Consumer behaviour: Get inside your customers’ heads

Get inside your customers’ heads and use psychology to better understand consumer behaviour

Although many advances in technology have change the way people act and complete tasks in the 21st century, there is one device that has taken over the world in recent years. This is, of course, the smartphone – the technology that put the Internet in our pockets. With the introduction of smartphones and especially the iPhone in 2007 consumer behaviour patterns in many different industries have changed in a revolutionary and disruptive way.

In terms of their impact on consumer behaviour, smartphones are classified as a discontinuous innovation. That means that it has a disruptive effect on consumer behaviour, and requires the establishment of new behavioural patterns. With the introduction of the smartphone, consumers always have access to an online social media life – distinct from the real world.

In 2010, Morgan Stanley identified four important trends that directly affect consumer behaviour. One of the trends is immediate gratification – with the online world at our fingertips, content like news, music and films are all now available instantly or within seconds.

Technology as the new norm
When interacting with technology and social media, consumers have come to experience a sense of immediacy, which impacts on their expectations of consumption experience; they expect speed and ease of access as the norm.

This is key to understanding consumers, in the context of appreciating the role of technology as an influence on and driver of consumption. Technological developments are a key force for social change, and as technology stabilises, its design begins to influence user practises and behaviours in relation to it.

Consumer behaviour is affected by many things like culture, age, gender, technology or individual preferences. In this series of blogs we will show the extent to which new technology in our modern world disrupts and has established new patterns of consumer behaviour. Businesses in the food and drink industry are intimately concerned with consumer trends.

We will give you a guided tour on how consumers make decisions, what personalities, motivation, buying behaviour and persuasions different consumers have. This series is intended to help you to understand your customers better, and help you understand why their ordering behaviour has changed.

We will be covering the following topics:

– Psychology matters: Why convenience is important in choosing food and drink
– How to ‘nudge’ your consumers towards digital ordering
– Why professional photography is crucial for ordering apps

If there is a particular topic that you would like us to cover, let us know.

We have created a handy ebook compiling our different articles on psychology and influencing consumer behaviour. If you would like to read more on this topic, download it today.