Consumer Behavior and Insights Report for HNBS 327 Course

This report, prepared for the HNBS 327 Consumer Behavior and Insights course, delves into the intricacies of consumer decision-making. It examines various models influencing buyer behavior, including economic, passive, cognitive, and emotional perspectives. The report analyzes the decision-making process, mapping out the steps a restaurant, Ledbury, would take when launching a new product, "Twisted Lasagna", and explores the levels of customer decision-making, such as extensive and limited problem-solving, and routine response behavior. Furthermore, it identifies key factors impacting consumer choices, encompassing economic, personal, social, and cultural influences. The report then contrasts B2B and B2C decision-making processes, highlighting differences in market research approaches and the impact of factors like self-perception, motivation, and personality on purchasing decisions. It also addresses cognitive and behavioral methods in understanding consumer knowledge, the influence of culture, and the use of digital audience research to modify customer behavior.

HNBS 327 CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR AND INSIGHT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
REPORT 1 – Learning Outcome 1.................................................................................................1
Introduction............................................................................................................................1
Decision making process of Buyers.......................................................................................1
Models....................................................................................................................................1
Mapping of decision-making procedure of buyers.................................................................2
Levels of customer decision-making.....................................................................................3
Factors impacting decision-making........................................................................................3
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................4
REPORT 2 – Learning Outcome 2 and 3........................................................................................4
Introduction............................................................................................................................4
Comparison between B2B and B2C decision-making...........................................................5
In what manner research of market differs between B2C and B2B.......................................5
Impact of self, motivation, customer perception and personality on decision-making..........6
Cognitive and Behavioural methods to customer knowledge................................................6
Impact of culture and other relevant factors on consumer behaviour....................................6
In what manner buyer behaviour is understood to influence decision-making process.........7
Use of digital audience research progresses to comprehend and change customer behaviour7
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................8

REPORT 1 – Learning Outcome 1
Introduction
Customer satisfaction should be the prime goal of every organisation as it assists in
developing long term connections with the users. The decision making of buyers is one of the
core aspects where business needs to understand in order to provide them with appropriate
products and services. The present report is going to discuss the consumer decision making
process. The chosen business for the report is a restaurant establishment named as Ledbury. It is
situated in Notting Hill, London and is known for its unique French food (Javornik, 2016). The
restaurant's capacity is 70 covers at a time. The report is going to outline models of decision
making which is implied by buyers and factors influencing decision of consumers. Along with it,
the levels of consumer decision-making are also explained in the below report.
Decision making process of Buyers
The decision making of buyers is a process in which the marketing department of
Ledbury identifies and tracks decision-making journey of the buyers from start point to finish. It
is determined by both psychological and economic factors and is influenced by environmental
factors including cultural and social values.
Models Economic View: Under this approach, the customer is seen as a rational thinker. This
means that the customer tends to compare different products, evaluates its advantages
and disadvantages etc. This model is considered not realistic as people are seen to be
limited by existing values, habits, skills and perception and often they are not always
balanced when it comes to make a purchase decision.
 Passive View: This explains that the customers take decisions from the promotional
efforts made by the marketers and directly responds to the advertisement appeals and
sales offered by the marketers (Dwivedi, 2015). This model is opposite to the
economic model and it assumes that the people are going to evaluate a product which
is depending upon in what manner it is positioned and promoted in the market.
 Cognitive View: This is seen as one of the best models among all the four ones.
Under this approach, it has been identified that customers tends to make decisions as
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per their own understandings and interests of the market demand and not as per the
promotional efforts and rational needs.
 Emotional View: This approach states that all of the buyers tends to make their
purchase decisions on the basis of emotions. It is because most often customers tend
to feel attracted towards a services or products provided by a consumer (Biswas and
Roy, 2015). This allows them to buy a product or service as per their attraction.
Mapping of decision-making procedure of buyers
Ledbury is launching its new pasta preparation known as “Twisted Lasagna”. The
restaurant before launching the dish will map out the customer process of decision-making.
