Running Head: Individual Consumer Analysis
Individual Assessment 1: Consumer Behavior Insights
BUMKT5902 MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Partner location Semester 2, 2017
Student Name__________
Student ID__________
Lecturer Name___________
The Due Date and Time__________
Consumer Analysis Report 16
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report analyses the buying pattern and behavior of the consumer by looking at the shopping
of one week that is explained in a separate excel sheet. The overall objective of this report is to
develop an understanding of the consumer and how a consumer understanding is a key input to
the creation of an effective and efficient marketing mix strategy. In purchasing of one week, the
consumer has purchased 22 products. The consumer has spent a large portion of his money on
low involvement products. The overall results of the analysis clearly show that quality,
convenience and price have been the most important marketing mix factors to the consumer’s
decision-making process. Samsung tab is the high involvement product that consumer
purchased during one week of shopping. It shows consumer is tech savvy. Also, the customer is
highly health and quality conscious. Moreover, the customer has mainly spent on fulfilling his
physiological needs that are known as first level of Maslow hierarchy of needs. Keeping into
account the buying behavior/pattern of the consumer, few suggestions have been also made to
better define the marketing mix strategy in the end.
Consumer Analysis Report 16
Table of Contents1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................4
1.1. Background & Purpose of Report...................................................................................4
1.2. Description of the Consumer...........................................................................................5
2. MAIN ANALYSIS....................................................................................................................5
2.1. Purchasing Behavior.......................................................................................................5
2.2. Customer value and Value Proposition...........................................................................6
2.3. Description/analysis of the decision making for the week’s purchases...........................6
2.3.1. Customer’s Buying (Purchase)................................................................................6
2.3.2. Product Need Recognition.......................................................................................6
2.3.3. Evaluation of Alternatives........................................................................................6
2.3.4. Post Purchase Behavior..........................................................................................7
2.3.5. Decision-Making Time.............................................................................................7
2.3.6. Shopping on Week/Weekend Days.........................................................................7
2.3.7. Payment Mode.........................................................................................................8
2.3.8. Influencing Factors...................................................................................................8
Convenience...................................................................................................................9
Quality.............................................................................................................................9
Price..............................................................................................................................10
Service..........................................................................................................................10
Health............................................................................................................................10
Taste.............................................................................................................................10
Incentive........................................................................................................................10
2.3.9. Maslow Hierarchy Need Theory.............................................................................11
Physiological Need........................................................................................................11
Safety............................................................................................................................11
Social & Belongingness Needs.....................................................................................12
Consumer Analysis Report 16
Self-Esteem...................................................................................................................12
Self Actualization...........................................................................................................12
2.4. Nominated products for high involvement products..................................................13
2.5. Compare/contrast for the week’s purchases and the nominated product.................14
3. KEY INSIGHTS & RECOMMENDATIONS..........................................................................14
4. REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................16
Consumer Analysis Report 16
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background & Purpose of Report
It is very important to analyze the factors that influence the buying decisions of a consumer.
For instance, there are several personal, external and internal factors that can transform a
customer’s ‘no’ decision into a yes or vice versa. Thus, it is indispensible to examine those
factors that influence and predict behavior of consumers. It is possible to say that the overall
agenda of this report is to develop an understanding of the consumer and how a consumer
understanding is a key input to the creation of an effective and efficient marketing mix strategy.
In this report, the overall purchase behavior of the customer is analyzed with the help of
integrating marketing theories and concepts. For this purpose, a sufficient number of tables and
charts have been also used in the main body of the paper.
1.2. Description of the Consumer
The consumer is a male person of age 25. He is independent as he works as a part-time
employee in a retail store. He is not married and lives with his friends and relatives in
Melbourne. Currently, he is doing his bachelors from the Federation University of Australia. As
far as Psychographics are concerned, it is possible to say that the consumer prefers a healthy
life style that’s why whenever he purchases a product or obtains service he takes into account
quality and healthy items that are highly reliable and of high quality. Particularly, with reference
to Roy Morgan Values Segments, it won’t be wrong to say that the consumer belongs to two
values segments including young optimism and socially aware. It’s worth mentioning here that
values segments refer to a ground-breaking system of market segmentation that goes further
than demographics and psychographics in order to discover the values, states of minds and
attitudes that stimulate consumer behavior ("About Values Segments", 2017). The consumer is
socially aware because he is highly socially active. He likes to search for new and different
things that have some value. He looks for detailed information about available alternatives and
then takes into consideration the outcomes of each alternative vigilantly before taking a final
decision. Moreover, he belongs to value segment of ‘young optimism’ where he positively
thinks about every aspect of life. They tend to see positive sides of things ("Young Optimism",
2017).
