Consumer Behaviour: The Body Shop - Case Study Example

 Consumer Behaviour: The Body Shop INTRODUCTION In the simplest of terms, Consumer Behaviour (CB) can be defined as “those acts of individuals directly involved in obtaining, using, and disposing of economic goods and services, including the decision processes that precede and determine these acts” (JF Engel, 2006). Analysing CB helps marketers understand the reason and the mechanism of how consumers make specific buying decisions. The study of CB can be used to explain why customers behave in specific ways- what are the motivating factors for the customers, what are the factors that catch a customer’s attention, what retains their faithfulness towards a product, brand or company and what turns a customer into “fan” of an organization (Blackwell, Engel, & M, 2006). The objective of this assignment is to analyse the various business theories, models and practices in the area of consumer behaviour. We will specifically analyse the practices being followed by ‘The Body Shop’ (TBS) to influence consumer buying. THE BRAND AND ITS PRODUCTS Figure 1: The Body Shop logo and its products (Source: The Body Shop Website) The Body Shop International plc is the original, natural and ethical beauty brand, with over 2,500 stores in over 60 markets worldwide (The Body Shop International plc., 2010). It is one of the most recognized international cosmetics brands that sell facial skin-care, make-up, bath and body, hair, and fragrance products in different flavours. The high popularity of “The Body Shop” can be explained as a result of its marketing activities which make an enormous impact on the psychological facets of consumer thereby affecting the Consumer Decision process. PSYCHOLOGICAL CORE The marketing activities undertaken by an organization influences the factors in the psychological core of a consumer. These activities are aimed at creating awareness and demand for the product which influence the Consumer Decision process. Hence, it is important that marketers analyze the psychological core which comprises of the following components: PERCEPTION Consumers undergo different stages of processing in which various stimuli are input and stored. However consumers do not passively process all the information that is present but only a small number in their environment is ever noticed. Of these, an even smaller number are attended to. The meaning of stimulus is interpreted by the three stages: exposure (or sensation), attention and interpretation. These three make up the process of perception. The figure below provides an overview of the perceptual process. Figure 2: An overview of the perceptual process Source: (Quester, Neal, & Hawkins, 2007) EXPOSURE Exposure occurs when a stimulus comes within range of our sensory receptor nerves (Quester, Neal, & Hawkins, 2007). TBS practices a lot of random and deliberate exposure. Advertisements in magazines, promotional offers and information on new products in e-mails, hoardings and TV advertisement are one mechanism of increasing the exposure of TBS products to the consumers. One of the advertisements that was recently scene in the ‘Vogue’ magazine of November 2010 edition which creates awareness for its new fragrance- Dreams Unlimited is shown below: Figure 3: Recent TBS advertisement seen in Vogue Magazine (Source: Vogue Magazine) The advertisement was published in Vogue which is the most easily available magazine in all the stores in UK. In the figure below is the list of all the supermarkets where Vogue is available. Using the most popular magazine increases the reach of the advertisements, the exposure and increases the probability of a purchase being made. Figure 4: Supermarkets where Vogue is available ATTENTION When a person’s sensory receptor nerves are activated and they experience attention as a result of which sensations goes to the brain for processing, attention is said to occur (Quester, Neal, & Hawkins, 2007). The consumer awareness towards a product increases when more processing capacity that is devoted to a stimulus (Froggett, 2010). Consumers are exposed to many advertising stimuli every day. This makes it necessary for marketers to be increasing creative in communicating about their products. Marketers shall look for increased attention for their products. TBS advertising one of its products i.e. its new fragrance in magazines like Vogue is an easy way to attract attention from existing as well as potential customers. This can be explained by “mere exposure effect”. While making a purchase, a consumer will be inclined towards going for an object that he/she has been exposed to in some form of the other as compared to one to which the customer has not been exposed. Vogue is one of the best-selling fashion magazines and publishing an advert in this magazine increases the chances and amount of exposure that the products will get (Froggett, 2010). TBS uses many stimulus factors that help in selective attention. These factors include attention arousing stimuli (physical intensity like bright colours), size and position (large and bold letters), involvement (slogan following the product name) and novelty and contrast (freshness in the idea of using a free and confident image