of which – Saturates 0.20g 0.80g
of which - Mono-unsaturates 0.30g 1.19g
of which – Polyunsaturates 0.20g 0.80g
Fibre 1.30g 5.20g
Sodium 0.30g 1.19g
Source: () [ Accessed 10.11.03]
Target Market
The target market for Be Good To Yourself range comprises of females aged 35+, especially those with children, men and women in their 40s and above. People who are aware of the benefits of a lower fat diet, especially those who are not prepared to achieve this at the expense of food enjoyment or convenience - this includes consumers looking to lead a healthier lifestyle, but confused by so many different diets available and some are just too lazy to go gym or do exercise to loose weight and keep themselves fit and healthy. The others are the consumers that inspire to look good and possibly a little slimmer; enjoy indulgent foods and look for lower fat claims to justify their guilt.
Characteristics
Following are the characteristics of the market Be Good To Yourself food range was entering into:
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the healthy food market is worth £6.3 billion
- 75% of the UK population is concerned about their fat intake (Leatherhead Food Research 1998)
- the lower fat sector has grown 32% over the last 3 years
- 38% of customers bought Sainsbury's own brand lower fat food
- Customers buying lower fat products are amongst the most valuable. Data obtained from nectar cards shows that the average amount spent by customers who regularly bought lower fat products, was significantly higher than those who purchased standard fat products.
- Customers found it quite difficult to shop specifically for lower fat products and so were very positive about the idea of a single, lower fat pack design to make it easier to find the products in store. The development of a clear, prominent identifying logo and design made it easier for customers to shop specifically lower fat products.
- Since there is a common perception that food with ‘low fat’ or ‘light’ label will not taste as good as a standard equivalent, the taste of the new products needed to be extremely good to counteract this perception.
- Customers also found fat labelling confusing, because there were so may different types of claim used. That is why a simple, informative but helpful approach was followed with Be Good To Yourself Range.
Consumer Decision Process
Source: (Lancaster and Reynolds 2002)
Consumers always go through several stages when buying any products or services. This whole process is called consumer decision process. The breakdown of the above mentioned model is given below:
Problem Recognition:
This process begins with the recognition of problem by customer. This can arise from internal stimulus (hunger or thirst) or external stimulus (Wilson and Gilligan 1997). By identifying or feeling a need want, a problem is recognised. A customer might feel the need to purchase Be Good To Yourself range food after considering the benefits associated with it through advertisement. Friends and relatives can also make customers realise the need of buying low fat Be Good To Yourself food.
Information Search:
Once the problem is recognised, the next stage is information search. This is a stage of heightened awareness which might include more attention to advertising. Customer carries out extensive search to gather the information. The information can be gained from four sources mainly:
Personal Sources:
These sources include family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. Members of the family working for Sainsbury’s, family members who already own nectar card, colleagues, friends and neighbours will be the prime sources of providing information relating to Be Good To Yourself range.
Public Sources:
Public sources include media – radio, television; internet, consumer organisations such as consumer’s association magazine Which?. Customers will gather information regarding other low fat foods. Advertising Be Good To Yourself food on the television, radio and internet will provide more information to the potential customers. Magazines like Which? will provide reports and reviews on Be Good To Yourself food.
Commercial Sources:
Commercial sources include advertising, sales staff and brochures. Sainsbury’s will send brochures containing relevant information regarding low fat food to its potential customers. It will employ sales staff as a part of aggressive marketing.
Experimental Sources:
Other source of information is by experimenting. This includes handling or trying the product itself. Customers can gain this information by buying a Be Good To Yourself ready made meal in the first place may be on a trial basis.
Evaluation of Alternatives:
This is the next stage of the buying process. It is this stage where customers assess the relative merits of each potential product/service in order to maximise the satisfaction of chosen one. Often, an ideal choice can be made relatively easily but sometimes financial limitations can make another alternative to be the product/service finally chosen. Customers will compare the benefits and drawbacks of Be Good To Yourself range of food products with other low fat foods available in the market.
Purchase Decision:
At this stage, the customer decides which product/service is to be purchased. This choice is very vital because not only customer is seeking satisfaction but is also aiming to keep the risk minimum. This applies even more when the product/service chosen is an expensive one. In simple words, the customer should be able to justify the action taken at this stage.
