Behavior of Youngsters Towards Luxury Products - Essay Example

The Behavior of Youngsters towards Luxury Products 0 Introduction Though there are some fundamental theories behind the purchasing behavior of any consumer, the advancement in technology and the diversity in products range and brand images have transformed the way consumers behave and take purchase decision. This is more seen among teenagers and adolescent groups. This change can be attributed to multifarious reasons. The major might be the change in the life styles in the last few decades. Today, men and women have become increasingly conscious of their appearance, cosmetic manufacturers and marketers worldwide are laughing all the way to the bank. Increasing disposable income, information explosion and changing lifestyles have put personal grooming high on the priority list for youngsters worldwide. The present paper discusses what motivates youngsters to purchase luxurious products. The paper takes a literature review approach where the major theories of buyer behavior are discussed in the context of youngsters buying decisions. Consumer buying behavior refers to the buying behavior of the ultimate consumer. A firm needs to study the consumer buying behavior because the buyer's reactions to a firm's marketing strategy have a great impact on the firm's success. Consumer behavior is interdisciplinary in nature, since it is based on the concepts and theories about people that have been developed by scientists in such diverse disciplines as psychology, sociology, social psychology, cultural anthropology, and economics. According to Schiffman and Kanuk (2003), "the process of consumer decision-making can be viewed as three distinct but interlocking stages: the input stage, the process stage, and the output stage". 2.0 The role of Brands Brands are never cheap and treated as by-word of luxury for many, especially among youngsters. Many feel that brands are image creators and they enhance buyers' prestige and social status. This is one the belief that only the rich and upper-class can afford them as brands have become part of their lifestyle. The basic difference between a brand and a non-brand is a feeling of "trust" that consumers derive when they buy a product. A brand is generally a wholesome approach-it reveals the price, quality, origin, technology and so on. In a wholesome approach, consumers not only trust the brand but also associate lot of things with it like price, image, quality, origin, durability, etc. It has been observed by researchers that the awareness of brands will also have effects on the decisions to purchase certain products within a group of youngsters (Keller, 1993; Hoyer and Brown, 1990). However, well-established brands are purchased using heuristic principle (decision rule) as remarked by Roselius (1971) and Jacoby et al (1977). It is not necessary always that customer spends a lot of time for purchasing in their day-to-day busy schedule. This has been proved in a research by Hoyer (1984). He observed that the average number of item examination (search) is made in a store was only 1.2 before the final decision is made, a study on pre-purchase of laundry powder. But, for items such as toothpastes, coffee etc, consumers take only 12 seconds on an average to take a decision after they have been searched for in the shelf Dickson and Sawyer (1986). It has also been researched that consumers apply 'buy the brand I have heard of' rule of thumb to purchase certain brands to minimize their cost of purchasing such as time, effort etc. This behavior is apparent in case of brands which are very popular and that needs less efforts to purchase the items (Hoyer and Brown 1990; and Mackay, 1990). 3.0 The role of changing life styles Consumers often choose products, services and activities over others because they are associated with a certain lifestyle. For this reason, lifestyle marketing strategies attempt to position a product by fitting it into an existing pattern of consumption. The relationship of the product used by the consumers has been extensively studied in the past. According to Cosmas (1982), there is a relationship between a person's lifestyle and his total product assortment. Knowledge of the lifestyle patterns helps the marketer explain why certain segments use/do not use certain brands. It has been observed by Reynolds and Darden (1972) that in certain situation consumers behave in their purchase as just like to actualize their lifestyle pattern. According to Alpert and Gatty (1969), an individual's brand choice has been conceived as a function of his lifestyle. Numerous product specific studies show evidence establishing relationship between lifestyle and brand choice. They include studies on automobiles, convenience foods and beverages. 4.0 The role of value drivers Broadly, there are three kinds of "value drivers"-(sex) appeal, image, and price. Consumers with different backgrounds will go by any one of these value drivers at the time of purchasing a brand. 