Discuss about the Marketing Principles for Walmart.
Walmart is a globally recognized b rand which has number of daily products to offer to the people. The company has its presence from the year 1962 and till present year it is continuously rising and expanding its roots in various nations. The products offered by Walmart are of basic needs of the individuals such as the household items, apparels and groceries. Thus it is the best product brand which can be selected for the report for analyzing the decision making process of the customers. There are several product range offered by the company such as shoes, jewelry, crafts, fabrics, toys, electronics, groceries, household needs, beauty and health products and family apparels. It is an extensive and recognized brand which offers low priced as well as medium priced products to the customers for achieve higher customer base and competitive benefits. The retail store chain of Walmart is very much extensive as presently it has its presence in around 15 nations with its well established 8500 stores globally. It is easy for the people to have products satisfying all their needs under one roof and which is very much easy to accessible.
It is the first most steps in the process of decision making. It is also known as identification of need phase. For making any purchase it is required that the consumer develops a need. This need or problem recognition takes place when there is a certain gap between the desires of the consumer and the present situation of that consumer (Bruner and Pomazal, 2013).
Walmart is one of the highly recognized retail store chain which fulfill all the basic needs of the consumers such as groceries, clothes, food supplies etc. the needs and requirements of the lower class as well as the middle class individuals are satisfied as Walmart offer products at discounts and comparatively low process. The needs are also satisfied from the convenience pint of view as the stores of Walmart are established at almost in all the regions of the United States. Thus there is a flexible access to the products. Hence the need recognition here is the need of daily routine products such as groceries. And people are more comfortable in buying from Walmart stores where they can get all the things available at a single place (Seetharaman, et al., 2013).
In this phase the product of Walmart fixed the most suitable one. The company is a retail store which has extensive choices of products. The products are available under one room ranges from advanced electronic devices to daily groceries. There are employees at all the stores which provide a continuous assistance to the customers regarding their any queries or issues. There are also the mobile applications and website which provide great information about the company and its products.
To make an appropriate decision the customers evaluate and analyze the various alternatives so that they can compare the price and the benefits of the products. But the decisions are generally based upon the attitude and emotions of the consumers. Walmart is recognized as one of the best place where the customers can get extensive number of choices to select from. The store offers a range of products differentiated on the basis of price, quality and brand (Solomon, 2014).
After the process of searching or information and the evaluation of all the alternatives the next step is the decision of making a purchase. This stage is one of the most important phases as here the consumer finally makes a purchase. There are number of articles offered by Walmart such as shoes, jewelry, crafts, fabrics, toys, electronics, groceries, household needs, beauty and health products and family apparel. It is very easy the customers to make a purchase decision in the Walmart stores (Solomon, Russell-Bennett and Previte, 2013).
It is the last and the final stage in the consumer buying decision process i.e. post-purchase evaluation phase. There are several organizations which do not laid emphasis over this stage as this occurs after the customer has made a purchase. But it should not be done as this stage impacts the future decisions and loyalty of the consumers towards the brand and the products. This phase reflects the experience of the consumers associated with that particular product.
Walmart is always been very much concern with the satisfaction and the feedbacks of the customers. There are several policies of Walmart which shows that if the consumers face any kind of issue or problem with the products then they can exchange it or can get the money back depends upon the products. The guarantee period of the products give the right to the consumers to exchange it or repair it free of cost. Thus it is necessary for the companies to have continuous feedbacks of the customers for retaining them in the long run (Minton, Cornwell and Kahle, 2016).
Culture: The behavior and wants of individuals are much dependent upon the culture in which an individual lives. It is the set of values and beliefs which are shared by the people living in a similar group. The food and daily routine products are the ones which are highly linked with the culture. It is one major thing which carries with time i.e. passes from one generation to another. For example, people of nations like USA, Australia etc mostly prefer healthy, less spicy and raw food whereas people of Asian countries such as India need products high in calories, fried and spicy food products. Thus the decision making process is very much depended upon the culture of the customers (Matsumoto and Juang, 2016).
