Table of Contents
What is Consumer Market?
The consumer market comprises of those people who are the end-users and they don’t resell the product or service any further. We see products and consumers everywhere in the market.
Whenever a person buys a product, then he becomes a part of the consumer market. We can categorize the whole consumer market into four types; retail, transportation, food, and beverages (drinks). Buyers usually make their own decisions whenever they want to buy something in the market.
Marketing and advertising play a very significant role in influencing the buying decision of the consumers; it tells them which product to choose by educating them about the product. When it comes to choosing the product, people prefer brand products because of the loyal. Brand loyalty doesn’t just happen; marketers do a lot of research to find relevant information about their market and then target them through TV ads and other promotional activities.
The consumer market is completely different from the business market because of the difference in the marketing strategy. Marketers divide the consumer market into different segments depending upon the characteristics, demographics, and behavior and psychographic of the consumer. After dividing the market into different segments, they target the interest, likes, and dislikes opinion and values of the consumers.
For instance, when you buy some food or drink form the grocery retail store, then you’re doing an activity of the consumer market.
Significance of Consumers
The consumer market is comprised of consumers, and when they keep consuming products and services. The businesses flourish because of it; the economy of the country grows as a result.
In simple words, when people spend products, then producers and entrepreneurs produce and deliver more products in the market. As a result, the running cycle of production and consumption contributes to the national economy of the whole country.
World Largest Consumer Markets
US Consumer Market
US is one of the biggest consumer markets in the world comprising of 325 million people, and their total contribution to the country’s GDP is approximately 20 trillion US dollars. It ranges from a variety of products and services, households products are at the top of the list.
The US has a free trade agreement with roundabout over 20 countries which are facilitating millions of consumers worldwide.
Chinese Consumer Market
The consumer market of China has consistently been growing for the past few years; consumption is the main part of it. In 2018, the total contribution of Chinese consumers in the country’s economy was 78%. The figure has grown 13.8% since then.
Characteristic of Consumer Markets
Having discussed it earlier that the consumer market is comprised of consumers and buyers, and these people are from different backgrounds and they have different choices and preferences. Marketers create different segments of the market based on their tastes and choices. In other words, those segments are the characteristics of the consumer market. Some of those characteristics are given below with examples;
Demographic Consumer Markets
Demographic characteristics mean consumers’ age, income, social and economic background, gender, size of their family, ethnicity, religion, culture, education level, job type, social class, and nationality. Marketers collect all of such information through a survey, telephonic interviews, and from the local public office where such information is easily available.
Not only they collect data, but they also study each part in detail. Then they also create different ranges like; age would be 18 to 25, 33 to 45, 55 to 65, or +65. Their income would fall between 15000 to 25000 Rs, or +50000, which tell us their social class.
The purpose of collecting well-detailed information is to target precisely those segments of the market. For instance, telephonic calls and SMS packages would interest the young market falling in the age from 18 to 25.
Psychographic Consumer Markets
Psychographic characteristics mean values, interests, opinions, attitudes, and activities of the consumers. They tell us the psychological nature of an individual in terms of his thinking, and it’s very important to know these things because you set your marketing strategies based on their views.
For instance, the target consumer market of parental magazines would-be mothers who are bearing babies. They are interested to learn about parenting.
Companies conduct focus groups and in-depth interviews with the consumers of their target market. The moderator starts the discussion with an open topic, and then he asks the participant to share their views on the particular. That’s how companies find out the inner psychological nature of their target market.
Behavioralism Consumer Markets
Behavioralistic characteristic requires a lot of marketing research to find out the product and brand loyalty level of consumers. How people react towards certain offers; when company offers them certain benefits and packages. The number of times people visit the market, stores, or the mall for the same product. It tells us the loyalty of the people towards the product and brand.
After finding out the loyalty of their consumer market; advertisers and marketers categorize the market into light, medium and heavy users list. Then they target each niche and check how people are responding. Most important, they want to know and expect the repetitive behavior of the consumers.
Geographic Consumer Markets
Geographic characteristic means the location of the consumers and where they are situated. It includes population density, size of the market, region, rural, urban, and climate of the market because it’s very important to know the size, density and location of the market before jumping into it.
For instance, a small-time seller can’t survive in a big competitive market; he should look for the market where big companies have no interest in. There he would have an opportunity to excel.
In cold regions, you can’t sell summer clothes, because people won’t buy it. The point of the matter is people living in different parts of the world have different needs, requirements, tastes, and interests. Businesses must conform to the local norms of the society to be liked and survive.
Examples of Consumer Markets
Food, drinks, beverages, legal, health and financial services, clothes, electronic stuff, and its accessories and many others, these all are the examples of consumer markets where buyers purchase products or services for the sake of the consumer, instead of buying things to resell it.
