Analysis of Shopping Behaviour Based on Knowledge of Relevant Marketing - Essay Example

Analysis of shopping behaviour based on knowledge of relevant marketing and consumer behaviours theories/concepts Name Course Instructor Date Executive Summary Various marketing strategies and consumer theories and models support shopping behaviors of most consumers. Consumers purchasing decisions is psychological process that culminates to their final purchase of products. In this report, consumer shopping behaviours in relation to necklaces and the laptop clearly exemplify these concepts. For instance, marketing mix plays a key role in the purchasing decisions. The price, product, promotion and place are key concepts that played role in the purchasing decisions. The consumer decisions making process, Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory and the total utility and marginal utility contributed to the purchasing decision of these nominated products. Marketers have an opportunity to utilize insights from the report when creating persuasive marketing strategies. The message should be persuasive, the channel should be reliable, and the quality of the product should be of high quality to attract customers. Introduction Background of the study On daily basis people usually make different decisions on products and services they purchase. It becomes prudent for consumers to understand their behaviours when it comes to making a purchase. Likewise, marketers have to understand the appropriate marketing strategies to employ to market their products and services (Buttle, 1998). Marketers have an obligation to understand the way consumers process, consume, select particular products, how they secure, use, and even dispose these products. This knowledge will provide valuable insights in the marketing and positioning of these products. Purpose of the study The purpose of this assignment is to help build understanding of consumer behaviors as well understand in which ways these consumers are important input when it comes to development of effective and efficient marketing mix strategy. The assignment therefore, provides an analysis of personal shopping behaviors in the limelight of the appropriate marketing and consumer behaviour concepts and theories. Format of the report The report is categorized in various sections covering on specific aspects. The report has an executive summary provides the major findings and justifications. The introduction covers on the background and the purpose of the study. The body of the report covers on analysis of personal shopping behaviour incorporating marketing and consumer behavior theories and concept. It as well compares the shopping behaviors of nominated product with another products recently purchased. The last section of the report provides insights and justification of what has been discovered using theory to support. It as well deliberates on the ways marketers can use the insights gained to come up with persuasive marketing strategies. Description of the consumer The consumer is 21 years old and still pursuing higher education. According to the Royal Morgan (2015) values segments, the consumer falls in the category of socially aware. The consumer always makes a purchase after accessing to appropriate information. Decision to purchase is based on the accessibility of information. Consumer as well has in-depth understanding about news media hence hold passionate views about the society. The consumer therefore buys suitable and appropriate products from stores. Analysis of overall purchase behaviour Consumers in most cases face challenges in making decision to purchase a product especially in cases where products relate and serve similar functions. It becomes easier to understand how consumers make purchasing decisions through various consumer and marketing theories and concepts. In duration of one week, the consumer bought different products. Nominated product (Low-involvement purchases) The consumer nominated product is necklace. The necklace is shinny and is golden in colour. The necklace is very attractive and trending. The consumer went through a number of stages in making decision to purchase the product. The consumer developed a need to buy the necklace. The need arose because of the birthday of the great friend. The consumer had to think about the appropriate gift that would be suitable during birthday celebration of the great friend. It is true that perhaps if the friend had no birthday the need to buy the necklaces could not have arisen. The consumer then had to find out the appropriate location to buy the necklace that suited the description. Information search is therefore very important and it came in handy at this stage (Yu-Jia, 2013). The fact that many sources of information exists such as print, digital and traditional such as posters, it is important to select the best source of information when making a purchase decision. In this case, the consumer did a search or carried out an investigation to identify the best place or jewelry shop that sold the necklace. The customer would have retrieved this information from print advertisements, online, through social platform, or through referral. The final location or store that the consumer decided to purchase the necklace was Chanel. The consumer then had to make a decision whether to buy the product or not. The choice to purchase necklaces was necessitated by the fact that the stores allowed the consumer to pay through Eftpos hence, a convenient way of making this purchase. Purchasing the necklace was a clear indication that it met