The Role Of Consumer Behavior In Marketing Decisions

Contents

Introduction. 1

Frequency of Purchases. 1

Brand Choice. 2

Brand Description. 3

Brand Shift to Different Product Line. 3

Lessons Learnt 3

References. 6

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to define the importance with which companies attach consumer behavior to their marketing strategies and approaches. It is important that marketing approaches adopted are in line with customer preferences and behaviors which can be arrived at by carrying out market research and surveys. In the following discourse, a simple market survey was conducted touching on four areas of interest to assist in defining the marketing status at McDonalds. To complete the survey, nine respondents were randomly picked from friends, family and coworkers to represent three market categories; children (3), young adults (3) and adults (3). Questions asked were designed to establish respondents’ opinion on purchases frequency at McDonalds, brand choice, personal brand description and brand transfer to a different product line.

Frequency of Purchases

Nearly every respondent attested to the fact that McDonalds is a big market player in food products. This is because with regard to the food products that do well in the summer across the various market segments, every respondent gave an indication of having bought them in less than a week. The young market has a higher preference for McDonalds’ products than in the older market segments. It is clear that the older age segment still has a significant attraction to the McDonalds’ range of products. The most elaborate choice for McDonalds’ ice cream products in the summer has however been among the children, youths and young adults. All the respondents had a recent purchase experience with a McDonald’s product. All the children and young adults had an experience within the past seven days while two of the adults had an experience within two past weeks and one adult had bought a product in the past one month. This demonstrates the clarity in the market segment that the products have (Deshpandé, 2010).

Brand Choice

In order to find out the actual brand preferences that the respondents had for the various products offered at McDonalds, personal opinion was from each of the respondents. A question was asked regarding the specific brand choices and the decision making process behind them from each of the respondents. The three children and one adult bought vanilla ice cream cones from McDonalds while one young adult and two adults had chocolate dipped ice cream products. Two of the remaining young adults bought strawberry yoghurt from McDonalds. Some of the reasons behind the decision to purchase the preferred product from McDonalds included identity with the company for all the children while one of the adults was having fun with his young son. This can be explained by the fact that the market segment covering children performs exceptionally well and the decision making process was not very complex or structured among the children.

Product need identification was well understood across the respondents and the search for the availability of the products to satisfy this need was not difficult since McDonalds is a well known producer and supplier. Depending on the market competitiveness that the company has, the respondents were not in a problem in comparing available alternatives due to earlier mentioned factors such as nutrition and quality. Purchase decision was therefore almost unanimously favoring the company. Post purchase evaluation experience in this case can be translated to involve the observed consumer loyalty for McDonalds (Class Notes, n.d). The other decision making processes from among the young adults and the adults were mainly on the availability and familiarity with the company since their childhood.

Brand Description

All the respondents made an indication that the products offered at McDonalds are quality products. All segments of the market associate well with brands that have high quality closely taken care of in the products offered in the market (Milkman, 2008). A considerable number of re.............