Consumer Behavior Importance - Coursework Example

Authors Name) (Institutional Affiliation) Introduction Consumer behavior can be defined as the process through which consumers select, buy and consume goods or services in order to satisfy their wants. The consumer buying process involves a lot of stop including need identification where the consumer recognizes that they need something and the consumer tries to find the best product that will satisfy the need they have. They then select the product that only promises greatest utility. This process is affected by a number of factors including personal, cultural, social, personal and psychological. Psychological factors include motivation, consumer attitude, emotion, perception, learning and memory, personality and lifestyle. The report sought to analyze five journal articles on the topic of personality and lifestyle and how this affects consumer behavior. The first article by Mulyanegara & Tsarenko, (2009), the researchers sought to find out whether there is a relationship between the brand preference of the consumers and their personalities and values. The study was carried out in the Australian fashion market. The second article which was a report by Mathur, Moschis & Lee (2001) sought to investigate what cause changes in the brand preferences of consumers over time. The third article Chung-Hoon & Young-Gul, (2003), the researchers were investigating the main factors that affect the consumer behavior in online shopping where the consumer and the marketer do not meet face to face. In the fourth article, the authors Stávková, Stejskal & Toufarová (2008) sought to find out the factors that influence consumer behavior on various commodity groups. The fifth article authored by Verbeke , Vermeirb & Kare (2007) sought to find out Consumer evaluation of fish quality as basis for fish market segmentation. This report will review the five article and analyze how personality and lifestyle have been shown to affect consumer behavior from one consumer to another as well as give implication of this to the marketers. Scope and objective The main objective of Mulyanegara & Tsarenko, (2009) was to find out whether values and personality did affect what consumers in the fashion industry preferred. The research was conducted in Australia. According to the researcher, fashion industry being a relative dynamic one, there was need to understand what affect consumer preferences and hence their final choice as that would help them in market segmentation and in determining precisely which market they would target. The authors note that when it comes to the fashion industry, self-congrity theory is very crucial as it argues that when it comes to making fashion choices, consumers and especiall the young adults ho comprise the majority of the main market are mainly influenced their self concept and it is therefore important for marketers in the industry to nderstand the personality traits (Piacentini and Mailer, 2004). In the the second article by Mathur, Moschis & Lee (2001), their main purpose was to present an understanding of what causes changes in brand preferences in a relatively unexplored approach. They specifically wanted to analyze the effect of lifestyle changes that come with transitions into new roles and which may force individuals to adopt to new lifestyles and how this will then affect changes in brad preferences. The study was conducted in U.S.A. in the third article by Chung-Hoon & Young-Gul, (2003), the main objective was to find out the relationship between various features of online shopping and consumer buying behavior. The study was conducted in Korea. In the fourth article by Stávková, Stejskal & Toufarová (2008), the main objective of the study was to find out how several surveyed factors including: lifestyle, purchasing behavior type (routine or habit based) that affect consumer buying behavior of various commodity groups including: education, recreation and culture, vitamins, pharmaceutical, telecommunication, post services, accommodation and boarding, footwear and clothing, tobacco and alcoholic drinks, food and non-alcoholic drinks. The study was conducted in zech Republic. The fifth article authored by Verbeke , Vermeirb & Kare (2007), the main objective was to find out how consumers evaluation and perceptions have affected consumption of fish. With the increased campaign of healthy eating due to lifestyle diseases, many consumers have changes their lifestyle and this has had an impact on the consumption of fish. Methodology In the first article by Mulyanegara & Tsarenko, (2009), the study target population was university students enrolled in the school of business in one of the leading campuses both male and female and the sample size was 251 university students, 101 being male and 150 being female students. The study used purposive sampling in selecting its samples from students who were perceived to have ideal context of the fashion world due to their high involvement with several fashion products. Majority of the participants were aged between 18-20 years (67%) with the rest of the respondents being aged 21-23 years old (23). The second article Mathur, Moschis & Lee (2001), data was collected using questionnaires. The data was drawn from the R.L Polk to derive a sample of 10000 respondents who were selected randomly and the questionnaires together with a cover letter and a postage paid return envelop was sent to the respondents mail box. Of this number, 1534 were returned. Selection of names was in accordance to population size of 50 states. In the third article by Chung-Hoon & Young-Gul, (2003), the consumer utilized online surveys to collect data from 602 Korean customers from different online bookstores