Marketing Management Assignment help on: Change in the consumer behavior
Introduction
There is a significant change in the consumer behavior over the few years and it is evident with respect to the perception of the consumer over the quality of goods. The producers of goods need to get knowledge with respect to the needs and wants of the consumer as the consumer is much more aware of his or her choices. (Kar 2010). With lots of products available and choices available to the customers due to increased globalization, the desire of consumer for a product is not only physical but emotional as well. The expectation of the consumer from the product is the pleasure that lasts longer in addition to providing a deeper satisfaction. Shopping also motivates people and provides them to experience fun, amusement and fantasy. The present study discusses on the consumer trend of the shopping as a hobby and the study also discusses the way the marketers exploited this trend to develop an effective marketing mix. The trend that motivates the people for shopping, the buying and disposing and its impact on marketing has also been discussed. The impact of external and internal influences for this trend, and the impact of culture and subculture were also discussed to get an idea of changing trends. The conclusions of this study are based on the research done related to the topic.
Shopping as a hobby
Shopping over the span of time has converted into a hobby for people around the globe. From the analysis of this article it can be said that a day will come when we will discover nothing left with the human race but a huge collection of the shopping bags which will be full of the over flowing gizmos, gadgets and several pointless random guff. The time has come when people no longer need to be convinced for purchasing goods and services, they themselves simply shop till the closets are full and up to the time when the cupboards threaten to explode. People have made shopping as their hobby mainly in the case of women, as most of the really like shopping. Most of the women feel good and feel a sense of pride by shopping and getting higher discounts. People around the world are living a phase that they are out to shop without having the particular list they are seeking to. Mostly women love to shop for jewelry and clothing while men find it more interesting to shop for gadgets and gizmos. It has been found that most of the shoppers support the extended hours of openings of the shops on a permanent basis during Sundays. With the increase in the online shopping, the shopping experience of the people have become virtual, perpetual and universal (Peterson, Balasubramanian and Bronnenberj 1997). The main reason for shopping becoming a hobby for the women is that they like to visit and roam several stores and malls endlessly in order to find the best deals on the great quality items. They also look for steep discounts. Women mostly find it interesting to shop endlessly for hours without getting tired as they enjoy it and find it as their hobby. Those women don’t have other work finds shopping as the best way to pass their time.
For the organizations to be successful in its businesses marketing is an important activity and marketing communicates as the value and need of the product to the consumer. The marketing concept as a whole combines the idea of engaging the customer and believing in the delivery of right products to the customer. (Keller and Kotler, 2009). There is a drastic change in the consumer behavior where the traditional marketing concepts are no longer effective. The society is multitasking and over stimulated and people are reluctant to focus on one type of marketing activity. For the marketers of today it is important to find their niche where the marketer finds a closely defined group of customers that may require some benefits which are distinctive. (Kotler and Keller, 2009). Professionals of marketing regularly invent strategies to match the evolving habits and behavior of consumers. In order to get the information on market opportunities, a marketer needs to analyze and interpret the data and a drive to explore the markets. Knowing about the global, environmental and social as well as the business trends is crucial in determining the corporate strategy of an organization.
The aim of the marketer is to reach the targeted customer in order to make them aware, and know their attitudes and their buying behavior. Through advertising a marketer tries to understand choice of customer and it is crucial to know the buying behavior of the customer. Advertisement is one way through consumer is emotionally motivated to buy the products and advertisement creates awareness on brands, as well as the preference of products and services. The goal of an effective advertisement is to increase positive attitude towards the product which in turn increases the number of purchases. Thus the basic intention of advertising is to create awareness and motivating the people to buy the product. Advertising increases the belief that possession is important and qualities such as happiness, prominence and achievement can be acquired through material possession. (Latif and Abideen, 2011).
A positive attitude towards advertisements has more ability to recall than those with negative attitudes. In advertising, emotional advertising is considered as most effective tool as the consumers emotionally respond to buy the product. Analyzing consumer behavior is important to influence of buying behavior of consumer and this determines the consumer trend that ultimately helps in developing products, as well knowing the attributes of the product. In addition to this brand awareness has the competitive advantage over the other brands (Ram and Sheth 1989).
