The Demographics of a Market and the Personality of the Audiences - Research Paper Example

Executive Summary Consumer Behaviour is a major aspect that all businesses need to concentrate upon. The marketing of a company to a great extent is dependent on the behaviour of the consumers. The paper has identified six main leisure activities and has set down evaluative criteria together to form a matrix. Three respondents have filled out the matrix and a well developed discussion has been developed around the matrix to gain an insight into the various aspects like the demographics and the personality which play a role in the consumer decisions. Also, the marketing implications have been discussed and it is clear that the marketing of a product or service is majorly impacted by the consumer behaviour. Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 1.0Introduction 2 1.1 Objectives 2 1.2 Compensatory Decision Rule 2 2.0Evaluative Criteria 3 2.1 Rationale for Choice 4 2.2 Ranking of Activities 4 3.0 Comparison Decision Making 9 3.1 Demographic Reasoning 10 3.2 Personality Reasoning 11 3.3 Marketing Implications 11 4.0 Conclusions 12 Works Cited 13 1.0 Introduction Every person has a different tastes and different like and dislikes. The choices people make each day are dependent on a number of factors which include the environment that the person operates in as well as their personal traits as well. This assignment is based on the various activities that individuals tend to take up in their leisure time and how people rate the various activities in terms of their likings (Bagozzi, Gurhan-Canli and Priester). The paper will detail few such activities and will also provide a clear evaluation and rationale for choosing these activities. Further a comparison of the decision making process will be discussed to build a link to the choice and possible implications these choices may have on the marketing will also be discussed. 1.1 Objectives The main objective of this paper is to study consumer behaviour principles and to use the various theories and concepts to develop the segmentations, targeting and the positioning strategies. The paper also aims at applying the various models of consumer decision making and to use these to find specific consumer behaviour in a particular area. 1.2 Compensatory Decision Rule The compensatory decision rule is one where the decision makers, i.e. in most cases the consumers work towards averaging out the good features versus the bad ones. The process is complex and involves the assessing a single evaluation criterion and multiplying it with the importance of the evaluation criterion (Credo Reference). The same process is used for all the evaluative criteria and the weighted sum is sought. Once this is done for each of the options, then the highest weighted sum is selected. This method permits the overall performance to be averaged out and permits the brand or the choice to gain an average of the varying performance levels and also across the various evaluative criteria which in turn helps in selection of the best option (Credo Reference). 2.0 Evaluative Criteria In the current day the amount of time that is available for relaxation is very low and the leisure activities that are available as a choice for people is quite limited. The six chosen leisure activities for this paper are as follows: a) Watching movies b) Surfing c) Lazing At home d) Shopping e) Spending time with family / loved ones f) Swimming 2.1 Rationale for Choice The six leisure activities have been chosen with great care considering the various aspects of the everyday life. Almost every person is so busy in running around and facing the several challenges of life that people hardly get a chance to spend enough time doing things that provide leisure and comfort from the stressful lives (Evans, Foxall and Jamal). The combination of choices that have been chosen for the study is one which is focused clearly on more relaxing activities which are soothing to the brain post a hectic week. Things like watching movies, lazing at home, spending time with family and loved ones to a great extent help individuals calm themselves down and also give a chance to improve the interaction and the overall relationship building among the people who matter most in life. The activities like surfing, swimming and shopping tend to give the person an improved mood and permit the individuals to pursue something which is away from their computers and their work stations. This helps in making the people a little more active and away from the normal work environment and daily life issues, thus giving a chance to spend some quality time with self. 2.2 Ranking of Activities The leisure pursuits and the evaluation criteria discussed above have been merged together and a decision matrix has been formed as seen below. Leisure Pursuits Evaluative Criteria (Rank 1-5) 1 Watching Movies 2 Surfing 3 Lazing at Home 4 Shopping 5 Spending quality time with family 6 Swimming Rank 1 - Exciting Rank 2 - Relaxing Rank 3 - Fun Rank 4- Entertaining Rank 5 - Socialising The main idea of this matrix is to get a response from three respondents and to analyse which of the activities they find the best as leisure activities. In order to be able to correctly choose the best option, the three participants have been asked to rate all the leisure activities on a rate of 1 to 5. The rating follows Likert’s Five Point Scale (Jobber) as seen below. Value Description 1 Strongly Agree 2 Agree 3 Undecided 4 Disagree 5 Strongly Disagree Likert Five-Point Scale This simply implies that if a person finds watching movies to be the most exciting activity then they will need to use 1 – strongly agree and if the person finds the shopping to be the least favourite activity then the person adds 5 to the choice. (Jobber) Once the matrix is completely been filled