Analysis of Internal Influence on Consumer Behaviour

ANALYSIS OF INTERNAL INFLUNCE ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

SECTION 1: MOTIVATION AND INVOLVEMENT INTRODUCTION.

This is a report on a level of motivation and involvement that a typical customer would display on the purchase of a TV set.

The task required that i consider one level from Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs that can be used to segment the market and position the product of my own choice for instance a TV set, explain  my choice  and justify the application of Maslow’s need hierarchy for segmentation and positioning of the product.

Identify possible motivational conflicts that a prospective consumer if my product may have. Discuss how the market can reduce or resolve these motivational conflicts.

Develop an involvement profile for typical consumer of my product and discuss any key issues that would be relevant to a market.

METHODS USED.

Information was collected through direct observation of the behavior of a typical consumer on purchasing of a TV set; consumers were interviewed concerning the TV set and questionnaires issued to some the consumers.

Survey; investigated the options and experience with the product by asking questions.

FINDINGS.

1. Molly, T. (2018) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was developed by Abram Maslow, a specialist in human behavioral psychology.

It contains five level; physiological needs, safety needs, social needs Esteem needs and self-actualization.

Esteem needs encompass confidence, strength, self _belief personal and social acceptance, personal status prestige and respect from others.

Human behavior is driven by needs, one which is the need for a scense of personal importance, valued or self _esteem.

Mooji, M.(2009)Esteem is born out in our desire for social acceptance and status. Regardless of how big or small our group is and the nature of the groups we are affliated with, we have a deep rooted need for approval and validation from other members of society. A TV set will fall under the esteem needs which is regarded as an achievement. When a customer or an individual owns digital Television screen he will develop a positive feeling about himself. This also earns respect from others and confidence.

2. Motivational conflicts.

Sometimes the urge to do something worthy or good are pleasurable is opposed by the fact that it involves pain or inconvenience or hard work.it is an important source of frustration; it results when two or more motives drive behavior towards incompatible goals.

Davidson, J. (1980) there are four major types of conflicts.

(1) Approach _approach conflict.

In this type of conflict a person is faced with two attractive alternatives, only one of which can be selected.

(2)Avoidance _avoidance conflict.

It involves two negative and is a fairly common experiences.

A customer must buy a Dell type if a TV which is low quality or and spend little cash or buy a Samsung TV which is very expensive, and spend all the cash.

There two types of conflicts that occurs in this type of conflict:

                    (a)  Vacillation of behavior and thought.

                      (b)Desire to leave the conflict situation altogether.

(3)Approach _avoidance conflict.

Thompson, E (1992) this type of conflict, approach avoidance is often the most difficult to resolve because in this type a customer is attracted and repulsed by element of the same situation. Because of the positive valence of the goal, the persons approach it; but as it i s approached the negative valence becomes stronger.

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If at sine point during the approach to the goal, its repellent aspects become stronger than its positive aspects, the person will stop before reaching the goal, because the goal is not reached and the individual is frustrated .people in this conflict approach the goal until the negative valence becomes too strong and then they back away from it.

Often however, the negative valence is not repellent enough to stop the approach behavior.

In such cases people reach the goal but much more slowly and hesitatingly than they would have without the negative valence and until the goal is reached there is frustration.

Customer involvement profile.

Ray and Vaughn. (1979)Involvement profile is an enlightening new tool for understanding the full dynamics of the relationships of consumers to products for describing targets and for market segmentation.

It is also known as a customer persona or Avatars.

Basically, a customer profile is a description of a customer or set of customers that include demographic, geographic and psychographic characteristic as well as buying patterns, credit worthness, and purchase history.

It helps businesses to make important decisions by tracking customer information such as trend, demographic and psychological graphics.

It is much easier to attract more customers when you actually know about your current customers

With competition increasing every day, it is one of the simple ways to have a competition advantage. Refer to (figures 3-5 and 3-6, page85).

 UKWALA ELECTRONICS

TV customer profile

Name: Dommy kim

Age: 35 years

Gender: male

Occupation: Business man

Hometown: Nairobi

Descriptions: A young professional,

Interests: Looking for latest Samsung TV,

Spending habits: spends a lot and buys in bulk,

 Most common customer. motivated by: Attentive customer service and fast services.

