This particular report focuses on towards how the understanding of the behaviour of the buyers helps the marketers to make prediction regarding the behaviour of the customers in the market and will also provide recommendations based upon that. The chosen topic for the project is the purchase triggers (Option 2) related to the smart phone in Australia and will focus upon the buyer behaviour related to Samsung S8 which has been newly launched in the Australian market. After the conduction of the analysis in this topic, three recommendations will be provided in order to suggest the ways how the purchase behaviour of the customers can be influenced and also in the analysis stage, it will be discussed the stages that the customers go through before buying a product from the market.
This report will consist of two main parts which are analysis and recommendations and it will focus upon various sub parts for the discussion of various topics regarding the understanding of the customer’s behaviour.
In the year 2004, Moon said that is one of the most important issue in the behaviour of the customer the way in which the customers develops their decision, adapt to it and use the strategies in order to make the decision. The decision making pattern of the customers are the behaviour of the customers regarding the adaption of a product from the market and providing feedback for the same (Solomon, 2014). The decision making of the customers is a great topic to research on and in the earlier times, the customer decision making was focused on the fact of the behaviour of the purchase of the customers. But later, the marketing concepts were introduced in the study and for that reason; there are various concepts that comes into act while researching on the buyer behaviour of the customers in the market. In the year 2009, it was stated by Kotler that, customer behaviour is the subject which focuses on towards dealing with the behaviour of an individual person or a group regarding buying of a product or service, using and disposition of products and also experience or ideas that can satisfy the demands of the customers (Hawkins et al., 2010).
There are various factors that can have an influence on the behaviour of the customers while buying a smart phone like Samsung Galaxy S8 from the market and those factors will be discussed below.
The culture is the process with the help of which the human beings living in a same society share same kind of traditions, norms and rituals. The culture of a place is the one that determines the priority regarding the different specifications of a product and service. The products are also to be launched in the market according to different specification because all the products do not click in the same composition in a market and for that it needs to be modified before launch in the market (De Mooij, 2010). A product that goes with the culture of a place will be accepted in a better manner in that area than a product which is not ideal for a culture. The culture of a place is passed from one generation to another generation with some variations. The culture evolves with the generation and nowadays with the evolution of the technology most of the cultures over the world are changing.
Now, in the context of the assignment, the culture is an important determinant factor for the purchase behaviour of the people of Australia for Samsung Galaxy S8. As the modern culture of Australia is advancing regularly and with the coming up of the new technologies in the country the culture of the country is moving forward (Maghnati et al., 2012). So, it can be said that launching Samsung Galaxy S8 in Australia can provide a positive result among the customers and for that reason the customers of smart phone industry will adapt Samsung Galaxy S8 at it goes with the Australian culture and people are fond of using modern technological developed smart phones.
Apart from the cultural factors there are demographical factors of the organization that are there which can influence the customer buying behaviour of the organization. There is an age factor which can consist of the group of same people who takes up the same products of an organization. So, it can be said that among the demographic factors, the age factor plays a significant role in the buying the behaviour of the customers (Kang et al., 2011). There are various kinds of groups that are created by the marketer of the products and services according to the age of diverse amounts of customers.
With the help of the new Samsung S8, the Samsung not only targets the individual customers, but also targets the office going customers and business customers. There are many functions that are incorporated in the smart phone which helps the businessmen to keep a record of their daily activities in the business and also for that reason, the company follows the premium pricing for the product of the organization. So it can be said that the main targeted customers for Samsung S8 falls in the age category of 25 years and above. The main target with this particular product of the company is to blend the customers of the organization with the features of the smart phone that mainly focuses upon the businesses (Best, 2009). The adoption by the businesses is the main focus of the strategy that has been incorporated by Samsung.
