Background
Consumer behavior refers to the research on how customers select, purchase, utilize and dispose of resources to gratify their wants and needs. Understanding consumer behavior helps marketers in determining demand and understanding the best way to attend to consumers. Consumer behavior results to purchase decision varies depending on the product. The nature of consumer behavior is such that several factors influence it; it experiences continuous change, differs from consumer to consumer, region to region, information on it is significant to sellers.
Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Psychological factors include motivation, perception, learning, beliefs, personality, and self-concept. When primary and security needs are met, they influence motivation on consumers and cause them to purchase products and services. When a customer gathers information from things such as promotions and advertisements, it enhances their perception of the product and impacts their decision to buy (Akman and Mishra, 2017). Attitudes and beliefs make consumers act in a certain way towards a commodity, and it determines the brand image of the item.
Social factors influence purchasing behavior since customers are social beings and are influenced by people around them. Therefore, their buying actions depend on people around them, including family, reference groups, and their roles and status. Family plays a vital role in buying behavior, especially by observing the products frequently by the household. Reference groups are a class of individuals that one relates with, and usually, those that belong to the same reference group have mutual buying habits since they influence each other.
With cultural factors, people with the same ideologies belong to one community, and the values influence their buying behavior in their community. Cultural aspects include choice, morals, insights, and behaviors noticed and absorbed from people around. Within a culture, there are subcultures with similar beliefs and comprise individuals from diverse religions, locations, and ethnic groups (Sangroya and Nayak, 2017). These subcultures create a consumer segment with the same buying patterns. Social classes are dictated by income, education, dwelling location, domestic background, and career, which forecasts consumer habits.
Personal factors vary from one person to another; they include age, occupation, education, income, and lifestyle. The buying behavior of youths is different from that of the middle-aged and the elderly. People with higher incomes have more opportunities to spend and a higher buying power, while those with low incomes do most of their essential commodities. Individuals have a habit of buying items that are suitable for their profession, different lifestyles attract different buying behaviors.
The economy of a nation influences purchasing habits as prosperous nations attract high purchasing power. Some of the economic factors include personal income, family income, savings, consumer credit, and liquid assets. Higher expenditures are encouraged when consumers are granted accessible credits; customers who possess liquid assets spend more on items other than basic needs and gain more confidence to purchase luxurious items. The quantity of savings an individual has influenced consumer behavior as those with more savings tend to spend less on buying.
Buyer’s responses influence how consumers behave; consumers tend to buy those products that serve their interests. Consumers have specific categories they want; they prefer some brands to others and only spend on those they are comfortable with. Buying behaviour responds to who the reseller of that product is; purchasing timing also matters as purchasing power is always high during some seasons, especially when there are ceremonies. Some products cannot be bought frequently but only when required; consumers tend to purchase products offered at an affordable price.
How marketing is conducted determines how consumers behave; how a business promotes its products determines how consumers behave. Organizations have to set strategies and objectives that encourage buying. Millennials, for instance, obtain information about markets in social media; making use of technology means influencing their decisions to buy. Businesses located at strategic places with fair prices, quality products and good promotional strategies cause consumers to purchase more.
How the Factors Apply to Guinness’ Campaign
“Made of More” campaign by Guinness won an award since a lasting strategy was built that resulted in huge returns and increased efficiency on their return on investment. Guinness realized the importance of human psychology to buying decisions. They have invested in motivating consumers in different ways depending on their needs. They have strived to change consumers’ perceptions about their products through advertisements and promotions ((Li et al., 2021). Guinness has focused so much on reference groups and social status; they have devoted themselves to offering quality products to influence and maintain people with high social levels.
Guinness being a global company came up with ways of meeting needs of diverse cultures; they made their drink appeal to people with various desires. The makeup of the products was created so that they do not contract the values of a particular society (Jernigan and Ross, 2020). The company also addressed the needs of different social classes and subclasses by making various products in various formats. Guinness serves people with different lifestyles, education, and occupation, considering the difference in personal factors. Considering economic factors, Guinness is consumed in all economic environments across the world. These applied factors have enabled Guinness to thrive in the market since the organization is not affected by the change in consumer behavior.
Guinness has applied the marketing mix concept; it has its operations held in strategic places in different countries across the globe. Guinness provides quality products at the best prices through the skimming strategy; it has an appropriate marketing policy, and excellent advertising policies that exalts its brand name. Guinness has had different marketing campaigns with good taglines like “made of more” campaign that increased its visibility. Guinness applies the buyers’ response concept by investing in advertisements and promotions so that its brand becomes the best choice for consumers. For example, there is a promotion of winning a trip when one becomes a fan of it.
What Shapes Consumer Behavior and Why They Behave the Way They Do
On regular days, consumers are prone to holding on to their habits, even though there are times when consumers change behavior, and this forces organizations to find ways of satisfying their needs. Personal, social, psychological, environmental, and cultural factors are the ones that shape consumer behavior, and this links to the reasons why they behave the way they do. Firms can take some actions to influence consumer behavior; The steps involve strengthening positive new beliefs, shaping emerging behaviors with new offerings, enduring new habits, position information to consumers’ mindsets, and examining consumer beliefs and practices.