4.1 Sex Appeal as a "Value Driver" It has been observed that people do not respect products which exude strong sex appeal, in other words sex appeal is associated with cheap products. Sex appeal is generally used in products which are not used by classy people. People with sex deprivation or lacking normal sex life may prefer a product which may have strong sex appeal. Most youngsters too are attracted to products with sex appeal as they may be driven by their fantasies. Sex appeal has no cognitive value. It is derived out of emotion and ends in emotion. This appeal is associated with one kind of feeling. The message strategy always focuses on sexual fantasy; boys and girls in skimpy dresses is the order of the day. Zatak, Nottee, or Axe-whatever be the brand-a perfume can always evoke emotion through sex exaggeration. Sexual exaggeration can exude a strong emotion which can create a sensual feeling around the brand. Lipstick is another product where one can always include a feeling of happiness with a mix of sex-invite. Lips are a sensuous part of a woman and have to be adorned with the proper color, a sense of beauty and, finally, must have sex appeal. A lady is complete when her lips are inviting. In case of beauty soap, a sense of fantasy can be created to attract boys and girls. Sex imagery around the brand may also help. Consumers in this target segment are normally driven by fantasies and imagination. Dove is a classic example of imagery association which helped the company to hook millions of consumers. It is a product for women, and it is very natural for every woman to want to look good. Dove helps consumers fantasize about a dream world and where she will be the one and only beautiful girl. Again if a soap brings in a bit of sex appeal, it is all the more better. 4.2 Image as a Value Driver Image is a strong value driver for people who belong to the upper class. These people get fascinated by lifestyle, pride, social value, etc. They are strongly driven by their passion. When there is purchase intent, they do not consider price as an important factor. They buy because they feel the brand can enhance their image or social value. These customers have loads of money and can afford expensive products meant to maintain their lifestyle and enhance status. These people buy things which are uncommon; sometimes, even alien to many people. Wherever they work, they feel that the corporate brand value should be very high. In case of clothing, accessories, personal care products, etc. these people are extremely careful as they feel each brand should enhance the image or personality. They do not buy a product for utility purpose, they buy a brand which can enhance their image and lifestyle. They feel that image is everything. Lots of people buy expensive cars worth crores not for utility but for prestige. Sometimes, a man's car becomes a statement of his personality. Again at the time of enjoying vacation some people go absolutely gaga about exotic locations and alien places. Tranquility or serene beauty is secondary to them, but the latest fad in terms of location may attract this new generation of consumers. 4.3 Price as a Value Driver For some consumers, "price" is very important. They buy because the price is low. These consumers have a very low self-esteem. Their job profiles are very low and so are their aspirations. They do not have wealth to flaunt and live an ordinary life. They are basically strugglers. For many of them, survival is everything. In Maslow's Hierarchy of Need theory, these people belong to the bottom rung. 5.0 Influence of Consumer-Brand Personality Relationship The consumer and brand personality relationship is influenced and biased by many cultural, social, psychological and personal factors. In a family, the brand preference of different members is based on their personality. Many researches in the socialization area reveal that the children's brand awareness, preferences, buying habits and choice are determined by their parents (Cotte and Wood, 2004). Marketers try to incorporate emotional values in their brands to differentiate their brands, portraying this through the metaphor of brand personality. They select brand personalities consonant with the emotional values of the brand and the target consumers' lifestyle. Consumers are segmented into categories based upon gender, social class, occupation, etc. The affluent drive Rolls Royce and the less affluent drive Ford. Cultural principles determine how goods are organized in consumers' minds, evaluated and constructed. Success is associated with owning a Mercedes Benz and failure with an old, dilapidated Fiat. 5.1 Views against the Consumer-Brand Relationship Effect A large proportion of consumer-brand perception is obtained under low involvement conditions and is therefore not consciously processed by the consumer's brain. Such associations tend to be stored in terms of metaphors and they aggregate in clusters. This leads to confusion in the consumers' minds as to which brand to choose (Rajagopal, 2005b). At times marketers target consumers whose personalities do not match with their brands for profit maximization leading to adverse effect on the consumer-brand relationship. Consumers incorporate all relevant marketing information such as price, display, and feature for key brands on each purchase occasion. Under such conditions personality does not play a major role in brand choice and preference. 