Expected Consumer Behavior - Essay Example

Consumer is the person who buys a product for its own use. If a person purchases a good or service and it is consumed by either that personor his family such an individual is called a consumer in its entirety. Similarly, consumer behavior is the action taken by purchasing and consuming the product. This paper will compare and contrast two different brands Mother Energy drink and Red Bull. It compares and contrast their potential customers and the way social character, need for uniqueness and buying Introduction The purpose of the essay is to discuss the current and potential customers of Red Bull energy drink and Mother Energy drink. Energy drinks are a raging phenomenon of the current decade. After soft-drinks and alcoholic drinks, they have generated a lot of interest from people, especially youngsters round the globe. The niche in which these brands compete is carbonated soft drink and it is a very narrow niche. The two brands that this paper will talk about are Red Bull and Mother Energy Drink. Red-Bull is an Austrian brand that was first introduced in 1987. It is available in 120 countries all over the world and is widely regarded as the world’s number-one energy drink. Mother Energy drink is a brand of Coca Cola and was first released in Australia. It was introduced Australia in 2006 when Red Bull and V energy drink commanded 94% share in the market. The paper will compare and contrast how consumer social characteristics, their need for uniqueness and how being a visualizer or being a verbalizer affects consumer perception of the brand followed by a conclusion towards the end of the paper. The primary focus of the paper will be on how these three dimensions influence consumer behavior. According to Kotler (2010), consumer behavior is an enigma for marketers all over the world. Countless number of strategies and approaches has been designed by marketers to understand the reasons behind why buyers choose a certain product over another similar product. However, a concrete model or method describing consumer behavior which guarantees a positive response from the buyer in the form of purchases or repeated purchases is yet to be formed. Consumer Social Character A very important aspect of consumer behavior is a brand fit. Brand fit is the image that customer develops in his mind about the brand and the way in which that image influences the customer to go purchase the brand. It is important for the customer to draw some connection between the kind of person he is and the kind of brand that is being promoted. (Onkivist, 2008) Red-bull’s an energy drink which promises extreme energy. It’s tag-line is “it gives you wings”. The kind of promotional campaigns that the brand pursues involves a lot of adventure, car racing, games, etc. It’s brand identity has been built around cliff driving, ice-skating and street contests. Mother energy drink on the other hand is promoted with the following tag-line “right-hook to laziness, a smack in the face of slackness”. The brand logo on the coke can is gothic and the brand has been promoted as an all-natural drink. Given these kind of promotional tactics that red-bull and mother energy command there are various social characteristics in people that influence consumers to consume Redbull and Mother energy drink. Schiffman, Bednall, O’Cass, Paladino, Ward & Kanuk (2008) may have had the right definition of consumer social character. They look at it as a personality trait of the consumer that ranges from inner-directness towards outer-directness. The consumer’s whom it refers to as ‘Inner-directed consumers’ are those who determine value of a brand by oneself. This is as opposed to by others. Inner-directed consumers are not easily influenced by others and also known as consumer innovators as consumers evaluate new products on their own. Other-directed consumers are easily influenced by others and are likely to be followers as consumers tend to look to others for opinions. Groups and social networks also have direct influence over the choices people make; therefore its power cannot be undermined by the marketers. People are often influenced by reference groups to which they do not belong which results in aspirations and hopes. Marketers expose the individuals to new lifestyles, behaviors and attitudes that in turn affect the consumer’s choice when being influenced by a particular brand. Mostly marketers employ the use of opinion leaders who because of their charismatic personality, famous profile or special skills possess more power of influencing people. Potential customers of Red-bull will be influenced by celebrities in action-oriented fields. This is because red-bull consumers are energetic and enthusiastic. Chances are high that they will idolize celebrities and rush to purchase the brand in these fields. Mother energy’s potential consumers would be people who like to think different. They like to go away from the norms. So a celebrity or an endorser who is bizarre and is a little twisted from the norms is more likely to influence this brand. Family members can strongly influence behavior as they are perceived to be the most important when it comes to buying decisions. This is the reason why marketers consider the roles and relationships between family members when marketing their products. Buying roles change as consumers evolve over time. (Judd, 2001) A recent study says that where, before parents or siblings have been providing advices on what to buy and what not to, with time that role tends to be filled by a person’s spouse. If the buying decision of a particular product is influenced by the wife then the marketers will try to target the women in their advertisement. (Keller, 2008) Red-bull will influence people who are strongly athletic. It is likely that the potential customers of Red-bull will follow the instinct of male members of their family than their female. People consuming red-bull will be always on the move, and their drive to find energy will always be high. Consumers of mother drink are less likely to be influenced by their family