Consumer Behaviour: on cultural, social, personal and psychological factors based on lifestyle
Consumer behaviour is perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of marketing because it deals with the individual characteristics of consumers. It is basically the buying behaviour of the final consumers which are the individuals and households who buy the goods and services offered in the market for their personal consumption (Kotler & Armstrong, 2001). The main concern in marketing in relation to this aspect is whether consumers actually respond to the marketing strategies employed for the product (Best, 2004) which also gives rise to the model of consumer behaviour within which most market researches circle around. A good consumer behaviour model was introduced by Kotler & Armstrong (2001) which discusses the process with which the consumers respond to the different product features, prices and advertising. Figure 1 shows that the starting point consists of the stimulus-response model wherein marketing-focused factors which involve product, price, place and promotion and other stimuli which include outside factors in the market environment enter the “black box”. This contains the individual buyer characteristics and decision processes. The third component of the model involves the actual responses to the marketing efforts which can translate into product choice, brand choice, dealer choice, purchase timing and purchase amount among others
Figure 1
Model of Consumer Behaviour
Taken from: Kotler, P & Armstrong, G 2001, Principles of marketing, 11th edn, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle, NJ.
There are many factors which shape the consumers’ preferences which have been described in great detail and researched on by many scholars (Best, 2004; Kotler & Armstrong, 2001). Best (2004) offered a detailed diagram of the said factors outlined as customer needs as seen in Figure 2 which classifies the influences in three major categories: demographic, lifestyle and usage behaviours.
On the other hand, Kotler and Armstrong (2001) have provided a different set of factors which affect consumer behaviour. Figure 3 shows that there are 4 major classifications namely: cultural, social, personal and psychological. These affect the buyer in the end of the process though in each case one factor may be more influential than the others (Levy, 1981). In the category of culture, the buyer is influenced by his/her subculture and social class within which opinion leaders are found who most often than not dictate the preferences of the group which can also be held true for the social category that includes reference groups, gamily and roles and statuses performed by the individuals. Although these two are alike, the main difference is that the former is more focused on the values and beliefs formed while the latter is more focused on the people around the individual. The third category is personal which indicates that age and life-cycle stages, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle, personality and self-concept are factors which influence the buyers. The last category focuses on psychological factors which has four subparts: motivation, perception, beliefs and attitudes and learning or cognitive factor.
Figure 2
Taken from: Best, RJ 2001, Market-based management: Strategies for growing customer value and profitability, 4th edn, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle NJ.
Figure 3
Factors Affecting Consumer Behaviour
Taken from: Kotler, P & Armstrong, G 2001, Principles of marketing, 11th edn, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle, NJ.
According to Kotler and Armstrong (2001), lifestyle is a “person’s pattern of living expressed in his psychographics or the characteristics which define a person’s way of living. Different people can have different lifestyles even if they come from the same subculture, social class and occupation. Those who have the same lifestyle have similar interests in activities such as sports, work, entertainment and hobbies or even in occupation, house, family, fashion and food (Greco, Mazze & Michman, 2003). Furthermore, lifestyle also describes how people spend their time, their priorities regarding their immediate surrounding as well as their viewpoints on different issues.
It is part of the personal factors which influence consumer behaviour. Lifestyle is related to marketing because as Michman (1991) argues, it is a systems concept which both affects and is affected by the market. To fully explain this, it should be considered that lifestyle has hierarchy consisting of the abovementioned components which can be influenced by the evolving markets around the consumer. At the same time, the changing markets are shifting because of the changes brought about by varying lifestyles. This can be considered a never-ending cycle because even though the basic variables remain untouched by time, the parameters guarding it continuously changes.
According to Greco, Mazze and Michman (2003), lifestyle studies are often part of the psychographics studies which employ statistical methods like multiple-regression analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis, multi-dimensional scaling, perceptual mapping and multiple-discriminant analysis. However, it should be noted that conducting lifestyle studies and psychographic profiles is one of the more expensive methods of market research. Other barriers to successful application are the difficulty in the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of the data as well as the complexity of forming valid conclusions based on single researches. This implies that several studies, preferably from strategically different locations, have to be conducted to be able to construct the lifestyle trends needed in order to understand the depth of the changes in consumer preferences.
Psychographics was first employed during the World War I when Emanuel H. Dernby conducted a study which classifies people by their physical appearance (Greco, Mazze & Michman, 2003). From that point onwards, psychographics has strived to deviate from other segmentation techniques such as demographics, socio-economies and even behavioural. As a method employing a measurement of lifestyle, the result provides the companies with a psychological profile of a specific target market.
There are many types of lifestyle studies which have emerged since it first came out in Dernby’s study. One of such lifestyle classifications developed is the widely used SRI Consulting’s Values and Lifestyle (VALS) typology seen in Figure 4. It categorises people based on how they spend both their time and money. There are eight groups according to two major dimensions: self-orientation and resources which correspond to the time spent and the expenses of the consumer (Kotler & Armstrong, 2001). In the self-orientation category, there are the principle-oriented consumer; status-oriented consumers and the action-oriented consumers. The principle-oriented consumers are those who base their purchases upon their views of different issues in the world whereas status-oriented consumers buy because of the potential actions and reactions of others which increase their status in life. On the other hand, those who belong to the action-oriented group are driven by their need for activity, variety and even risk-taking.
