Defining Consumer Psychology
Consumer psychology draws on many disciplines: social psychology, marketing, behavioral economics, and more. It focuses on understanding consumers and their purchasing behavior.
Some of the psychological factors that influence consumer behavior are:
- demographics
- personality
- Lifestyles
- rates of use
- usage occasion
- Loyalty
- brand advocacy
Importance of Consumer Psychology in Targeting Muslim Consumers
Capitalizing on psychological factors affecting consumer behavior is key for successful marketing. In fact, not many people may know this but psychology plays an important part in creating successful marketing strategies. Layering consumer psychology on top of your marketing mix will help your brand or organization zoom into:
- Muslim consumer think patterns, emotions, and reasoning
- What influences Muslim consumers to take action
- The different types of Muslim consumers and how they behave while shopping
- How Muslim consumer motivation and decision making differs for different types of products
- Muslim consumers’ need for knowledge or information in order to make buying decisions
- How you can improve your marketing strategies to engage better with Muslim consumers
Let us now look at some tactics derived from consumer psychology for better engagement with Muslim consumers.
1- Knowledge Authority
Most Muslim consumers are very particular about the products they buy. They will want to verify if the product or service is shariah-compliant. So you have an opportunity to establish yourself as an authority when it comes to the pains that your Muslim customers experience but also in your product’s compliance with the “shariah”.
Physiotherapists, for example, are able to persuade more of their patients to comply with recommended exercise programs if they display their medical diplomas on the walls of their consulting rooms. People are more likely to give change for a parking meter to a complete stranger if that requester wears a uniform rather than casual clothes.
Source: Principles of Persuasion
… being viewed as an authority can be very beneficial for businesses. We see that it can increase sales and customer loyalty to a brand or organization.
Source: Neil Patel, How Being an Authority can Boost Your Online Sales
2- Price Sensitivity
This tactic depends on the product or service you are offering when it comes to its efficiency and effectiveness.
Price sensitivity can be defined as the degree to which consumers’ behaviors are affected by the price of the product or service. Price sensitivity is also known as price elasticity of demand and this means the extent to which the sale of a particular product or service is affected.
Source: ReadyRatios
You need to understand how Muslim consumers you are targeting react to different price categories. This will help you gauge your price point and consumer demand.
Remember to track competitive product prices and analyze which targeted Muslim consumer audiences react better to offers and discounts. Because, as implied earlier, discounts and offers don’t always drive purchase behavior.
3- Social Proof
One of the most powerful marketing psychology tools you have at your disposal is social proof.
Social proof is a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behavior in a given situation.
Source: Wikipedia
People, often in situations of uncertainty, assume that the people around them (experts, family members, friends, etc.) have more knowledge about what action to take.
… we view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.
Source: Robert Cialdini, The Psychology of Persuasion
You can add social proof to your marketing through:
- user-generated content
- reviews
- recommendations
- brand ambassadors
- customer success stories
- influencers
4- Unity
It goes without saying that Muslims understand how valuable unity is. It has been mentioned in the revelation:
And hold fast to the rope of God, all together, and be not divided.
Source: Quran 3,103
Although we live in a world where Muslims are divided for a myriad of reasons, unity is always in our consciousness and we talk about it all the time.
When we belong or feel like we belong to a group, we’re more likely to be open to persuasion attempts.
Source: Kurt Vonnegut
Basically, reminding someone of a shared identity makes you more persuasive. Is there a stronger bond and shared identity than that of Islam?
Treat your target audience in a manner that they feel that they are a part of something. Some may argue that unity is part of social proof because of this.
Leverage unity by asking your Muslim customers and potential customers to join your community. A forum-type platform where everyone’s voice is heard is a good example.
5- Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
Muslim consumers, just like everyone else have a natural hate of loss: loss aversion.
Loss aversion is a cognitive bias that describes why, for individuals, the pain of losing is psychologically twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining. The loss felt from money, or any other valuable object can feel worse than gaining that same thing.
Source: Prospect Theory. An Analysis of Decision Making Under Risk
Loss aversion is manifested in marketing through the fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO is the tendency to walk through brick walls (not literally of course) not to miss out on what your peers are doing or are buying. This is a powerful emotion that marketers use quite often today.
As a Muslim business owner or marketer, we do advise not to go beyond the boundaries and use this to manipulate your target audience.
Some effective ways of creating FOMO are
- putting a time limit
- exclusivity
- limited editions
- showing others who are buying
- showing stock levels
- limited free shipping
6- Imagine This Technique
This one is similar to the technique car sales personnel use that is known as visualization.
When a car salesperson has determined that you are a serious and qualified buyer they give you the keys to the car and let you get in for a test drive. You start going through an emotional change once you’re behind the wheel of the car you like.
An even bigger emotional change takes place when you start driving it. You start to imagine what it would be like if you owned that car. You see yourself driving it to work, driving the kids to their soccer training, and so on.
Marketers use this technique quite often too because imagination is at the core of great storytelling, and storytelling makes for effective marketing.
Some common ways you can use for your organization or brand to persuade Muslim consumers to take action are:
Motivation
Every single one of us has experienced difficulty in maintaining motivation. Use visualization to remind your Muslim audience what they are trying to accomplish, and inspire them to keep working hard to achieve their goals.
Create content (videos and images recommended) that shows them how your product or service has motivated others like them to make their dreams come true.
Confidence
Your audience picturing themselves in a successful or powerful position can create feelings of confidence. It’s a consumer psychology technique that yields a positive effect and subsequently better engagement with your brand.
Create similar content as you would for creating motivation.
7- Mere Exposure Effect
The mere exposure effect is the human tendency to develop preferences for certain things for the simple reason that we are familiar with them. This is why it is also known as the familiarity principle.
The mere exposure effect is the reason why content marketing works so well.
Staying top of mind is very important; even if your audience does not have a need today, when they do, your product or service will be the first one they look up online.
Create content that has a consistent feel to it and distribute it on different platforms, including social media, to create familiarity among your audience and stay top of mind.
In Conclusion
There are many psychological tactics that you can use to persuade Muslim consumers to buy from you. However, you will need to find the right Muslim audience online with the right message. Muslim Ad Network can help you reach over 250 million Muslims online. Please contact us for more information.
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