Car industry has been developing day by day in many countries. The major purpose of this industry is to create, develop, improve, market, and sell motor vehicles, cars in particular. The progress of car industry is perfectly noticeable. For example, Marsden tells that during the 1970s, car industry in Britain did not show good results. That time was characterized by poor industry and bad industrial relations with other countries, and all this lead to shares’ decline. (Marsden 1985) At the beginning of the XXI century, more than 10,000,000 cars are produced each year.
(International Car Statistics, 2006) When really worth products appear in car industry, it attracts lots of consumers and provoke them to change their attitude to this or that model. Schiffman and Kanuk admit that nowadays, the impact of the Internet is considerable. Consumers get used to find the necessary information by means of online sites, go shopping online, follow and analyze innovations with the help of new technologies. (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2006)
It is a simple truth that consumer needs are crucially important in the marketing sphere. Many firms prefer to investigate customers’ wants and requirements by means of interviews and surveys. Such researches help to improve the quality of products and meet all the needs any consumer has (Financial Services Authority 2005). In 2000, Maslow presented the hierarchy of needs and described the motive of each need. These needs are physiological, safety, esteem, self-actualization, and love. (Maslow 2000)
According to the Belches consumer behaviour as a kind of activity when people want to find, evaluate, and buy the necessary product. (Belch and Belch, 2004) In his turn, Maslow says that any human is a constantly wanting animal. It is impossible for a man to be satisfied completely in all spheres of life.
Usually, consumer response to marketing changes after some money support, drawing of a lottery, some kind of competitions between customers, etc. Consumer behaviour is one of the studies which deal with analysis of why, when, how, and where people prefer to buy or not to buy products. The evaluation of people’s attitude, their perception of the product, post-purchase analysis, and customers’ further actions – all this plays a significant role for further development of car industry.
There are several types of consumer response to marketing actions in car industry, let us talk about some of them.
Attention
Customer may pay their attention not to any message from sellers. The point is that only messages which are consistent with consumers’ own beliefs and attitudes. Consumers usually hear/see messages, but they are not aware of their essence, so that they do not remember each piece of information. This is why it is necessary to limit the effect of the message and concentrate the consumers’ physiological and self-actualization needs.
Perception
Perception is important because of one simple fact: people notice and perceive only the information that they want to hear and need in order to overcome risks dealing with purchases. This is why it is better to underline the information on how and where a certain product may be used.
Post-purchase
After a consumer bought the product, he/she starts comparing it with his/her own expectations and analysing if he/she is satisfied with it or not. Consumer’s post-purchase behaviour influences his/her communications, value perceptions, and possible repetition of the purchase. Lots of firms use follow-up calls in order to underline once again that the customer has made the right choice, and point out that there are also many other benefits from cooperation with the chosen car firm.
In general, car industry has lots of advantages and disadvantages. People may be attracted by innovative car models and do not pay attention to prices and further actions in order to repair and improve the car. Needs of customers will always be on the first place both for sellers and for manufacturers. This point may be proved by constant surveys in firms and online.
List of References
Belch, G. E. & Belch, M. A 2004, Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Marsden, D 1985, The Car Industry: Labour Relations and Industrial Adjustment. Routledge.
Maslow, A. H. & Stephens, D. C 2000, The Maslow Business Reader. John Wiley and Sons.
Schiffman, L. G. & Kanuk, L. L 2006, Consumer Behavior. Pearson Prentice Hall. Web.
Statistics in car industry. Web.