Figure 4
Values and Lifestyles (VALS) Lifestyle Classification
Taken from: Kotler, P & Armstrong, G 2001, Principles of marketing, 11th edn, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle, NJ.
The consumers belonging to each of the three orientations are further divided into the resources they have which represent the level of their incomes, education, health, self-confidence and energy among many other factors (Kotler & Armstrong, 2001). There are only two groups for this aspect namely: abundant resource and minimal resources. Those who have extremely high or low levels of income are in turn classified as actualisers or strugglers. Actualisers are the consumers who can be in any self-orientation because he/she has abundant resources within his/her disposal. On the other hand, strugglers are those who have too little resources for them to be classified into any specific self-orientation group.
Trends are part of the myriad of predictions which can help the marketer in planning. Lifestyle trends reflect the priority system described earlier in the definition of lifestyle. Moreover, it demonstrates the interdependent relationship between culture and society, group and individuals; buyer decisions and market reactions. Through the lifestyle trends, marketers will have better understanding of consumer behaviour which they can put to use in identifying product and service opportunities.
Greco, Mazze and Michman (2003) have provided four lifestyle trends based on the American consumer behaviour namely: cross shopping, increased affluence, poverty of time and life simplification desires. Cross shopping is referred to as the result of better educated and clearer minded consumers with higher levels of incomes which allow them to spend more time evaluating the quality of the product before buying. An example of this is buying a silk blouse in Sears rather than a similar one at Liz Clairborne. Cross-shopping behaviour has mostly affected the fashion/clothing industry. It seems that this lifestyle indicates that consumers want to buy from mass merchants who offer store-label merchandise and at discount stores which offer designer clothes.
The second trend is the age of affluence which is a result of the income revolution in the United States. It is not limited to a single demographic alone such that there is an amalgamation of different lifestyles such as the hippie attitude of the 1960s with the yuppie attitude of the 1980s as seen in some of the products and services which seems to offer a contrasting lifestyle but has succeeded in turn to create a niche in the target market’s lifestyles.
The third trend refers to the ever-growing poverty of time which is manifested by the role of women in the present time as the trends reflect women having more opportunities both at home and at work. This trend describes a more stressful life for women as they juggle home life and their burgeoning careers. Thus, in the face of stress and challenges, it became the trend for women to increase their efforts to look and act young. Lastly, life simplification is the trend which expresses the desire of some consumers to make their lives simpler as they feel overwhelmed by the changes happening in technology and globalisation. The return to the simple life implies complete changes in activities and interests which are directly under lifestyle. It also suggests that although these consumers have undergone change in lifestyle, it doesn’t take away the need which will result to lower consumption standard. Instead, they look towards new products such as handicrafts and the like to suit them.
Understanding the given examples lead to the realisation of how greatly Companies like KFC, Nike and Dell needed to adjust their marketing plans to suit these lifestyle changes in order to predict the dimension and the extent of their marketing opportunities wherever geographic locations aside from Japan and China. It will also enable marketer to effectively plan strategies through the discovery of new product opportunities.
In sum, consumer behaviour is affected with several factors including culture, social, personal and psychological. Cultural factors are based on culture as described as the ways in which people live. Consumer behaviour is greatly affected particularly on the purchasing decision. A simple example is the idea of taboo that a certain product is not available in a country because it is prohibited based on cultural traditions. Aside from the case of KFC, Nike and Dell in China and Japan, there are other companies that are guided with cultural factors that affect consumer behaviour. Meanwhile, social aspects relate to the lifestyle of people as well as their social standings. The decision of a person to purchase is based on social features like economic circumstances (i.e. income, employment, etc). Personal factors are always present in consumer behaviour because every decision occurs on personal level. It could be assumed that personal factors are related to cultural as well as social factors. Lastly, psychological factors explain the more rational reason why a purchasing decision is made based on consumer behaviour. A single consumer buying decision is guided with one factor or all factors. The progressive pattern in consumer behaviour is manifested on the successful purchase of a certain product or service. It also covers consumer satisfaction as it is the result of the behavior and the decision the consumer had during the process. Whatever the motivations of every consumer have, it is still considered that their behaviours are best understood based on these factors. It is then concluded that international marketeers should be able to recognize all of these through a market study so as to yield productive and profitable outcomes. Companies like KFC, Nike and Dell successfully thrive in international markets like those of China and Japan because of their commendable recognition of all the factors associated in marketing including consumer behaviours based on lifestyle perspective.
REFERENCES
Best, RJ (2004) Market-based management: strategies for growing customer value and profitability, 4th edn, Prentice Hall, London
Go, J (2001) Fundamentals of marketing in the Philippine setting, Design Plus, Quezon City, PH
Greco, AJ, Mazze, EM & Michman, RD (2003) Lifestyle marketing: reaching the new American consumer, Praeger, Westport, CT
Kotler, P & Armstrong, G (2001) Principle of Marketing, 9th edn, Prentice Hall, London
Michman, RD (1991) Lifestyle market segmentation, Praeger Publishers, New York
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