Consumer Behavior Project - Assignment Example

Consumer behavior project Table of contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..2 Literature review…………………………………………………………………………………3 Research design…………………………………………………………………………………..5 Interview questions……………………………………………………………………………….6 Findings……………………………………………………………………………...……………7 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………..……………11 Application and conclusion………………………………………………………………………14 References………………………………………………………………………………………17 Introduction Consumers make several decisions that affect the purchase decisions they make. Most marketers strive to understand this behavior for them to better formulate appropriate products that will increased on sales and the loyalty of the brand (Belk, Grayson and Jr 100). There are various goods and services in the market. However, consumers attribute the volume to the massive production capacity of the industrial world. It is important to note that the marketing profession is responsible for the variety of goods and services available in the market. Once marketers are able to evaluate and influence the behavior of the consumers, then they are able to determine the marketing force to use and the time to make the applications necessary. To understand the consumer behavior, experts try to examine the processes of purchase decisions that trigger consumers to make a purchase of a particular product. Most experts spend a lot of time attempting to figure out what makes consumers make on spot purchases. Most experts obtain necessary information through in-store research and they launch new products in small venues to test the expected results in the executed areas. As a result, they are able to determine whether the product is likely to be successful before investing the company’s resources to introduce the product either locally or in the international market. This project is meant to evaluate how individual consumers make their product choices. It explains why it is important in the context of consumer behavior. A research will be conducted to explain the importance and the trend of consumer behavior in affecting the purchase decisions of consumers. Later, findings will be developed which will lead to an application and a conclusion. Literature review According to Noel (2009, p 5), the study of consumer behavior touches on almost all aspects of our lives. From the time we wake up and conduct our daily activities, every action we partake defines our consumer behavior. Such actions include how we perceive advertising, attitudes formed, how we come up with decisions and factors influencing such decisions, and how we use and dispose products on a daily basis. These actions collectively make us part of a collective consumer society and much of the derived meaning in our society comes from our actions as either buyers or sellers. As a result, the study of consumer behavior is crucial in making us understand the business associated with marketing and make us well-informed consumers. According to Samli (2013, p 1), globalization has increased in the last quarter of the twentieth century which has accelerated the impacts it has on consumers to the first quarter of the twenty-first century. It results from integration of different groups of people in the world and reduced cost of transport and communication. It has formed and conditioned the modern global consumer. Thus, he comes up with means of exploring the major positives and negatives related with globalization and understanding how the arising positive aspects can be extended for the well-being of world’s consumers. As a result, he analyzes the impact of globalization on consumers. According to Belk, Grayson and Jr, (2011 p 2), the increased proliferation of the social media and the networked collaborative platforms offers the potential to enable an active and in-depth dialogue between consumers and organizations. Most consumers are willing to collaborate with organizations to co-create value and articulate their preferences in relation to the design and development of products. And services. Despite that numerous literature focus on how individual consumers create value, there is limited research on how organizations and consumers collaborate to create value of the best products and services in the market. The author recognizes that there is a need for numerous researches to understand the importance of the collaborative effort of consumers and organizations in co-creation between them and the organizations to ensure brand creation. Concern is high that the ongoing overemphasis on the commercial objectives of organizations fails to acknowledge the complexity of individuals and the communal objectives and motivations of an assembled crowd. According to Close (2012, p 2), indicates that it is important for consumers to understand more about online consumer behavior. The reason is to help to unify a web site’s business or the various nonprofit goals with the social media or e-commerce knowledge to increase the return on investment. The author indicates that online world is a virtual world for the consumer. It is an increasingly important venture for consumers. The author indicates that consumers’ identity is exaggerated from their real identity. It is almost impossible to understand online identity without considering that there exists more than one world in the mind of the consumer. According to Frank Kardes (2014 p 89), most businesses spend a lot of money and time trying to figure out and monitor and influence the consumers’ behaviors. Success comes about when the business manages to compel customers to use their products as opposed to their competitors’. Consumers are often inundated by various levels of marketing to compel them