Consumer Analysis Report 16
2. MAIN ANALYSIS
In 7 days (1 week), the consumer has purchased 22 products including both cheap and
expensive products. All the goods and services that are bought by the consumer are included in
the separate excel file with a relevant and structured categorization. Now it is important to
analyze the shopping behavior of the consumer using below-mentioned marketing theories and
concepts of buyer behavior.
2.1. Purchasing Behavior
After analyzing the buying pattern of the consumer, it can be stated that a large portion of the
shopping has done by the customer on week days while few products and services have been
obtained on weekends.
2.2. Customer value and Value Proposition
In order to make a product more functional, the quality and features of a product or a service are
enhanced and this is called value adding. It can be claimed that the customer value proposition
is all about developing and delivering the value of the products. In other words, it refers to a
business or marketing statement that explains why a buyer should purchase a product or avail a
service. While planning marketing strategies marketing planners consider the importance of
developing value proposition (Gunasekaran, Krishnadevarajan & Lawrence, 2012).
2.3. Description/analysis of the decision making for the week’s purchases
2.3.1. Customer’s Buying (Purchase)
The purchase is itself involves a decision –making process that consumers used related to
market transactions before, during, and after the buying of a good or service (Lee, 2005). Here
we can analyze the consumer decision making process using the following steps.
2.3.2. Product Need Recognition
Consumer Analysis Report 16
Without the recognition of the need, the purchases of the consumer cannot be made (Karimi,
2013). For instance, the need for water, juice, pizza, dinner was triggered by the consumer’s
thirst and hunger. In the same vein, the need for the purchase of Samsung tab was triggered by
external factors including word of mouth by friends and media advertisement.
2.3.3. Evaluation of Alternatives
Before taking a final decision, a consumer values all available product alternatives. The
evaluation process is also influenced by the factor of involvement. In case the customer is
positive and there is high involvement, then he/she will assess various companies or brands;
but if there is low involvement, only one company or brand will be assessed by the customer
(Lee, 2005). By looking at the spreadsheet, it becomes clear that for some of the products, the
customers had alternatives and for some others, there were no substitutes available. For
instance, the customers had no alternatives for milk, water, medicine, and car fuel and iPhone
charger. And the customer evaluated different other brand and companies before buying the
Samsung tab and the novel.
2.3.4. Post Purchase Behavior
At this stage, the consumer will compare the purchased items with his earlier expectations and
will be either satisfied or dissatisfied. This satisfaction or dissatisfaction undeniably can impact
on the decision process for same purchases from the same brand in the future. In case, the
customer got satisfied it will make the customer a loyal customer and assessment of alternative
stages will repeatedly be reduced or skipped altogether.
2.3.5. Decision-Making Time
Decision-making time is highly based on the level of involvement in buying the product by the
consumer. For example, if a customer is highly involved in the buying decision, then he or she is
most likely to take a lot of time in making the final choice of the item. On the contrary, if the
involvement level is low, the purchase will not have any preplanning and will not consume much
Consumer Analysis Report 16
time. The excel spreadsheet indicates that the consumer during one week of shopping has
taken less time on purchasing most of the items as those were low involvement products. In
contrast, the consumer has taken almost 4-5 days in purchasing high involvement products.
2.3.6. Shopping on Week/Weekend Days
The information available on excel sheet clearly shows that the consumer made few purchases
on weekend and majority of the purchases have done on week days. For example, out of 22
total purchased items, the consumer bought only 7 products on weekend and rest of the items
on weekdays. Similarly, the consumer bought the most luxury products on weekend after
spending few days on planning and decision-making process.
Weekend29%
Weekdays71%
Week days/Weekends
2.3.7. Payment Mode
The customer used only two methods of payment and that are cash and credit card. The
payment mode section of the spreadsheet points out that the customer has purchased only 8
product using cash. It means the customer provided currency in return of goods and services.
On the other hand, the credit card has been used to purchases 14 products. It can be seen that
the customer has made mostly high priced products through credit card. And cash has been
used to buy daily basic items.
Consumer Analysis Report 16
2.3.8. Influencing Factors
As it is mentioned in the starting of the report that consumer buying decision and buying
patterns or behaviors can be influenced by both internal and external factors. In this shopping of
7 days, different factors have undoubtedly impacted on the decision-making of the consumer.
