Consumer Buying Behaviour & Integtrated Marketing Communications

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Consumer Buying Behavior & Integrated

Marketing Communications

© 2014 Archana Dadhe & Smashwords

First Edition: October 2016

This book is dedicated to

My father late Shri B. V. Dadhe &

Mother late Mrs. Sudha for their unconditional love and support

&

My sister Dr. Nilima & nephew Mr. Tushar & Mr. Gaurav

For their words of encouragement, affection & support.

PREFACE

Organizations in both the private and public sectors have learned that communicating effectively and efficiently with their target audiences is critical to their success. In the past few years, so much has changed in the field of marketing like the increasing role of the Internet, the emphasis on relationship marketing and business partnerships in the channel of distribution, and the concept of integrated marketing communications.

The principal task of the marketing function operating under the marketing concept is not to manipulate customers to do what suits the interest of the firm, but rather to find effective and efficient means of making the business do what suits the interest of the customer.

Chapter discusses the consumer as an individual. It begins with an exploration of consumer needs and motivations, recognizing the rational and emotional bases of many consumer actions. It introduces the reader to the study of consumer behavior, its diversity, its development, and buying influences on consumers and organizational buyers, consumer motivation, perception, learning & attitudes. It contains a detailed discussion of ethical considerations in marketing and consumer practices.

It introduces a simple model of consumer decision making, which provides the framework for understanding and relating the consumer behavior principles.

Chapters in this book provides readers with a detailed overview of the critical Marketing research process and the techniques associated with it.

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is an approach used by organizations to brand and coordinate their communication efforts. The primary idea behind an IMC strategy is to create a seamless experience for consumers across different aspects of the marketing mix. The brand's core image and messaging are reinforced as each marketing communication channel works together as parts of a unified whole rather than in isolation. It will be helpful for the students as today’s business environment is very dynamic & cut throat competition everywhere.

Cases present companies, industries, and situations that are interesting, easily recognized & very useful for the students.

Dr. Archana Dadhe

CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR & INTEGRATED MARKETING

COMMUNICATIONS

Contents

1) Chapter I

2) Chapter II

3) Chapter III

4) Chapter IV

5) Chapter V

6) Chapter VI

7) Case Studies

CONTENTS

Chapter I: Concept of consumer personality & brand personality as related to STP, buying influences on consumers and organizational buyers, consumer motivation, perception, learning & attitudes.

Chapter II: Reference groups, buying process, factors influencing buying decisions, models of buying behavior, post purchase behavior.

Chapter III: Marketing research, methods of research and research process, data collection techniques, sources of secondary data for marketing decisions, relevance of secondary data, marketing metrics.

Chapter IV: IMC definition, scope, elements, role, etc., models of IMC, media and media planning, IMC strategy and process, new media.

Chapter V: IMC and brand communication process, role of advertising in branding process BTL,OOH, etc., promotions in IMC – consumer, trade sales, co-branding, in-branding, etc.

Chapter VI: Creativity and innovation in IMC, packaging and labeling in IMC, PR and ethics in PR, corporate communications, International communications, cross cultural issues in IMC.

Case Studies

Chapter I

Consumer Personality

Personality is sum total of an individual’s psychological traits, characteristics, motives, habits, attitudes, beliefs and outlooks. Personality is the very essence of individual differences. In consumer behavior, personality is defined as those inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how person responds to his environmental stimuli. Personality is enduring and ensures that a person’s responses are consistent over time.

Meaning of Personality

Personality of a person is the result of his individual traits. Personality distinguishes one person from another. It also determines how and why a consumer behaves in a particular way. A person's attitudes, his values in life, and the influence exerted by the people around him shape his personality. As a person grows up, his personality is altered or modified by the people or events surrounding him or due to his education.

Personality defined is the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental--that characterize a unique individual ‘or’ inner psychological characteristic that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment.' John Holland (1996) developed a theory on personality. This theory outlined how there are four aspects which influence a person’s personality these are:

1. The external aspect: How a person interacts with other people.

2. The internal aspect: A combination of their values and attitudes.

3. The dynamic aspect: Faced with a new situation how they behave.

4. The consistent aspect: Their characteristic style.

Holland then went on to outline 6 different types of personality, these are:

• Realistic - Practical, physical, hands-on, tool-oriented

• Investigative - Analytical, intellectual, scientific, explorative

• Artistic - Creative, original, independent, chaotic

• Social - Cooperative, supporting, helping, healing/nurturing

• Enterprising - Competitive environments, leadership, persuading

• Conventional - Detail-oriented, organizing, clerical

This is Holland’s six different types of personality in the form of a hexagon (RIASEC). Holland outlined how the distance between each type of personality determined how close each personality is related.

