Week 5 : Consumer Awareness and Strategies

 Assalamualaikum w.b.t,

   Today's post is my reflection on the fifth week of MKTG 4312 (Responsible Consumerism). The first part of the chapter is on consumer acquisition strategies. First, we need to understand what is consumer acquisition. According to Prof Suhaimi, customer acquisition is the process of getting customers to choose the goods and services of one firm compared to other firms. To put it simply, customer acquisition is the process of getting and retaining customers. An important part of customer acquisition is the act of retaining customers as it will cost less than constantly getting new customers. 

   Acquisition levels can be divided into three parts which are, leads, prospects, and customers. In the lead stage, customers are simply aware of and interested in the product. In this stage, it is important for the firm to reach out to the customer The firm needs to reach 'hook' the customer into finding out more about the product. The next stage which is prospects is achieved when customers show consideration, intent, and evaluation of the product. This stage shows that the customer has been successfully 'hooked' and the firm can proceed to reel in the customer. The last stage is when the leads and prospects become true customers through their purchases. 

   To illustrate these levels, let's create a scenario. In this scenario, there are two characters, Amin and Borhan. Amin and Borhan are both walking around a mall and they happen to walk by a furniture store. They decided to enter the store to see what are available in the store. After walking around, they both saw a couch that they were interested in. Due to their interest, they have become 'leads' and the sales associate approaches them to increase their interest. After communicating with the sales associates, Borhan walks away as he lost interest while Amin stays to learn more about the couch. At this stage, Amin becomes a prospect as he is showing intent to buy the couch, while Borhan is no longer a 'lead'. After careful consideration, Amin decides to purchase the couch. At this stage, the sales associate has successfully acquired Amin as a new customer. 

   In this day and age, there are many strategies to acquire customers. Mostly though, firms will have to be more tech-savvy and make use of social media and search engines. An example is by creating content marketing through TikTok or Instagram. Firms should use soft-sell to gain the interest of customers and then reel them in through hard sells. Through the usage of hashtags and trending keywords, the firm will be able to attract customers easily. Another way is to use an affiliate marketing strategy by paying people with a huge presence on YouTube or social media to promote the product strategically. While there are many strategies to promote a firm's goods and services, the firm needs to do so in an ethical way. The firm must be transparent and ensure that customers are aware when the firm is advertising, to avoid the customer from feeling tricked. 

   The second part of the chapter is consumer awareness and education. According to Prof. Suhaimi's lecture, there 7 steps in educating consumers about consumerism. The first step is educating on the basics that are related to everyday life. This will allow the consumers to be able to understand the topic through simple examples. The second step is encouraging consumers to do research before purchasing a certain product. This will make the customers realize that they should not take everything at face value and should dig deeper. The next step is to inform the customers of their rights according to the law. This will allow them to protect themselves from malpractice by businesses. The fourth step is creating opportunities for consumers to learn more about their rights. For example, for university-level advocacy, a program can be held to talk about customers' rights and demonstrate those rights. The fifth step is to make sure that consumers have access to reliable information on their rights. This can be done by providing legitimate websites. The sixth step is to advocate for policies that will help consumers' rights. The last step is to stay up-to-date on consumerism-related news and then spread that news to other consumers. 

Thank you for reading. Comment down below on what can be done in Malaysia to improve consumers' rights.