Understanding Buyer Behaviour And Marketing Mix Recommendations For Darwin Symphony Orchestra Essay.

You are required to describe the behaviour of your chosen segments in detail using the psychology concepts and theory covered in the unit. You are then to make recommendations for the marketing mix that clearly build upon this understanding of buyer behaviour.

More specifically the assignment will:

• Develop understanding of the relevance of psychology, buying behaviour and marketing theory
• Help you appreciate the practical application of theory and its relevance to designing an effective marketing mix
• Require the concepts discussed in the course to be related to the marketing mix in order to achieve appropriate marketing objectives
• Help you to distinguish between the various internal and external influences that affect buyer behaviour and explain the likely responses to different marketing stimuli by customers in a specific  marketing situation

You are introduced to the key areas of psychology that influence and explain buying behaviour, with the last three lessons reiterating the application of this buyer behaviour understanding to effective marketing mix development.

This assignment seeks to reinforce your learning about the theories and concepts covered, understand their relevance to describing customer behaviour and apply them in B2C and B2B marketing contexts.

The assignment is flexible in that you can also choose which particular aspects of theory and the marketing mix elements that you wish to focus on. For example, you may take themes from all the core theoretical areas and illustrate an application from each, or you might choose to focus on just one or two areas in more detail. Furthermore you may decide to make recommendations for all, or just selected elements of the marketing mix.

More specifically this assignment requires you to complete a customer behaviour evaluation and make marketing mix recommendations for your:

• B2B target market
• B2C target market

Introduction to the Assignment

Darwin Symphony orchestra is a nonprofit organization, that lives and performs within the Darwin community. The Darwin Symphony has been performing for the last 28 years. They perform concerts across Darwin and Northern Territory, the group reaches the audiences throughout the territory. Besides the resident seasons of concert in Darwin, they have excellent performance tours to Alice Springs, the Devils Marbles and Simpson’s Gap in Central Australia, Groote Eylandt in Gulf of Carpentaria, Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula, Pine Creek, Katherine, Yirrkala, Milingimbi and Maningrida and Kununurra in Western Australia. This makes the orchestra very popular in the community but also very popular in many regions of Australia by the performance tours. The main client of Darwin Symphony Orchestra’s main clients are the residents of the Darwin Community and the people of the Northern territory of Australia, they also have tours to entertain people throughout Australia (Darwin Symphony Orchestra 2017).

The Chief Conductor, Matthew Wood conducted a project, which was a very bold step taken towards entertaining the residents of Uluru, which is a very remote location in Australia. The another adventurous of the Darwin Symphony Orchestra was a tour in May 2015 to East Arnhem Land, at the Garma Festival site (GulKula) , they were the first among the guest performers who were  outside of the Garma festival, for entertaining the people of the place, which has a huge cultural significance (Darwin Symphony Orchestra 2017) .

Motivation and Need

Buying behavior is influenced and always driven by need, people decide to buy a product of service when they feel that there is a need for a particular product or services. People buy food when they are hungry, they avail protective gear for their safety and security, they opt clothing of good brand name in order to look stylish, education is needed for self-actualization and personal improvement. According to Abraham Maslow’s Need hierarchy theory. The buying behavior of the consumers depends upon the needs, if the needs are basic then people will prefer to give priority to fulfill those needs, individuals give priorities to their basic needs (Maslow 2013).

Need Hierarchy theory by Abraham Maslow

Customers tend to analyze all the information they have collected about a particular brand to make their buying decision based on the company’s competency to satisfy the customer, offer the cost value for their purchase. It can be said that the consumer perception is the idea of the product the customer conceives, perception is not necessarily the reality, it is what the customers think about the product. Perception is influenced by several factors, one such factor is exposure, buying a particular product is completely dependent on the amount of information the customers have about the product, the more information the customer will have  more is the chances of the customer buying the product (Hanssens et al. 2014).

Darwin Symphony Orchestra - Background and Clientele

Risk perception is another factor that the influences the consumer behavior, if the there is a risk involved in the proposition, consumers also hesitate to act, if the product is unfamiliar to the customers they will  not prefer to buy the product. Repetition of any product name or brand name develops the customer retention, it happens through the advertisements (Cantallops and Salvi 2014).

The buying behavior of the customers is also determined by the knowledge and learning of the customers, the more the customers are aware about the product and services and the various alternatives they have, it makes them very selective in terms of choosing the product (Solomon 2014).

Group and social influences

Group and social influences put a lot impact on the buying behavior of customers, groups and social networks often influence individual decisions, there are opinion leaders who influence the important decisions of individuals, such kind of influence is seen very less in industrial customers, because it is a formal organization. Groups and social participation are very informal organization, where the group often influences thoughts, perceptions and attitudes or social leaders, who play the role of opinion leaders (Zarantonello and Schmitt 2013).