Social status can be counted as another factor that influences that buying behaviour of the customers. The customers are more often influenced for buying a product or services from the market which uplifts the status of an individual in the society. Utilitarian approach is followed by the customers of the who organization are in the working class but the persons who have high respect in the society goes after the pricing of the products and tends to buy the products that have a premium pricing in the market. The personality of the customers as well as their social status determines the buying behaviour of the customers of the society. The personality is the factor which is set of exclusive traits of the human being and contains of confidence of the individual, flexibility, autonomy and defensiveness (Hollensen, 2015). There is also a factor called brand personality which emphasizes upon the fact that an individual tends to buy his product from the same brand and if he is satisfied with the purchase he repeats the purchase from the same brand. There are mainly three different classes in the society and the purchase behaviour of these categories of persons is different as mentioned below:
Upper class:
The upper class customers mainly buy the products with premium pricing tags from the market.
Middle class:
The middle class customers often buy the products with premium price tags but also look for the discounted items (Doyle & Stern, 2006).
Working Class:
The working class customers mainly look for the discounted products and services in the market.
Samsung Galaxy S8 which has been introduced in the market at a premium pricing range will have Australian customers from the upper segment of the economy. The customers can also be from the upper medium segment of the economy who owns many small businesses in the market.
Reference Group:
The reference group can also have an influence upon the purchase behaviour of the customers. Generally more than one people can form a group and when they have the power to influence the buying decision of a customer, they are generally known as the reference group (Cravens & Piercy, 2006). There are three ways in which the reference group tends to influence the buyers and they are informational, value expressive and utilitarian.
With the help of the information about the products, the reference groups can influence the customer. The information that the reference group have with them are the specifications regarding the product or service, its price and so on. The reference groups tend to influence the purchase decision of the buyer with the help of either positive or negative review about the product (Kotler & Keller, 2006). When the customers are positively influenced by the review of the reference groups, they are influenced positively to buy the product and when the influence is negative, the cancel their plan to buy the product from the market.
The reference groups also provide various information of the product, the customers are buying from the market and also provide information related to whether they are worth the value for money or not (Wilson & Gilligan, 2012). If the reference groups influence the customers that the product is worth the money, then the customers are influenced positively to buy the product from the market and if negatively influenced by the reference groups that the product is not worth the money, the customers can drop plan to buy it out.
Similarly, in case of Samsung Galaxy S8, the reference group can play a similar role and the customers’ purchase decision can be based on the review of the reference groups.
Family
Family members are considered as the most influential primary reference group. They assist in the decision making process by facilitating the buyer with the relevant information and suggestions and options that he or she can avail.
For example, in case of Samsung Galaxy S8, the decision of the potential buyer to purchase the product can be influenced by the family members like the parents can suggest him or her with other relevant products that they have personally used and can also facilitate the buyer with the product details and specifications that can make the decision process easy.
Role and status
Buyers are observed to choose a product that tends to reflect their own role and desired status within the society (Kotler et al., 2015). So, it can be said that status symbol is potentially essential for marketing.
Samsung S8 has been launched in the market as a premium product and thus it can be said that the product possess the ability adding value to the social status of the potential buyer. This can be an added advantage on the part of the buyer in addition to the product specifications and features.
Thus, from the above discussions, it can be said that needs of the consumers are influenced by external factors that include culture, subculture, demographics, social status, reference groups, family and marketing activities (Kotler et al., 2015). On the other hand the needs of the consumers are also influenced by internal factors that include the learning, memory, perception, emotion, personality and attitude.
So, these factors together lead to the development of consumer self concept and lifestyle that create needs and desires driving the five stage decision process on the part of the consumers. The five stage decision process includes the problem/needs recognition, searching for the alternatives, alternatives evaluation, purchase and post-purchase evaluation.
In the present competitive business environment, it is important for the business organizations to make efforts to offer that is required by the customers and that can suit their specific needs since it can lead to increased sales. However, achieving increased sales can be great challenge of the business organizations and so the business organizations like Samsung can adopt the certain recommendations to boost its sales and bring in new customers.
