Consumer Behaviour Analysis For Fast Moving Consumer Goods: Soap Consumption Essay.

Based on the scenario below, you are required to write a 2000-word report. In this report, you must demonstrate an understanding and application of various consumer behaviour concepts and theories by analysing the facts gathered from the video and the survey, and present strategic recommendations. You will be required to incorporate recent peer-reviewed literature in order to justify your proposed recommendations.

Fast moving consumer goods industry and innovation

Fast moving consumer goods are those products that are manufactured and released to the market as quickly as possible and are relatively cheap. These products include the foodstuff that consumers use on their day to day life operations such as over-the-counter drugs, packaged foods, beverages, toiletries, dry goods and other types of foods that are consumed on a daily basis like meat (Anisimova 2016, p. 59). To a consumer, these goods are priced goods, very perishable, involve frequent purchases and require deep involvements. On the other hand producer and suppliers view these products as sold in high volumes, affect extensive distribution networks, they have low-profit margins and are of short shelf life.

 The industries involved in the manufacture and supply of fast moving consumer goods is characterized with a lot of innovations (Benlian, Titah, & Hess 2012, p. 130). This is due to the dynamic nature of consumer needs and behavior that demand for the need to come up with new ideas in the production process that includes packaging, marketing, advertisements, and getting feedback from the customers to help improve consumer satisfaction.

 A fast-moving consumer good can be multipurpose in that it can be put to perform different but related tasks. For instance, the product presented in this report, soap can be used in different but associated jobs like bathing and washing (Chaudhary, & Bisai 2018, p. 45). The research conducted on this product showed that the consumption of the product is affected by various factors ranging from gender, age, culture, class and personal beliefs of the customer.

This report is based on the findings of the research that was done concerning the consumption of soap. The study helped highlight some consumer behaviors that every producer needs to put into consideration when coming up with a fast moving consumer good (Dootson et al. 2016, p. 35). Factors that determine consumer’s choice was found to be Cultural factors, social factors, and psychological factors.

Cultural practices that prevail where the consumer comes from play a big role in his or her decision to purchase a good (Harris & Daunt 2011, p. 245). These practices promote or discourage the consumption of some commodities within the society. The methods may be subdivided into the culture, subculture, and social class.

Cultural practices are the generally accepted behaviors in the society. In this case, a society can be termed as the market, a place where the sellers interact with the buyers but majorly dominated by buyers (JAE HOON HYUN & SUK BONG CHOI 2018, p. 89). The society, the market can be a country or a community with some generally accepted set of behavior that can either promote or discourage the purchase of some goods. The seller needs to fully understand the prevailing cultural practices in society, country, and our community to know how the dominant practices would affect the purchase of the products.

Characteristics of fast moving consumer goods

Some sub cultural practices within the society may as well control Consumers' behavior within a given cultural setup. These subdivisions of culture may include race, religion, geographical regions, nationalities, and trade restrictions. These subcultures affect people differently in a given society (Anisimova 2016, p.135). For instance, belief in a given country may support the consumption of pork meat, while another religion within the same country prohibits the same. The marketers need to identify the needs, culture, and subcultures of the target customer lest they fail.

The consumers in a given subculture can further behave differently depending on their social class. Social class may be described as a group of people who share some socially recognized status such as wealth, education, professionalism, and occupation (Benlian, Titah, & Hess 2012, p. 450). Sellers should know that consumers within the same social class tend to behave the same and therefore the marketing activities carried out should be well calculated to avoid mix-up.

According to Jalil, Talukder, and Rahman (2014, p. 243)Social factors such as the status and family of the consumer, role played by the consumer in the society as well as the reference groups have varying influence on the ability and purchasing behaviour of an individual.

Consumers get involved in some peer groups in their daily life. These groups influence the behavior of the customers. For instance, students whose friends mostly drive a certain model of cars would most likely buy the same model of car. These groups relate with some products and that influences the decisions made by the members regarding certain products. It would be awkward for a group member to buy and use a product that is not common within the group, it would lead to some stigma (Chaudhary & Bisai 2018, p. 378). Seller and producers can make great sales when they understand the trends in the groups, mostly when they know the group leader whose opinions influence the other members of the group.