motivating to take risks and believing your dreams). Figure 5: Selective attention showing concrete and prominent stimuli INTERPRETATION LEADING TO PERCEPTION The final step in the process of perception is interpretation. We make sense of the world though the interpretation of signs: icons, indexes and symbols. Every marketing message contains a relationship between the product, the sign or symbol, and the interpretation of meaning (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006). SENSORY THRESHOLDS The science that focuses on how the physical environment is integrated into our personal and subjective world is known as psychophysics. By understanding some of the physical laws that govern what we are capable of responding to, we can gain insights into understating customer psyche. This knowledge can be used for business and marketing strategies that can help in better customer relationships (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006) and (Wright, 2006). The Body Shop has always been very clever when it comes to marketing. The only marketing strategy compatible with their activist philosophy is no marketing at all. But as TBS claims to be a “green” organization, they have procured their fair share of publicity from their social agendas (Docshare, 2010). And it uses this “green agenda” in its advertising whenever it introduces a new product. The advertisement makes the consumer notice a small change through its stimuli. This is known as differential threshold (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006). The advertisement is for one of other new products from TBS- the look, colours and packaging is changed. But the advertisement still follows the same pattern like the other adverts from TBS. Figure 6: Weber’s Law applied and other line of product from TBS THE ROLE OF SYMBOLISM The use of symbols provides a powerful means for marketers to convey product attributes to consumers. The Body Shop used many symbols during the ‘Love your body’ campaign in order to focus on the self-esteem of the females and to position The Body Shop's ethical policy in this context (Thump, 2010). COLOURS Colours are rich in symbolic values and cultural meanings. The Body Shop uses colours like green, blue and bright colours in its advertisements and hoardings. As TBS is a green organization, it uses green and its shades in the background as it has been gaining popularity as consumers’ ecological consciousness has grown. It uses colours like pink and red that represents emotion and love towards the brand. TBS understands that colour is a key issue in package design and advertisements. Therefore, it takes factors like hidden meanings and symbolisms into consideration before choosing colours for its various product lines. LEARNING Learning can be described as a relatively permanent alteration in the behaviour of an individual as a result of experience. It is not necessary that the experience has to directly affect the learner; it is also possible that the learner leans through observation of events that impact others (Robert A., 1989). For example, consumers can recollect and recognize brand names, hum ad jingles even for those products that are not used by themselves. Learning principles are at the core of many consumer purchase decisions. Hence it is important for marketers to study this field (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006). OPERANT CONDITIONING Operant conditioning, also known as instrumental conditioning can be said to occur as n individual learns to perform those behaviours that lead to positive results and avoid those that lead to negative outcomes. Using the advertisement below, TBS aims at creating a desire for its product. The company says that using TBS product will enhance the attractiveness of women through the stimuli of smell. Thru’ this advertisement, TBS wants women to believe that choosing their products will make them feel good or satisfy some need. Figure 7: Operant conditioning Positive reinforcement is the mechanism through which certain behaviour is rewarded positively. This positive reward makes the subject learn the appropriate behaviour. In the ad above, a woman who is complimented after wearing the perfume/ fragrance, for how they smell or they look, she will learn that using the product has the desired effect and will be more likely to keep buying the product for TBS. MARKETING APPLICATIONS OF BEHAVIOURAL LEARNING The Body Shop uses one of the most popular techniques that reinforce regular purchases. These techniques include giving its customers prizes with values that increase along with amount purchased. This technique is called as frequency marketing. Membership cards are another such technique which is used by TBS to increase customer loyalty and increase in brand image. These cards can be used by TBS customers to get discounts on any purchase they make online or in-store. MEMORY Memory is the process of decision making process where information is acquired and stored over time so that it can be made available when needed (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006). It is a tough challenge for marketers to ensure that the customer remembers their products and brand rather than those of