Consumer Roles in Marketing Communications

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Consumer Roles in Marketing Communications

• Objective Introducing and discussing the
  significance of consumer behavior and motivations
  in communications in tourism and hospitality.

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Consumer Buying Behavior

• Consumer buying behavior refers to the buying
  behavior of the individuals and households who
  buy goods and services for personal consumption.
  
• Consumer market refers to the combination of all
  these individuals and households.
• These diverse consumers make their choices among
  various products based on several factors.

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Model of Consumer Behavior

• How do consumers respond to various marketing
  efforts that the company might use? The company
  that understands how consumers will respond to
  product features, prices, advertising has a great
  advantage over its competitors.
• According to the model of buyer behavior,
  marketing (4Ps) and other

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• macro environmental (economic, technological,
  political and cultural) stimulus starts the
  response model. All these enter into the buyers
  head (black box) and then turn into responses as
  product choice, brand choice, dealer choice,
  purchase timing, and purchase amount.
• The buyer behavior is affected by (1) the
  buyers characteristic - cultural, social,
  personal, psychological (2) the buyers decision
  process.

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Model of Buyer Behavior

• Marketing
• Other Stimuli Buyers Black Box
  Buyers Response
• Product Economic Buyer
• Price Technological characteristic
• Place Political Buying
• Promotion Cultural decision
• process
• Product choice
• Brand choice
• Dealer choice
• Purchase timing
• Purchase amount

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Roles of Consumers

• Included in the 4Ps, consumer behavior is
  affected by marketing communications.
• Consumers are influenced by media representations
  and messages based on how they interpret and
  evaluate information.
• Consumers may react in different ways to certain
  types of messages or media channels or sources.
  Therefore, companies need to research to
  understand what forms of communication work best
  and produce the desired results.

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• However, this is not an easy process as marketing
  communications are delivered in an integrated
  fashion.
• Consumers are aware of products or brands through
  various forms of communications including
  advertising, sponsorship, public relations,
  word-of-mouth, exposure to places through film
  and television, etc.
• As a result, it is difficult to evaluate how,
  where, when a person becomes familiar with a
  brand, organization, destinations, ...

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• In addition, consumers themselves actively buy
  into or identify with certain brands, images, or
  organizations.
• Modern consumers often act as advocates for
  certain products, places, brands, and so on.

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Consumer Behavior Theory

• Consumer beavior theory is based on the
  discipline of psychology.
• Accordingly, consumers are perceived as rational
  beings whose buying choices are directed to
  satisfy a need.

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• Different paradigms in consumer behaviour
• The cognitive approach recognizes puchases as
  problem-solving decisions
• The reinforcement approach recognizes
  consumption as learned behavior
• Habit recognizes routine production of behavior
  for particular purchases.
• While the first has a cognitive perspective, the
  last two have behaviourist perspectives.

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The Cognitive Paradigm

• Focuses on consumer decision making process
  involving
• need arousal
• information processing
• brand evaluation
• purchase
• Post-purchase evaluation
• Does not explain repeat-buying behavior,
  spontaneous or impulsive walk-by decisions.

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Need Recognition

• The buying process starts when the buyer
  recognizes that he has a problem or need.
• The need can be felt because of internal stimuli
  (hunger, thirst...) or external stimuli (the
  buyer may feel hungry when he passes by a bakery,
  the buyer may need to have a vacation when he
  watches a commercial about Caribbeans on TV).
• At this stage, the marketer must identify the
  factors that most trigger interest in the product
  and develop marketing programs that involve these
  factors.

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Information Search

• When the consumer feels his need, he satisfies
  his need with a product near at hand. But, if
  there is not such a product, he starts to search
  for information.
• The consumer can obtain information from several
  sources
• personal sources family, friends, neighbors,
  acquaintances (more important for the consumer to
  evaluate)

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• commercial sources advertising, salespeople,
  dealers, packaging, displays (more important for
  the consumer to get information)
• public sources mass media, consumer rating
  organizations
• experiential sources handling, examining, using
  the product
• Here, the marketer is responsible to identify the
  consumers sources of information and their
  importance, then design its marketing efforts in
  the way that would increase the awareness and
  knowledge of the potential consumers.

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Evaluation of Alternatives

• After gathering information, the consumer
  evaluates each alternative and makes a brand
  choice.
• Consumers pay attention to certain issues when
  evaluating the alternatives
• product attributes consumers see products as a
  bundle of product attributes (e.g. quality, size,
  price...) Consumers pay the most attention on the
  attributes that satisfies their need the most.

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• degrees of importance consumers give different
  degrees of importance to different attributes
  according to their needs and wants.
• brand beliefs consumers develop a set of brand
  beliefs about where each brand stands on each
  attribute. The set of beliefs that are held
  about a particular brand is known as the brand
  image.
• total product satisfaction consumers combine the
  attributes that give them the highest perceived
  satisfaction and create their ideal product.
• evaluation procedure consumers approach
  different brands through some type of

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• evaluation procedure which depends on the
  individual and specific buying situation. In
  some cases, consumers use logical thinking, and
  at other times, emotional. Sometimes, they may
  decide on their own, or ask their friends, or
  salespeople for advice.
• Here, the marketer should study the buyers to
  understand how they evaluate each alternative -
  e.g. which attribute receives the highest
  attention.

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Purchase Decision

• The consumer ranks all the brands and intends to
  purchase one. However, sometimes the consumer
  does not buy the one he intended. Two factors
  can come between the purchase intention and
  decision
• attitudes of others e.g. family may claim that
  the alternative is better.
• unexpected situational factors unexpected events
  may change the purchase intention e.g. the
  consumer may loose his job so that he have to
  purchase a cheaper brand, a friend my report his
  dissatisfaction about the product, a competitor
  may drop its prices...