Post- Purchase Behaviour:
This is the last stage of the buyer decision process. After buying the product / service, customer shows post-purchase behaviour. Generally, even if the customer is not fully satisfied with his/her final choice of product or service, the customer does not disclose his/her true feelings since that shows him/her to be a poor decision maker.
If the customer decides to disclose their dissatisfaction, marketers face a huge problem because of the impact buyer’s power can cause through word-of-mouth communication.
Importance of Understanding of Buyer Decision Process:
It is extremely vital for a marketer to understand the buyer decision process. To be able to guess the customers’ behaviour pattern is the key to the success of any marketing firm. Where purchases made by customers are quite routine, the marketer’s task is to break that routine in favour of the company’s own products. If the buying process is more complicated, firms need to assist consumers at the problem-solving stage and reassure them of the choice made by them as a wise choice (Lancaster and Reynolds 2002).
Companies should give as much importance to after-sales service as they do to making the sale in the first place. Marketers must not forget the importance of post-purchase behaviour because it affects future sales directly.
FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
There are many factors influencing consumer behaviour. The following diagram shows the number of factors which influence the consumer’s buying decision.
Source: () [Accessed 18.11.03]
Internal influences:
For this assignment only internal influences- Psychological factors affecting buyer behaviour motivation, perception, personality, learning and memory, emotion and attitudes, values, self concepts, beliefs etc. will be looked at.
Motivation, Perception and Learning will be discussed in great depth and the impact that they have on every stage of buyer decision process will also be highlighted.
MOTIVATION
Motivation can be defined as the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach goals, conditioned by the satisfaction of an individual need () [Accessed 19.11.03]. Motives are the driving forces that cause a person to take action to satisfy specific needs. Motives are either physiological or psychological. Many different motives are often involved in a purchase. We feel motivated to do a certain thing in order to meet the felt need. Maslow presents a hierarchy of needs which helps us understand motivation.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow says that an individual’s basic (lower-order) needs must be satisfied before higher needs can have any influence on individual’s behaviour. As lower needs are satisfied, individual has more time and interest to devote to higher needs. Maslow’s hierarchy is defined below:
These are the most basic needs of a human being as an individual. These include the need for thirst, hunger, sex and shelter. Every human being needs food, drink, shelter-roof over his head and sex as most basic needs.
Unless the customers feel that eating low fat food is one of their basic needs, they are not likely to feel the need to buy Be Good To Yourself products. But Sainsbury’s could use aggressive marketing as one of the tool in order to make Be Good To Yourself range of food a must have food to eat.
The next set of need is the need of safety. We all feel the need of security, protection and order. There is a sense of need of freedom from pain and discomfort. The whole feeling of being safe is extremely necessary for us in order to live our lives normally.
If Sainsbury’s could make its customers fully aware how necessary is it to stay healthy and it can be partially achieved by heating Be Good To Yourself food, they might feel it as a safety need to buy Be Good To Yourself food.
Next is the social need. We all feel the need of belongingness, without it we will be isolated. We all need to be loved. There is also a need of acceptance in a group. Affection needs to be shown to each other. In order to meet the need of belongingness to a group and acceptance, love and affection is necessary.
Sainsbury’s needs to advertise it so much through every possible source- media, television, internet, radio, magazines, locally, billboards etc. It should become social. If everyone talks about it, it is more likely to be accepted.
The next set of need is esteem needs. Self esteem should be achieved and maintained. We feel the need for self respect. Some also classify it as need of recognition. This also includes the prestige and status in the society. We all want to accomplished and be famous.
Sainsbury’s should use famous celebrities with perfect body figures to advertise for their lower fat Be Good To Yourself products. People will feel that they could achieve the same physique if they eat the same food and therefore achieve recognition and prestige and status in the society they are living in.
This is the ultimate need any individual feels. When basic needs, love and status have been achieved, then there comes a need of acquiring products and performing activities that permit self expression. This may take the form of a series of purchases that have been desired for a long time, but have been put on hold until those needs that are lower in the hierarchy have been satisfied. At this stage, an individual does what he or she has had always dreamt of. Some refer to this stage as a self-fulfilment stage.
