Consumer analysis

Consumer analysis is the study carried out on the consumer when conducting market research. The most important thing is to know what your needs are and what data is relevant.

First of all, this information helps to understand how consumers think and act, since all this can affect purchase decisions in the market. Psychological, social, economic and demographic data and information are used in consumer analysis.

In effect, all this data serves to divide consumers into segments and predict what consumer behavior will be like. As markets evolve, conducting consumer analysis becomes a more complex process. This, given that new needs arise that must be satisfied, new trends appear, the interests and desires of the consumer change. All this makes it more difficult to understand the consumer, satisfy their needs and exceed their expectations.

How does consumer analysis help us?

Actually, consumer analysis helps companies to design their strategies based on consumers. If all marketing strategies revolve around consumers, their needs are better met, the company's sales increase and, as a consequence, the growth of the company is generated.

The better the consumer is known, the higher the company's profitability will also be, since it will be easier to carry out the market segmentation process. By segmenting consumers into homogeneous groups, it is easier for a company to provide a good or service in a more appropriate and personalized way.

Advantages of conducting a consumer analysis

The main advantages of conducting a consumer analysis are:

1. Find market opportunities

Of course, a good consumer analysis can help to find small groups of consumers or niches that the market is not yet able to serve. Therefore, the company that targets those underserved groups can achieve a competitive advantage by taking advantage of a market opportunity.

2. Allows designing marketing strategies

If companies have more consumer information and know how to take advantage of it, they will be able to design successful marketing strategies. This also helps you develop marketing plans that are better targeted to your potential consumers. All this ensures the success, permanence and growth of the company.

3. It is easier to perform market segmentation

Without a doubt, we understand that a market segment is a group of consumers who have similar characteristics to cover a need. Also, they have very similar buying habits. Therefore, the greater the information from the consumer analysis, the easier it is to group consumers into homogeneous groups.

Naturally, companies that manage to better understand their consumers offer products that better respond to their motivations, ensuring their position in the market, because their products are better adapted to consumer needs and expectations.

Steps to perform consumer analysis

The steps to perform the consumer analysis are:

1. Identify consumers

First, identifying consumers requires sufficient data. The information that is needed to know is demographic data, social, economic and psychological conditions of the consumers.

Certainly, this data can be obtained by talking to consumers, reviewing sales data, and obtaining information from workers who have contact with them. It is important to distinguish in this step if the consumer and the customer are the same person, or if on the contrary they are different people. We must not forget that the customer is the one who buys the product and the consumer is the one who uses it.

2. Identify needs

Second, we must not forget that one of the most relevant elements is identifying the needs of the people served by the company. Thus, the company can design its product, price, communication and distribution strategy that best responds to its target consumer.

Also, these needs can be met using different market research tools. These tools can be observation, surveys, interviews, among some that can be used.

3. Create consumer profiles

Third, when you have enough and relevant information, consumer profiles are made. A consumer profile includes a series of characteristics that are significant in defining our target consumer.

The most important variables to make a consumer profile are:

• Demographic data.
• The lifestyle.
• The motivations.
• The personality.
• The values.
• Beliefs and attitudes.
• Perception and learning.

4. Carry out the segmentation process

Finally, for the consumer analysis process to be more productive and successful, market segmentation must be performed. Division or segmentation cannot be done if you do not have enough data, since a segment includes a set of people who meet a need in a homogeneous way. The characteristics of each segment make it different from another.

Segmentation can be demographic, psychographic, geographic, behavioral, among some of the most used criteria for segmenting.

Relevant factors in consumer analysis

The most important factors that must be known to perform the consumer analysis are the following:

• Cultural: Includes culture, subculture, and social class.
• Social: We find family, reference groups, roles and status.
• Personal: The most important are age, life cycle phase, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle, personality, and self-concept.
• Psychological: In this group we find motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes.

In conclusion, it can be said that the consumer is the main element on which the marketing strategies of a company must revolve. Consumer analysis helps to better understand and understand our consumers. In this way, the better the consumer's needs are understood, the easier and more effective the design of product, price, communication and distribution strategies by the company.

In addition, consumer analysis helps find new market opportunities by identifying unmet needs that can lead to fresh and creative ideas about new products and benefits.