Buying Behavior - Research Proposal Example

19 March 2009 Buying Behavior When 3 groups of working women and non-working women were selected to rate various need criteria in selecting brands such as importance of time saving, ease of preparation, good taste, and good for the family and to identify their favorite brand in each category for two given products which needed preparation i.e. cake and coffee. The outcome showed that the responses differed for both cake and coffee. For cake the results are as follows: The non-working women gave more importance to good for family followed by taste, ease of preparation and time saving, whereas the working women had some other point of view. They gave maximum importance to time saving, followed by ease of preparation, family health, and taste. Their choices of brands were entirely different. For coffee the results are as follows: The non-working women gave maximum importance to taste, followed by family health, ease of preparation, time saving, whereas the working women gave maximum importance to saving, ease of preparation, good taste, and good for the family. Their choices of brands were entirely different. The differences in their responses can be explained in the following manner. Consumer buying decision entirely depends on his needs and motivations which are as follows: 1. Needs - Needs of both working women and non-working women are different. A working women would need coffee during her breaks whereas a non-working women needs coffee only in the morning during breakfast. So, their needs are entirely different from each other. As coffee satisfies her hedonic needs for example, consumers who drink coffee feel refreshing, which an emotional response. Also, her symbolic need to be fast, modern, confident, sophisticated etc. which is related to her status symbol and functional need to reduce the need of thirst. Whereas for cakes the they satisfy the functional need to reduce hunger, and hedonic need for example it satisfies the taste buds of the consumers and can be classified as a feel good factor. A consumer's motivation to purchase coffee is affected by the following factors which as follows: a) Brand awareness: For coffee the brand awareness among the working women was very high as they personally preferred coffee as compared to non-working women for them it was a low involvement purchase and hence the awareness is not that high. For cakes the brand awareness among the non-working women was high as they consider it to be a special occasion preparation and thus wants the most information about the cake. b) Perception: Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information inputs (sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell and touch) to produce meaning. Selective Exposure - select inputs to be exposed to our awareness. More likely if it is linked to an event, satisfies current needs, intensity of input changes (sharp price drop). Selective Distortion - Changing/twisting current received information, inconsistent with beliefs. Advertisers that use comparative advertisements (pitching one product against another), have to be very careful that consumers do not distort the facts and perceive that the advertisement was for the competitor. c) Role of emotions: Generally working women show great involvement while purchasing coffee as she a habitual drinker of coffee everyday and feels connected to the brand and they generally stick to one brand whereas non-working women usually prefers taste and experiments with various brands and are not very emotionally connected to the brand. Working women usually prefers cakes with low calories and hence go for products for cake preparation that are low in fat but are that brand loyal whereas the non-working women prefer cakes with better taste and thus it becomes a high involvement product for them and tend to stick to one brand providing the taste they want. d) Attitudes: Individual learns attitudes through experience and interaction with other people. Consumer attitudes toward a firm and its products greatly influence the success or failure of the firm's marketing strategy. Attitudes and attitude change are influenced by consumer's personality and lifestyle. Consumers screen information that conflicts with their attitudes. Distort information to make it consistent and selectively retain information that reinforces our attitudes i.e. brand loyalty. Working women leads a fast life so she needs to purchase coffee or cake which can be prepared faster and is easy to prepare whereas for a non-working women the priority is her family so due to this lifestyle her requirements are taste, family health etc. e) Personality: Comprises of all the internal traits and behaviors that make a person unique which is in turn derived from a person's heredity and personal experience like work holism, adaptability, self confidence, friendliness, aggressiveness etc. Traits affect the way people behave hence marketers try to match the store image to the perceived image of their customers. Working women being fast, aggressive they prefer instant coffee whereas non-working women prefers premium or some flavored coffee over an in instant coffee. f) Lifestyles: Lifestyles are the consistent patterns people follow in their lives. For example healthy foods for a healthy lifestyle. Working women prefer cake products that can be prepared with ease and quickly as they have a fast lifestyle g) Opinion leaders: These the people who are very popular amongst the masses and their opinions matter a lot also known as the spokespeople like Michael Jordon (Nike, McDonalds, Gatorade etc.) are used by the marketers to market their products. h) Roles and family influences: People have various roles to play in the society like that of a wife, daughter, employee etc. Further, family is the most basic group a person belongs to, thus a marketer needs to understand that the consumer behavior starts in the family unit, family roles and preferences are the model for children's future family, and also family acts an interpreter of social and cultural values for the individual. A non-working woman generally takes the opinion of her family members before selecting cakes. i) Reference groups: Groups might be membership groups (belong to), aspiration groups (want to belong to), disassociate groups (do not want to belong to). The degree to which a reference group will affect a purchase decision depends on an individual's susceptibility to reference group influence and the strength of his/her involvement with the group. For a working woman her colleagues and superiors do effect her decision for purchasing a particular brand of coffee whereas for non-working woman her decisions are effected by the neighbors, friends, family members etc. j) Social class or status: An open group of individuals who have similar social rank. Social class influences many aspects of our lives and determines to some extent, the types, quality, and quantity of products that a person buys or uses. For example, upper middle class working and non- working women would prefer an exotic band of coffee for herself and her and family, which would display her status in the society. Among the given alternatives for cake mix present (regular, add butter, premium) a working or non-working women with high social status will prefer a premium cake mix to suit her social status. k) Culture: Culture refers to the set of values, ideas, and attitudes that are accepted by a homogenous group of people and transmitted to the next generation. Culture also determines what is acceptable with product advertising. Culture determines what people wear, eat, reside and travel. It can be divided into subcultures which is geographic regions and human characteristics such as age and ethnic background. Culture affects what people buy, how they buy and when they buy. For example coffee brands like Nescafe relates itself to youth, new energy etc. which appeals more to the working women as compared to the non-working women. Cake mixes project themselves as tasty and healthy with low calories to attract consumers who are both taste seekers as well as health conscious. Thus, it can be concluded that the buying behavior of a consumer depends on several factors like personality, lifestyle, status, sex, reference groups etc. and so the marketers have to choose their target costumers and position their brands in a way that it appeals best to its customers. References: 1. Consumer Buying Behavior (2009). Learn Marketing.net, for marketing learners globally [internet]. Available from http://www.learnmarketing.net/consumer.htm. [Accessed on 18 March 2009] 2. Changing consumer needs (2009). Changing consumer needs [internet]. Available from http://www.punchtaverns.com/Punch/Corporate/Retailer+Services/Consumer+needs/. [Accessed 16 March 2009] 3. 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