out by the individuals then the total of each leisure activity is taken and the one with the least total signifies the person’s most liked leisure activity. For instance, if a person’s total for all activities comes out to be as follows: Watching movies: 7 and spending quality time with family as 5, then it simply means that the person find spending quality time with family and close ones to more of a leisure activity than to watch movies. Hence based on this, the responses from the three respondents has been presented and analysed below. Respondent 1: Respondent 1 is Rai Chand, a 29 year old professional working on weekdays and studying during the weekends. Rai has recently married and has just completed 4 months of his marriage. The matrix was presented to him and he was asked to fill out the matrix as has been discussed earlier. The following is his response to the matrix: Respondent Number 1 matrix Respondent’s name: Rai Chand Interview date: 27th April 2010 Leisure Pursuits Evaluative Criteria (Rank 1-5) 1 Watching Movies 2 Surfing 3 Lazing at Home 4 Shopping 5 Spending quality time with family 6 Swimming Rank 1 - Exciting 3 1 3 2 1 3 Rank 2 - Relaxing 2 3 1 4 1 3 Rank 3 - Fun 2 1 4 5 1 1 Rank 4- Entertaining 1 3 1 2 1 3 Rank 5 - Socialising 5 2 3 1 5 1 Total 13 10 12 14 9 11 As seen in the matrix above, the response to the questions give a varied set of answers and clearly bring out the choice of Rai’s leisure activities. Rai has answered the most number of ones for spending time with family and close ones. This simply implies that he strongly agrees that spending time with family is exciting, fun, relaxing, and entertaining. Based on the above matrix, the list of activities that Rai finds to be leisure is as follows (In order of his most favourite to least favourite): a) Spending time with family, b) Surfing, c) Swimming, d) Lazing at home, e) Watching movies and his least favourite being f) Shopping. Respondent 2: The second respondent for this study is Tasha Joseph, a student perusing her final year for under graduation. The matrix was presented to her and she was asked to fill out the matrix as has been discussed earlier. The following is her response to the matrix: Respondent number 2 matrix Respondent’s name: Tasha Joseph Interview date: 28th April 2010 Leisure Pursuits Evaluative Criteria (Rank 1-5) 1 Watching Movies 2 Surfing 3 Lazing at Home 4 Shopping 5 Spending quality time with family 6 Swimming Rank 1 - Exciting 3 1 3 1 5 1 Rank 2 - Relaxing 2 4 1 1 5 1 Rank 3 - Fun 1 1 5 1 5 1 Rank 4- Entertaining 1 3 1 1 5 1 Rank 5 - Socialising 1 2 4 1 4 2 Total 8 11 14 5 24 6 As seen in the above matrix, it is clear that Tasha’s responses have brought out a very different set of results. Activities that she finds to be leisure in the rank of her choice are as follows: a) Shopping, b) Swimming, c) Watching Movies, d) Surfing, e) Lazing at home and f) Spending quality time with family. This clearly implies that Tasha finds shopping to be the best activity in her leisure time and prefers this over swimming or spending time with her family or even lazing at home. Respondent 3: The third respondent, Nick Harper, chosen for the study is a 42 year old businessman working in IT field. Nick is a committed to work almost twenty four hours a day and is a father of two daughters. Nick has very little time to spare for leisure activities and tends to spend a lot of time on work related matters. The response to the matrix is as seen below: Respondent number 3 matrix Respondent’s name: Nick Harper Interview date: 28th April 2010 Leisure Pursuits Evaluative Criteria (Rank 1-5) 1 Watching Movies 2 Surfing 3 Lazing at Home 4 Shopping 5 Spending quality time with family 6 Swimming Rank 1 - Exciting 1 3 5 2 2 1 Rank 2 - Relaxing 1 2 1 5 1 5 Rank 3 - Fun 2 3 5 5 1 1 Rank 4- Entertaining 1 5 5 5 1 1 Rank 5 - Socialising 4 1 5 1 1 3 Total 9 14 21 18 6 11 As seen in the above matrix, it is clear that Nick is much focused and enjoys spending time with his family to a great extent. It is also clear that he does enjoy the occasional movies and is also a fan of participating in swimming as well. His choice of activities is as follows: a) spending quality time with family, b) watching movies, c) swimming, d) surfing, e) shopping and finally, f) lazing at home. 3.0 Comparison Decision Making In order to gain a perspective of different people with different backgrounds an effort has been made to receive a cultural mix in the respondents. This will help for the comparison and will also permit a better comparison of the three responses. As seen it is clear that the decisions of different people are quite different. Each person has a different level of importance given to each of the evaluative criteria (East, Wright and Vanhuele). Every person has a different choice of likes and dislikes. It is important to understand that people’s choice is dependent on a number of different aspects like the demographics, personality of the individuals and also the economical conditions of the person. As seen the three individuals chosen are from different cultural backgrounds and are hence have different choices (Solomon). To compare the decision making of all three respondents, it is important to classify them based on their demographic information and personality. These will help provide a basis for the reasoning and possible choice making as well. 3.1 Demographic Reasoning Considering the first respondent, Rai Chand is a 29 year old professional who also studies part time. Rai Chand is an Indian by birth and has recently been married. Considering the second respondent, Tasha Joseph is a young lady working towards achieving her under graduation, she has been born and brought up in Sydney and is here for her studies. Finally, the third respondent Nick Harper is a busy businessman and owns a web development company. He