The buying motivation in Business to customer market is very much determined by the personal needs of the customers, the internal drivers here are the love and interest of the customers towards music. The audiences of the Darwin Symphony are those who enjoy listening to the music of the group.

The buying motivation for Business-to-Business market customers are different from that of the B2C market, they are not motivated by personal needs. It can be said that their needs are based on the goals and objectives of the organization as a whole, their objectives are financial gains, raising funds for charitable organizations or for some social causes (Schudson 2013).  

There are several theories to consumer buying behavior, different approaches have been adopted to study the consumer behavior two of them are discussed here:

According to the approach in order to be rational in economic terms, the consumers becomes selective towards the products and services that they avail. They tend to rate the products and services and choose the options that are the economic ones, the consumers of Darwin symphony orchestra choose to listen to the performances of the orchestra because they find it most best alternative among all the other orchestras (Malik et al. 2013).

Since Darwin Symphony Orchestra is non profitable organization it does not cost much to the consumers, and provide the best quality of entertainment in a reasonable cost. So customers of both the segment, B2B and B2B can be related to this model, they choose Darwin Symphony Orchestra because it provides the best quality of entertainment, which is economic (Oliver 2014).

Psychology Concepts and Theory Influencing Consumer Behaviour

According to this model the, human behavior is determined by core concepts, stimuli, drives, cues, responses and reinforcements. The buying behavior is influenced by these factors to a lot extent. It determines the human needs and wants.

Drive- It is an internal stimulus responsible for human actions

Stimuli- These are the  internal elements that arouses the drives.

Cues- Cues are signals acting for certain drives.

Response-  It is the reaction to the stimuli.

There are five stages in the process of customer buying process, before buying

Recognizing the need is the initial stage and also the most important stage of customer buying process, without the need there cannot be any purchase, buying is the result of the need recognition, internal, hunger, thirst and external stimuli such as advertising are the drivers of need (Su, Kunkel  and King 2017).

After the needs are identified, the customers search information related to the need and the solutions that are the most suitable for the need. The customers analyze the various sources from where the information can be collected, these sources are books, journals, newspapers, online media, website and also word of mouth (Potter 2015).

In Business to business market, the customers of this segment do the searching information very keenly, with the help of experts. They gather information from as many sources as possible, due to high customer involvement in this segment of market the process of information search becomes very critical and much more complicated than Business to customer markets (Wind, Thomas and Sheth 2014).

After gaining the adequate knowledge about the ways, the needs can be addressed. They analyze the various options they have, comparing all the alternatives, the features of the products. Customer’s attitude is the major determinant that affects this particular stage of the buying process. The number of alternatives a potential customer analyzes is very dependent on the attitude of the customer, a customer with high involvement and positive attitude then the customer will analyze as many as possible alternatives but if the attitude of the customer has low involvement is low then the customers will only analyze one option.

Business to business customers evaluates the alternatives and they select the best alternative that goes well with the needs of the organization, the evaluation is done with great expertise.

This is the stage where the actual buying of product takes place, the purchase decision is influenced by mainly factors, word of mouth and motivation level. If the potential customers get a negative feedback from other customers, if the motivation level is too low then the customer will not make the buying decision. On the contrary, if the customers have very high motivation level and had a positive word of the mouth from other customers they would tend to not prefer to buy the products (Zahay, Schultz and Kumar 2015).

Group and Social Influences on Customer Behaviour

The business to business customers are very clear about their needs and the product they are going to buy they are rarely conflicted with ideas they generally know which products they should buy( Viio and Grönroos 2016).

This stage emphasizes on the satisfaction level of the customers post purchase, after the customers have experienced the product, whether the product met their expectations customer. It determines the brand loyalty of the customers (Navickas et al. 2014).

This stage is very important for Business to Business customers because they always look for long term associations, so if they are satisfied they will continue to buy the product again in the future, trust and reliability is very important (Yavas 2015).

Marketing of Darwin Symphony Orchestra would come under Event marketing marketing mix recommendations for B2B market and B2C would slightly differ from each other, there are four Ps in event marketing,

The product here can be termed to the events organized by Darwin Symphony group, the events should be organized as per the tastes and preferences of its audiences, whether the like classical music or non-classical, the events needs to be categorized based on the tastes of its audiences. Innovative ideas should be put to make events more creative and interesting so that more and more people attend the events of the orchestra group, in not only Darwin, northern territory but also other part of Australia that the group had yet reached. When the events are conducted for industrial customers the format of the event is already been discussed.

 Events for  B2B markets, are as per the requirements of the business. When events are directly organized for the customers there is lot of scope of creativity as there are less restrictions, they can choose the theme of their preference but when the events are not directly organized for the customers or can be said the organizers are another business, then theme is generally selected by the organizers or the sponsors.

 For Business to customer market, the orchestra group can invite some guest singers as well, it would be a different experience. For every performance, a variation needs to be given to the audiences. They can collaborate with various local dance groups as well to make the events interesting (Armstrong et al 2014).