towards making a purchase decision. However, effective marketing relies on the capability of understanding the variables that captures the consumers’ interests and attention towards purchasing a specific product. As a result, this affects how the customers manipulate the product for the best judgment and choice. The marketing department focuses on the consumer thus distinguishing it from other departments. The author provides an in-depth scientifically proven explanation of consumer behavior that may influence their purchasing power and ability. Research design The project is being developed by conducting interviews and surveys. A group of between 6-12 individuals’ consumers was issued with surveys in different malls in Saudi Arabia. They were asked several interview questions, which they responded in accordance with the preferences of the products in the market, their product and brand involvement and their purchasing power. The survey conducted mostly focuses on women or the female gender since they are the ones most involved in shopping for their families’ daily needs. However, in other situations, men were involved in the surveys. The study conducted mainly focused on individual consumers of between 20-29 years who had the capability of making their own purchases without depending on their parents to do so. Due to the ethical and cultural practices of the UAE, a lot of caution was exercised when dealing with women. Moreover, most of the individuals who undertook the surveys had to ensure that they considered a decent code of dressing in accordance with the requirements of the UAE. The survey and interviews conducted focused on: • Product Involvement • Purchase Involvement • Brand Involvement • Purchase Intention • Environmentally friendly products • Green purchasing behavior • Social influences in purchasing behavior • Environmental product knowledge • Environmental values Interview questions i. What determines the type of product you purchase in the market? ii. What determines your involvement with a given brand? iii. Do the social media, marketing, and advertising influence your involvement with a given product? iv. How does your level of income affect the purchasing power? v. Does the family size influence your purchase patterns? vi. Does the number of times you have seen an ad influence the brand involvement? vii. Was the target brand or its competitor on sale when you visited the store? If yes, how did it affect your purchase power? viii. Does the environmental value of a product influence your purchasing power? If so how? ix. Do you purchase products on a daily basis, weekly or in monthly basis? Alternatively, do you conduct impulse buying? x. What is the determining factor to the number of time you purchase the products you need? Findings According to the research conducted, the quality of the product and the price determined the type of products purchased in the market. Nine out of twelve of the consumers surveyed indicated that they purchase products that are of high prices but at an affordable price. The research also indicated that their involvement with a particular brand was determined by the perception of others about the brand, the advertisement of the brand and the preferences of the specified customer. Factors influencing the purchasing power of a product (Noel 123) From all the malls that the research focused on, most of the customers indicated that social media, marketing and advertisements affect their involvement with a given product. In fact, most of the consumers indicated that they were mostly driven by curiosity to determine whether the way the products were advertised was the same in real sense. Moreover, marketing had a way of compelling the customers to engage in buying power by only revealing about the positivity’s of a product as opposed to the negatives. As a result, most of the customers were compelled to purchase the product to determine whether the product had the advertised capabilities. It was also obvious that the social media influenced the purchasing power of consumers. If a product was more advertised in the social media, the public wanted to a taste of it to determine its effectiveness. The most influencing social media was Facebook at 50% followed at a gap by twitter and Pinterest. From the surveys and interviews conducted, it was also apparent that the level of income of these consumers affected their purchasing power. Most of the individuals who were paid on a monthly basis preferred conducting their shopping monthly. There were other categories of individual of casual laborers who were paid a small salary on a daily basis thus preferred living every day as it came (Frank Kardes 120). They prefer buying the products they needed whenever they needed them. The consumers also indicated that their family size influenced their purchase patterns. A large family made more purchases often as compared to a small family. Most small families purchased small quantities of products less often. Most of the individuals surveyed also indicated that the number of times they had seen an ad determined their brand involvement. If a brand appears numerous times on TVs, radios and billboards, a consumer would be more compelled to try out the advertised product to determine their effectiveness in comparison to the ad made on the same. The consumers also indicated that when the target brand and its competitor were present in the store during the purchase, consumers found it hard to make a choice between the two. In fact, about seven of the consumers indicated that they ended up purchasing the competitor product since they were in need of having a taste of something different as opposed to what they were used to. They wanted to have a different taste that