Preferred marketing channel: Direct email, Facebook, Pinterests

CONCLUSIONS.

In conclusion I will say that Marslow hierarchy of needs should be used in segmentation and positioning of products on the market since it gives marketers an opportunity to understand the need s of the consumer.

Motivational conflicts especially approach- approach should be encouraged in business since it increases sales .Marketers should try not to have situations which will lead to avoidance-avoidance conflict Kotler, P. (1994)

A good marketer should have good habits and how to motivate him.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1.Application of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or segmentation and positioning of the products .if marketers knows the wants and needs if their target markets ,then this can be used as a selling point to influence .A great deal of research is undertaken to segment target and position customers by various criteria such as demographics ,social class ,geographic and so on from  this marketers will have a very specific idea about who their target consumers are and tailor their marketing strategy  accordingly.

2. Approach _approach becomes serious if the choice if in alternative means the loss of an extremely attractive alternative. Marketers can reduce approach _approach can be reduced by offering the alternatives at different times such that a consumer would use to choose one alternative and take the other next time.

3. Key issues relevant to a marketer.

A marketer should consider the following key issues.

(a)What is the best way to reach this customer? TV ads, radio newspapers, Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, direct mail, in_ store promotions or SMS marketing.

What type of promotions are going to engage this customer? Discounts, giveaways, add-ons, new products, events? Also consider which type images massage fonts, Facebook posts will catch there interest.

(c) What type of promotions are not going to work?

(d)   What steps can i take to alleviate their anxiety? Guaranties, warranties, exceptional customer service?

(e) What type of new products are going to interest this customer?

It’s equally important to think about what won’t work in addition to what will work.

If your customer tend to be over the age of 60 rule out small phones in marketing emails or flyres. If your psycographic  resaerch indicates the customer has passionate beliefs about your product ,rule out any lighthearted humor.

Building a set of rules will make things easier when you actually start designing your marketing campaigns.

REFERENCES

• Candel, M. J. (2001). Consumers’ convenience orientation towards meal preparation: conceptualization and measurement. Appetite, 36(1), 15-28.
• Hawkins, D., Best, R. J., & Coney, K. A. (2009). Consumer behavior. McGraw-Hill Publishing.
• Nelson, P. (1970). Information and consumer behavior. Journal of political economy, 78(2), 311-329.
• Schiffman, L., Lazar, L., & Das, M. (2018). Consumer Behavior (1st ed.). Kamloops.
• Unit, I., & Unit, I. I. (1997). Management and organizational behavior.

SECTION 2: PERSONALITY

A REPORT ON PERSONALITY TRAITS HELPFUL IN TARGETING BRANDING AND RELATED STRATEGIES

INTRODUCTION

This report addresses the need of consumer with different personality traits and how individual needs of a consumer can be met by analyzing the best marketing method. This report will assess two theories (figure 4) that is, the Freudian theory and the Horney neo Freudian personality traits of consumers.

METHOD

Interviews were carried out with selected customers to determine their need and analyze the best branding and selection of strategies for the market.

Survey was done on selected customers to investigate their behavior/trait and how they behave while making choices in purchasing product.

FINDINGS

• Customers have different motives while purchasing a product Shark, M. (2009) that is, in the case of Freudian theory a consumer can be unaware when purchasing a T.V set which can be driven by different motive of the customer, therefore a marketer should conduct a qualitative research on hidden motive in order to select appropriate strategies for its market.eg print ad about Tigo a mobile phone advert which attracts the consumer to buy its products. (www.cultofmac.com)
• There are three types of consumers Leon, S. (2006) from (figure 4); complaint, aggressive and detached consumer. These categorization of consumers make them have a propensity to buy a more popular product (brand name) rather than a product which is not popular. eg i-phone, Apple company has the best advertisement in the world (www.cultofmac.com)
• Need for knowledge causes preference in message and type of media that will please the consumer. eg Linked in provide information to consumers
• Brand personality there is a relationship between the consumer’s ability and propensity for a TV set depending on its products appeal.

