The Influence of Knowledge Dynamics on Consumer Behaviour

One of the key success factors for a business-to-consumer company is to convince its customers to buy its products. Most of the consumer base their buying decisions on their knowledge, no matter if it is cognitive, emotional, tacit or explicit knowledge. In order to determine any buying decisions at the level of the consumer a company should know which the level of knowledge is and how the knowledge dynamic functions in the mind of the consumer when taking the buying decision. This paper concentrates on the analysis of the knowledge processes in the mind of the consumer and the instruments a company uses in order to determine the buying decision. At a closer look the whole process marketing communication - buying behavior takes place similar as in the SECI Model by Nonaka and Konno (1998). The company offers some information about its products and services, which are internalized by the consumer. Based on this information and on the internal profile of the consumer, characterized by his cognitive and emotional knowledge the consumer builds an opinion about the product and takes the buying decision. This experience creates knowledge about the product, which together with other stimuli from the company can lead to a repeated buying transaction or not. In the case he buys again the process will be repeated. Another aspect which is interesting to be analyzed is the transformation between cognitive and emotional knowledge and the loyalty of a consumer towards a product. Usually with increased loyalty towards a product the quota of emotional knowledge is higher and the buying decision easier. For this reason many companies try to implement loyalty programs. Based on the knowledge dynamic processes in the minds of the consumer, a company should take measures which influence their buying behavior. In the final part of the article, there are presented such measures, because a company can have success only if he convinces his consumers to buy its products.