competitors. Several factors influence the memory and the information retrieval during purchase decisions. Some such factors are: familiarity, salience, pictorial, or verbal cues. Cues aim at making customer remember at what he/she has already seen. This will ensure that the customer can relate to the product. The advertisement below shows cue dependency in use. A particular stimuli (packaging) was presented to the customer in the learning environment. The new fragrance from TBS has the same packaging as seen on the advertisement in Vogue. This aids in brand recall at point of purchase (Froggett, Learning, Memory and Consumer behaviour (Handouts), October, 2010). Figure 8: Cue dependency MOTIVATION AND INVOLVEMENT “This is a process involved in the initiation, direction and energization of individual behaviour” (Geen). Motivation can be defined as the process which results in people behaving the way they do. Motivation in consumer behavior can be said to occur when a customer experiences a need to satisfy a particular wish (Schiffman, kanuk, & Hansen, 2008). Each consumer has his or her own need and priorities. Abraham Maslow formulated a hierarchy of biogenic and psychogenic needs. “We share the need for food with all living things, the need for love with higher apes and the need for Self Actualization with no other specifies” (Maslow, 1970). This theory specifies that specific types of products will have specific utilities and benefits for each individual depending upon his/her present stage of development and other environmental conditions (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006). Hence, it is important for marketers to define the target market and then make advertisements that appeal to people in particular stage of development. The Body Shop attempts to do the same. Another motivation theory used by The Body Shop to encourage purchases of its products is the Hedonism and the pleasure principal. This theory implies that all behavior can be explained as the seeking of pleasure and avoidance of pain (the “real motives”) (Froggett, Motivation and Involvement (Handouts), 2010).The picture for one of the advertisement below can be explained using this principal. Figure 10: Hedonism and the pleasure principal Motivated behavior is driven by the interplay between 3 parts of personality shaped by unconscious wishes and desire. This particular advert from TBS creates motivational behaviour through pleasure principal. Another model used very frequently by marketers is the Means-End Chain Analysis (MECA) model. This model allows marketers to understand how values of consumers can be linked to certain specific attributes in their products or services. The rainforest eco-conscious hair care is translated into MECA model. Figure 11: Eco-conscious hair care translated into MECA (Source: Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006) Figure 12: Hair care advertisement In order to build a strong relationship between brands, products and services and customers, it is important that the customer is kept involved. It can be defined as ‘a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on their inherent needs, values, and interests.’ (Schiffman, kanuk, & Hansen, 2008). It is all about: Figure 12: Consumer involvement (Source: Tim Froggett, motivation and involvement (Lecture handouts) The Body Shop in its marketing activities creates a high level of customer involvement. The advertisements of TBS create a curiosity in the minds of the consumer as the customer has to reach the information given in advertising in order to know what its products provide that others (competitors) don’t. Because of the wide variety of TBS products, a consumer while purchasing TBS products needs to reach the ingredients, the usage procedures and the advantages of owning the product. ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR Consumer have attitudes towards both: Specific behaviors attributable to product as well as behaviors attributable to general consumption. Attitude of a person is an indication of what the person likes, what kind of music does he or she listens and so on. Marketers need to understand this field of attitude and behavior because identification of the dominant function that a product or service provide to its customers can be used to relate to specific attitude of the consumer. This function can then be emphasized in their communication and packaging (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006). COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE The ABC model of attitudes emphasizes in the interrelationships between knowing, feeling and doing. The diagram shows the model: Figure 12: The ABC model of attitudes Source: (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006) Source: adapted from Three Hierarchies of effects (Solomon, et al., 2006). The advertisements of TBS make the customer think of the product. Once a customer purchases and tries TBS products, the attitude of the customer towards the product indicates how they feel about the product. FISHBEIN’S MULTI-ATTRIBUTE ATTITUDE MODEL (FISHBEIN MAM) This model assumes that a consumer’s attitude (evaluation) of an object will depend on the beliefs he or she has about several attributes