The factors that have been analyzed in this manner are:
Price
Health
Quality
Convenience
Taste
Incentive
Services
Price17%
Health13%
Quality19%
Convienience23%
Taste12%
Incentive3% Service
13%
Influening Factors
ConvenienceIt is important to say that convenience has been the most impactful factor. It is mainly because
the customer personally prefers straightforwardness and convenience. Among all other
influential factors, convenience is of 23 percent and it has the largest contribution as an
influential factor.
Consumer Analysis Report 16
QualityIt is second most important factor o which based the customer has made most of its purchases.
It depicts the customer is quality conscious. He prefers originality and genuineness. It is on
number two with 19% influence.
PriceSeveral marketers and experts claim that price is one of the most influential factors that attract
consumers toward purchasing. In other words, majority consumers generally made their buying
on the basis of low price. As far as buying of this consumer is concerned, it won’t be wrong to
say by looking at excel sheet that consumer has considered the price element while buying his
desired products. Price is just behind the element of quality and it is 17%.
ServiceThe consumer is somehow attracted by seeing the customer services of products. Customer
services play a very important role in the competitive environment of today. Businesses all over
the world are paying great attention to this aspect. Similarly, this element stands on 4 th position
with 13 percent.
HealthThe factor of heath also influenced the customer decision in a great way. Its part is 13 percent.
As it is mentioned before that the consumer is highly heath and quality conscious, so he did not
overlook these factors while making buying decision.
TasteThe taste percentage is 12 percent. It is adequate but obviously very less than other factors. In
buying eatable items like dinner, ice-cream, pizza Pepsi etc, the consumer was greatly
influenced by this factor
IncentiveThe percentage of incentive influential factor is just 3% which is not enough. So it can be said
that the consumer is not much attracted by looking at the incentive element of products.
Consumer Analysis Report 16
2.3.9. Maslow Hierarchy Need Theory
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a popular model associated with motivational factors that start
with basic human needs such as friendship, love, security, and ascends upwards to the
increasingly high- level, self- actualization needs of human that a person forms and by this
mean becomes more affluent (Lester, 2009). The consumer buying behavior can be analyzed in
the light of Maslow Hierarchy Need theory.
Physiological83%
Safety4%
Social9%
Esteem4%
Masslow Heirarchy
Physiological NeedThis basic level of hierarchy includes basic human needs such as air, food, drink, shelter,
warmth, sex and sleep (Gawel, 1997). It is possible to say that the consumer has spent much of
his money on buying items that fulfill physiological needs. For instance, he has purchased
dinner, water, ice-cream, Pepsi, fruits, pizza and vegetables.
Safety These are second level needs that are associated with living a safe life. A number of studies
claim that this level of needs include environment security, employment, resources, health, etc
Consumer Analysis Report 16
Gawel, 1997). The consumer has spent $5 on fulfilling his safety needs. He purchased medicine
during seven days of shopping.
Social & Belongingness Needs
In Maslow’s hierarchy, the social needs include love, recognition and belonging. The need for
emotional relationships at this level drives behavior of human. Following are some of the things
that satisfy social needs
Friendships
Family
Social groups
Community groups
Churches and religious institutions (Poston, 2009).
The consumer has purchased 2 items for fulfilling his social needs. The most high involvement
product with highest price is associated with this level of need.
Self-EsteemAt this level self-esteem is met where elements like confidence, self-worth, achievement, and
respect are achieved. These are high level needs which cannot be fulfilled from the market. It
can be said that the book is the product that has relation with self-esteem. It means the
customer has spent $15 on fulfilling this level of needs.
Self Actualization This highest level of human needs is achieved when people are able to realize personal
potential, self-fulfillment, and personal growth and crest experiences (Poston, 2009). The excel
spreadsheet clearly shows that the consumer has not achieved this level of need as it takes a
lot of time and cannot be purchased by money.
2.4. Nominated products for high involvement products
Consumer Analysis Report 16
A consumer’s behavior is influenced by several factors. Based on experience and knowledge of
a consumer, some consumers may take purchase decisions quickly and other consumers may
require more information and be more involved in the decision process prior to making a
purchase choice. The involvement level reflects how individually significant or interested the
consumer is in consuming a product or service and how much detail the consumer needs to
take a purchase decision (Tanner & Raymond, 2010).
A higher risk and normally higher price tags are associated with high-involvement decisions. For
purchasing high involvement products, the consumers mostly take a lot of time as these
products are not bought often. With regard to 7 days shopping of the consumer, it is possible to
say that there are only a few high involvement products that he bought during one week of
shopping. These products are Samsung Tab, book, and genuine iPhone charger.