Industry has used this trend in developing the marketing mix
A firm can successfully attract new customer by giving promises to customers and a good relationship exists in the initial stages and fulfilling these promises is important to achieve satisfaction of the customer. In addition to this it is also important to retain the customer base and long term profitability. The resources of the marketer have to be utilized in such a way that it wins the trust and confidence of customer. Organizations should shift from transaction oriented goal to a relationship goal and marketing communication is an important way to reach customer. Managing the customer base provides knowledge on the satisfaction of customer and it is useful to think about the people through their personal reactions and opinions (Dennis 2004).
Market share statistics along with a system that obtains customer satisfaction and needs as well as the desires of customer provides a valuable source of information on decision making. With relationship marketing it is possible for the organization to develop online as well as real time information system. This system provides information on the degree of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction and this serves as a powerful management tool. The four Ps of marketing may not be applicable to all types of marketing systems and the marketers however prefer this due to its simplicity. However, marketing is directed less towards marketing mix and in all areas of marketing there is shift from marketing to anonymous customers to developing and managing relationships. New approaches in marketing include building relationships with customers and managing them. The four Ps model needs to be managed and marketing needs new perspectives that are more market oriented than manipulative and customer is the focal point. The best new approach would be relationship marketing that can effectively manage marketing problems. This approach will organize the company for marketing in addition to other areas.
Motivation
Interactive and targeted marketing are crucial for the success of the business and marketers need to be ready to jump for the new market opportunities. Shopping is seen as a leisure activity and women in particular are seen as professional shoppers. Shopping malls endows equalities and hides the inequalities that develop a social conduct controlled by developers rather than consumers. In addition to providing gratifications of consumerism shopping mall shields the consumer from the social perception. Shopping as an empowerment is new intellectual interest and consumption and shopping are regarded as an active engagement. (Winship2000).
The identity of people has been shifted from citizens to consumers and shopping has transformed into a comforting process. Shopping can facilitate an individual to deviate from the reality and allow the temporary transformation of the self concept of an individual to a desired state. Mood is also significant in influencing the shopping behavior and buying can make a person feel good happy and satisfied. Conspicuous consumption and self gift giving are significant in shopping and shopping behavior. Impulsivity of the consumer as a life style trait is linked to materialism, as well as recreational aspects of shopping. In addition to this a number of personal motives influence shopping that includes diversification, self gratification and role playing.
Attitudes towards this trend
Positive and negative aspects of the moods of consumer help to form an attitude of the consumer towards the brand and emotionally charged consumer attitude is essential for the success of a brand. For an attempt to develop brand exclusiveness it is essential to create communication based on emotion. The attitude is reflected in the relationship between the brand and the consumer and attitude within the context of consumer behavior is developed as a result of verbal communication with the other consumer through mass media. Attitude exists as it performs a particular function to a person and it is definitely determined by the motives of a person. (Solomon et.al, 2002).
Attitude is permanent and is a reflection of coherent behavior, and the behavior of the consumer reflects in his or her view or attitude. The feelings of the consumer with reference to certain object are reflected as an emotional component of the attitude. Applied function of the attitude directs the people for pleasant and desirable objects and as a result they are turned away from unpleasant objects. Consumers express their attitudes that turn their qualities to something that is tangible, real and can be expressed easily. The expression of attitudes is reflected in assessing the value of goods and services
Buying and disposing of the trend
There is an increasing consumer trend towards products for eco friendly products which is referred to as green marketing. Green marketing involves modification of product, changes to packaging, and advertising. This is a holistic marketing concept that involves production, marketing, consumption and disposal in such a way that it is less damaging to the environment. Consumers have realized that their behavior is detrimental to the environment and most consumers opt the products which are eco friendly. Sales of green products have increased and in addition to providing eco friendly product the marketer should also consider a sustainable packaging. Disposal of the product is becoming an extremely important aspect and disposable products reduce the amount of time between purchases.
There are many reasons for the consumer behavior of buying and disposing the products. Consumers go through some distinctive phases when they purchase the products that include realizing the need, getting the information on the product, evaluating different products, selecting a particular product and purchasing it, evaluating the product after buying and finally disposing of the product. Some companies consider planned obsolescence and this is a process whereby the products of the company are useless after certain amount of time. The goal of the marketer who prefers planned obsolescence is to reduce the amount of time between the repeated purchases. Attitudes and actions of consumers are playing a greater role in their perceptions towards brands as well as the choice of products. (ARNOULD and THOMPSON 2005)
Consumers of today believe that there is strong relationship between the personal health and health of the environment and the package designing should depict the intention of using the product and the desired results. (O’Shaughnessy 1992). Consumers are naturally inclined to pay more for the enhanced product value and the packaging should convince the customer that would satisfy the desire of the customer.
