00unit3.docx

Consumer Behavior: Consumer behavior is defined as the behavior that consumer display in searching for purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of product and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. Consumer behavior focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption related items. This includes what they buy, why they buy it, when they buy it, where they buy it, how often they buy it, how often they use it, how they

evaluate it after the purchase and the impact of such evaluation on future,

and how they dispose of it. In another words, consumer behavior can be define as the behavior of individuals in regards to acquiring, using, and disposing of products, services, ideas or experiences. Consumer behavior also includes the acquisition and use of information. Thus, communication with consumers and receiving feedback for them is a crucial part of consumer behavior which is of great interest to marketers.(Kent Huffman 2007) Customers and Consumers: The term “customer” it typically used to refer to someone who regularly purchases from a particular store or company. Thus, a person who shops at we use Shopping Mail or who uses Texaco gasoline is viewed as a customer of these firms. The term “Consumer” more generally refers to anyone engaging in any of the activities used in our definition of consumer behavior. Therefore, a customer is defined in terms of a specific firm while a consumer is not. The traditional viewpoint has been to define consumers strictly in terms of economic goods and services. This position holds that consumers are potential purchasers of products and services offered for sale. (Jennifer Aaker 1998) Marketing Strategy: Marketing strategy is conceptually very simple. It begins with an analysis of the

target

market

which

includes

company,

conditions,

competitors,

and

consumers. Next, Market segmentation: This involves identifying product-related

need sets, grouping customers with similar need sets, describing each group and selecting an attractive segment to serve. The marketing mix includes the product, price, communications, distribution, and services provided to the target market. The final stage Outcomes involves analysis of firm’s product position and customer satisfaction resulting from implementation of the strategy.(Tanner Okun1990) Brand preference: Brand preferences represent a fundamental step in understanding consumer choices. A deeper understanding of such preference dynamics can help marketing mangers’ better design marketing program and build a long term relationship with consumers. Despite the existence of some studies investigating how brand preference is built and changed, most of them focus on examining factors from consumer behavior perspective or advertising perspective. (Schmitt 1999) Customer satisfaction: Customers are always aiming to get maximum satisfaction from the products or services that they buy. Winning in today’s marketplace entails the need to build customer relationship and not just building the products; building customer relationship means delivering superior value over competitors to the target customers. Whether an organization provides quality services or not will depend on the customers’ feedback on the satisfaction they get from consuming the products, since higher levels of quality lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction (Kotler& Keller. 2009) Advertisement effectiveness: Advertising effectiveness pertains to how well a company's advertising accomplishes the intended. Small companies use many different statistics or metrics to measure their advertising effectiveness. These measurements can be used for all types of advertising, including television, radio, direct mail, Internet and even billboard advertising. A company's advertising effectiveness usually increases over time with many messages or exposures. But certain advertising objectives can be realized almost immediately. (Rick Suttle 2009)

Brand awareness: Brand

awareness

potential customers, Expressed

usually

is

and as

a

is

a

Extent

to

which

a brand is

correctly associated with

percentage

the primary goal of advertising in

of target

the

market,

a

recognized

particular brand

early months or

by

product.

awareness years

is of

a product's introduction.(Aaker1999) Celebrity endorsement: Celebrities are people who enjoy public recognition by a large share of a certain group of people. Whereas attributes like attractiveness, extraordinary lifestyle or special skills are just examples and specific common characteristics cannot be observed, it can be said that within a corresponding social group celebrities generally differ from the social norm and enjoy a high degree of public awareness. Last but not least, celebrities act as spokespeople in advertising to promote products and services (Friedman 1995) Brand preference in soft drinks sector: William R. George (1999) reveals purpose of study of factors responsible for brand preference in soft drink industry, increasing competition more, due to globalization is motivating many companies to base their strategies almost entirely on building brands. Brand preference means to compare the different brands and opt for the most preferred brand. This brand preference is influenced by various factors. In the identification of factors affecting the brand preference, it was concluded that Brand persona is the most effective factor that affects the brand preference. This Brand persona deals with the personality aspects or the external attributes of brand, thus it can be said that consumer prefer any brand by looking at the external attributes of a brand. Colour and flavour rule consumer preferences:

Donnelly (1995) said intensity of colour and the flavours are the key drivers behind consumer acceptance of soft drinks. But packaging and labelling are not as important for winning over consumers, according to findings published in the journal Food Quality and Preference, The study involved consumers at different stages of development and highlights the importance of adopting a “sensory marketing approach,” said the researchers from French research organisation Adriant, the University of Rennes. “Companies need to continuously innovate to maintain market leadership,” wrote the researchers. “When the market is overloaded the challenge consists in creating innovative products able to attract and satisfy consumers.”“This experiment showed the feasibility of the proposed multi-sensory

design

method

based

on

mixed

qualitative

and

quantitative

approaches.” The study also demonstrates the importance of flavour and colour selection for new products. The global flavours market was been valued at some US$18bn in 2006 (Business Insights). Meanwhile, the value of the international colourings market was estimated at around $1.15bn in 2010, up 2.5% from $1.07bn in 2007, according to Leatherhead Food International (LFI). Natural colours now make up 31 per cent of the colourings market, compared with 40 per cent for synthetics, according to LFI.

Sense of consumers: Stephen Daniells (2008) said these four factors were identified for the formulation: four colour intensities), three flavourings, two label types (soft versus hard), and two pack sizes (standard versus oversize). By using both quantitative (hedonic testing) and qualitative (focus groups) approaches, the researchers found that “the main factors which drive consumer preference for this concept are colour intensity and flavouring”. Indeed, colour intensity accounted for 43% and flavour 32% of the consumers’ overall liking. “Pack size and label type are taken into account by the consumer to a lesser extent,” they added. “This methodology of a qualitative screening associated to a conjoint analysis on relevant sensory attributes has shown good performances to fit consumers’ expectation: it has now

to be reproduced, as every brand, concept and product is a unique combination designed for a specific consumer group,” concluded the researchers. Taste or health: Beverly J. Tepper (1998) examined the relative contributions of taste and health considerations on consumer liking and purchase intent of cola drinks. Eight types of commercial cola drinks were evaluated by 305 adult consumers who also completed a brief questionnaire on soft drink consumption habits. Data were analyzed using factor analysis. Results revealed that purchase intent of cola drinks was strongly related to degree of liking and to several key sensory attributes including saltiness, drinks flavor and greasiness. These variables emerged as the first factor in the analysis, suggesting that consumers perceive these characteristics as being most important in their choice of cola drinks. Second described a health dimension and was related to respondents' attitudes toward fat in the diet. Third factor comprised two remaining sensory attributes (color and crunchiness), which apparently were of minor importance to the respondents. These data suggest that in spite of current concern about reducing dietary fat, health remains secondary to taste in the selection of cola drinks for consumers in this population. Consumer awareness and consumption pattern of soft drink product: MitaSujan (1990) aimed to investigate the degree of brand awareness of various soft drink products in relation to background and education of the household, the consumption pattern of various soft drink products consumed by respondents in the light of their areas, income levels and education. a sample of200 respondents comprising 100 form rural area and 100 from urban area were taken. Data are analyzed with the help of mean. The finding of this study reveals that there is low degree of brand awareness in rural areas, whereas there is a moderate degree of brand awareness in urban area. The highly educated rural and urban respondents have high degree of brand awareness for soft drink products, and the less educated rural and urban respondents have low degree of brand awareness for soft drink products.