of the object (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006). ATTRIBUTES (i) The Body Shop EVALUATION OF IMPORTANCE OF ATTRIBUTES i 1-5 (e) BELIEF THAT TBS DELIVERS i (-3 to +3) (b) b× e Nivea (-3 to +3) b×e GP 1 Well-known brand 4 +3 12 +1 4 2 Quality 5 +3 15 0 0 3 Naturally made 5 +2 10 -1 -5 TOTAL b×e 37 -1 This model enables marketers to discover the factors (attributes) that consumers consider while purchasing specific products or brands. It also helps them modify or change their communication and advertisement strategies based on the important factors that have been identified in this exercise. This will enable companies to improve the weaknesses of their product or brand which will lead to creation of more demand and customer satisfaction. The equation below gives a gist of Fishbein MAM: Fishbein MAM Source: (Froggett T. , October, 2010) THE MESSAGE TBS has been trying to create a positive belief towards its brand since many years now. This strong, well-defined corporate culture is strength for the company because it creates a positive image/attitude of/towards the company. This can also be a weakness in every respect if social and environmental responsibility is put ahead of productivity, cost control, and competitive pricing (Docshare, 2010). PERSONALITY Personality can be described as behaviours and characteristics which distinguishes an individual from other people. Personality of each person is unique. Besides personality of one individual can be compared with that of others (Schiffman, kanuk, & Hansen, 2008). “Since we know that consumers can describe brand personalities and describe differences between brands, it is tempting to speculate that people buy brands that somehow match their personality, or that in some way different brands appeal to different “personality types” (Randall 1993) The understanding of personality in marketing is important because marketers can establish relationships between people and brands that they use though it. This knowledge permits them to understand consumers better and to segment and target those consumers who are likely to respond positively to the product or service they want to sell (Schiffman, kanuk, & Hansen, 2008). PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY (FREUD) Based on in-depth studies of individual personalities Freud came to the conclusion that “behaviour is based on unconscious motivations’. It consists of three interactive systems: The conflict between the id’s impulses and restraint of ego and superego constitute motivating source of personality. Desires of the id must be expressed in some way or anxiety results. The same theory can be applied to TBS adverts like below: BRAND PERSONIFICATION Consumers can associate with a particular brand or a company if they can associate with the faces of the brand. Consumers easily associate themselves with well-known personalities. Hence companies frequently use celebrities to associate with their products. This personification of the brand helps in establishing a relationship between the brand and the customer. TBS doesn’t believe in this ideology. It doesn’t have any Hollywood celebrities as the face of their brand. It uses a common face in most of its adverts. This also has few exceptions, like one below. Young South Korean actress and "High Kick Through the Roof" star Shin Se Kyung is the new face for The Body Shop in South Korea to attract more customers. SOCIAL-CULTURAL INFLUENCES Consumer culture suggests that consumption - the act of buying goods or services is a cultural activity, one imbued with cultural factors and driven not just by practical or economic factors. Apart for economic and psychological factors, there are certain external influences such as culture, ethnicity, and social class which influence how individuals consume buy and use products. This segmentation if done effectively can be used to derive exact segmentation and help explain how groups of consumers behave (Blackwell, Engel, & M, 2006). Figure 13: Flows and nature of influence in the social environment With such complexity in the social environment, the culture that we come from makes us different from people from other cultures, beliefs and values. As discussed earlier although people receive the same stimuli, they interpret things differently based on their values and beliefs. The figure below gives us the social environment and its links to consumer goals. Figure 14: Social environment and links to consumer goals (Source: Froggett T. , Socio-cultural implications for marketers (Handouts), November, 2010) Marketers should try to transfer their social and cultural environmental understanding to their brands. Correct mapping of the social norms to the brand messaging will lead to acceptance of the brand within the society. TBS wants its products to be part of day-to-day life of its consumers. Consumer culture implies that the products are drawn from a cultural world. Then the meaning is transferred from the culture to a consumer group through marketing activity (TBS uses TV advertisements, hoardings, e-mails and sales/discounts). Finally, through purchase and consumption the meaning is transferred into the life of the consumer. Figure 15: Meaning Transfer Model (Source: