Continuing our look at what drives consumer behavior, this month we take a look at personal factors. Remember, while we aren't able to control these factors of behavior, we should always take them into account.
Each person has different factors that affect their purchasing behavior - cultural, social, personal, and psychological. Personal factors are things such as; age, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle and personality.
Most consumers experience changes in the goods and services they purchase as they get older. Everything from tastes in food, clothes, furniture and recreation are all affected. For example, younger people will be more likely to quickly adopt any technological changes in your pharmacy (e.g. online or mobile app refills)
Additionally, personal factors such as occupation, economic situation, lifestyle (a persons activities, interests and opinions) and personality all play a combined role in affecting a consumer's behaviors.
Individually, these factors aren't always the best predictor of a person's choices. Some 40 year olds are just starting families while others are preparing their kids for college. It's important to consider all of the factors, together, to get a good picture of the consumers' habits.
For the pharmacy owner, think about all of the different consumer groups in your community and consider how those people in the biggest segments will consider their purchases. For example, if you live in an area that has mainly younger, blue collar families - the way you attempt to reach them will vary greatly compared to those who live in a higher income, middle aged community, as well as those who are surrounded by the elderly.
Be sure to reach out to your GRX marketing rep to discuss the age, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle and personalities of those in your community to best determine how to position your pharmacy.