Appropriate pricing strategies should be taken so that it does not become difficult for Darwin Symphony Orchestra to organize their event in other places as well.  For conducting tours various tickets options needs to be made available and the the tickets should also be made in different tiers. They should look into the past records to plan for future, looking at the past sales can give an idea about the number of audiences they had before so accordingly ticket options can be made available, when the event is organized by the orchestra to the audiences.

Different Approaches to Studying Consumer Behaviour

 If the orchestra events are organized for another business and indirectly to the audiences pricing strategies needs to be discussed with another business. They might choose to keep the prices of the ticket can be premium based on the type of the audiences, or if the event is organized for raising funds for some social causes or for charitable funds, the premium tickets should be very less. Other ticket options should be reasonable.  The organizers should make profit by focusing selling as many tickets (Henley, Wymer and Self 2013)

 For community performances, Business to business market the tickets should be reasonable, it should not be too high for the audiences, the motive there should be sale of as many tickets which would be possible if more and more audiences are invited in the event. Limited free tickets should also be made available, by conducting some contests, free tickets should be made available for selective customers.

Darwin symphony orchestra should conduct more events and performances within their community in Darwin and Northern territory apart from that they should conduct tours to other places in Australia so that they can create a customer base at other places as well. This would help their cause, which is to entertain people as they are nonprofit company. They need more exposure that can only be done if they decide which all are the places they choose to perform (Trinh and Nguyen 2017).

In case of Business-to-Business market, they should look for more options to work with other organizations that conduct events, across Australia and nearby countries as well. Their business positioning should be limited to Australian organizations but also other organizations across the country who appreciate music and conduct events. Associations with such organizations will give them worldwide reorganization, without conflicting with their objectives that is not to gain profit but to entertain all music lovers with their brilliant performances.

For Business to Customer market, they should conduct some tours in the places of Australia that they have not conducted any event. The number of performances organized in Darwin and Northern territory should be increased because they have already a good customer base in these places.

Darwin Symphony needs an excellent marketing strategies for promotion of the events it conducts, the growth of organization irrespective of the goals and objectives completely on promotional and marketing strategies.  They should adopt good advertising and promotional strategies.

In Business to Business Market, the orchestra needs to adopt measures that involves meeting other business organizations in person and promote their orchestra. They can also take help of advertisements through print and electronic media. Advertisements can be send to the business through emails and also pamphlets, that contains details of their organization. They can use billboard advertising, as it can be targeted towards many business-to-business customer. Following the trend, they should also promote their events and the orchestra in social networking sites, by uploading the videos of their past events. The more number of people who listen to the performances on these the more beneficial it would be for the orchestra, as it would increase the chances of their recognition by many customers including the business and business organization. For promotion, they can choose to perform at a cheaper cost for various social causes. They can associate more with local performers and artists, including local dancing group (Bellman et al. 2014).

Process of Customer Buying Behavior

In Business to Customer Market promotional activities they can use as many promotional advertisements, the idea behind this is to create awareness about the firm to as people as possible, aiming at creating a customer base. Before every event, they should distribute the flyers that contain information about the events in detail, the timing and location of the event, the artist performing and the name of the associations, if any that they are working with (Hopkins, Shanahan, and Raymond 2014). They can put advertisements using billboard because it can target many people, advertisements can be aired on television as well as local radio channels and newspapers can be used. For promotional activities they can offer some free tickets, who gets the tickets should be determined by conducting some contests, they should give free passes to selective guests, like local administrative officers or bodies, the performances should be recorded and telecasted on televisions as well, that will motivate the music lovers to listen to live performances. They even sell the records it would be beneficial for both promotion and earning a good amount of money. Organizing more events for social causes would be very good for promotion of the Orchestra, for promotion they can work with charitable organizations for raising funds. Encouraging public is very important for promotion they can give chances to local upcoming artists by conducting contests and distribution of prizes and certificates to the winning participants, they should open small music organizations to train individuals who have interest in learning music. It would promote their orchestra as well as create the interest among the community and people outside community towards music. Use of social networking sites would also be very beneficial in promotion of the events and the Darwin Symphony Orchestra (Buil, De and Martínez 2013).

Public relations play a very important role in marketing of an organization, public relations public relation helps in building good relations with the customers, it includes releases of events in newspapers, press conferences, it is very good for the orchestra , they can also choose a subtle trade interview as well a public relation professional is very important for this. The public relation agent can take care of promotional activities and other associations on behalf of the organization (Lovelock and Patterson 2015).

For business-to-business market the public relation agent will promote the orchestra and look for better associations with big organizations in the field of music, they will look for partner ships that would be very important for Darwin Symphony Orchestra.

The public relation agent will arrange press conferences for the orchestra, and make sure that there are press releases, media presence should be made sure at all big events (Jan and Khan 2014).

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