Consumer Behaviour

This report discusses the individual difference factors that influence consumer behaviour and brand switching in the context of Vodafone. It also provides recommendations for customer retention and resource management.

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Consumer Behaviour
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Executive Summary
The primary purpose of this report is to elucidate on the individual difference factors that are
important for the consumers of Vodafone. The report also throws light on the impact of the
individual difference factors on purchasing decision along with brand switching process
pertaining to Vodafone. The report also talks about the recommendations that can help in
retaining the customers of Vodafone. The report recommends how the company can use
social media for the promotion of its offers along with deals.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Individual Difference Factors of consumers of Vodafone.........................................................3
Effect of individual difference factor on purchasing decision and brand switching..................6
Recommendations for retention of customers and resources of Vodafone..............................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Consumer behaviour refers to study of the individuals along with groups that are
related to the purchasing and the disposal of the goods along with services. Consumer
behaviour talks about the emotional and the behavioural responses of the consumers that has
a great effect on purchasing of a product or a service. Dissimilarity is an integral part of
nature as two persons in the society cannot be like each other. The individual differences
existing in the society paves the path for differences in relation to buying pattern of an
individual. Vodafone can be said to be the world leader that is instrumental in providing
voice along with data communication services. The report also states how the marketers can
make use of understanding in relation to individual differences for enhancing the marketing
strategies. The report also talks about how the marketing strategies employed by the company
takes into account the individual difference factors that helps in retaining the customers and
the resources in the organization. The report states the effect of the individual difference
factors on that of purchasing behaviour and how it helps in retaining customers.
Individual Difference Factors of consumers of Vodafone
The differences existing among the individuals in the society can be owing to
heredity, environment or the training. The factors that influence the consumer behaviour are
occupation, lifestyle, needs, consumer perception and social status. Vodafone offers services
in relation to voice calls along with data services that is crucial for the young people of the
present age. Vodafone refers to a network that is business focussed and it wants to attract new
customers to the service. Vodafone knows that it will be able to make profits by providing
services that can cater to the millenials and hence its services are designed for the younger
generation. Vodafone targets the social media users who are primarily the millenials
(Vodafone.com.au., 2019). They need unlimited data so that they can listen to streaming

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music and hence the company aims at serving these group of the population. It has been
found that the young generation who are more prone to technology wants to take recourse to
the mobile services of Vodafone.
The occupation that an individual has plays an important role in influencing the
consumer decision of the individuals. The kind of job of an individual has been found to have
direct influence on the services that an individual makes use of. The designation of an
individual along with the nature of work have a great bearing on the buying decision that is
made by an individual. The people working in the arena of information communication along
with marketing needs the services so Vodafone targets these group of the customers. The
people working in these fields are friendly to technology and hence the company aims at
targeting these group of people (Liu et al., 2015). Buying tendency of an individual is
proportionate to that of his earnings. The amount of money that is brought by an individual in
his home has direct influence on the company of Vodafone. Being affluent increases the
tendency of an individual to take recourse to the services of Vodafone. The individuals
having high income would be capable of buying expensive along with premium products
when compared to the individuals coming from the middle or the lower income group. The
people belonging to the lower income group have more chances of spending on the necessary
items and hence the company would not aim at targeting these segment of the population.
The people coming from the lower strata of the society would be more interested in buying
necessities like the grocery items and hence this an individual difference factor that is crucial
for the consumers of Vodafone (Egan, Hughes & Palmer, 2015).
Lifestyle is indicative of the way an individual lives in the society which depends on
the social status of an individual. The needs of an individual leading a luxurious lifestyle
would be different from an individual having a moderate lifestyle. The people leading an
affluent lifestyle can act as the potential customers of Vodafone as they have higher chances

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of needing the mobile services of Vodafone (Bamossy & Solomon, 2016). The personality
that an individual has will also influence his buying decisions and have an impact on the
purchasing power. It has been found that there exist a large number of people in Australia
who use the mobile phone service as compared to that of tablet or a personal computer.
Figure: Mobile phone users in Australia
Source: Statista.com., 2019
The consumer perception that an individual has also great effect on the customer
behaviour and it would influence his buying. There exists some people in the society having
traditional norms who do not like the usage of the internet and the mobile connectivity
service. The consumer perception is influenced by product pricing, product packaging along
with the product quality (East et al., 2016). The high prices of the products symbolises
luxury along with quality but it can be out of the reach of a large number of people due to its
higher pricing. The low prices on the other hand can attract the customers who look for an
affordable service but it can at the same time drive away some customers who are concerned
regarding the quality issues.