CONCLUSION

The propensity to buy a TV set differs on the basis of brand name that is, categorization of consumer; complaint, aggressive and detached makes them to have different preferences of the product. Customer’s needs to know more about the product which greatly determines means of marketing and advertising therefore the appropriate means which pleases. The main factors influencing consumer are; consumer’s motive and will for purchasing a TV set, brand name in case of the product and knowledge about the product.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Marketer should make a research on the consumer’s hidden will in order to make the right strategy in marketing of the product
• TV set brand name should be market sensitive to attract customers and cater for the products popularization in terms of packing, appearance of product and designing.
• Advertising means should be appropriate to provide enough information about the product to the consumer.

SECTION 3: PERCEPTION AND POSITIONING

A REPORT ON PERCEPTION AND POSITIONING OF TELEVISION SET IN THE MARKET

INTRODUCTION

Leon, S. (2006)Attribute based approach is an approach which assesses products on key attributes (page165). The basic steps in this approach to perceptual mapping include;

• Identifying dimensions of a consumer
• Rating brands of the attributes
• Enquiring from consumers

                    PERCETUAL MAP OF TELEVISON SET (Samsung TV)

                                                                         Price high

From the map Samsung TV sets and Sony have a high quality and relative price compared to other brands. Therefore customers can go for quality, whenever demand shifts there is need for repositioning to adjust the product’s price and modification to improve the quality to meet customer’s changing tastes. In the figure above the size of the circle shows the number of consumers who consume the product, thus the larger circle represents an ideal product for the market.

This report assesses how the product is viewed by the consumers and analyses internal and external factors which affect the positioning of the product in the market. Repositioning can be done to satisfy the customer in terms of price and quality. Re to page165.

METHOD

• Surveys were conducted in major retail electronic shops on the price, brand, display and quality of the TV sets.
• Interviews were done with selected customers to determine their ideal requirements for the product.
• Observations of display appearance and quality of different brands of TV sets was done to rate each product.

FINDINGS

They include;

1. French, E.(2008) Factors which affect the perceived quality of a product such as;

      Prices- Consumers differentiate quality of a product basing on the price as “price is a measure of quality” therefore one can easily base their judgment that the higher the price of product the more its quality is. This directly affects the perception of consumer on the product.

      Nature of product testing authority-Consumers rely on information from such authorities to make preference on quality of product. This influences the choices of consumers in market.

      Brand name influences consumers perception as large companies and organizations with well established brands are seen as to have high quality product eg Apple company.

      Consumer motives and expectations also determines how to perceive the quality of a product.

Other factors include; country of origin, consumer beliefs and advertising channels.

2. External cues that can be used to improve perception of the product

Brand name- The product’s name majorly advertises the product therefore for a consumer to change the perception of consumer re branding of the product can change its perception in the market. Diallo, M, Burt, S, and Sparks, L. (2015), “The influence of image and consumer factors on store Brand choice in Brazilian market, evidence from two retail chains”, European Business Review, vol27no5, pp.495-512

Pricing of the product is another factor which requires to be changed to change perception. The price should be relative to the quality of product.

CONCLUSION

• Dialo, M.(21015) Perception and positioning of a product in the market is affected by; price, quality, consumer’s preference and demand therefore, for the product to be successful in the market the marketer should analyze the extrinsic and intrinsic factors which affect consumer behavior. The attribute based approach facilitates the marketer to analyze how the product fairs in the market comparing it with other products.
• Sparks, L. (2015) Price-quality relationship- consumers base their perception of quality of a product basing on its price as the higher the price the higher the quality of a product.
• Price and degree of risk associated with chosen product-on price there is consumer discrimination that is, a TV with best quality is more expensive compared to low quality TV sets. Risks associated with TV sets include breaking on transportation and electric damages resulting from electric faults and change in market price, changes in consumer preference.

RECOMMENDATION

• Regulation of price given that price is one of the factors that affect the product perception hence encouraging consumers to have a better perception.
• Repositioning of the product in case it has a negative perception by consumers.
• Using appropriate advertising channel which gives a good impression to the market
• Ensuring quality of the product

SECTION 4: REINFORFCING CONSUMER LEARNING

Operant conditioning refers to when a person learns behavior but yield positive outcomes neglecting the ones producing negative outcomes, this behavior is learnt in a period of time and intermediate actions are rewarded in a process known as shaping.

Three types of operant conditioning Punj and Stealin (1983); include positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment.

Positive reinforcement involves rewarding positive outcomes, negative involves discouraging undesired outcomes while punishment is done during unpleasant events.

