Discuss about the Consumer Behavior for Academy of Marketing Science.
Demography is the statistical view of the population of a country. It includes gender, income, aging, marital status, occupation, and schooling among others. For any business to be successful, it is essential to understand the demographics of a place. Understanding the demography helps to understand the nature and behavior of the target customers. Moreover, demography is useful to identify market segments, plan appropriate marketing mix and estimate market potential (Solomon 2014).
The demographic trends affecting the gym and fitness industry are as follows:
|
Demographic trends |
Gym and fitness |
Pay TV |
Restaurants |
|
1. Present longer life span of the senior citizen. |
Senior citizens want to live a healthy life. They want to avoid cardiovascular diseases. This age group wants to take the benefits of an active social life (Yu et al. 2014) |
The older generation is one of the generations who find pleasure in watching TV. It is a generation which likes to stay glued to their television screens. This generation may find using Pay TV like Netflix a bit cumbersome as it is online (Heath 2012). |
The older generations try to avoid restaurants because of foods with high curb. Older generations are thus not the target for restaurateurs (Heath 2012). However, restaurants must also cater to the taste of the older generation. |
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2. The Baby Boomers generation |
Baby boomers want to stay young forever. They would spend a lot of money for keeping themselves fit. They would get more time after retirement and hence would devote a lot of their time to the gym. The baby boomers generation is growing fast. People want to achieve fitness and be active in their later years (Solomon 2014). They want to prevent the problems during old age. Keeping themselves fit is a precautionary step to avoid diseases due to old age. The baby boomer market is vital for the fitness industry. They want to age actively. |
Baby boomers watch television almost five to six hours a day. They are thus a major contributor. They can be called the TV generation. This generation comprises the prime time audience (Kardes et al. 2014) |
Baby boomers dine out more often as they have the freedom, time and means. Thus baby boomers would impact the food and beverage industry broadly. The traffic in restaurants has increased due to baby boomers. The baby boomers form regular customers (Mullen and Johnson 2013). |
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3. Generation X with a growing family household and a huge mortgage. |
The Generation X want to go to gym but are often busy This generation is active in social groups and would write reviews of their experiences. This would promote the gyms without any extra cost. The like-mindedness of this community connects them through social media. This generation is always in search to stay fit and healthy. They seek new trends and are also the trendsetters. This quest in the generation would benefit the gym industry and help it to be more creative (Mullen and Johnson 2013). |
Generation X are the followers of celebrities and latest trends shown on television. Thus, they follow the fashion through television. |
The Gen X is less concerned about prices. The Gen X is the reason why the fast food chains are growing and flourishing. This generation is likely to be frequent restaurant goers. They also prefer delivery due to their busy schedule. This has resulted in an increase in the home delivery mode (Hanna et al. 2013) |
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4. Present smaller family unit and more “single adult” households (Generation Y) |
This generation would help the industry to develop technologically as the Gen X utilizes fitness and health apps more than any other generation. The Gen X reflects the emerging trends and passes on fads. The Generation Y are interested in outdoor and group oriented activities. So they would prefer going to the gym and sports club (Claiborne and Sirgy 2015). This generation puts a lot of emphasis on health and fitness. They search new ways to hit the treadmill. Being single householders, the gym is an excellent way to socialize as well as keep them fit. |
They are the kids of baby boomers and use the internet extensively. They use mobile phones and apps extensively and hence can watch pay televisions whenever they wish to. |
Smaller family units often go to restaurants and eat out. The trend of small family groups is rising and hence is the trend of eating out. This generation is thus a major contributor in this industry. Since they do not like to prepare food at home, they like to eat out (Solomon 2014). |
The present lifestyle is such that everyone wants to be more active and fit. This trend in the modern era has prompted individuals to go to the gym and sports club. For many people, fitness is a passion. They crave for it. In fact, fitness has become a passion for many. A gym routine is something which is on the priority list. For this, people are following trends on television channels thereby leading to growth and development of Pay TV industry. Moreover, people of every generation intend to be trendy (Mullen and Johnson 2013).
With the increase in technology and use of smartphones, more and more people tend to use pay TVs like Netflix, Stan, Presto, and Foxtel. People today now want everything at the touch of their fingers. Watching television sitting at the corner of a room is no more fashionable. This choice of individuals has been advantageous for the Pay TV industry. Also, an increase of fitness content on social media has increased the consumption level.
