Marketing Fundamentals and Consumer Behaviour
This domain tests how needs turn into demand, how segments are chosen and served, and which psychological processes drive a purchase. Questions are usually short scenarios: which concept best explains this behaviour?
Core frameworks
- Needs are felt deprivation; wants are culturally shaped; demand is a want backed by buying power.
- Segmentation bases: demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioural. A usable segment must be measurable, substantial, accessible, differentiable and actionable.
- STP feeds positioning: the value proposition is the benefit promised relative to alternatives, and must be defensible.
- The 4Ps (product, price, place, promotion) become 7Ps for services by adding people, process and physical evidence.
Consumer behaviour essentials
- Five stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase, post-purchase. Routine, limited and extended problem-solving depend on involvement.
- Elaboration Likelihood Model: high involvement → central route (argument quality, evidence); low involvement → peripheral route (pack cues, price, familiarity, endorsers).
- Post-purchase dissonance is reduced by reassurance and onboarding. Satisfaction is performance minus prior expectations (disconfirmation).
Worked example
A coffee brand finds heavy buyers choose on pack familiarity at shelf, while light buyers compare origin and roast. Heavy users are low-involvement habitual buyers, so peripheral cues matter: distinctive assets, shelf position, price promotions. Light users are higher-involvement, so the central route applies: origin story and comparative product claims. The budget should be split accordingly; one "quality" message aimed at both wastes money.
Traps
- Treating a want as a need when the question turns on willingness to pay.
- Calling a segment viable without checking measurability or size.
- Equating awareness or loyalty with satisfaction; they are separate constructs.