1
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
3
19
Product Involvement
High InvolvementLow Involvement
2.5. Compare/Contrast for the week’s purchases and the nominated product
Consumer Analysis Report 16
During this shopping, the consumer has shopped both low and high involvement products. High
involvement products are elaborated above, whereas low-involvement buying typically involves
low risk and inexpensive products (Hamlin & Welsh, 1999). The total number of purchased
products is 22. Majority of products have been purchased during week days and these are
called week’s purchases. There are almost 19 week products for which the consumer had no
prior planning. For that reason it is also called impulse buying. For instance, he got ice-cream,
Pepsi, pizza, chicken wings, soaps and detergent etc by getting influenced by taste and internal
factors like thirst and hunger. He had no plans for purchasing those items. During one week of
shopping, most of the good and services are referred to low involvement buying as the
consumer took only a few seconds and minutes to bought those less-risky and inexpensive
products. On the other hand, the nominated product which is Samsung Tab took a lot of
consumer time, not seconds or minutes. It took 14 days of the consumer. The nominated
product shows the customers personality, standing and justifying lifestyle. The decision of
buying this nominated product took a lot of consumer’s time and was influenced by friends to a
great extent
3. KEY INSIGHTS & RECOMMENDATIONS
The importance of analyzing consumer behavior cannot be ignored. Consumer Behavior
mainly deals with the different stages a consumer experience before buying products or
services for his end use. For that reason, it is very important to examine customers’ interest,
needs and wants. Without a doubt, there are a number of external and internal factors that set
and alter consumers’ buying pattern and behaviors. So it is also vital to build a complete
understanding of those factors. Experts also argue that it is very important for especially
marketers to understand the psychology of consumers. They need to understand how
consumers can be influenced by their immediate surrounds, family members, friends, relatives,
colleagues and so on.
With reference to above report and excel shopping matrix, it can be concluded that the
customer has been influenced by his immediate external surrounding including friends and
family. In the same vein, his few buying decisions were affected by internal factors such as
hunger, thirst, enjoyment, taste etc. In the wake of analyzing the data on spread sheet, it can be
concluded that customer is highly health and price conscious. He has taken into account the
elements of price and quality while purchasing most of the items of basic needs.
Consumer Analysis Report 16
Following suggestions can be made in the perspective of consumer’s buying behavior.
The picture of factors influencing the consumer buying pattern could be clearer. For
instance, the factor of quality has contributed 19%; likewise price has contributed 17%. It
means the customer has considered almost both factors while buying most of the items.
It is also clear quality products are normally available at high price. So this pattern
portrays a confusing picture.
The consumer has purchased few products related to social and safety needs. It is
understandable that these levels of needs were difficult to meet within such a short time
span. But at the same time the consumer should have spent more on fulfilling these
needs to create the balance.
The number of purchased products are although enough, but it should have been more.
4. REFERENCES
Consumer Analysis Report 16
Hamlin, R. P., & Welsh, R. S. (1999). Low Involvement Decision Models: Can They Exist?. In Proceedings of the ANZMAC 99 Conference, University of New South Wales, Sydney. Available: http://anzmac. info/conference/1999/Site/H/Hamlin. pdf.
About Values Segments. (2017). Roy Morgan. Retrieved 13 August 2017, from http://www.roymorgan.com/products/values-segments/about-values-segments
Tanner, J., & Raymond, M. A. (2010). Low-Involvement versus high-involvement buying decisions and the consumer’s decision-making process. Marketing Principles.
Karimi, S. (2013). A purchase decision-making process model of online consumers and its influential factora cross sector analysis.
Poston, B. (2009). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. surgical technologist, 41(8), 347-353.
Gunasekaran, S., Krishnadevarajan, P., & Lawrence, F. B. (2012). Sales and Marketing
Optimization: Developing Competitive Value Propositions in Distribution. (p. 128). Texas: Natl
Assn Wholesale-Distr. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.pk/books?
id=jyromTNzPB4C&pg=PA128&dq=value+proposition+in+marketing&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUK
EwjDy8bRiebPAhWLfxoKHeibAnsQ6AEIGTAA#v=onepage&q=value%20proposition%20in
%20marketing&f=false
Gawel, J. E. (1997). Herzberg's theory of motivation and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 5(11), 3.
Lee, S. H. (2005). An application of a five-stage consumer behaviour decision making model: An exploratory study of Chinese purchasing of imported health food (Doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Business Administration-Simon Fraser University).
Lester, D. (2013). Measuring Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Psychological Reports: Mental &
Physical Health, 113, 15- 17.
Young Optimism. (2017). Roy Morgan. Retrieved 13 August 2017, from http://www.roymorgan.com/products/values-segments/young-optimism
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