Report Provides New Insight on Brand Influence over Buying Behavior

A report by Skyline Marketing, an outsourced sales and marketing agency, has revealed that brand plays a major role in determining whether consumers experience passive-stage bias or active-stage bias during the purchase process.

Based on a study of 100,000 consumers conducted by global media agency MEC, the results report outlines the four stages of the consumer purchasing decision journey—trigger, purchase, active, and passive—and reveals that consumers with a strong passive-stage bias consider fewer brands, spend less time in the active stage, are less concerned with price when making their choices, and are happier with their decisions after purchase.

This should be an area of interest for marketers as it has not only been reported as the longest stage of the journey but also the one that gets the least attention, according to Jamie Talbot, managing director at Skyline Marketing.

"It is evident that consumers in this stage of the buying cycle are more open to new products or services, as they are not actively seeking a specific brand or comparing to a desired brand. We plan to use this information to personalize our service and freshen our approach by applying these new findings to our sales process," Talbot says. "Identifying consumer buying behavior and their perception of brands is crucial to the success of any business. This study has provided new insights into consumer buying decisions and identified areas within the buying cycle and sales process that can be improved upon."

According to Talbot, these results will not only give marketing and sales teams greater insight into consumer psyche, but will also help with producing more complex sales pitches to address the all-important questions or objections customers might have regarding products in the earlier stages of the buying cycle.

"This research is incredibly interesting," Talbot says. "Understanding the reasons behind purchasing decisions and the way consumers think is a big part of how we overturn objections in direct sales."

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