Figure 1.1

Brand Personality

Brand Personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name. A brand personality is something to which the consumer can relate, and an effective brand will increase its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits. This is the added-value that a brand gains, aside from its functional benefits.

Joseph Plummer, a former research director of Young & Rubicam, indicated that there are three components to a brand image: attributes, consequences, and brand personality.

The task of creating a brand image often needs to move beyond attributes or feelings, to include the ultimate consequences of product use and the relationship of product use to people’s life-styles, needs, and values.  A positioning strategy that focuses only on attributes or feelings can be shallow and less effective than one that is based on a richer knowledge of the customer.

Figure 1.2

Brand personality characteristics often suggest a brand’s latent appeal. When identified and cultivated they can effectively guide the creative tone of communications. For example, Mercedes is relatively assertive and in control, while BMW is more desirable. The brands have different and differentiating personalities. Mercedes confidently plays on its heritage with the fitting tagline, The Best or Nothing. In contrast, The Ultimate Driving Machine accurately captures the BMW personality.

Brand personality, just like real peoples personalities, goes beyond just demographic descriptors. People can typically characterize each other on hundreds of personality trait adjectives. Thus we may describe someone as being warm, stupid, mean-spirited, aggressive, etc. While people could potentially be measured on infinite trait adjectives, personality researchers have generally reduced the various adjectives to five basic underlying dimensions or factors:

1. Extraversion/introversion (example adjectives: adventurous-cautious, sociable-reclusive)

2. Agreeableness (examples: good-natured-irritable; gentle-headstrong)

3. Conscientiousness (examples: responsible-undependable; tidy-careless)

4. Emotional stability (composed-excitable; calm-anxious)

5. Culture (artistically-sensitive-insensitive; intellectual-unreflective; refined-crude; imaginative-simple)

Similarly, a brand could be characterized as adventurous, headstrong, undependable, excitable, and somewhat crude.

There are five main types of brand personalities: excitement, sincerity, ruggedness, competence and sophistication. Customers are more likely to purchase a brand if its personality is similar to their own. Examples of traits for the different types of brand personalities:

Excitement: Carefree, Spirited, and Youthful

Sincerity: Genuine, Kind, Family-Oriented, and Thoughtful

Ruggedness: Rough, Tough, Outdoors, Athletic

Competence: Successful, Accomplished, Influential, A leader

Sophistication: Elegant, Prestigious, and Pretentious

In addition to being characterized on these personality traits, brand personalities like human personalities-imply associated feelings.  Thus, just as we can think of someone (or some brand) as being adventurous and excitable, we are likely also to associate with this person (or brand) feelings of urgency, excitement, or fun.  Alternatively, the act of buying or consuming some other brand might carry with it associated feelings of security and calmness.

Further, a brand’s personality also creates an association of that brand with certain important life values.  A value can be understood perhaps as an enduring belief which guides actions and judgments across specific situations.

Examples of values are the pursuit of an exciting life, the search for self-respect, the need to be intellectual, the desire for self-expression, and so on.  Individuals differ in the extent to which they hold different values as being central to their lives: while one person may highly value the pursuit of fun and excitement, another may be more concerned with self-expression or security.  A brand that acquires a distinctive personality may get strongly associated with a certain value, and strongly attract people who attach great importance to that value.

A personality has its roots in the identity but is strongly externally focused.

Like any real person – personality is what you want to project in various situations.  You will behave differently when you are in different situations.  Thus you will have more than one personality.  In marketing you will try to project brand personalities that best fit specific (target segments/markets).

Like real people, it is not just what you want to project personality wise, it is more about how others will perceive you.  The same applies to marketing, but here it is the target market that determines what the brand means to them.  Companies will try to develop the brand personality and image, but as in all good marketing, it is the customer who is the most important element.  What the customer perceives and decides is what matters to them and then to the company.

Thus it is important to work with the target market (include them) in developing an effective, working brand personality.

In psychology, three elements are defined as a part of personality:

* Private personality (thoughts, feelings, fantasies, ambitions, talents)

* Public personality (how you want others to see you)

* Attributed personality (how others see you)

The private personality overlaps identity; the public and attributed personalities indicate the external aim and nature of personality.

What often matters more than the specific personality attributed to a brand is the question of whether a brand has any clear personality at all. 

