03-07-2012, 12:38 PM
Consumer behaviour for soft drinks – A case study of younger segment
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Introduction
There is nobody in the world who is left out of the class of consumers. The consumer-hood continues till one’s last breath in the world. The consumer purchases a variety of goods and services to satisfy his wants and he is always influenced in his purchasing activities by some considerations which lead him to select a particular commodity or a particular retail store in preference to others. So, consumer buying is more complex. Consumer purchases are likely to be influenced by physiological, psychological and sociological factors. The commodities and services are brought by the consumer to satisfy his basic needs, for comfort, pleasure, recreation and happiness. Every individual has physiological need such as hunger, shelter, thirst, etc., which have to be satisfied for survival. The psychological factors like status prestige and social factors like friends, neighbors, job and relatives influence their purchasing activities.
Factors influencing consumer behaviour
Consumer behaviour is influenced by internal factors such as, demographics, psychographics (lifestyle), personality, motivation, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and feelings. External factors also have influential role in consumer behaviour. These external factors are, culture, sub-culture, locality, royalty, ethnicity, family, social class, past experience, reference groups, lifestyle and market mix factors.
Importance of life styles
Life values are believed to provide the motivation for buying. They are usually characterized by a set of values, which differ in relative importance from person to person. They tend to be abstract and their impact on consumer behavior will be quite indirect. The way in which consumers uses products and services in a certain area to attain their life values can also be called consumer lifestyle. What is important from a marketing point of view is that different types of consumers have to be addressed in different ways. Lifestyle is thus a useful tool for market segmentation.
Consumer buying behavior and market segmentation
Consumer behavior is how a person make decisions and conducts oneself in relation to consumption of products and services. Market segmentation is the division of a large group of consumers using specific demographic attributes. It attempts to segment markets in such a way that consumer preferences and decisions can be better understood and identified. This assists marketers in knowing, who is more likely to buy a certain product or service, what conditions are required for that buying behavior, what is the best way to market a product or service. Different ways to a market segment are mentioned bellow age, income, gender, ethnicity and religion.
Consumer Preferences and Related Concepts
As with much research on consumers, and indeed social science in general, there is a lot of terminological confusion and sometimes a lack of rigour. This is acknowledged within the academic literature and steps are being taken to rectify this situation. The following definitions of key terms are provided in the hope of clarifying the following discussion of the literature.
Consumer Satisfaction
Consumer satisfaction and acceptance are often considered in the literature to be closely linked yet these are distinct concepts. Satisfaction is the fulfillment and gratification of the need for a stated good or service, here, soft drink.
Consumer Acceptance
Acceptance describes consumer willingness to receive and/or to tolerate. For example, a customer might accept the occurrence of a certain number of yearly supply interruptions given a certain price. Consumer acceptance and satisfaction are related, as the first is a precursor of the latter. However, despite the fact that satisfaction and acceptance can be thought of as lying on a continuum, acceptance does not automatically lead to satisfaction.
Consumer Concerns
These are expressed anxieties or unease over an object broadly defined (e.g. discolored tap water or a proposal to change the water pricing structure).
Consumer Preferences
This is used primarily to mean an option that has the greatest anticipated Value among a number of options. This is an economic definition and does not tap into ‘wishes’ or ‘dreams’ (for e.g. that safe drinking water was free, that there should be world peace) but for all practical purposes is an appropriate definition. Preference and acceptance can in certain circumstances mean the same thing but it is useful to keep the distinction in mind with preference tending to indicate choices among neutral or more valued options with acceptance indicating a willingness to tolerate the status quo or some less desirable option.
Consumer Awareness
Consumer awareness is the level of knowledge about, in this case, water which includes the water company, regulatory framework, supply system and service, or the water itself. In most research the adequacy or otherwise of this awareness is anchored against the service provider or regulator’s perspective on the supply. Where consumer awareness does not equate with this industry perspective this is often termed a consumer (mis)perception.
Risk Perception
This is a term used rather loosely in the literature to mean the level of risk associated with exposure to a hazard. Unfortunately a ‘risk’ is often used to mean the specific hazard itself rather than a formal risk which is a combined assessment of the likelihood and magnitude of harm that may occur as a result of exposure to the hazard.
Consumer Attitudes
An attitude is a positive or negative evaluation of a social object or action. A ‘social object’ in the present context might mean the water company, water regulations, supply system and service, or the water itself. Many theories of attitudes (e.g. the well-known theory of planned behaviour, Ajzen, 1985) have attitude as a factor involved in determining behavioural choices however there is considerable continuing debate about when, and in what circumstances, attitudes are important determinants of behaviour. An attitude toward something should thus not be taken to imply that attitude-consistent behaviour will automatically follow.