Below mentioned are the steps and in what manner the establishment is mapping it successfully: Step 1: Need/Problem Recognition: In this step, the restaurant is going to identify the
need of the products in the mind of the customer. Understanding this is going to allow the
restaurant to go ahead with the process of launching the dish in the restaurant. Most often
the needs are identified when a customer observes something that he requires of seeks as
a desire or a wish. This tends to satisfy the customer and helps the seller in achieving
profitability and business growth. Step 2: Information Search: Information search allows the customer to look for the
information about the products or service which he/she is in a need of. This is often done
by a customer with the help of personal (peers, friends, family etc.) and commercial
(radio, television, newspapers) sources (Zhang, 2015). It helps the customer to look for
relevant information. From appropriate promotion and marketing of the product the
restaurant is going to provide the appropriate information to its customers. Step 3: Evaluation of Alternatives: By collecting information from a variety of sources,
the customer is going to evaluate the disadvantages and benefits of a variety of product
alternatives. Along with it, the customer is going to develop a choice on the basis of
quality, quantity, attribute etc. of “Twisted Lasagna” as per the personal requirements,
preferences, lifestyle personality etc. Step 4: Selection and Trial: From keeping the set of choices in consideration the
customer is going to make the trial of the new product. The quality, taste, and most
importantly the perception of the customer would evaluate if he/she is going to choose to
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buy it or not. This is also going to determine if the customer liked the sold product by the
restaurant or not.
 Step 5: Purchase Decision: At last, when the customer believes that a product sold by
the restaurant is going to provide him/her with the appropriate satisfaction. The customer
is going to make the choice of buying it.
Levels of customer decision-making
Below mentioned are level of customer decision-making: Extensive Problem Solving: In this level, the customers are seen to highly be involved
with the products. The customer evaluates the product by keeping established product
criteria as a base which fulfils the customer's personal needs. The customer is going to
check the quality, quantity and appearance of the product (Elbeltagi and Agag, 2016).
Along with it, the customer is going to look if the product satisfies the needs and is going
to make the choices accordingly. This criterion is often used by the customer at times
when he/she is looking for a product which is going to be used by the customer for a long
time period or tends to hold a huge amount of value. Limited Problem Solving: The consumer tends to create a general search in this level of
decision-making. In this case, it has been seen that the product does not carries a large
value and carries a value that is limited to the opinion of the customer. While making a
choice the customer tends to choose the product after evaluating the product or service
sold by different restaurants. This help the customer to gain satisfaction and at last make
a final choice.
 Routine Response behaviour: This stage level, customer tends to have very minimum or
low involvement with the product and at times while the selection the customer looks if
the product is satisfied the very basic need or desire or not. He/she does not tend to look
for a variety of options but makes a decision which is appropriate and moves forward
with the made choice. This allows the customer to make the choice faster and choose a
product or service which enables him/her to fulfil the existing need or desired.
Factors impacting decision-making
Below mentioned are the aspects that impact customer decision-making: Economic Factor: The economic factor allows the customer to make decision according
to the affording ability to his/her own. A customer cannot buy the product which he/she
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cannot afford. This makes it important for the customer to make decisions as per their
economic allowance which are their salaries, savings, monetary needs etc. Personal Factor: Personal factors are the ones in which a person tends to make choices
as per his/her personal occupation, lifestyle, economic status etc. These factors reflect the
choices which the individual is going to make and would allow him to buy the particular
product or service. Social Factor: Social factor includes the reference of family, social status, friends etc.
This is one of the most important factor which tends to influence the decision-making of
a customer (Parsons, Maclaran and Chatzidakis, 2017). A customer often makes the
decision which are given to him/her by the family members, relatives, friends etc.
 Cultural Factor: These factors are the ones in which a customer is bounded by the
choices of a particular culture under which he is thriving into. It tends to make the
customer make his/her choices are per the understanding of the people of the culture and
their opinions, point of views and religious choices as well.
Conclusion
Customer decision-making is one of the most important aspect which a business needs to
understand in order to grow and achieve required success. As per the drawn conclusions, it can
be seen that the customers of Ledbury are influenced by four factors while making their choices
which are social, cultural, economic, and personal. Along with it, the business in order to reach
towards optimum development and growth and selling of its products and services needs to
understand the critical food choices made by the customers to earn required profitability and
provide the customers with required satisfaction as per their choices and needs.