6.0 Hedonic Consumption The nature of buying behavior in which the buyer is engaged depends on the nature of the product. Hedonic consumption is palpable when the products are like movie, opera, game shows, concerts, etc. Even in the case of physical goods, hedonic consumption is mixed up with utilitarian consumption pattern. Many people just enter a shopping plaza without any specific purchase intention. They visit the place just to spend their leisure time or to derive pleasure watching a lot of branded products, watches, perfumes, electronic goods, and clothes. So, the initial motive to enter the market is hedonic, that is to enjoy. Now, while seeing a variety of branded products, the consumer might get attracted towards a nicely designed product and decide to buy it. Here, the initial hedonic motive gets converted into a final purchase through a process of information processing. It is the magic of the overall ambience. Individual difference' is an important construct which determines the degree to which an individual will be engaged in hedonic consumption (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). On the other side, the demographic variables (such as, age and socioeconomic status), and the psychographic variables (such as, openness to experience, sensation seeking, attitude towards debt, materialism, and money conservation) determine the individual differences to a larger extent (Troisi Jordan et al., 2006). 7.0 The Impact of Advertisement Nowadays, marketers pay special attention to target youngsters as they are considered by many, the most vulnerable audience, since they are easily lured by advertisements. With their amazing recall capability, youngsters remember the advertisements and the names of products. The marketer tries to attract them by various means of media, especially through advertisements in the TV and magazines. Youngsters initially take advertisements as entertainment, and being softhearted; get attracted towards the offers made by advertisements. Television has become the main medium for advertisements and many companies prefer to advertise their products through this medium as it has a wider audience. The television medium has in fact become an attractive and important place to advertise. However, another new emerging media is World Wide Web. These days many youngsters have started using internet and browse through hundreds of websites of their own interest. Marketers have observed both youngsters' increasing usage of internet and the ability of the internet to provide a unique communication environment. 8.0 Increased use of Social Networking Sites With the emergence and advancement of information and communication technology, people began making friends over the internet and this has led to the increased use of social networking sites. Social networking sites are used by youngsters not only for entertainment but for serious information sharing and business purposes. Many studies have undertaken in this field to explore why teenagers and youngsters use social networking sites increasingly. The motives behind the use of social networking by teenagers in the US were examined through a qualitative research (Boyd, 2007). The motives explored were entertainment, building self-image among peers and use of technologies. The social implications of the public display of one's social network were explored by Donath and Boyd (2004), which indirectly revealed the motives of the individuals using social networking websites; e.g., if they have a profile with many qualifications, they tend to reveal their true identity and want to project a friendly personality. The increased use of these sites might inspire youngsters to use luxury products used by his friends or one whom they admire and worship. This tendency will be high when a certain product is used by any celebrity such as athletes, soccer player, film star etc. 9.0 Conclusion People run after brands only when they have money, education, and willingness. Only money and affordability cannot guide a man in becoming brand-savvy. It requires proper education and upbringing and a strong willingness to become trendy, modern and brand-conscious. Education and willingness can drive a man for the latest gizmo, right wheel, or MNC job to create an image for himself, which will help him go northward. The critical challenge faced in this branding trend is the capability to building and managing the "consistent image" of the company in the consumers' minds. This is more so with MNCs, companies developed by M&A, and those having multiple ancillary and multiple brands where managing and transforming a consistent communication to the stakeholders is more difficult and perplexing due to factors such as cultural differences, spatial separation, unclear tasks, lack of coordination and differences among the subsidiary people, etc. To accomplish such a brand, it requires effective discourse and harmonization among the leaders, customers, organizational members and community at large. 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