Is Brand Personality Important?

For the advertiser, the development and reinforcement of a personality for a brand serves to differentiate the brand from competition.  At a time when many brands are at or near parity in terms of technology (or are perceived to be so by consumers), the only difference between brands is often the personality that is associated with them.  By creating a favorable and liked brand personality, a marketer can set his brand apart, which often enables the marketer to gain market share and/or to charge a higher price (or, at minimum, to avoid losing share to competitive brands that charge lower prices or run frequent consumer or trade promotions).  Further, a brand personality is often unique and non-pre-emptible: while competitors can match your brand’s features and price, they usually cannot duplicate your brand personality (and, if they try to do so, they may end up giving your brand free advertising).

As part of this self-defining process, consumers select those brands that have a brand personality that is congruent with their own self-concept. 

MARKET SEGMENTATION

The process of defining and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics.

Its objective is to design a marketing mix that precisely matches the expectations of customers in the targeted segment.

Market segmentation can be defined as the process of dividing a market into different homogeneous groups of consumers.

Market consists of buyers and buyers vary from each other in different ways. Variation depends upon different factors like wants, resources, buying attitude, locations, and buying practices. By segmentation, large heterogeneous markets are divided into smaller segments that can be managed more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match to their unique needs. So, market segmentation is beneficial for the companies serving larger markets.

Advantages of Market Segmentation

* Helps distinguish one customer group from another within a given market.

* Facilitates proper choice of target market.

* Facilitates effective tapping of the market.

* Helps divide the markets and conquer them.

* Helps crystallize the needs of the target buyers and elicit more predictable responses from them; develop marketing programs on a more predictable base; develop marketing offers that are most suited to each group.

* Helps achieve the specialization required in product distribution, promotion and pricing for matching the customer group and develop marketing offers and appeals that match the needs of such group.

* Makes the marketing effort more efficient and economic.

* Concentrate efforts on the most productive and profitable segments, instead of frittering them over irrelevant, or unproductive, or unprofitable segments.

* Helps spot the less satisfied segments and succeed by satisfying such segments.

* Brings benefits not only to the marketer but to the customer as well.

When segmentation attains sophistication, customers and companies can choose each other and stay together.

Criteria for selecting Market Segments

Measurable

A segment should be measurable. It means you should be able to tell how many potential customers and how many businesses are out there in the segment.

Accessible

A segment should be accessible through channels of communication and distribution like: sales force, transportation, distributors, telecom, or internet.

Durable

Segment should not have frequent changes attribute in it.

Substantial

Make sure that size of your segment is large enough to warrant as a segment and large enough to be profitable.

Unique Needs

Segments should be different in their response to different marketing efforts (Marketing Mix).

Consumer and business markets cannot be segmented on the bases of same variables because of their inherent differences.

Four basic factors that affect market segmentation are

1. Clear identification of the segment,

2. Measurability of its effective size,

3. Its accessibility through promotional efforts, and

4. Its appropriateness to the policies and resources of the company.

The four basic market segmentation strategies are based on

1. Geographical differences,

2. Demographic,

3. Behavioral and

4. Psychographic

Bases of Market Segmentation

There are several ways or methods to segment a market. Such ways or methods depend upon consumer characteristics and their responses to the products or services.

A paradigm shift has taken place in the way the Indian corporate is viewing customers. There has been a shift from organizing by-products to organizing by-market segments. For example, Maruti is segmenting its customers on the basis of economic and premium class, which was not done previously.

I. GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION:

In geographic segmentation, the market is sub divided on the basis of area.

Region: Regional segmentation is made because regional differences exist in respect of demand for products. For example, buyers from south India are different from the buyers in north.

Urban / Rural: There are differences in buying behavior of urban and rural customers. Accordingly, marketing strategies must be designed depending upon their likes, dislikes, moods, preferences, fashions and buying habits.

Locality: Consumer’s buying behavior is also reflected by the locality within a particular city. For instance, there are differences in terms of buying patterns of people residing at Parel and Parle, within a city like Mumbai.

II. DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION:

Demography refers to study about the different aspects of population. Markets can be divided on demographic factors like age, gender, education etc. The various demographic factors are:

Age: The primary method of analyzing markets by age is to divide the total population into age groups and analyze the wants and needs of each group.

For Example - McDonald's segments by age, and directs different ads to different segments. The Ronald McDonald ads target children with products aimed at the younger age groups. Ads for a quick breakfast before work are aimed at the adult segment. Proctor and Gamble segments by gender and offers the