McCracken (1989) (Froggett, Tim 2010) CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING PROCESS (CDP) “A true understanding of shoppers’ decision making processes is the key to retail success. Psychologists have identified that we have two main shopping modes: alpha and beta. In the alpha state, attention is fully engaged and the decision process is conscious. But 80% of our shopping is carried out in beta mode whenall decision making, orientation and interaction is subconsciously controlled.” (Siemon Scamell-Katz (2002). Figure 16: Blackwell’s CDP Model (Source: Froggett, Tim., 2010) NEED RECOGNITION Recognition of a need occurs when a customer experiences a significant difference in hi current state of affairs and some desired or ideal state (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006). Need recognition can occur in several ways. A customer can recognise need if s/he runs out of a product, if the product being used presently does not satisfy his/her needs adequately or a customer experiences a new need. TBS attempts to create primary demand, where consumers are encouraged to use their products through new adverts and promotional offers like discounts or season sales. The company also continues to create secondary demand, where consumers are prompted to prefer their brand over their competitors. INFORMATION SEARCH Once a need is recognized, consumers need adequate information to resolve it. Information search is the process by which the consumer surveys his or her environment for appropriate data to make a reasonable decision (Solomon, Bamosy, S, & H, 2006). TBS makes advertisements that can be retrieved from previous knowledge from memory (Internal search). The advertisement of TBS product shows the packaging as seen at the point of purchase (cue dependency). Also, collecting information from family members, friends, Internet (brand website: www.thebodyshop.com) and the market place (External search) would allow the consumers to have more information about the product and motivate them to buy the products. PRE-PURCHASE EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES Much of the effort that goes into a purchase decision occurs at the stage in which a choice must be made from the available alternatives. Consumers evaluate by comparing one from its competitors against the attributes of the product. These attributes can be: Source: (Blackwell, Engel, & M, 2006) The Body Shop stresses on the benefits that the consumer would get from using its products in its advertisements’ and packaging. These include price, good quality, naturally made, good smell, long lasting, confident. PURCHASE This is the acquisition phase of the product, after deciding whether or not to purchase it. This includes two phases: Source: (Blackwell, Engel, & M, 2006) CONSUMPTION AND POST-PURCHASE EVALUATION Consumption is the process where the consumer has used the product or service purchased. Post-purchase evaluation is the evaluation whether or not the product or service satisfies his or her needs. This can be either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. This will determine whether the purchase from the same brand will be made again or not. Jansson-Boys suggest that increasing consumer’s level of involvement during this phase may encourage more rational decisions. TBS offers membership cards to its customers to increase brand loyalty towards its brand and encourage consumers to make repeated purchases and prefer their brand over its competitors. CONCLUSION With many marketing strategies and campaigns, The Body Shop influences the consumer decision-making process. The factors within the psychological core are manipulated through bright/attractive colours, personification, high-level of consumer involvement in the advertisements. The consumer environment is surrounded by various modes of communication and TBS makes sure that their brand name is available wherever consumers’ information search takes him or her whenever their need is recognized and their desire has to be fulfilled. With various strategies as discussed in the essay one can say that the consumer decision-making process for customers who are looking for skin and hair care products is controlled activity by the marketers of The Body Shop. REFERENCES Blackwell, R., Engel, J., & M, P. (2006). Consumer Behaviour, 10th Edition. Mason: Thompson Higher Education. Docshare. (2010). The Body SHop strategic analysis. Retrieved 2010-26-November from Docshare web site: http://www.docshare.com/doc/160420/The-body-Shop-strategic-analysis Froggett, T. (October, 2010). 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Solomon, M., Bamosy, G., S, B., & H, M. (2006). Consumer Behaviour- A European Perspective (Third Edition). Essex: Pearson Education Limited. The Body Shop International plc. (2010). About The Body Shop- Our Company. Retrieved 2010-9-November from The Body Shop Web site: http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/_en/_gb/services/aboutus_company.aspx Thump. (2010). The Body Shop- 'Love your body' campaign. Retrieved 2010- 28-November from Thump Web site: http://www.thumped.co.uk/advertising/body-shop.php Wright, R. (2006). Consumer Behaviour. London: Thompson Learning. Read More