For one to understand consumer behavior, it first begins with conducting research. Customers these days have been reported to be making comparisons on the internet before making buying decisions. A large portion of consumers has confidence in online reviews, referrals, and personal endorsements. Marketers need to understand that buying is emotional, and so consumers are greatly influenced by their feelings; how options are offered to them matters and can act against their financial interests when there are biases. To entice buyers, they have to make sure they are present online to capture customers’ attention speedily and adopt a setting where reviews and extraordinary experiences are left.
What Guinness Is Looking to Achieve
Guinness has a vision of being the best performer, most reliable, and esteemed organization for consumer products. They endeavor to be the best by continually searching for knowledge and making continuous improvements. They establish high standards then strive to surpass them. Guinness anticipates coming up with a worldwide brand idea to increase its marketing efficiency globally (Arvanitis, 2020). Another objective they expect to achieve is establishing one consistent global approach for marketing and generating a flexible platform, bringing better economies of scale and results to brand fame.
How Guinness Breaks Down Differentiation Among Broad Cultural Differences
Guinness has employed different marketing strategies for other markets depending on their cultural values. It has adapted advertising with dialects that are acceptable to a famous country. The cultural preferences of different needs have been put into consideration, having many other products and presentations across the globe (Connolly, 2020). The shapes and features have been designed according to cultural significance. This has enabled Guinness products it remains significant for markets leading to organizational success.
Marketing Concepts
Marketing concept refers to the approach used by firms to meet the needs of consumers, grow sales, increase profits and survive the competition. Five marketing concepts help in knowing the best viewpoint for setting strategies and understanding the importance of interests of different entities. In the production concept, consumers advocate for products that are economical and accessible (Gurjar et al., 2019). When adopted by organizations, this concept exposes them to the risk of losing focus and can lead to bias. It pushes management to pay attention to refine production and efficiency in supply. Organizations using this concept tend to minimize the cost of production and widening distribution. The production concept applies when demand is higher than supply and when production cost is high.
The product concept claims that customers go for high-quality products, performance, and advanced features. Here, the marketing tactics focus on constant improvements on products; the key emphasis is on the product. The selling concept states that customers will not purchase enough of the organization’s product until they commence extensive selling and promotion efforts. The goal is to sell whatever the firm makes and not what is needed in the market (Budnikevych and Gavrysh, 2017). It is practiced in unsought goods, and buyers usually have no thoughts of buying them. The organization is left with the responsibility of advertising and selling.
The marketing concept understands the needs of customers and offers satisfaction better than rivals. It holds that realizing company goals relies on understanding the needs and wants of target consumers and then satisfying them in an excellent way than competitors do. In this approach, the priority is on the customer; the desired commodities are produced in the right quantities and stipulations; the focus is toward making markets and not products. Marketing begins with the market, the customer, and then on realizing profits through buyer satisfaction. The societal marketing concept provides value to the buyer to improve the customer’s welfare and society. It prioritizes human wellbeing than profits and needs satisfaction, and sellers must balance between profits, buyer fulfillment, and public interest.
Guinness’ Marketing Concepts
The case study shows that Guinness uses the product concept to unite its global audience; it focuses on making continuous improvements in its commodities. Guinness has laid strategies for produce drinks that have a unique taste of high quality through a global approach. They keep improving their product from time to time to enhance its quality and improve its features. Improving the product comes from the belief that customers go for quality commodities with advanced features. That has helped them to have significant economies of scale and meet the needs of the worldwide market. Guinness also uses the production concept; Guinness has many operational markets across the world that work to ensure that its products can easily be accessible by its target consumers. It has also been focusing on refining its products to suit the needs of different markets worldwide.
As stated in the case study, Guinness uses the marketing concept to comprehend the needs of its target customers so that it can satisfy their needs better than other brewing companies. It concentrates on making its products to be a bold choice for drinkers. It realizes the connection between achieving company goals and understanding customer needs; it prioritizes the consumer. Guinness uses the societal marketing concept to offer value to its consumers than making profits; it made products that had medicinal benefits.
Guinness does not apply the selling concept since it focuses on market needs, unlike the selling concept, which neglects customer needs and the firm produces whatever it wants. The selling concept is not concerned about the relationship with customers, unlike Guinness, which aims to create an excellent public image for their customers. The products produced by Guinness are not unsought goods, so it cannot apply the selling concept. The study of customer purchasing practices helps sellers understand what buyers expect of them, influences them to purchase a commodity, and marketers can know what customers hate and like so that their marketing efforts towards the discovery.
Reference List
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Arvanitis, P., 2020, June. Dancing to enhance the destination image: Co-Creating a Guinness World Record. In Tourism Hospitality Events, International Conference (p. 36).
Budnikevych, I. and Gavrysh, I., 2017. Modern marketing concepts as the basis for formation and increase of the attractiveness of cities and territories. Baltic Journal of Economic Studies, 3(1).
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Gurjar, P., Kaurav, R.P.S. and Thakur, K.S., 2019. Content Marketing: Concepts and Its Relevance in the Tourism Industry. In Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Digital Strategies for Organizational Success.
Jernigan, D. and Ross, C.S., 2020. The alcohol marketing landscape: alcohol industry size, structure, strategies, and public health responses. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Supplement, (s19), pp.13-25.
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