differed a little with their preferences (Samli 109). Factors determining brand loyalty and purchasing power Most of the consumers also indicated that the environmental value and the general benefits of the product influenced their purchasing power. There were those products that have positive effects on the environment. Most of the consumers preferred to purchase those products since they imagined if the products could benefit the environment, they could be of great help to the body. They preferred the use of products that could not have side effects on their environment the same way it could not have side effects on their bodies. The determining factors for the number of times that the consumers made purchase differed. Seven consumers indicated that price and quality of the product were the determining factors. Three indicated that their determining factors were time and the family size while the rest indicated that availability of money was the determining factor. Most of these could conduct impulse buying depending on the time they get money to purchase the products that they required. Discussion In the course of the study, it was evident that average shoppers spent 21 minutes to purchase groceries and covered only covered 23% of the stores giving marketers limited amount of time to influence customers. Moreover, most of the purchases made in supermarkets were unplanned. It was however, evident that consumers adjust their purchasing behaviors based on their individual needs and other interpersonal factors. In order to ascertain these influences, researchers try to ascertain what happens inside the minds of the consumers and to identify physical and social influences on the purchase decisions made by the consumers. On some instances, the choice of the consumers seems quite random. However, each decision made by the consumers has a compelling meaning behind it. Even if most of the choices, do not always appear rational. Purchase decisions depend on the emotions, social situations, values and the goals of the consumers. Consumers make purchases to fulfill all types of needs not only the utilitarian needs. The needs as Abraham Maslow identified may be physical, biological, safety and security, affiliation and love, or to obtain prestige or self-esteem or to be self-fulfilled. Prestige is an intangible need that consumers try to fulfill. The individuals concerned with status will often pay for it. Goods that appeal to this kind of need are high profile products that other consumers will see in the use of the products. One main advantage of targeting his kind of market is that the demand curve of luxury products tends to increase as the price increases. Other consumers sometimes tend to equate their need to be satisfied with certain types of goods. For instance, if the consumers have the need to nurture, they tend to purchase products associated with parenthood, pets, cooking and many other products. Moreover, consumers tend to purchase products on the basis of their personality traits and characteristics. Pragmatics will buy what they think is practical or more useful and purchase based on quality and durability of a product than on the physical beauty of the product in question. The esthetically inclined consumer is more likely to consider the physical beauty of a product and products that project symmetry and harmony. Intellectuals, on the other hand, are more inclined to making purchases based on how they will obtain knowledge and truth from them. They make contrasts and comparison of similar products before making any purchases. Most consumers also vary in determining whose needs they are interested in satisfaction while making their purchases. This determines why they make purchases either based on the modesty and newness of a product, popularity or the product being what they really want. As a result, this will influence the way, marketers advertize for their products. For instance, if a wine distributor is trying to appeal to people by wanting to appeal to their personal taste will greatly emphasize on the personal taste of the product. However, if the same marketer is willing to market to those who are in need of pleasing others, they will emphasize on how sharing the wine will improve and enhance gatherings with friends and family. In addition, most consumers are influenced by their cultural and social values in determining whether their products will be successful in a market. In a society where there is great emphasis on hard work and activity, companies that suggest that their products represents those values are more likely to be successful as compared to those that do not. In Dubai where social values are more observed, the marketers who observe such values are more likely to be successful in compelling consumers to purchase their products. If the marketer suggests that a product will enhance the consumers to be more observant of Shariah laws, then they will be more successful in compelling consumers to purchase their products. Product involvement is the perception the consumers have on the products and its importance based on their needs, values, and interests. It is the central framework to explaining and understanding decision-making behavior of the consumers. When the level of product involvement is low for most products, most consumers exhibit a sense of involvement in at least one product. In addition, depending on the experience and knowledge of the consumers, they may be in a position to make quick purchase decisions, while others may need to have information and be more involved before purchasing a product. The level of purchase involvement determines how interested a consumer is in purchasing. Whether a purchasing decision is high, low or limited, the