Mastering consumer behavior with human-centered design

Did you ever notice the subtle changes in the pandemic? Some hotels started to offer cleaning services. Restaurants offered cooking kits and on-demand deliveries. E-commerce dominated the consumer goods channel. Why did these things happen? Behavior change, that’s what.

These changes brought challenges to businesses to survive and thrive as told by the Human Capital Director of Maybank, Irvandi Ferizal, on Friday (18/09/2020). “Mastering consumer behavior is crucial for companies to stay relevant in this ever-changing landscape. And businesses that failed to do so eventually went down.

“You can see the changes right now. Many businesses are offering new products and services. They are understanding the current consumer behavior and adapt to them,” said Irvandi.

The key to mastering consumer behavior is human-centered design, he told the class. “The human-centered design helps you master your consumer’s behavior by observing them,” said Irvandi by explicating several things to watch in human-centered design.

1. Master your consumer segment

“Learning about your consumer segment’s characteristics will help you understand their behavior. Some of the characteristics you can look out for are demographics, psychographics, geography, and culture,” said the Director. Irvandi brought an example of baby pampers. Although their consumers were babies, he said, the buyer was often the mother. So, what Irvandi did was to analyze the segment of mothers and learn their characteristics to conduct effective marketing strategies.

2. Empathize with your consumer

Second, Irvandi said that empathizing with consumers would help to identify their behavior. “Find their pain. Solving their pain often leads to better user experience. Thus, their behavior will shift and adore your product as a solution to their problem,” he said.

Irvandi went to giving an example in banking. “When you want to improve the experience of a middle-aged person in your service, you must find what their problems are. By taking a customer-centric approach, you can understand your consumer’s behavior better. Doing so provides you with competitive advantages that help your business thrive and sustain,” as Irvandi ended his guest lecturing.