Five hats of the consumer
DR. UDITHA LIYANAGE
Consumers are typically known to be users of products and services
for the purpose of meeting their manifest needs. The ‘consumer as user’
role is, in fact, only one role played by the consumer. There are four
other distinct roles, the consumer does play, in particular contexts.
Now, marketing, and indeed business is essentially about, ‘meeting
customer needs profitably’. Hence, knowing particular customer roles
which directly relate to customer needs, must, clearly be a priority for
organizations, big and small.
Consumer as user
Here, the customer is a mere user of products. The concept of
‘utility’ in Economics is akin to this role of the customer. In this
context, the customer buys products, because, through their use, he or
she is able to solve a problem. In this regard, the products’ attributes
and their functions are carefully considered by the customer.
The central question that the consumer raises in this regard is:
‘What will it do for me?’
The consumer in such contexts, will typically become a rational
decision-maker who will carefully evaluate attributes of the product
vis-a-vis competitors in the market. The ‘consumer as user’, is
typically, a problem-solver.
Consumer as experiencer
The ‘consumer as experiencer’ raises the question, ‘What will it do
to me,’ and is subject to sensory stimulation. He is a seeker of
pleasure. Here, the consumer’s role as hedonist is characterized by
consumption for pleasure, for sensory stimulation and gratification,
accompanied by affect, rather than for survival or to solve a problem.
Gabriel and Lang (1997) refer to the pursuit of pleasure, untarnished
by guilt or shame, which becomes the bedrock of a new moral philosophy,
a new genre of the good life.
Importantly, Campbell (1987) makes the distinction between utility
and pleasure. He describes them as distinct motivational principles, the
former deriving from need, and the latter aiming at pleasure.
Need, represents the disturbance of a state of psychological
equilibrium; it is based on absence, or lack or necessity. By contrast,
pleasure, is, “not so much a state of being, as a quality of experience;
not an attempt to restore an earlier state of disturbed equilibrium, but
is a quest for a certain kind of stimulus which will bring about a
pleasurable experience”.
He concludes that “stimulation of the senses is therefore, itself, a
part of the pleasurable experience”.
Consumer as member
‘Membership groups’ are those to which an individual belongs.
‘Aspirational groups’ are those to which one does not belong, but wishes
to belong. ‘Customer as member’ takes two forms. First, a brand, given
its sign value, will help the customer to maintain his position in a
‘membership group’ he belongs to.
Second, a product’s sign value will enable him to associate himself
with an aspirational group. In sum, the use or possession of the brand
may signify the customer’s membership of a group or his association with
an (aspirational) group.
Clearly, the need to belong to or be associated with a social group
is a strong motivator and a dominant ‘value’ of the customer. Here, the
consumer raises the question, ‘What will it do with me’.
Consumer as communicator
Here, the customer buys, uses and owns brands for their communicative
value, not use value. Customers establish and promote their identities
through the consumption of brands. In essence, customers ‘value’ the
personal statements they are able to make through the brands they own
and use.
At the core of ‘customer as communicator’ lies the idea that material
objects embody a system of meanings, through which we express ourselves
and communicate with each other. In this context, we want to buy things,
not because of what they can do for us, but because of what they say
about us.
According to this perspective, products and brands tell stories and
communicate meanings in different ways, but with the same facility as
words. A car, therefore, is not a carrier of person as much as a carrier
of meaning about itself, its owner, its manufacturer and a broader
culture.
The recognition of brands as parts of a communicative system, opens
great possibilities of explaining the seemingly insatiable character of
modern consumption without recourse to concepts of greed and envy. It
opens the possibility of assessing the impact of image-makers, without
resorting to the idea of manipulation or deception (Gabriel and Lang,
1997). Here, the consumer raises the question, ‘What will it say about
me’.
Consumer as actualizer
Objects and events, consumers consume and engage in, provide meaning.
They enable the customer to make a statement of themselves to others.
Moreover, objects and events communicate ‘value’ to customers.
McCraken (1988) describes goods, both as ‘bulletin boards for
internal messages and billboards for external ones’. Through the goods
we consume, we often communicate with ourselves, reinforcing social
categories and classifications. Like old family photographs which are
not for public display, we may use those private goods to remind
ourselves of who we are, and what we have achieved. (Gabriel and Lang.
1997).
Customers buy and own brands and goods in order to buttress their
self concept; to feel good about themselves, indeed, to enhance their
sense of self-worth. Personality theory refers to the concept of an
ideal self.
A ‘system of things’ does help the consumer to symbolically reach
this ideal self. Such a system provides evidence to oneself that one has
achieved a desired state of mind or being. The customer as actualizer
raises the question, ‘What does it say to me’.
Conclusion
Meeting customer needs is fundamental to business. Therefore, knowing
what consumers want and the different roles they play become imperative
to any organization. The conspicuous ‘user role’ of the consumer, must
be analysed further in order to sense the deeper psycho-social needs of
the consumer, whose satisfaction, drives consumers to do, what they, in
fact, do.
References:
Gabrieal Y and Lang T., The Unmanaged Consumer, Sage Publications,
London, 1997
Campbell C., The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism,
Oxford, Macmillan, 1987
McCraken Grant, Culture and Consumption, New Approaches to the
Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities, Bloomington, Indian
University Press, 1988
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