the threshold of the consumer. The reason that contributed to the final decision of purchasing this product was that the person the necklace was being purchased for would love it, as it was perfect of high quality. The necklace was as well trending in term of fashion, was luxury, and was a reliable brand. The fact that the consumer bought this necklace, it indicates that it satisfied individual needs hence, enough reason why the consumer is likely to come back or refer other people or friends to the shop. This indicates that consumers have a tendency to buy in the stores again if the products they purchase meet their threshold. In circumstances, that the product fails to meet the expectations of the consumer, then the chances of repeat buying diminishes. Total utility and marginal utility is another consumer theory that best explains the reason consumer decided to purchase this necklace (Hogg & Michell, 1996). According to total utility and marginal utility theory, people usually buy products that they get satisfaction from their consumption (Hogg & Michell, 1996). Therefore, the fact that the necklaces will bring some satisfaction it compelled the consumer to make the decisions to purchase. If this were not the case, then the customer would have purchased other products such as Gucci scarf. The reason of failing to buy gucci scarf was its bad colors regardless of the fact that it has good patterns. The concept of marketing mix is also very important in explaining why consumers make certain decisions. It as well provides insights on the strategies those marketers adopt to ensure that they sell their products. In this scenario, price, product, promotion and place played a key role in the decision to buy the necklace. The customer bought this particular necklace because its price was affordable. Consumers make decision to buy a product that they can be in position to pay. Therefore, their economic level will play a critical role in the decision to buy or not to buy certain products (Mizerski, Golden & Kernan, 1979). The product as well plays a critical role in the purchasing process. The necklace was fashionable, luxurious and of good brand. The quality of the necklace played a key role as well in this purchasing decision. Information about the necklace was accessible through various platforms such as advertisements, media and through online. The consumer obtained information about the necklace from various sources and from the personal experience or through referrals. The necklace was bought from Chanel store. The decision that informed the purchase from this store could vary and could include proximity of the store, the price the store offered and the exclusivity of the necklace products that the shop sold. Maslow hierarchy of needs is another important theory that explain the motivates and the reasons for the purchase of the necklace (Hornik, Cohen & Amar, 2007). The need the consumer wanted to achieve is social and specifically to have sense of belonging and love. Consumer wanted to buy this gift and give it to the friend to satisfy the need of belonging and love. Factors that influenced purchase of nominated product – high involvement product In the recent weeks, the consumer bought a new laptop from savings and payments from part time jobs. The laptop is from Toshiba Company that recently launched it. It has hardware of various specifications such as 4 GB RAM, 1000 GB hard disk, has webcam, and many other features. It has faster speed that would be very important to the consumer complete projects. Multiple reasons compelled the consumer to purchase this laptop. One of the reasons was the quality of the laptop. The company that manufactured the laptop has a reputation for quality products. Therefore, the historical information about the company has given it positive reputation that has enabled me to have the confidence to buy its products. The other reasons that compelled me are the quality of the laptop. The laptop is of high quality and this means that it can last longer. It is durable and even if it falls down it cannot break easily. Therefore, the consumer bought it because of the value of money the laptop provides. The other reason was its speed and general features. The laptop is one of the latest on the market and it comes with up graded features that enhance its performance. Hence, service the laptop offers was one of the factors that came into play in the purchase decision. The other factor that contributed to the purchase of the laptop is adequate information about the product. The information on the new laptop was easily available from different sources such as the internet and media. The launch of the laptop was publicized extensively hence, contributed to the decision to purchase it. The company announced that it was selling the laptop at a discount of 50 percent to the first 1000 shoppers hence, one of the driving forces that compelled the customer to make the final decision of buying it. The fact that the laptop was new in the market and it was retailing at half the price, the customer grabbed the opportunity. Comparison and contrasting The buying behaviors of the consumer of the laptop and the necklace have some similarities as well as differences. The motivation to buy these products came from the quest to satisfy the need. The consumer identified gaps and this was the starting point for the consumer to want to buy them. For instance, in the case of the necklace, the need was to ensure that the friend of the consumer gets a gift. The gift was appropriate and the friend would love it since it was fashionable