members. They have their own reportire. They will dare to defy as influenced by the brand logo. It is gothic, it is different and it is not normal. Roles and status are the person’s position in a group. A role consists of the activities that the person is expected to perform such as at home a person is expected to fulfill the role of a son, brother or father depending on the people around him. Each role gives the person a status which reflects the society perception towards that role. (Kotler 2010) People mostly choose products according to their roles and status. In the case of Red-Bull, the kind of social character in lieu of role and status that will influence the consumer to purchase it would be his urge to go out for social events, to go out for out-door and recreational creativities. He is not as much in awe of his social status in the society as much as his inner need to feel good about himself. The consumer of Mother brand will also not care about what his social status is in terms of his role and financial stability. He will be more inclined towards the extra-ordinary facets of life. Things like gothic tattoos, sci-fic movies etc . Need for Uniqueness Brand judgements have a huge impact on purchase intentions of the consumer. They differ according to the kind of consumer’s need for uniqueness. Consumers today regard their possessions and what they consume as a part of their identity. To a huge extent, it symbolizes their perception of themselves and the way they would like to be seen. (Park et all, 2008) The theory of the need for uniqueness in consumers argues that consumers will intentionally disregard socio-cultural practices in order to be unique from others (Ruvio, Shoham, and Brencic. 2008). Most of the consumers today want whatever product they consume or own to be regarded as part and parcel of them. The potential customers of Red Bull would have some differences in their need for uniqueness which will eventually affect and influence their consumption of both brands. Three major theories express the need for uniqueness in consumers. The first theory is the creative-choice counter conformity theory. According to this theory consumers tend to go after a product which is more socially acceptable. Their preference for the product is regardless of whether they like the product or not. It is socially driven. (Lantos, 2010) The second theory applies where the consumers decide to go for products that are not familiar within their social group. (Moori, 2010) In this case such consumers risk their social status by consuming those goods which might be considered to be unacceptable according to the socio-cultural practices of the particular society. According to Snyder and Fromkin (1977) consumers also choose a product that is not popular or are likely to become unpopular. This is often done by avoiding the most popular products in the market hence the consumers achieve uniqueness (Shaw, 2008). This follows from their tendency to go for things which are out of the box and which might not draw a lot of adulation and appreciation from others. The need for uniqueness for both Red Bull and Mother’s potential consumers would be different. Red-Bull’s consumer’s need for uniqueness would stem from theory number one-creative choice counter conformity. Red-Bull is treated, targeted, marketed and promoted to depict the impression of a fiey brand. As its logo says “it gives you wings”. Its potential consumers desire’s need for uniqueness would stem from this urge to portray themselves as super heros, indomitable and energy driven. They would be more action oriented because this will give them the satisfaction of creating a solid impression on their peers and those around them. On the contrary the need for uniqueness of Mother’s potential consumers would be from their need to go against the stride. This stems from theory number of three of the need for uniqueness. The taste of Mother is dark and it is promoted as the most energetic drink on the block. Moreover, the packaging is black, the logo is gothic and is strikingly different. These are the things which do not appeal to the common man on the block. Thus a potential consumer would find Mother strikingly appealing because he will feel that there is something peculiar and out of the ordinary in this brand. It is not the usually sweet energy drink as one would expect to find. Visualizers and Verbalizers: Consumers are categorized as either visualisers or verblisers. Visualiser make their perception of the brand on the basis of what they see. They focus more on the visuals of the brand such as DVDs, CDs and cassettes. Verbalizers on the other hand make their decisions on the basis of what they read about the brand. Marketers have to be very careful in deciding what technique to pursue while advertising a brand. (Moori, 2010) Red bull consumers will be influenced by visuals. They are more likely to be visualizers than verbalizers. Reading and getting to know is not their forte. They will be more action oriented. This will also be influenced with the way Red Bull has promoted itself. It has gone all out to sponsor events such as car-racing, biking, ice-skating etc. all these events are action oriented. They require the consumers Conclusion: The paper establishes that everything in marketing revolves around the consumer . Consumer is the king and the nuances of the advertising campaign must revolve around him. Both Red Bull and Mother are branded in different ways and create different impressions on the minds f the consumer. Likewise they will influence the consumer decision to purchase the brand in their own ways.. From the paper, we can see the methods adopted by the marketers of the two brands - as many consumers as possible to buy their products. A very good example captured in the paper regards the Coca-Cola company writing on their product “It tastes nothing like the old” which saw the new product of “Mother” do well in the market. References: Onkvisit, Shaw, J 2008, International marketing: strategy and theory, Taylor & Francis, New York. 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