Customer Behavior and Holiday

Hanoi, December 30, 2010

From:         Red Group

To:        Miss Thuy and Miss Dung Hue, Integrated Business lecturers

Subject:        Researching result in holiday decision-making

Abstract

This report represents result in studying customer behavior theory and the way to apply it into practical purchase of a holiday. It will focus on the differences between traditional view and the case situation in the process of holiday decision-making.

Table of content

  1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………2
  1. Consumer behavior
  2. The case
  3. Reason for studying the case
  1. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………...3
  2. Holiday decision-making process
  1. Holiday decision-making…………………………………………………………………4
  2. Information search process……………………………………………………………….7
  3. Implications of the findings……………………………………………………………...10
  1. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….11
  2. Recommendation………………………………………………………………………...12
  3. Reference………………………………………………………………………………...13

  1. Introduction
  1. Consumer behavior

Consumer behavior is defined as the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society. It includes different processes and aspects before, during and after the time customers consume goods or services. This report will be concentrated only on decision-making process of holiday purchase.

  1. The case

This report will show the study in a specific case which relates to the context of going on holiday. There were 27 Belgian households including single, couples, families and groups of friends to be the samples of this research. Over one-year period, authors followed and studied their process when they decided to have holiday. The work was carried out very carefully and the samples were interviewed four times in total: three times before their holiday in summer and once after that. From the result of these interviews, authors found out many signs and findings that can adjust the way people thought about consumer decision-making.

  1. Reason for studying the case

Nowadays, along with the economic development and the increase of living standard, tourism demand becomes higher and higher attracting much effort to research consumer behavior in this field in order to create effective marketing strategies. There are different views and beliefs about the way customers make decisions buying a holiday. Studying this case can help marketers understand clearly what may happen in fact, so they can find out the inference to market and promote holidays.

On the other hand, this case provides a chance to challenge the traditional problem solving model of consumer decision-making process and see the differences between it and practical situations of holiday decision-making. Therefore, it will bring out the divergence in theory and reality, which shows the necessity to be flexible applying theory into changing external environment.

  1. Methodology

In order to make the report clear and easy to follow, it is necessary to indicate which method was used in (comparing and) analyzing. Content of assignment brief is a particular case study and there is few theory, so most analysis below was written according to the theory in the lecture on consumer market behavior and used a comparison based on the theory to point out the differences in specific circumstances.

Theory shows that the consumer market consists of all the individuals and households who buy or acquire goods and services for personal consumption. Besides, there are not only internal characteristics that determine our behavior such as psychological  and personal but also external influences that represent the environment in which the individual behavior takes place: cultural and social. In decision-making, five steps were identified: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchased decision and post-purchase evaluation.

Join now!

In the case study, comparison and analysis between theory and specific example were applied. This report relies on the theory to study each kind of analysis decision-making -  traditional view and decision-making described in the case -  then make comparisons to see the typical difference between the two types.

  1. Holiday decision-making process
  1. Holiday decision-making
  1. Traditional views

There are two similar models in the traditional views which have different stages but the same logic.

The first approach - Engel, Blackwell and Miniard model - ...

This is a preview of the whole essay