Observation learning is acquiring a behavior from observing other peoples actions, it involves the following steps;

• Attention towards a consumer behavior
• Retention of behavior vin memory
• Production process ability to perform the behavior
• Motivation where behavior is useful
• Observation learning which involves acquiring and performing behavior earlier learnt

Solomon, E. (1999) Shaping is rewarding intermediate actions in learning process. The concept of shaping can be applied to reinforce pre purchase behavior. In pre purchasing the consumer can be motivated through media by acquiring information enabling them to be intrinsically motivated to make an informed purchase.

Consumer can seek other consumer’s knowledge comments regarding the commodity from media. Free gifts and prizes on commodities can also act as reinforcement to improve consumer’s pre purchasing. Such prizes and gifts attracts customers to purchase the product more.

Use of internet improves pre purchasing of the product by giving more information regarding the commodity attracting the customers. Customers can learn from adverts appearing on media to make risk free and pre informed decision to purchase a product.

In conclusion shaping reinforces the pre-purchase behavior through acquiring of information from media and other consumers who enable the consumer to make an informed decision while purchasing as they are aware of risks involved and advantages of the product from comments, behavior and reinforcements which generally attracts the consumers to purchase the commodity.

SECTION 5: CONSUMER ATTITUDE FORMATION/CHANGE

1. Changing beliefs about the brand

Identify the positive beliefs of the TV brand such as picture quality and promote and emphasize them or in another approach, reduce the negative beliefs about the TV brand such as easily susceptible to electrical damage. If a TV brand has a negative attitude from buyers due to for instance poor sound quality, the marketer should try and reduce such beliefs and instead try to increase the strength of the positive attributes.

2. Changing beliefs about competing brands

Consumers often consider some of the attributes of a certain product to be more important than others. Marketers should therefor promote such attributes and convince customers that they are more important compared to others .A TV brand would be rated highly for its picture quality, a marketer should therefor emphasize this attribute to the customer to easily convince them to purchase the TV brand and forego other brands.

3. Change the relative evaluation of attributes

Adding a new easily noticeable belief about a product, that is one with a positive evaluation. Another approach is to add new beliefs to the customer’s belief structure, which make the brand have the capacity to solve more of the customer’s problems; a TV brand could be a smart TV which can connect to the Internet and download content for the viewer which would complement other TV channels.

4. Making an existing favorable belief become more relevant than it is by making it more salient. For instance, a marketer could advertise a TV brand as more energy saving.

Leon, G(2006)The foot-in-the-door technique  (page 230) may not be applicable in selling a product such as a TV brand. This is because the-foot-in-door technique requires giving some specific  incentives such as offering a free sample which also should not be too big as marketers run the risk of customers attributing the cause of their behavior to the incentive and are less likely to change their belief towards the product and less likely to make future purchases.  Instead, the most effective way would be to use moderate incentives that are big enough to make the consumer make the first purchase but small enough to make the customer internalize the positive experience of using the product and thereby change their attitude.

SECTION 6 COMMMUNICATION AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Figure 8-3 product like a TV brand, I would recommend the use of Internet and direct marketing as advertising media.

The Internet would suit this product since it allows you to select the target audience for your ad. Using Internet, a marketer can trace a customer and also build databases based on the feedback collected. Advanced messages can also be designed and displayed on ads and home pages fast and easily.

 Marketers are aware that the homepages to their websites are supposed to be designed in such a way they can attract and persuade customers to view or click on them. The Internet has the potential for gathering immediate response or feedback as it is an interactive medium. In measuring the relative cost of using Internet as an advertising tool there may be variations.

Secondly, direct marketing would work well for advertising a TV brand as it is relatively free of clutter even in media where there is a lot of noise. Marketers can build an electronic database that is based on direct inquiries and orders which enables the marketer to select customer segments.

This kind of advertisement sort direct response from the customer unlike other advertising means. It generates responses that can be measured and also enables marketers to determine their profit making ability directly. Relative cost for using this form of advertising is measured by the following variables, cost per inquiry, cost per sale and revenue per advertisement.

REFERENCES

• Agarwal, S., D, and E. French .2008
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org
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• Online book textbook pp116-230, figures 3-5, fig3-6, fig A on attribute-based approach,
• Molly, T. (2018)
• Singh, S. (2005)
• www.schorlarlyarticles.com
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