who were asked to fill in questionnaires. In the fourth article, Stávková, Stejskal & Toufarová (2008), the data was collected using an electronic questionnaire system which was very efficient as the data was available as the end of the survey and no further conversions or processing was necessary. The study issued 731 questionnaires but 609 were returned complete and acceptable for analysis. Purposive sampling was used to identify the participants. The fifth article Verbeke , Vermeirb & Kare (2007) utilized questionnaires in the study with quota sampling being utilized to derive the required samples. Respondents were selected in the supermarkets and door to door walk procedure. All the respondents selected were directly responsible for purchasing food for their households. The questionnaires were self administered with the sample comprising of 429 respondents 284 being women and 145 being men. Findings Mulyanegara & Tsarenko, (2009), in their investigation on whether consumer personality and values have an effect on brand preference, the researcher found out that there existed a relationship between customer preference and values and the brand preferences. Many of the consumers went for brands that would display their personality. Some respondents indicated that they will not buy very bright colors when it comes to buying their clothes or shoes as they will not want to attract attention to themselves. Some customers prefer to wear brightly colored clothes as it makes them feel confident about themselves. Other respondents wanted to wear the latest clothes in the market, latest shoes, cars and accessories as they viewed themselves as pacesetters in the fashion industry. From the Structural Equation Model used in data analysis, the researcher found out that there exist a relationship between consumer personality and values and their brand preferences. While past studies had examined the importance of personality in different product context, this study was able to determine that indeed there exist relationships between what brands different consumers will prefer based on their personality. The second article Mathur, Moschis & Lee (2001) that investigated some of the factors that result to brand changes, after testing the hypothesis, the results indicated that there was a positive relationship between changes in consumption related lifestyles and changes in life events. This means that certain life changing events like diseases such as diabetes and cancer may lead to changes in consumption of certain products. Some respondents admitted that getting a job changed their shopping habits and their frequency of consumption. The research also indicated that the greater the number of life events or role transitions consumers anticipate, the greater the level of global stress. The second hypothesis also indicated a positive relationship between global stress and changes in consumption levels. Global stress results from many life events which may in turn result in anticipated change in lifestyle and hence change the consumption patterns. For example, some of the respondents indicated that before they had a child, they got a job they were economical and went for the brand with the lowest price. However after getting a job, they would go for the best brand as their lifestyle had changed. The third article Chung-Hoon & Young-Gul, (2003) which was on how different online features affect consumer behavior. While interactions in the physical shopping world were face to face and consumers can interact with the marketers and learn more on the personality of the consumers, this has been made difficult when shopping online. The results indicated that online consumers will still look for quality and other related benefits even though they shop online. When asked whether their lifestyle and personalities still affect what they buy, the consumers indicated that before they buy, they will still ensure that the brand they buy from will still depict their personality, social class and lifestyle. Stávková, Stejskal & Toufarová (2008) report which was an investigation into the factors that affect purchase of particular commodities, Several factors had been listed and ranked in a scale of 1 and 5. Need or necessity ranked highest, opinion from friends and relatives ranked second, consumer’s lifestyle ranked third, repeat buying ranked fourth and other factors ranked fifth. The results indicated that before a consumer buys a product, they must have put a lot of consideration in that purchasing decision. Key among the factors that will affect what they buy is their personality and their lifestyle. The fifth article authored by Verbeke , Vermeirb & Kare (2007) which investigated the impact on fish consumption due to changes in consumers evaluation. As lifestyle diseases continue taking many lives, doctors are advising patients to watch what they eat and ensure what they have on their plates is a healthy meal. As a result, many consumers are now moving towards living a healthy lifestyle which means cutting down on red meat, processed food and junk. This has had a impact on the consumption of fish which is white meat and recommended by the doctors. Therefore, as a result of changing lifestyles, consumers have been forced to changing their consumption. Implication The implication of the first study by Mulyanegara & Tsarenko (2009) is that marketers especially in the fashion world need to understand how psychological factors and especially values and consumer personalities will affect their purchasing behavior. Manager so of fashion brands should develop brands and marketing strategies that will reflect the personalities and values of their consumers. Previous studies have recommended of value-based