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The brand value along with ethics can make the customers feel good and it will have
great effect on the purchasing of a product by an individual. It can be stated to be relevant for
the consumers of the company as there would be some consumers who would always be loyal
to the company and avail the services of the company (Solomon et al., 2017). There are
buyers who have made use of the services of Vodafone from the beginning and they are
satisfied with the service that is offered by the company. This is an important factor that
influences the buying decisions of the customers.
Effect of individual difference factor on purchasing decision and brand switching
The social class of a customer can be identified by taking recourse to variables like
income, profession along with education. Social class has a powerful influence on the
purchase decision of the consumer. Society can be divided on the basis of power, prestige
along with wealth. The upper class customers of Australia can afford to avail to avail the
mobile phone service of Vodafone (Parsons, Maclaran & Chatzidakis, 2017). The wealthy
people in the society use the mobile phone service of Vodafone as they would be able to
make use of the services in the future.
It has been found with the help of research that there were differences due to bill
shock owing to gender. It has been found that the women experience bill shock owing to
higher cost of the voice calls as compared to the men. The women have greater tendency of
incurring greater than that of the expected costs due to the message services availed by them.
The modern occupations compel the people to make use of a service that is more reliable and
at the same time affordable (Javornik, 2016). People in the present age want a reliable
connection that they want to use for making connecting with their family along with friends.
People in modern age are often forced to live separately from their friends and their families
as they have to pursue their career (Loureiro, Costa & Panchapakesan, 2017). This forces the

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people to make use of a mobile service that has been able to win the support of the people
and has a brand appeal.
It has been found that the various age groups have various kinds of needs along with
wants and better understanding of the consumers can help Vodafone in the arena of
marketing. The role of the teenagers has increased in the present age in the family structure as
the parents in Australia depends on the computer skills of the teenagers (Garín-Muñoz et al.,
2016). The parents believe that the teenagers are mature enough for making the decisions on
the purchases and hence the parents are influenced to a great extent by the choices of their
young children.
It has been found that the men and the women differ on the basis of tastes. There
exists gender influence on the choice of that of mobile operator. The behaviours along with
the tastes of the women are constantly evolving and this would have effect on the buying of
mobile phone service (Martinho, Magalhães & Pires, 2017). There was an assumption earlier
that men used to act as the main decision makers but this perspective has changed in the
present age. The women in the Australian society act as an important segment that makes use
of the mobile phone service of Vodafone.
There is a notion in the society that a person who is educated can adapt to the new
way of doing the things and can easily make use of new technology. This accounts for the
increasing use of Vodafone mobile phone among the people in Australia (Lovelock &
Patterson, 2015). Research has brought out the fact that there exists link in between usage of
the mobile phone and that of the educational level. The usage of mobile phone is dependent
on the level of the education of an individual. There has been an increase in the number of
mobile phone users in Australia as the number of educated people has increased in Australia.

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Figure: Mobile phone users in Australia
Source: Statista.com., 2019
Vodafone offers broadband service that can greatly be relied upon and the young
people use the service for the purpose of mobile banking. The people who are young wants to
engage themselves in risky adventures and they are more technologically equipped as
compared to the older population of Australia (Alshurideh, 2016). The young people make
use of the mobile phone service for the purpose of playing a game and this causes them to
make use of the mobile phone service of Vodafone. The people who are older use the service
of the mobile phone for the purpose of their business in contrast to the young people who
make use of it for the purpose of socialization in Australia.
Switching costs refer to one-time cost that faces the buyer when they switch from one
supplier of a product to that of another. The concerns related to switching arises on account
of time, energy along with effort that is required for switching. It is found that the men in

