The Factors Influencing The Consumers Buying Shampoo Marketing Essay

This research is prepared for the purpose of gaining a better understanding on the factors influencing the consumers’ buying behaviour. The shampoo market is chosen as the field of study on the consumers’ buying behaviour because everyone needs shampoo to wash their hair so anyone could be the respondents of my survey. The age of the respondents in this survey ranges from 18 years and above.

From the employment status and the monthly income, the data about the lifestyle of the consumers can be gained. When the person is working full time and earns a high monthly income, he or she will definitely purchase a more high quality shampoo like the ones sold in the saloons. This is because he or she will definitely change his or her image by changing the hairstyle by perm, straighten or dye. When they go for chemical treatment on their hair, damage such as split ends and dry hair will be resulted, so they are willing to spend more on high end shampoo to protect their hair from such damages instead of buying a normal range shampoo and cry over the damage hair at the end of the day. From that, we can conclude that lifestyle does influence the consumers’ buying behaviour.

Asking the reason of choosing the particular brand enables the researcher to identify whether it was the social factor, psychological factor or promotion that influences the purchasing of the shampoo. If the respondent chooses friends’ recommendation, then the factor influences the buying behaviour is the social factor. Some consumers trust their friends’ recommendation when they share the same taste and preferences. When they see the effects of the shampoo on their friends’ hair they are willing to purchase that particular brand as it is proven good by his or her peers. On the other hand, if the respondent chooses gentle to hair and chemical free, then the consumer is influenced by the psychological factor which is the consumer beliefs that the shampoo is gentle to the scalp as it is chemical free. This usually occurred in the consumers’ mind as they belief is gentle to the scalp after they had tried the sample given by the promoters in the supermarket or during a free hair wash during the road show.

The type of shampoo used by the respondents enables the researcher to study whether the product itself and the brand influences the buying behaviour. When a respondent trusted the current brand of shampoo he or she is using, then when he or she is looking for a colour lock shampoo, he or she will definitely choose back the colour lock shampoo manufactured by the brand they used to buy. Sometimes, the product itself also influences the buying behaviour when the packaging of the product is nice and the sophisticated features of the product is such as the shampoo is anti-dandruff, with ginseng extract which will reduce hair fall and so on.

The monthly expenses spent on the shampoo will help the researcher to conclude that the monthly income does influence the buying power of the consumer. A lifestyle with a high monthly income will influence the consumer to spend more on shampoo such as high range shampoo as they tend to be more cautious about their hair when they perm or dye their hair. Besides that, the price of the shampoo also influences the buying behaviour of the consumer. Some consumers are not particular about the brands of the shampoo but they choose the shampoo according to the price. Normally, these types of consumers will buy a basic shampoo which the price is cheap and when there is a promotion about other higher range shampoo, they will tend to buy it.

The type promotion made on the shampoo is to ensure that the consumers are aware of the existence of this particular brand of shampoo. By asking this question to the respondents, the researcher can conclude that promotion also influence the buying behaviour in the shampoo market. In addition to that, the researcher also can conclude the types of promotion that are effective in the shampoo market.

From the survey, I had realised that the consumers’ buying behaviour is not only influenced by the social factors, the personal factors and the psychological factors but also marketing mix such as the price, product and promotion also influences the buying behaviour. The social factors referred to reference groups and family whereas, the personal factors referred to age, occupation and lifestyle. Lastly, psychological factors referred to motivation, perception and beliefs and attitudes.

For social factors, the purchasing decision is made by the family member, friends’ recommendation. Some consumers just follow their family’s decision in purchasing a shampoo as they have no preferences on shampoo. As for friends’ recommendation, if the shampoo is proven good by their friends, some consumers will tend to buy it as they trust the results of the shampoo told by their friends. Personal factors include gender, age, employment status and monthly income of the respondent. For age, young generations will prefer a brand that manufactures colour lock shampoo so that the colour of the dye on their hair will last longer, whereas the older generation only prefers a basic range of shampoo as they seldom dye their hair.

Psychological factors of purchasing the shampoo include, brand loyalty, gentle to hair as it is chemically free, good research and development (R&D) and influenced by brand ambassador. One of the psychological factors is the attitudes and beliefs of the consumers where they believe that the shampoo must be good when the brand ambassador is their favourite celebrity. This kind of buying behaviour usually occurs among the teenagers or the youth because they wanted to follow the footsteps of their favourite celebrity and what kind of product used by the ambassador must be proven to be very good as they have a perception that their idol is always perfect. Besides that, some consumers believe that the shampoo is very gentle to the hair as the shampoo states that it is chemically free, where this is known as attitude. Lastly, the consumers are also motivated to purchase that particular shampoo when the company has done a good R&D. This is because it is very convincing when there is a proven research done by the company.

The price of the shampoo influences the buying behaviour as some consumers are not particular about the brands of the shampoo. They just only want a shampoo which is cheap and good to wash their hair. For product, when the shampoo features is sophisticated such as anti-dandruff, hair fall control or colour lock and the packaging of the shampoo is nice, some of the consumers will be influenced to purchase the particular brand of the shampoo. Promotion is made to remind the consumers about the existence of the particular shampoo in the market. Indirectly, it also influences the buying behaviour of the consumer when there is a brand ambassador promoting the shampoo during the road show or on an advertisement. Besides that, if there is an offer made for the shampoo such as buy one free one or free vouchers for every two bottles purchase will tend to increase the purchasing power of the consumers.