is a father of two beautiful daughters and is in his early forties. As can be seen the three respondents are of different ages and from different backgrounds. It is important to consider the age difference among the three participants and the nature of their daily activities (Noel). As seen in the case of Rai Chand, he is a busy individual working as well as studying and in his late twenties and has been recently married. This clearly explains why he prefers to spend time with his family and spouse and prefers to spend as much free time with his wife. In the case of Tasha, it is clear that she is a college going girl in her early twenties and is more focused on the latest trends in the markets and is into shopping. She clearly prefers to spend more time watching movies and swimming than lazing around at home. In the third case, Nick is a busy businessman looking for any small chance to be with his two beautiful daughters. As business makes him travel a lot the time he gets to spend at home is quite less. Also, as a leisure activity, he prefers to watch movies and relax. The difference among these respondents is clear and a major reason for the difference is clearly the age difference among the three. Also the basic daily activity clearly has an impact on the person’s choice of leisure activities a lot. The respondents are all at different phases of life and are with different cultural backgrounds which in turn bring up different set of responsibilities and choices in life. These are all demographic factors and have a clear impact on the overall choice of the individual (Noel). The next section will deal in brief with the personality reasoning of their choices. 3.2 Personality Reasoning As age goes by the personality of people also changes. A person tends to be faced with higher responsibilities at different stages in life which in turn also impacts the different aspects which they believe are leisure activities. 3.3 Marketing Implications The implication on marketing is very significant. A company planning to market its products needs to recognise the target audiences effectively and also right classify the target audiences based on their personalities. Doing this will help the company reach out to the most appropriate audiences and will be able to sell its goods and services more effectively (Jobber). For instance, if a person is interested in swimming and is also a big fan of watching television, then the most appropriate way of selling a swimming package will be via the television. The companies need to complete market research and to learn more about the target markets, their demographic and the personalities; this will help ensure that all the marketing activities reach the right audiences at the right time, via the right media (Plessis and Rouseau). Hence for a company to be successful in the marketing attempt, it is necessary to have a clear knowledge of the audiences. This will help the marketers not only reach out to the appropriate markets but also save up on the costs. As explained by Perner, consumer ideas pertain not only to the services but also to the tangible assets, also, consumer behaviour occurs for individuals, groups and even organisations. He also goes on to explain, “Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products as well as the study of how they are purchased. Product use is often of great interest to the marketer, because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can encourage increased consumption. Since many environmental problems result from product disposal (e.g., motor oil being sent into sewage systems to save the recycling fee, or garbage piling up at landfills) this is also an area of interest” (Perner). Hence it is essential to study the customer behavior as this will permit an overall improvement of the marketing plans. 4.0 Conclusions In conclusion it is safe to say that the demographics of a market and the personality of the audiences is a major deciding factor in effective marketing. If a company needs to ensure excellent and effective marketing of their goods and services then it is essential that the company concentrate on aspects like the demographics of the audiences and the personality of the target markets. The main aspect of any effective marketing is the targeted audiences that the companies deal with (Noel). By doing so, it is clear that companies will not face losses in terms of the investments for marketing and neither will the companies be develop a negative image for incorrect marketing. As rightly defined, consumer behaviour, is “"The study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society” (Perner). Hence it is clear from this study that consumer behaviour is dependent to a great extent on their age, lifestyle and other demographic factors. The consumer buying behaviour has is majorly impacted by the company, the products and services that it provides and also majorly on themselves. Works Cited Bagozzi, Richard, Zynep Gurhan-Canli and Joseph Priester. The Social Psychology of Consumer Behaviour. Open University Press, 2002. Credo Reference. Decision Rule. 2003. 28 April 2010 . East, Robert, Malcolm Wright and Marc Vanhuele. Consumer Behaviour: Applications in Marketing. Sage Publications Ltd, 2008. Evans, Martin M, Gordon Foxall and Ahmad Jamal. Consumer Behaviour. Wiley, 2009. Jobber, David. Principles and Practice of Marketing. McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2009. Noel, Hayden. Basics Marketing: Consumer Behaviour . AVA Publishing, 2009. Perner, Lars. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MARKETING. 2010. 26 April 2010 . Plessis, P.J. Du and G.G. Rouseau. Consumer Behaviour. Oxford University Press, 2008. Solomon, Michael R. Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective Enhanced Media Edition Pack. Financial Times Management, 2007. Read More