Buying behaviors of some consumers are the decision makers in the family influenced by their families. Some families have purchasing norms and values that guide them regarding some products, and these values make a given family identify with some brands. In some cases, the buying decisions in a family may be determined by some members of the family like husband or wife (Dootson et al. 2016, p. 400). Sellers should have such information and target their marketing and advertisements to the decision makers in the family.

Consumer behaviour concepts and theories

Every member of the society bears some responsibilities, roles, and status in the community. These factors influence the decision-making process of an individual when making purchases (Liu, Lamberton, & Haws 2015, p. 127). For example, a lady who works as a senior officer in an organization and is a mother and a wife at the same time makes purchases governed by her status, roles, and responsibilities in the society. She may not like to be associated with some products in the market, not because of her choice but her status.

As explained by Anisimova (2016, p. 378), apart from the group factors that influence an individual's buying decisions in a group, consumers make personal choices when it comes to what they need .personal determinants in consumer behavior include age, gender, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle, personality, and self-esteem.

The buying behaving of individuals changes over time as he or she stops using some products and introduces others depending on his age (Siriprasoetsin, Tuamsuk, &Vongprasert 2011, p. 256). Life cycle involves the stages in life that an individual goes through like being young singles, unmarried couples, and married couples and divorced. These stages determine the consumer's needs and subsequently change their buying behavior as they evolve through the circles.

The consumer's occupation and profession have impacts on his or her decision when making purchases. The consumer would want to make investments in line with the profession and occupation he or she fall in. Lifestyle determines how one lives in the community and the personal desires.

The purchases of products by the consumers depend on the affordability of the product, and this is influenced by the ability of the consumer to make the purchase. The economic situation of the consumer determines the price and amount of commodities he or she can buy.

The psychological determinants that shape a consumer's behavior include perception, motivation, learning, beliefs, and attitudes of the buyer.

Consumer needs are of different urgency. In this case, the more pressing a need is, the more urgent it is, and eventually the consumer settles it first.

Perception refers to how consumers select, organize, and interpret information. The three perception processes include selective attention which refers to when sellers try to attract the attention of the buyers Anisimova (2016, p. 294) . Another type of interpretation process is the selection distortion in which case buyers try to interpret the information in a way that fits what they already believe in. And finally, perception retention refers to when the sellers try to make buyers understand and retain the information they are given.  The sellers try to retain the information they believe in.

Cultural factors

Customers possess specific beliefs and attitudes toward different goods. Such beliefs and attitudes influence the brand image and affect consumer purchasing behavior. Sellers interested in a market dominated by such customers can change their beliefs and attitudes to support the products introduced.

Previous researches have indicated that feature and functional appeals influence customers but emotional and psychological appeals resonate more with customers. An advertiser who use psychological contents have proved more effective in the market than the adverts that focus on features (Khim-Yong Goh, Cheng-Suang Heng & Zhijie Lin 2013, p. 700). Demonstrating how a new car will improve the life of a customer tends to influence the customer's decision more than explaining the components of the car and how it works. This psychological strategy has been used by marketers for a long time and has proven to be successful. Statements like “We are not here to sell boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.” Made by auctioneers have psychological manipulation than that expressed when explaining how the boiler works.

Many consumers tend to doubt an advert if it is too spicy and end up not buying the product. It is no secret that consumers tend to doubt marketing claims–for good reasons. Many aren't credible. One way to raise credibility is to point out your product's shortcomings.

Banerjee and Pawar (2014, p. 289) illustrated that some of the main global marketing giants had made such mistakes in the past. Giving information just on the positive side of the product is a major mistake many marketers do. Psychological mind game with customers leads to increased sales when the consumers feel that the marketer is honest by mentioning some of the weaknesses of the product. This tactic helps improve the customer loyalty and in turn increased sales.

Psychological marketers try to manipulate the consumer thinking about the product. This strategy involves creating a different story or idea about the product. For instance, a children’s food that does not receive support from adults can be manipulated by creating an advert blaming the parents for being rude to the feelings of their parents. With this kind of psychological game, the parents would react by increasing the purchase of the said product just to prove that they are caring for their children’s feelings.

As explained by Wiederhold and Martinez (2018, p. 471), such marketers are canning and designed to show that the non supportive group become guilty for not supporting the product. Before it can be realized, the company can moved swiftly to improve the areas that lead to the weakness.