and luxury. Similarly, buying the laptop was out of the need to ensure that projects are completed well. The laptop was of necessity as well aimed at satisfying the consumer need. Furthermore, the question of availability as well manifest in these two scenarios. The customer was able to afford to buy the necklace as well as the laptop. If these products were not within the income level of the consumer, the chances of not buying them was higher. Consumer as well bought the products because they satisfied the need now (Blackwell, 2006). The customer believed at the point of purchasing the necklace that it would meet the need of the friend. Likewise, this was the perception when purchasing the laptop. The consumer was sure that the laptop was going to provide the expected level of satisfaction. Therefore, this is in consistent with the utility and margin theory. The other similarities exemplified in the consumer behavior when it comes to purchasing these two products are the fact that there was promotion and publicity. The customer had access to information about the products as well about the location the products could be bought hence, contributed to the decision to purchase the same. On the other hand, differences as well manifest in the consumer purchasing behaviours when purchasing the necklace and the laptop. One of the differences was the motivation of buying the product. The motivation to buy the necklace was for social specifically to have the sense of belong and love. The customers were more so concerned about extending and exemplifying the love to the friends. Therefore, this motivated the consumer to buy the necklace. On the other hand, the motivation to buy the laptop was for safety. The consumer intended to use the laptop to manage and complete projects. Hence, this clearly indicates that some of the times, the motivation to buy may do vary. Furthermore, purchasing choices in these two cases are different. In the case of necklace, the purchasing decision was reached and necessitated by the eftpos while in case of the laptop purchase the purchase was facilitated by the sale promotion where by the company provided a 50 percent discount. Key overall insights and justification From this shopping experience, it is evident that consumers behaviors may vary on different situation and when purchasing different products. The consumer decision-making process is one of the most relied concepts for most of the customers. The concept begins with problem recognition where the customer develops the need of the product, then search for appropriate information about the product. The customer will use or search information from the sources they perceived to be useful in helping them make the right decision (Kotler, 2011). The next step is to evaluate the alternative available as in case of purchasing the necklace. The customer had an opportunity to evaluate various alternatives such as Gucci scarf and LV scarf before deciding to purchase the necklaces. The next stage is purchase and post purchase satisfaction of dissatisfaction. The post purchase is very important in the consumer behaviors and is very important to the seller. The level of satisfaction of the customers will determine whether the customer will buy the product or not. In most cases, a number of factors will come to play such as the quality of the product, the customer care services, the reputation of the company, the price, the promotional efforts and even the selection of the products. If the store is in accessible location then there is tendency for the customer to purchase the products. Furthermore, this analysis has enabled me to understand the motivation of customer to buy. Developing more persuasive Marketing strategies Marketers have an opportunity to improve in their marketing initiatives through insights from these scenarios. Most of the marketers succeed because of adopting persuasive marketing strategies. Customers are human, will be at liberty, and will fell good if they are valued and received well. Therefore, from this discussion; the marketers can develop persuasive as marketing strategies by ensuring that they use appropriate platform or channels to reach the customers. The channel of communication should be reliable to pass the message to the client. The message itself should also be drafted well to persuade the customer. The marketers can as well use endorsements from corporate or personalities that have influence in the society (Solomon, 1994). Using such personalities will improve the level of confidence among the consumers. Other strategies include ensure that the products are quality and meet the threshold of their customers and ensure that they use multiple source of information. Nowadays social platforms such as facebook and twitter are popular among young people and can be appropriate strategy to use to reach them. Conclusion Different factors motivate shopping behaviors of consumers. Likewise, various theories and concepts of consumer behavior and marketing support some of the purchasing decisions that customer make. Theories such as total utility and marginal utility, Maslow’s hierarchy o r needs and consumer purchasing models as well as marketing mix explains the behaviors and motivate consumers on the purchasing decisions they make and are exemplified in the purchasing decisions of the necklace and the laptop. References Blackwell, M. (2006). Consumer Behaviour (10th Ed.). Thomson Learning. Buttle, F (1998). Rules Theory: Understanding The Social Construction Of Consumer Behaviour. 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