Debuting new products and services
It is important for the business organizations to create a brand image in market and make the product recognizable by the customers. Moreover, it is also the fact that the while offering the products and services to customers, the specific needs of the customers should be understood. On the other hand product development is also an important aspects since it would not only bring back the old customers, rather it would also attract the new customers (Armstrong et al., 2012). Thus, with the advanced features and product development, the customers might feel that the company has something or the other for everyone. The major aspect of consideration is that customers tend to differ from each other on the basis of their specific needs, wants and desires and so what might appear to be appealing for one customer might not appear appealing to the other. So, in this context, it is important for the business to add more variants of the products and this would provide the company with the opportunity to cover greater breadth of interests.
Besides, the above facts, it has also been observed that consumers always demand latest and greatest products and so making some modifications in the existing products can prove to be beneficial in attracting new customers. As for example, Samsung can make even slight modifications in its products S8 like increased RAM, internal storage or external storage capacity or some new features can help the company in attracting new customers to purchase the product. So, in this context, it is recommended to the business organization that whatever it does, it should emphasize upon keeping its products and services in line and consistent with the specific needs of the customers (Johnson et al., 2008). The major goal should be to encourage the customers to think of the particular brand whenever they think of buying the product within the category of the product line of the company i.e. the brand should be the most preferred brand by the customers.
As has been illustrated by various researchers and scholars like (Chaffey et al., 2009) that well defined marketing and advertising is important for the business organizations to create an awareness in the market and make the products and brand visible. In this context, planning is an important aspect since it proves to be beneficial on the part of the marketing managers to allocate the funds efficiently where required so that emphasis upon targeting the mass and designing campaigns that can reach more and more customers.
The business organizations can adopt three ways of advertising that include advertising through the print media, advertising through the social networking sites and the advertising through the digital media. The marketing manager should strive towards taking the decision of selecting the most effective media of advertising on the basis of the nature of the products. The business organizations in the recent times that is characterized with rapid advancements in technology and increasing trend of social networking sites can advertise its products online over the social networking sites (Jain & Haley, 2009). The products and its features can be advertised and promoted on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to makes the customers aware of the product, its features and its usefulness that would prove to be beneficial in creating a buzz for the product in the market thereby attracting new customers. The in context to sales promotion, the company can offer limited period sales offer with discounts to attract new customers.
Word of mouth marketing both online and offline can be considered to one of the best strategy of achieving increased sales and it also does not involve any cost. In this context, it is important on the part of the business organizations to identify the customers who have good experiences with the product and the organization should strive towards gaining an understanding of what made their experience so positive for the customers (Homburg et al., 2008). Thus, in this context, the organization can conduct a consumer satisfaction survey and identify the most satisfied customers and target those customers to encourage them to become company and product advocates so that they can share their experiences and pass on positive comments about the product to their family members, friends and online social friends. The company can also adopt the strategy of referral discount like when a new customer purchases the product and says that he has been referred by a current customer, and then the current customer should be offered some cash back. The company should also encourage its existing customers to share their views, opinions and positive experiences and write their reviews on social media sites and inviting them to post their reviews on the forums of the advocates. This would be beneficial since a good experience of one customer can appear to be persuasive in bringing the other customers towards purchasing the product. This, is because it is the perception of the customers that when a user of the product is providing good reviews about the product then the product must be efficient and is perceived as superior to other products in the market by the potential customers (Schwetje & Vaseghi, 2007). So, it stimulates the need and desire to the purchase the product.
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussions, it can be concluded that consumer behavior is complex and it is important on the part of the business organizations to value the customers and facilitate them with the required infraction so that they can take informed decision. Moreover, the decision of the consumer to purchase a product of a particular brand depends upon various external and internal factors and as consumer moves through the stages of purchase, he or she strive towards collecting more information about the product and tends to compare the product with the other products that are available in the market. So, it is important that the business organizations like Samsung should strive towards engaging the consumers and motivating them to get involved in activities like sharing their experiences online and offline, positing reviews about the product on the company website and also on social media sites and recommend the product to their asocial group that would prove to be beneficial for the company to attract new customers thereby leading to enhanced sales (Smith & Zook, 2011). Moreover, Samsung should also strive towards adopting the provided recommendations to achieve sales and capture the market.
References
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Best, R. J. (2009). Market-based management: Strategies for growing customer value and profitability.
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