Social factors

This strategy involves trying to make the customers work hard to be associated with a particular product just for self esteem. Consumers would like to be associated with some top quality brands. Setting a slightly high standard in a product, the customers would want to buy the product and feel a sense of belonging to a presumably superior class (Anisimova 2016, p. 387). This can be achieved through improving the quality and increasing the price. Many customers would be locked out due to high price, and creates a class of a few customers.

Products are produced to solve some challenges and bridge some gaps in the society. When the demand for the product goes down, it means the challenge or the initial gap has been bridged.  To counter this, the producer needs to find a way of reintroducing the problem, recreate the gap that had been bridged and make the consumer population feel the need to solve it again. The fear for another problem would reintroduce the product demand, increase sales and revenue (Banerjee & Pawar 2014, p. 396). The company can create uncertainty about the product to make people buy the available stock. The uncertainty can be rumours about the final production of the product, that no such product would be produced again. With such kind of speculation, customers would scramble for the available stock.

List of Reference

Anisimova, T. (2016) ‘Integrating Multiple Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior Toward Organic Foods: The Role of Healthism, Hedonism, and Trust in Consumer Purchase Intentions of Organic Foods’, Journal of Food Products Marketing, 22(7), pp. 809–823. doi: 10.1080/10454446.2015.1121429.

Banerjee, S. and Pawar, S. (2014) ‘Factors affecting the Consumer Buying Behavior in Kidswear Market and Perceptual Mapping of the Kidswear Brands of Shopper’s Stop’, Journal of Management Research (09725814), 14(4), pp. 257–269. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=129238212&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 6 October 2018).

Benlian, A., Titah, R. and Hess, T. (2012) ‘Differential Effects of Provider Recommendations and Consumer Reviews in E-Commerce Transactions: An Experimental Study’, Journal of Management Information Systems, 29(1), pp. 237–272. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=79629584&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 6 October 2018).

Chaudhary, R. and Bisai, S. (2018) ‘Factors influencing green purchase behavior of millennials in India’, Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 29(5), pp. 798–812. doi: 10.1108/MEQ-02-2018-0023.

Dootson, P. et al. (2016) ‘Where do consumers draw the line? Factors informing perceptions and justifications of deviant consumer behaviour’, Journal of Marketing Management, 32(7–8), pp. 750–776. doi: 10.1080/0267257X.2015.1131734.

Harris, L. C. and Daunt, K. L. (2011) ‘Deviant customer behaviour: A study of techniques of neutralisation’, Journal of Marketing Management, 27(7–8), pp. 834–853. doi: 10.1080/0267257X.2010.498149.

JAE HOON HYUN and SUK BONG CHOI (2018) ‘Consumer Purchase Intention of a Cosmetic Product After the Fukushima Nuclear Incident’, Social Behavior & Personality: an international journal, 46(4), pp. 551–562. doi: 10.2224/sbp.6676.

Jalil, M. A., Talukder, M. and Rahman, M. K. (2014) ‘Factors Affecting Customer’s Perceptions Towards Online Banking Transactions in Malaysia’, Journal of Business & Management, 20(1), pp. 25–44. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=108357689&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 6 October 2018).

Khim-Yong Goh, Cheng-Suang Heng and Zhijie Lin (2013) ‘Social Media Brand Community and Consumer Behavior: Quantifying the Relative Impact of User- and Marketer-Generated Content’, Information Systems Research, 24(1), pp. 88–107. doi: 10.1287/isre.1120.0469.

Liu, P. J., Lamberton, C. and Haws, K. L. (2015) ‘Should Firm Use Small Financial Benefits to Express Appreciation to Consumers? Understanding and Avoiding Trivialization Effects’, Journal of Marketing, 79(3), pp. 74–90. doi: 10.1509/jm.14.0091.

Siriprasoetsin, P., Tuamsuk, K. and Vongprasert, C. (2011) ‘Factors affecting customer relationship management practices in Thai academic libraries’, International Information & Library Review, 43(4), pp. 221–229. doi: 10.1016/j.iilr.2011.10.008.

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Wells, V. K. (2014) ‘Behavioural psychology, marketing and consumer behaviour: a literature review and future research agenda’, Journal of Marketing Management,

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