Advertising might not be necessary to generate the need of self actualisation for Be Good To Yourself products. Customers who have used these products once and have been greatly influenced by the results will be the only ones with self actualisation need. These customers will keep on buying these Be Good To Yourself products in future.
PERCEPTION
Perception is the process by which we select, organize, and interpret stimuli to create a meaningful and coherent picture. Some say perception is how we recognize that we have a consumption problem. Perception concerns the meaning that an individual gives to stimuli. Marketer’s aim is to influence consumers as to how a consumer should perceive their products in relation to factors like price, quality and risk. If the consumer perceives a product of being able to satisfy a need, the product exists otherwise it cannot. Any kind of stimulus is received through the five senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Therefore perception of the stimulus is affected by its physical nature, by the environment of the individual, and by his or her psychological condition. Before any form of perception can take place, it is necessary that the stimulus receives attention ( Lancaster and Reynolds 2002).
There are different types of perceptions:
Selective exposure
A consumer notices certain stimuli (such as advertisements) and ignores other stimuli. Therefore the perception is very selective as only certain stimuli have been noticed.
Selective distortion
A consumer changes or distorts information that conflicts with his or her feelings or beliefs. Only what is believed to be true by the consumer’s own belief is perceived to be true and the rest is ignored or changed.
Selective retention
A consumer remembers only the information that supports his or her feelings or beliefs. The rest is ignored completely.
Cues
Marketers must recognize the importance of cues in consumers' perception of products. Package design or brand name may affect consumer perception of product quality.
Threshold level of perception
The level of change required to make a "just noticeable difference" in consumer perception is called threshold level of perception. Experts estimate that at least a 20 percent change in the stimulus is required.
() [ Accessed 17.11.03]
Although marketers may succeed in gaining maximum attention, there is no guarantee that a consumer will perceive that particular product as marketer might desire. Experience, environment, and the immediate circumstances, aspirations and many other psychological factors combine together to shape, alter and reshape consumer perceptions (Lancaster and Reynolds 2002).
LEARNING
We learn from our experiences. It is the process that creates changes in behaviour, immediate or expected, through experience and practice. It is a very important element in the study of consumer behaviour because it has the power to change attitudes and perceptions. Learning not only provokes change, but also reinforces a change in behaviour. A consumer may learn that a certain products are more acceptable than others to their family and reference groups.
There are different types of learning processes:
Conditioned Learning
Each time a satisfactory purchase is made, the consumer becomes less and less likely to deviate from this conditional behaviour. This type of learning results in brand loyalty forever.
Experiential Learning
A consumer learns by doing something again and again. This comes from experience. This is also called learning by doing.
Conceptual Learning
This is the process of learning by applying previously learned concepts to a new situation. What a consumer experienced in the past is the important element here.
Behavioural learning process
Here the stimulus is followed by the response and response followed by reward. Behavioural patterns decide what to be learnt.
Repetition
Advertising messages are spread over time rather than clustered at one time in order to increase learning. Repetition is the key strategy used by companies in promotional campaigns. The idea is consumers will learn more about the product if they are told about the product by advertising etc. repeatedly.
Stimulus Generalization
One response is extended to a second stimulus similar to the first. Consumers tend to generalise what they learn and how they use their memory for the future purchases.
Stimulus Discrimination
This is the process where consumers use their learned ability to differentiate among different stimuli. They use the stimulus which is more beneficial to them.
Product Differentiation
This is the tactic used by marketers in order to attract potential consumers to learn and know about their products. One product is distinguished form the other using differentiation.
() [ Accessed 21.11.03]
CONCLUSION
In today’s competitive world, it is not an easy task to become and remain the number one choice of customers for your products and services. An organisation needs to ensure that target market is chosen and segmented properly. Organisation should be positioned in a way that it gains the competitive advantage over competitors. It should be able to fill the available gap in the matrix. In order to become successful and maintain it, an organisation needs to do extensive research and carry out necessary actions to understand the buying decision process. Factors influencing buyer’s behaviour should be studied and understood. The importance of the buyer decision process varies according to the type of product / service under consideration. For some products, the whole process is simple, but for some each stage of the process involves careful consideration by the consumer. For these complicated buying processes, companies need to make sure that assist their customers in problem solving process and the rest.
REFERENCE
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