Consumer Behaviour and International Marketing - Assignment Example

Consumer Behaviour and International Marketing Submitted by: XXXX XXX number: XXXXXXX of XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX Subject Code: XXXXXXX Date of Submission: XXXXXXX Number of Words: XXXXXX Give an overview of the external influences and internal psychological processes which affect consumers buying behaviour / purchase decisions. The study of the buying behaviour of the customers is referred to as the consumer behaviour. There are several aspects that affect the choice of the customers including elements like psychology, sociology, social psychology and many more. The figure 1 below provides for a clear view of the various possible influences on decision process of the customers. Figure 1: Possible Influence on the Decision Process The major external influences that affect the buying behaviour of the customers mainly include aspects like the physical and social surroundings, the reason for purchase, moods and conditions, and also time. Each of these has a strong influence on the buying choice of customers. The social and physical surroundings are one of the most important aspects that affect the choice of customers and their buying behaviour. This is majorly because if the surrounding are not good this would affect the mind of the customer and psychologically they would prefer not to buy goods from a place. This leads us into the psychological factors that affect the buying behaviour of customers. These are the internal and more so the psychological factors that affect the customers and their choice of buying. Factors like the lifestyle, personality and also the perception of the store or brand affect the choice of the customers to a great extent. It is important to understand that the psychological influences are as strong and equally responsible for the buying behaviour of the customers. Thus for a company to rightly associate to the buyer behaviour, it is essential that the company has complete knowledge of the customers in terms of demographics to the minimum. The internet is revolutionizing international marketing research. Discuss this statement. The internet has affected and transformed the international marketing to a great extent. With the internet being used as a mode of marketing internationally, it has been noted that the style of conducting a research changes to a great extent. This is in reference to both the secondary data as well as the primary data. The internet has speed up the process of collecting information for secondary research to a great extent. It reduces the need to go to the library, it provides the readers with a virtual access to data from the same sources as the library would provide but in a number of cases also provides for much more information about the same topics. The internet to a great extent can also transform the method of conducting primary research as well. The data that needs to be collected for the primary research can be gained from administrating questionnaires online and also the questions can be open to the world to respond too. This widens the scope of the research and in a number of cases also opens up a large number of prospects for newer relations as well. The internet has to a great extent opened up newer areas that can be used and explored by researchers. This has assisted the researchers to gain more number sources of information but also in a lot of cases appropriate and relavent information sources as well. Thus it is safe to say that the internet has to a great extent provided international marketing research with a complete facelift. Discuss the different types of qualitative marketing research techniques available explaining their strengths and limitations using examples to illustrate your answer. What are the weaknesses of qualitative research compared to quantitative research? Qualitative research takes into account an in-depth view of behaviour patterns of people. It aims at finding the reasons behind each aspect of behaviour or trend that is displayed. It becomes an answer to the how and what for the decision making unlike quantitative method being results of questions related to the what, when and where aspects. Qualitative or phenomenological methods tend to produce rich intensive data relating to small numbers of people and moreover, they tend to provide more contextual data – which adds value to other data – while acknowledges the fundamental complexity of certain social phenomena. Hence, qualitative research need not have a very large sample; however a focused sample is necessary which helps the classification of data into patterns so as to form the basis for interpretation of results and for report making and organizing the results. The types of qualitative research are as follows: a) In – depth Interviews , b) Market research mini groups, c) Focus groups, d) market research observations and e) Market research Paired Depths. The qualitative method of research has proven to be more beneficial when compared to the quantitative type as it provides for a clear view of the experts in the field. This is thus more likely to be right than interviewing a number of people and still being unsure whether the results are right. To ensure that the results are accurate and appropriate, it is best to use a combined research. This would provide the researcher with accurate and more effective answers to the research. Explain the concept of just noticeable difference/ j.n.d including how it can be used by marketing managers. Give examples of illustrate your answer. Just Noticeable difference is when two different objects are compared and the difference between the two is minimal and hardly noticeable. This is referred to as Just Noticeable Difference (JND). One of the best examples for this would be the price of a car. Consider if the price of a car is increased by £ 10, this would not be considered as an increase at all, i.e. the increase will fall below the just noticeable difference and is as good as being ignored. On the other hand if the price of the car is increased by say £ 100, then this would fall into the consideration level of the buyer and could affect the decision. However it is essential to understand that this is different for different products and commodities. If the price of fuel is increased even by £ 0.50p, then the change will be noticed and it would be considered to be a considerate increase and will be a significant amount in terms of percentage of the initial amount. Thus it is essential that marketing managers understand this concept as it could affect the business in numerous ways. If the product is marketed correctly and the terms used for marketing are opted and chosen with care, then the company could affect the company negatively to a great extent. Hence understanding the customers and the buyer behaviour and incorporating the just noticeable difference in the marketing strategy can prove to be very beneficial to the companies. Difference between international marketing research and domestic marketing research There are a number of differences between the domestic and international marketing research. Firstly, domestic marketing research is generally concentrated on one country however the international marketing research is mostly concentrated across the world. Secondly, the level of difficulty is much lower while considering the domestic marketing research. This is mainly because, there is a reasonable knowledge of the geographical areas, language does not become a barrier, small teams of a few people are sufficient to collect data and also to communicate the results. However in terms of the international marketing research, it is possible that all the research takes place from a centralised location, for various different products across the world. Here in this case there comes the need to get professional help from agencies with the required skills and knowledge of the area that is being considered for the research. The cost involved in conducting the international marketing research is relatively much higher, since the numbers of people needed to conduct the research are high as well. For instance, the domestic marketing research is normally conducted in one language which in most cases is familiar to the research team, however in the case of international research; there is a high need of language specialist for different regions. Also the international research generally require through care to be taken while conducting the research as the cultures of different places are different and some questions could lead to controversies in some countries while be just plain simple regular questions in other countries. Read More