Business Dissertation Sample – NewEssays.co.uk
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design and develop products or services in tune with the customers’ needs and
requirements, the companies have to understand the consumers’ perceptions and
their behaviours (Ariely and Norton, 2011). According to Solomon et al. (2010, pp6-
7), " Consumer behaviour is the process involved when individuals or groups of
people select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences
to satisfy their needs and desires". Various people are involved in this process and
they all have different responsibilities. This includes the purchaser, who is
responsible for purchasing the product or service; the user, who is responsible for
utilising the product or service; and the influencer, who is responsible for providing
comments on the product before or after using it.
A good business strategy for any organisation or business would be to understand
the consumers’ needs (East et al., 2012). Consumer needs and demands are the
fundamental cornerstone of marketing and businesses exist to cater to these
demands. Therefore, consumer segmentation is an important element for any
business (Zellman et al., 2010). Consumer segmentation aids businesses by
grouping consumers based on various factors. This will aid the businesses as they
will be able to design products and services better suited to the consumers’ tastes,
they can market their goods to the correct group of people and this will ultimately
help in increasing their profits. Consumer segmentation can be done based on
various demographical factors like age, gender, religion, etc; behavioural factors
such as benefits, product usage, etc; psychographic factors like personality, lifestyle,
etc; and geographical factors such as country, regions, etc (Solomon et al., 2010). In
addition to this, consumers can also be grouped as green consumers, who are more
environmentally friendly, or global consumers, who are more brand conscious
(Sheppard and Thomas, 2012).
Armstrong and Kotler (2010) present a black box to understand the process of
consumer decision making. According to the authors, there are some initial
marketing and external stimuli including marketing mix, economic, social and other
factors which can impact the buyer’s black box. The buyer’s black box involves the
decision making process of the buyer which is based on their involvement,
perception and attitude towards the product. Following this, the buyer’s response to