Business Consumer Behaviour - Essay Example

?Business Consumer Behaviour Identify and discuss how decision-making, as described in the case holiday, is different from the traditional problem-solving model of consumer decision-making. Whether they are making decisions on whether to purchase new products or choosing a tourist destination, consumers always engage in some type of information search. Decision making in this case is mainly concerned with the function of deciding on the best alternative. According to Alain Decrop, most markets perceive consumer decisions as being based on rational thought processes as well as the importance of being risk averse (Decrop 2005). Moreover, these traits mostly represent the processes used when consumers are considering physical products for purchase. Most tourists make travel decisions based on the influence of their friends or family members, or due to the emotional appeal of tourist destinations. It is important to understand that tourists usually undertake varied decision making processes when they choose to go on holiday. A good example of this is the scenario where people who were not meaning to go on a visit any where suddenly make a last minute decision to accompany friends or family members to exotic lands. According to (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegarrd, and Hogg 2009) in modern times, there are tourist behaviours such ‘‘last-minute’’ decisions to travel show that traditional decision-making methods are becoming irrelevant. There are even more factors that travellers decide to use in determining the choices of tourist destinations that they decide on. For instance, it would appear that for some travellers, the choice of where or when to travel is an ongoing process which may be changed even after a decision has been made on the preferred destination. In addition, more and more travellers are allowing their decisions to be influenced by nostalgia, travel party, and date. Travellers today are also more ready to expose themselves to surprises as they feel that this is the only way in which they will authentically be able to experience any destination. According to Alain Decrop, there are travelers who choose travel destinations even without conducting any research on the culture of the places they are going to visit in order to experience the chosen destinations in a more unbiased manner (Decrop 2005). In such cases, what is unexpected adds to the excitement of the first time experiences of the tourists. Planning for a holiday will remove the excitement of first landing in a foreign land and thus destroy the whole purpose of travelling in the first place. 2. Compare the information search process, as it is described in the case, with the search process that consumers might follow for one other product category (e.g. a household appliance or a perfume). When making purchase decisions, consumers may take into consideration a lot of information; particularly when deciding on a product brand such as a car or a sofa set. This differs from the decision making processes used by tourists when picking vacation destinations. Many consumers do not pick household appliances on a whim; or decide to order for these products from a store while leaving the decision on colour or texture to the seller so as to experience the element of surprise. For the most part, household goods and other such products are chosen after consumers embark on sequential decision processes in which various options are considered in a systematic method until the customer arrives at his or her last remaining choice. Following this evaluation process, the customers will choose the product they wish to purchase. Moreover, there are other ways in which purchasing decisions made during the procurement of products are somewhat similar to those used when travellers are picking on vacation spots. This is because a consumer can change his or her mind and pick on a competitor’s merchandise instead; or cancel the acquisition altogether. This could be spurred by impolite staff in the place of transaction, a long queue, or even a complicated process of sale. Travellers do not base their change of preferred destination as a result of similar factors; their decisions are mainly influenced by seemingly minor factors such as changing work schedules, sudden nostalgia for a different travel destination, or the influence of friends and family members. For travellers whose aim of hedonism, conflicting interests or time schedules with friends can easily cause them to change their plans (Cai, Feng, and Breiter 2004). This is another area where the decision making processes when buying products differ from when the product is a vacation destination. Most people do not base their procurement decision of personal goods on the opinions of their friends. Neither do they look for their family or friends to approve of their choice of product. It would appear that making decision on whether to buy a product is actually a much simpler process that is choosing a vacation destination. 3. Discuss what you think are the implications of the findings presented in this case, for managers marketing and promoting holidays. Marketing managers in different industries have had to change many rules in order to keep drawing customers in the present society. Marketing managers in the tourism industry have been affected by changing consumer decision making processes even more than their colleagues in other industries. The loyal customer who remains faithful to a particular brand or visits a given vacation destination on an annual basis has become an irregularity in an age where tourists have access to an overload of information on different parts of the world through the internet, and experience an increased level of introduction to new services through global diffusion (Bargeman and Van der Poel 2006). To remain relevant, marketing managers have to ensure that they use all ways open to them to reach potential consumers on an emotional level. In the decision making processes of consumers, there are factors that could influence customers to decide on certain destinations and not others. When choosing their places of preferences, consumers are often affected by internal (or push) factors such as the requirements of the consumers. According to Decrop, push factors function as motivations for travelers to search for something outside of their immediate environment to assuage something that they may not even understand (Decrop 2005). Motivated consumers will try to meet their own needs by means of psychology or physiology. There are other factors- pull factors- that can influence the decisions made on vacation destinations. The ‘pull’ factor is basically descriptive of external factors that are generated by the advertisements that may be promoted by marketing managers of tourist destinations. Pull factors have to do with the visible and explainable issues that draw people to certain destinations due to the way they are advertised. These factors may include heritage, novelty, nature, entertainment, safety, and east accessibility (Decrop 2005). Marketing managers have to strive to ensure that they create promotional campaigns that will factor in the ‘Pull’ factors that appeal to tourism consumers (Cooper 2005). This means ensuring that tourists are assured of security during their visits, and, most importantly, creating advertising campaigns that appeal to people across many populations in a world that has for the most part eradicated travel barriers in order to further develop trade between different regions. Another reason why innovative marketing campaigns have to be developed and used is that many travellers today are exposed to an information overload where they have access to the most astounding representations of the cultural and artistic accomplishments of different nations. This means that there will be a lot of choices to choose from and this has spawned certain apathy among consumers who may be at a loss as to which destinations to pick. To counter this reality, marketing managers must begin to advertise aggressively to international as well as local tourists. They could also use segmentation to appeal to specific groups such as the well-heeled or environmental tourists. References Bargeman, B. & Van Der Poel, H. (2006) ‘The role of routines in the decision-making process of Dutch vacationers’, Tourism Management, vol. 27, pp. 707-720. Cai, L., Feng, R. & Breiter, D. (2004) ‘Tourist purchase decision involvement and information preferences’, Journal of Vacation Marketing, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 138–148. Cooper, C. (2005) Tourism: principles and practice, Pearson Education, New York. Decrop, A. (2005) ‘Group processes in vacation decision-making’, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 23-36. Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegarrd, S. & Hogg, M. (2009) Consumer behaviour: a European perspective, Financial Times/ Prentice Hall, New York. Read More