Social class: The social is another cultural factor which impacts the decision of the individuals. The upper class people generally want to purchase high priced and high quality products whereas the lower class will first analyze the price s and then quality of the products. Thus the products of Walmart are suitable for every social class as there is extensive number of option available.
Family: there are two types of family i.e. joint family and nuclear family which impacts the decision making of the consumers. In nuclear families there are chances of taking decisions on individual basis but in joint families the decision depends upon several factors. The products are selected after evaluating the needs, likes and dislikes of all the family members. After that the product is purchase which suits the family overall (Kim and Johnson, 2013).
Reference Group: The reference group is the association of two or more people which are associated with an individual and kits decision making power. The values, attitudes and behavior of the individual highly depend upon the reference group. These groups can be of friends or various other social groups.
Roles and Status: The roles and status of an individual also impacts the decision making of that person as the status of an individual reflects what kind of product he needs (Matsumoto and Juang, 2016).
Age & Occupation: The occupation and age of the individuals also impacts their decisions a lot. The need and requirement of children are different from the adult ones. For example the demand of children will be toys and chocolates whereas elder ones requires home based products, clothes and other utility products. Similarly the occupation also impacts as the professions modify the needs of individuals. The business people will more likely to have lavish products whereas the professional one opt good quality and medium range products which are easily accessible as they have shortage of time.
Income: The lifestyle and the income of the individuals also impacts the decision making as the higher the income of an individual is the more high priced products can be purchased by the consumers whereas the lower income groups are always price sensitive and give more importance to the prices of the products (Maheswaran and Shavitt, 2014).
Motivation and Perception: Motivation and perception are the two psychological factors which influences the decision making of the individual. The customers need a motivation which inspires them so that they can buy a product as well as there is a set perception of the consumers which restricts or make them ready to buy or reject a product. Thus these factors also have a considerable impact over the decision making process (Chand, 2016).
The products of Walmart has been analyzed from the view point of the Hierarchy of needs theory of Maslow and it is found that the product of Walmart basically satisfy the first that is the physiological needs of the individuals. As the products offered by the company are mostly of basic household needs and requirements. Thus it is evaluated that the consumers can satisfy the actual and basic needs with the products purchased by Walmart. There products offered by the company are generally for the price-sensitive people and this is one of the major reason that the products satisfy the basic i.e. physiological needs of the customers (Chang and Chang, 2016).
References
Bruner II, G.C. and Pomazal, R.J., 2013. Problem recognition: The crucial first stage of the consumer decision process. Journal of Consumer Marketing.
Chand, S., 2016. 5 Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour | Explained, Accessed on: 30th December, 2016. Accessed from: https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/products/5-factors-influencing-consumer-behaviour-explained/22163/
Kim, J.E. and Johnson, K.K., 2013. The impact of moral emotions on cause-related marketing campaigns: A cross-cultural examination. Journal of Business Ethics, 112(1), pp.79-90.
Li, E.Y., Chang, L.S. and Chang, L.F., 2016. Exploring Consumer Value Of Cross-Border Online Shopping: An Application Of Means-End Chain Theory And Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs.
Maheswaran, D. and Shavitt, S., 2014. 0)“Issues and New Directions in Global Consumer Psychology.”. Journal of consumer psychology, 9(2), pp.59-66.
Matsumoto, D. and Juang, L., 2016. Culture and psychology. Nelson Education.
Minton, E.A., Cornwell, T.B. and Kahle, L.R., 2016. A theoretical review of consumer priming: Prospective theory, retrospective theory, and the affective–behavioral–cognitive model. Journal of Consumer Behaviour.
Seetharaman, A., Bajaj, S., Raj, J.R. and Saravanan, A.S., 2013. A consumers’perception of wal-mart in india. Journal of Academic Research Part B, 5(3), pp.134-148.
Solomon, M.R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: prentice Hall.
Solomon, M.R., Russell-Bennett, R. and Previte, J., 2013. Consumer behaviour: Buying, having, being. Pearson Australia.
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