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Postpurchase Behavior

• After purchasing the product, the consumer will
  be satisfied or dissatisfied and will engage in
  postpurchase behavior of interest.
• Whether the buyer is satisfied or dissatisfied is
  determined by the relationship between the
  consumers expectations and the products
  performance.

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• The marketers job does not end when the product
  is bought. The marketer must do research in
  order to understand whether the consumer is
  satisfied about the product or not. Responding
  to consumer complaints help to reduce the number
  of dissatisfied consumers. E.g. Toyota contacts
  the new car owners and congratulates them. In
  addition, places advertising with the favorable
  words of the new car owners. I love what you do
  for me Toyota

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The Reinforcement Paradigm

• Focuses on the way behavior is modified by the
  environment, therefore managers try to change the
  consumers situation.
• Past behavior teaches consumers and after
  learning they shape their future puchases.
• There are a number of ways to learn about
  products and brands including trial and error,
  brand extention, use of stimuli (packaging,
  colors, etc.).

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The Habit Paradigm

• Focuses on established patterns of behavior.
• Mobilised in response to relevant stimuli.

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• Consumer behavior for tourism and hospitality
  services?

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Consumers and Markets for Tourism and Hospitality
Services

• A market is defined as all those willing and able
  to purchase tourism and hospitality services.
• A market includes both current and potential
  customers.
• Organizations need to know how their services are
  positioned in the mind of both current and
  potential customers.

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• Markets and customer-base of organizations change
  in time due to changes in socio-economic
  circumstances, attitudes (e.g. organic products)
• Consumers atttudes toward companys products and
  offers may also change.
• Marketing communications is basically directed
  towards developing sales.
• The messages must be created and delivered having
  target audiences in mind.

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Generic Versus Variant Service Markets

• Before preparing their marketing communications,
  marketers need to distinguish between generic
  needs of markets for tourism and hospitality
  services and the range of offers (variants)
  within that generic category.
• For instance, while a package holiday is a
  generic service category, there are subcategories
  or services product classes under it winter sun,
  summer sun, lakes and mountains, activity as
  safari holidays (which may even have a range of
  different types like day safaris, 1-3 nights
  short-break safaris, luxury safaris, budget
  safaris...

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Marketing Analysis

• In order to understand more about their customers
  and develop the right marketing plans and
  communications strategies, managers should break
  down a market into more discrete market groups or
  segments.
• Therefore, they do a great deal of analysis on
  customers and markets.
• This type of market analysis is sometimes called
  market analysis-competitor analysis.

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• Such analysis look at the following factors
• Total number of people in a population who ay be
  purchase the products/services
• Total number of customers actually buying these
  types of products/services
• Size of sales of the companys products/services
  relative to competitors
• Relationship between the companys
  products/services relative to competitors
• Ability of people to buy companys offer over
  other types of products/services.

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• In developing marketing communications, first
  markets are analysed.
• Market analysis
• Identification of stakeholders
• Customer analysis
• Segmentation and targeting
• Marketing communications mix
• Customer relationship management
• Service quality and satisfaction

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What the Organization Needs to Know about
Consumers Behavior

• Marketing communications must consider that
  consumers are open to influence from external
  environmental factors which influence consumer
  behavior and how they process marketing messages.
  
• In order to develop attractive messages,
  organizations need to answer the following
  questions about their customers

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• Who what type of person, their socio-demographic
  characteristics and situational influences.
• When do people buy and when they receive and/or
  receptive to messages.
• Why their motives for buying and also how they
  react to the messages through perception.
• What their preferences, attitudes and beliefs
  about the services they buy and their purchase
  behavior also their reactions to marketing
  messages, the frequency of purchase and use.
• Where the place they buy the products or receive
  the messages from.
• Which methods they use to purchase the
  products/services.

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Consumer Characteristics Who?

• In order to better target their marketing
  communications, when analying markets, it is
  important for organizations to collect
  information on the following
• Demographics
• Socio-economic characteristics employment
  status, social class, lifestyle, etc.
• Feelings, beliefs and values
• Decision-making units children
• Buying center roles initiator, influencer,
  gatekeeper, decider, puchaser, user.

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Decision and Purchase Characteristics When?

• Organizations should understand when customers
  buy their porducts/services by checking their
  sales data, when they search for information,
  when they make their decision to buy and what
  infleunce those decisions, so that they can
  determine the timing of their marketing
  communications.

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Consumer Motivations Why?

• If organizations understand why customers choose
  their products/services over competitors, then
  they can direct their marketing communications to
  stimulate new demand (extend the market) or
  remind.
• Motivation physical, social, personal, cultural
  motivations for tourism and hospitality
  products/services
• Perceptions
• Identity

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Buying Behavior Patterns What?

• This question is about the types of things people
  buy, e.g. Short breakes vs. long holidays etc.
• Attitudes marketing communications managers are
  interested in understanding how attitudes to
  places and services can be influenced.

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Distribution and Access Where?

• This relates to how consumers access marketing
  messages, e.g. Online booking, etc.
• Orgenizations need to know where consumers access
  marketing communications and under which
  circumstances they react favourably in relation
  to the content of the message.

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Purchase Characteristics Which Methods?

• Organizations also need to know how consumers
  purchase their products/services e.g. cash or by
  credit card, etc. how they book, whether they
  get help or not, whether they pay in advance or
  not.

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Resources

• McCabe, S. (2009). Marketing Communications in
  Tourism and Hospitality Concepts, Strategies and
  Cases. Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford.
• Kotler, P. Bowen, J. and Makens, J. (2010).
  Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism (5th. ed.).
  Prentice Hall New Jersey.
• Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2010) Principles of
  Marketing (13th ed.). Prentice Hall New Jersey.