Understanding consumer behavior is the initiation of the creation of an accurate marketing strategy. A product’s success/ failure is the evaluation of consumer responses to a particular marketing strategy.
Consumer behavior can be described as the study of who, where, when, how and why of consumers’ buying behavior. Loudon (2001) defines consumer behavior as “the decision process and physical activity individuals engage in when evaluating, acquiring, using or disposing of goods and services.
Marketing strategy is a systematic methodology that focuses on the efficient use of resources of an organization to drive the attention of customers towards the products or services rendered by an organization.
The most common element of modern definitions of marketing is customer satisfaction. Over the past few decades, researchers have incorporated customer satisfaction and other elements focused on the consumer as the heart of a marketing strategy.
Berkowitz (2010) agrees that the success of a marketing strategy depends on how well it is able to respond to the marketplace. Since marketing deals with the right execution of the strategy involving the product, price, place and promotion, the company needs to develop a suitable plan to meet the requirements.
The meaning and importance of marketing has been expressed differently, albeit in similar context, by various researchers through history. Kotler and Keller (2006) state that the financial success of a product depends on its marketing ability.
The term ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ was coined by C.K. Prahalad in 2005 in his work, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid . It refers to the concept of influencing the lives of poor population of the world through the managerial initiatives and business practices of multinational companies.
Companies have realized the relevance of CSR in marketing for their short and long-term objectives and are developing stronger marketing strategies around sustainability agendas for beating the competition and safeguarding market position (D’Amato, Henderson and Florence, 2009).