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Australia want to make experiments in relation to the service provider and this makes them
switch the service related to the mobile phone (Danaher et al., 2015). There exists individual
differences in relation to brand switching and the women in Australia were more concerned
regarding the aspect of brand switching. The women have been found to be more concerned
regarding the aspect of brand switching as they are bothered regarding monetary cost.
Customer inertia is found to exist when customer thinks that the service of an
organisation is not capable of meeting the expectations of the customer but they still continue
to avail the service with that same mobile phone service. A large percentage of the Australian
population (49.6 %) believes in the fact that brand switching is inconvenient (Armstrong et
al., 2015). Time constraint can prove to be an important factor that influences relationship in
between price, quality along with value. Time pressure can cause the customers to process the
information in a heuristic manner and they can come to the conclusion that higher price of the
brands is associated with that of higher quality or value. In the event of motivation to process
the information being low, information in relation to monetary price would be processed in a
different manner.
It was found on the basis of research that 65 % of the switchers of mobile phone
service were men and around 60 % of the women thought about changing the mobile phone
service but they did not do so (Parsons, Maclaran & Chatzidakis, 2017). The mobile
switchers were mainly those people who were aged between the age of 18-44 and who had
more tendency of making experiments in relation to the mobile phone service. The people
within the age group of 18-44 wanted to make profits and this had an impact on their
purchasing behaviour pertaining to mobile phone service. The people of the age cohort of 25-
45 represented majority of the Generation X who took recourse to mobile phone service
switching.

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Recommendations for retention of customers and resources of Vodafone
4Ps
Product
Vodafone can bring out Vodafone branded phones along with headsets that can help
in the growth of the company in Australia. Vodafone can make different kinds of tariff plans
that can draw the customer towards the company (Alshurideh, 2016). Vodafone can improve
the back office customer service that can help in providing superior experience to the
consumers. It has been found that consumers were facing difficulties in relation to porting the
numbers and the billing charges that were incorrect. Vodafone can improve upon these area
that can help in delivering better service to the consumers.
Price
Vodafone can decrease the charge that it offers for that of mobile phone data service
from $ 45 per month to that of $ 40 per month so that it can serve a wider consumer base.
There are a large number of people in Australia who belong to the middle class and they
would be able to take recourse to the service in the event of it becoming cheaper.
Promotion
The promotion of Vodafone mobile along with broad brand service can be promoted
with the help of social media websites that can play an important role in increasing popularity
of the brand. The special offers and the deals should be provided that can draw a large
number of consumers within Australia towards the popular brand.
Place
In the present, the service of Vodafone are mainly sold primarily by taking recourse to
customer care centres along with shops. Vodafone can be sold by making use of independent

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retailer shop that can increase the popularity of the company. Vodafone can improve on the
aspect of network that can assist them in the building of a strong distribution network across
Australia.
Targeting
Vodafone can offer special kinds of tariff offer like the Vodafone Campus Pack that
can help them in effectively targeting the students. Vodafone can also make special packs for
the friends circle that can help in benefitting those people who want to stay in touch with the
friends. Vodafone can also offer services that are designed for that of high end business
customers that can develop the brand in the Australian market (Liu et al., 2015). It can create
business services like Vodafone Mail that can be of immense help in delivering the
presentations within a company.
Market Segmentation
Segmentation is indicative of the splitting of the entire market into that of smaller
groups. Vodafone can launch plans along with packages for that of the small medium
enterprise along with the large scale business. The segmentation should take into account the
various business within Australia and the services should be customised on the basis of the
needs of the clients and the business.
Conclusion
Consumer behaviour is indicative of study of individuals which is related to the
purchasing of goods. An individual who is more affluent can use the mobile network along
with the broadband service offered by Vodafone. Individuals possessing a high amount of
income can purchase the premium products as compared to those people who belong to that
of the lower income group. The individuals who lead luxurious lifestyle would have different
needs from those people leading a moderate lifestyle. There occurs differences pertaining to

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bill shock among the male and the female gender. Women in Australia face bill shock due to
that of higher cost of voice calls when compared to men. An educated person can easily
adjust to the new technologies. There has been an increase in the number of educated people
in Australia that has increased the consumer base of Vodafone.

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References
Alshurideh, M. (2016). Scope of Customer Retention Problem in the Mobile Phone Sector: A
Theoretical Perspective. Journal of Marketing and Consumer Research, 20, 64-69.
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Danaher, P. J., Smith, M. S., Ranasinghe, K., & Danaher, T. S. (2015). Where, when, and
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East, R., Singh, J., Wright, M., & Vanhuele, M. (2016). Consumer behaviour: Applications
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