so that word plays a very big role in it. And friends, before ending this session, the last and most important thing is that your customer now knows about advertising. Customers did not know about advertising before; they used to see the product. This is a whitening cream. It must be whitening. So go and buy it. Since there are so many options, the information search is extensive. So customers do not know about advertising.
What kind of advertising is that?
The customers are aware of all these things. So, keep in mind the customer’s patterns. Keep it simple. It will help you out as a freelancer. It will also help you out in the digital market. And to build a good company, it will also help you out as an entrepreneur. Consumer patterns and market trends will help you a lot.