The new lifestyle of individuals in modern times is such that they want to be fit and remain healthy. Even if eating out is a fad, people today are inclined more towards food that is healthier and has low-fat content. This has prompted restaurateurs to develop a menu and cook foods which are healthy (Kardes et al. 2014). People even agree to pay more for a healthy diet. It is well evident from the above discussion that the health and food and media industry are interconnected with each other. The new lifestyle of modern times has thus prompted a growth in all the three industries.
The revenue of the consumers is one of the most crucial factors upon which their behavior depends. A rise in income would prompt people to spend more. Income and expenditure are proportional to each other. Individuals who earn more would go out to restaurants more often and spend more. This is, of course, beneficial for restaurants. They would search for gyms and health fitness clubs that are technologically advanced and use upgraded machines (Heath 2012).
The black box model is very useful in showing the characteristics of the consumer, their responses, and decision process. The focus is on the relation between the reaction to the customers and the stimuli. Some of the characteristics of buyers are knowledge, motivation, personality, perceptions, and attitudes. These features affect the market widely. Marketing stimulus such as product, price, promotion, and place are also crucial factors on which the behavior of the consumers depends (Yu et al. 2014).
Consumer markets in the present times are undergoing rapid changes and are flooded with new challenges and opportunities. The modern lifestyle, changes in attitudes and behaviors of consumers, growth in the service sector- all influence the consumer market largely. The behavior of customers in the gym and fitness industry depends on the brand loyalty and consumer awareness. The more the awareness, the more is profit and revenue. All the industries must cater to the taste of consumers and use a technologically developed system. Customer loyalty would lead to growth in the gym and fitness and Pay TV industry. These industries have high growth potential (Heath 2012).
Restaurants are discovering new business opportunities with every passing day due to the rapidly changing lifestyle and the behavioral patterns. Going to restaurants and eating out is a fad and people prefer to go out at least once every week. Hence, this industry must modify itself as per the changing lifestyle and consumption trends. The value consumers receive, is very crucial for them to be loyal customers of a particular restaurant or sports club.
Conclusion
It is thus seen that the demography of a place is a very influential factor. It affects the behavior of consumers to a large extent. The behavior of customers, in turn, has an impact on the industries. A person who earns more would spend more, and this would benefit organizations. The black box model is an efficient tool to analyze the behavior of customers and the trends in the marketplace.
References
Altman, M., 2015. Handbook of contemporary behavioral economics: foundations and developments. Routledge. Altman, M., 2015. Handbook of contemporary behavioral economics: foundations and developments. Routledge.
Chiu, W., Kwag, M.S. and Bae, J.S., 2015. Customers as partial employees: the influences of satisfaction and commitment on customer citizenship behavior in fitness centers. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 15(4), p.627.
Claiborne, C.B. and Sirgy, M.J., 2015. Self-image congruence as a model of consumer attitude formation and behavior: A conceptual review and guide for future research. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 1-7). Springer International Publishing.
Goh, K.Y., Heng, C.S. and Lin, Z., 2013. Social media brand community and consumer behavior: Quantifying the relative impact of user-and marketer-generated content. Information Systems Research, 24(1), pp.88-107.
Hanna, N., Wozniak, R. and Hanna, M., 2013. Consumer behavior: An applied approach. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
Heath, S., 2012. System and method for social networking interactions using online consumer browsing behavior, buying patterns, advertisements and affiliate advertising, for promotions, online coupons, mobile services, products, goods & services, entertainment and auctions, with geospatial mapping technology. U.S. Patent Application 13/369,244.
Kardes, F., Cronley, M. and Cline, T., 2014. Consumer behavior. Cengage Learning.
Migliore, G., Schifani, G. and Cembalo, L., 2015. Opening the black box of food quality in the short supply chain: Effects of conventions of quality on consumer choice. Food Quality and Preference, 39, pp.141-146.
Mullen, B. and Johnson, C., 2013. The psychology of consumer behavior. Psychology Press.
Solomon, M.R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: prentice Hall.
Yu, H.S., Zhang, J.J., Kim, D.H., Chen, K.K., Henderson, C., Min, S.D. and Huang, H., 2014. Service quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intention among fitness center members aged 60 years and over. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 42(5), pp.757-767.
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