Internal and External Influences on this Trend
For an organization to be successful it is important to understand the consumer behavior of the company and consumer behavior is strongly influenced by the external as well as internal factors. An organization can develop an effective strategy only when it researches the external and internal factors that influence the consumer behavior. The internal factors include perception, motivation, emotion, learning, memory, attitudes and personality of the consumer, while the external factors comprise of life styles, demographics, household, and influence of group as well as the culture. Among the internal factors perception of the consumer is the critical part of the information process system of the human brain (Michael, Bamossy, Gary, Soren; Hogg, Margaret 2010).
A service of interlinked activities through which stimuli are transformed and stored in this process and this process includes exposure, attention, as well as interpretation. Motivation is another internal factor that activate the desires, needs, and concerns that are responsible for energizing the behavior in a specific direction that are targeted to motivation which in turn provides satisfaction. (Pittman 1998). Life style is an external factor of the marketing concept and life style is an expression of the situation of the individual along with experiences, attitudes, values and expectations of a person. Getting the information on life style of a person allows understanding the everyday needs of consumer and a mechanism that enables to position the product in a desired life style of the customer). Consumers select the product not only on the basis of the attributes of the product but also to create and maintain a personal style
Impact of culture and subculture on consumer behavior
Cultural is an essential concept to know about the behavior of consumer and it is a sum of the shared purpose among the members of the society customs norms as well as traditions. The important cultural features that affect consumer behavior include a collection of learned behavior, tradition, creation, transformation, similarities and differences, convergence and organization, sharing behavior between the members of a community, and finally determination of needs. International marketers should overcome the cultural as well as economic boundaries and also need to understand about the beliefs, traditions, thoughts, languages, and habits (Ram and Sheth 1989).
Learning the cultural properties while analyzing consumer behavior is an important variable in marketing. For the formation of subculture it is essential to have geographical regions and religions and individuals with different subcultures will have different attitudes and values. It is important to know the features of sub culture to create a marketing mix such as price, name of the brand, identification, promotional activity and positioning of the product (Tao and Guohua, 2004). Social classes are homogenous in nature and have similar preferences for certain product and brand and marketers should get information on the languages spoken by social class. The consumer of today prefers the place or products that satisfy his or her needs. Purchase of goods by consumer beliefs and traditions play an important role in addition to this environment, social groups and friends play a significant role in consumer behavior. Languages serve various functions in the cultural context and it plays an important role in the formation of thought patterns and behavioral responses. People from different cultures have different value structures and experiences that allow them to view the product in a different manner and consumers from different subcultures differed in their rating for the importance of the attributes of the product. Marketers are required to develop a value proposition that meets the preferences and needs of customers from different cultures and subcultures.
Conclusions
Products and services with a hobby or enthusiasm naturally match with the advertisements that combine businesses and experiential space. A company needs to understand its products and its customer along with average time spent on knowing about the products of the company. Offering goal oriented customer their needs creates loyalty of the customer even if the consumers are not interested in buying these products. Creating a superior customer experience is the chief objective of marketers today and creating a specific customer experience would create enormous economic value for the organization. Companies create experiential marketing by providing a sense of feel, think and act and relate to the company and its brands. The experience of the customer originates from a set of interactions between customers; product and company will result in a reaction. However, task oriented customers consider assortment as the most important driver for the experience of the customer rather than the experiential orientation of customers. These goals are shaped by the personality traits specific demographics and location as well as situational circumstances. The experience of the customer has an impact on the social environment and companies can gain advantage of its knowledgeable customer who can assist the other customer in giving information about the product. It can also be concluded that there is a great impact of shopping as a hobby on the businesses and economy. With the increase in the shopping practices the consumption and purchases increases in the economy and thus increases the revenue of the government by the way of shopping. The expenditure by people increases and thus increases the revenue of the governments and in turn increases the developmental activities.
If you want Marketing Management Assignment Help study samples to help you write professional custom essay’s and essay writing help.
Receive assured help from our talented and expert writers! Did you buy assignment and assignment writing services from our experts in a very affordable price.
To get more information, please contact us or visit www.myassignmenthelp.Com