market segmentation. This study further recommended implementation of the personality-based segmentation as well. The implication of the second study by Mathur, Moschis & Lee (2001) is on both theory and practice. The findings of the research will be of help to in extending past research Andreasen (1984) who in his study had found that there existed a positive relationship between life events and change in lifestyle of consumers. The study indicated that consumers may try to deal with the psychological conditions that cause them stress by changing their consumption life style which may mean change in brand reference. It is important for marketers to understand that preference of consumers is likely to change as consumers change in response to adapting to a new lifestyle which could have resulted from a major life event. The implication of the study by Chung-Hoon & Young-Gul, (2003) is that even with online marketing where consumers and marketers don’t get to meet physically, consumer behaviour is still affected by internal and external factors which in turn influence whether or not they buy a product or not. They will buy what they perceive is of quality, what is in accordance with their personality and products which depict their lifestyle. From the above analysis, we can conclude that consumer personality and changes in lifestyle will affect consumer behavior and affect what one consumer prefers when compared to another. Simply put lifestyle refers to the way a person lives is the society and is expressed by the things in their surroundings. Expensive cars, clothes and food can be a way of expressing a person is of high class. A persons’ lifestyle affects their opinion on certain brands, their interest in certain products and even shape who and how they interact. Personality on the other hand refers to the behavior of a person in different characteristics. It refers to different characteristics such as aggressiveness, self-confident, dominant all of which determine consumer behavior for different products as indicated in the analysis above. It is important that marketers have knowledge of consumer behaviour and how personality and lifestyle will affect brand preferences. Appendix 1 Research methods in the reviewed articles Authors Country Measurement used Method Survey method Number of respondents & response rate Unit of analysis Mulyanegara & Tsarenko, (2009) Australia Based on primary data sources and relevant researchers Quantitative, Questionnaire 251 Value and personality in the fashion industry Mathur, Moschis & Lee (2001), U.S.A Primary data Quantitative N/A 10000/1534 returned Changes in brand preference Chung-Hoon & Young-Gul, (2003) Korea Primary data Quantitative Online Questionnaire 602 Factors affecting consumers behaviour of online consumers Stávková, Stejskal & Toufarová (2008), Czech Republic Primary Data Quantitative Electronic questionnaires 731/609 returned Factors influencing consumer buyer behaviour Verbeke , Vermeirb & Kare (2007) Belgium Based on primary data Quantitative Questionnaires 429 Lifestyle changes and changes in brand prefrene Appendix 2 Hypotheses and variables used in the reviewed articles Authors DV:Dependent Variable IV: Independent Variable Relationship between DV and IV Hypotheses Mulyanegara & Tsarenko, (2009) DV: Brand Preferences in the fashion industry IV: consumer values Consumer personality Positive Positive H1: There is a positive relationship between personality and fashion brand preferences H2: There is a positive relationship between values and brand preferences Mathur, Moschis & Lee (2001), DV: brand preferences IV: changes in consumers lifestyles Positive / negative H1: The greater the number of life events consumers experience, the greater the likelihood of change in their consumption-related lifestyles. H2: The greater the number of life events experienced, the greater the level of global stress. H3: There is a positive relationship between global stress and change in consumption-related lifestyles. Chung-Hoon & Young-Gul, (2003) DV: consumer buying behaviour IV: Quality Perceived security Personality and lifestyle Positive Positive Positive N/A Stávková, Stejskal & Toufarová (2008), DV: consumer behaviour IV: need or necessity Recommendation by friends and relatives Lifestyle Personality traits Other factors positive Positive Positive Positive/negative Positive/negative Positive/Negative N/A Verbeke , Vermeirb & Kare (2007) DV: Fish consumption IV: consumer evaluation Changing lifestyle Positive/negative Positive N/A. References Andreasen, Alan R. (1984), "Life Status Changes and Changes in Consumer Preferences and Satisfaction," Journal of Consumer Research, 11 (December), 784-94. Mathur A, Moschis G, & Lee E (2001) ,"A Study of Changes in Brand Preferences", in AP - Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 4, eds. Paula M. Tidwell and Thomas E. Muller, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 133-139. Stávková, Stejskal & Toufarová (2008), “Factors influencing Consumer behaviour.” Volume 54, 2008 (6): 276–284. Agricultural Journals Chung-Hoon Park, Young-Gul Kim, (2003) "Identifying key factors affecting consumer purchase behavior in an online shopping context", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 31 Iss: 1, pp.16 - 29 Verbeke , Vermeirb & Kare (2007) “Consumer evaluation of fish quality as basis for fish market segmentation”. Food Quality and Preference volume 18 (2007) 651-661. Science Direct journals Mulyanegara, R. C., Tsarenko, Y. and Anderson, A. (2007). 'The Big Five and Brand Personality: Investigating the Impact of Consumer Personality on Preferences Towards Particular Brand Personality', Journal of Brand Management advance online publication, Read More