level of involvement solely relies on the consumer not by product although some products requires that the consumer is highly involved. A consumer with no experience in product purchasing may have more involvement than someone who is purchasing to replace a product. Often, consumers engage in routine response behavior when they make low involvement decisions that are when they make automatic purchase decisions based on scarce information that they had gathered in the past. Some other low involvement purchases are made with no planning or any previous thought resulting into impulse buying. Higher involvement decisions often carry higher risks to the buyer in the event that they fail or expensive, for instance a house or a car. Consumers avoid routine responses when purchasing such products. Purchase intention is the plan to purchase a given good or service in the next trip to the market. First the consumer has to collect information about the product then evaluate it to determine whether it suits their intentions. It is highly influenced by brand image, knowledge of the product, brand loyalty, and product involvement. A good image of the product ensures that the consumers create a lasting relationship with the product in question. Moreover, environmentally friendly goods reduce the harm they induce on the environment and the ecosystems. Companies use such terms in advertising to promote their goods and services. The social situation of consumers also influences their purchasing power. One main influence is the social class that one finds themselves in. most individuals are grouped in social classes according to wealth, education and occupation that they are in. the higher the individual consumers are in the social ladder, the higher their purchasing power. Social classes also influence the spending habits of consumers. It is important for marketers to be aware of the social classes of their target markets and design their marketing efforts to meet the expectations of individuals in that class. Application and conclusion The knowledge on the consumer behavior is essential in influencing the marketers in coming up with the best practices that will attract more consumers. The study of the behaviors exhibited by consumers is important in ensuring that organizations and marketers improve their marketing strategies. They are able to understand how consumers perceive things and how they select between various alternatives. They are also able to understand how their environment influences consumers. Moreover, they are able to understand how the motivation of consumers and their decision strategies differ between products that with differing level of importance to the consumer. Thus, marketers are able to adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and their marketing strategies for them to effectively reach to the consumer. The knowledge of consumer behavior is also important in enhancing the social marketing of the products. This is important in letting ideas across to consumers instead of selling the products. In addition, studying of consumer behaviors is also important in making us better consumers. It enables the companies to analyze their strengths and weaknesses in relation to their competitors. As a result, they are able to maintain a competitive advantage over their competitors. In conclusion, consumers make several decisions that affect the purchase decisions they make. Most marketers strive to understand this behavior for them to better formulate appropriate products that will increased on sales and the loyalty of the brand. As a result, marketers get a glimpse of the preferences of the consumers thus coming up with the best marketing strategies in accordance with the consumers’ preferences. To understand the consumer behavior, experts try to examine the processes of purchase decisions that trigger consumers to make a purchase of a certain product. Most experts spend a lot of time trying to figure out what makes consumers make on spot purchases. According to the study conducted, it is evident that consumers differ in what triggers them to make a purchase of a product of their choice. Some consumers prefer to make impulse buying on low involvement products. Others have to gain relevant and ample knowledge about a product before embarking on the purchase of the product in question. Moreover, more consumers are more concerned about the price of a product and the quality of the product to ensure that they purchase the product in question. In most instances, the consumers have to have the required amount of money to purchase the product of their choice. That is why affordability of the product is crucial. Other consumers are influenced by the marketing and advertisement of a product before making a purchase. Most of the products are much exaggerated in their advertisements thus leading the consumers to purchase them out of curiosity to find out whether what being advertised about the products is true. Whichever reason makes individual consumers to make purchases, it is important for marketers to understand them for a better customer base in future. This will go a long way in them ensuring customer satisfaction thus improving on their set profits. Works Cited Belk, Russell W, et al. Research in Consumer Behavior. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2011. Close, Angeline. "Online Consumer Behavior." Business and Economics (2012): 1-366. Frank Kardes, Maria Cronley, Thomas Cline. Consumer Behavior. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2014. Noel, Hayden. Consumer Behavior. Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Academia, 2009. Samli, A Coskun. International Consumer Behavior in the 21st Century. New York: Springer, 2013. Read More