REPORT 2 – Learning Outcome 2 and 3
Introduction
It is important for a business to understand both B2B (Business to Business) and B2C
(Business to Customer) decision-making processes in order to serve both businesses and
customers well. The below report is going to explore the major difference between B2C and B2B
process of decision-making and would evaluate in what manner market research differs between
both of them (Zeugner-Roth, Žabkar and Diamantopoulos, 2015). Further, the report is going to
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highlight in what manner culture and other relevant factors impacts the buyer behaviour and the
cognitive and behavioural method to shopper learning.
Comparison between B2B and B2C decision-making
KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN B2B AND B2C DESICION MAKING PROCESSES
Business 2 Business Business 2 Customer
While making the decisions for business to
business, a business tends to understand the
overall needs of a business in which it can
make the organisation perform better and
achieve its set goals and objectives.
While making the decisions for the customer
the business tends to evaluate the personal
needs and requirements of a customer and
tends to make the decision accordingly.
Understands the overall needs of a particular
organisation
Understanding the personal need of a customer
Quantity of goods is large Quantity of goods is small
In what manner research of market differs between B2C and B2B
Below points explain in what manner the research of market differs between B2C and
B2B: Market Research for B2B: While conducting market research for B2B a company tends
to understand which organisations are in need of the product sold by it. It can either be in
large quantities or in small as well (Liobikienė, Mandravickaitė and Bernatonienė, 2016).
The company identifies its employees understanding, the organisation culture, its
reputation before making any decisions related to the provision of product or services.
 Market Research for B2C: As compared to business to business, the B2C market
research is done by taking into consideration the specific needs of particular customer or
a group of customers. In order to do that, a business tends to examine what are the
requirements of its own and what is should be doing in order to fulfil the needs to its
customers while meeting its set goals and objectives. This allows the business to grow
and keep its customers satisfied.
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Impact of self, motivation, customer perception and personality on decision-making
The personality of an individual tends to make the individual choose whatever is suited
best for the personality of his own. It is important for an individual to meet the personality
criteria while he is a part of the society and make decisions accordingly (Janakiraman, Syrdal
and Freling, 2016). Making decision accordingly to the needs to the personality tends to keep the
individual satisfied in terms of being a part of the society and keeping up with the society
standards as well. Motivation and self are the biggest influencers while making decision as a
personal only make a decision to buy a product or a commodity when he/she is motivated by a
factor of likeness, attraction or fondness towards it. As per these criteria, a consumer tends to
make his decisions.
The perception of the customer varies from time to time and his/her personal understand
about a product or commodity (Oliveira and et.al., 2017). As per these understanding the
customer tends to make decisions to buy a product or service and make use of it accordingly.
Cognitive and Behavioural methods to customer knowledge
The theory of behavioural learning is not much of the process oriented but instead it is
focused on the inputs and outputs. This means that the one stimuli which was exposed to it and
the behaviour of the resultant. The theory develops its understanding by observing the behaviour
of a customer. For example, when a customer visits Ledbury, he/she tends to make choices as
per the trends and the word of mouth of other people’s choices. The behaviour showcases that
the customers are making choices form two approaches “word of mouth” and “present trends”.
Cognitive learning discusses that learning takes place as per the thinking of the consumer.
The theory focuses on the mental process of a human being rather than association of rewards
with stimuli or repetition (Karimi, Papamichail and Holland, 2015). Under this theory the
consumer brain is split into two parts, left and right. It explains that the Television
advertisements are stored into the right side of the consumer brain whereas the information
which is verbal is processed by the left side of the brain which includes a large involvement of
mediums such as internet, print etc.
Impact of culture and other relevant factors on consumer behaviour
Culture is often seen to be playing a major role in the behaviour of a consumer. It is
because a human being is bounded by the thinking, perception and mentality of the society in
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which he thrives into. Each and every culture carries different opinions, religious approaches,
and particular choices of products and services.
For example, a person living in China would be having a different set of choices than a
person living in Ghana. It is because of the society in which they live into, the language which
they speak, the aspect under which they are seen to be developed and most importantly their
knowledge and information about personal needs and desires (Leckie, Nyadzayo and Johnson,
2016). This impacts the behaviour and their choices towards a particular product or a commodity
which a business is selling.
In what manner buyer behaviour is understood to influence decision-making process
Organisations across the world are using their buyer behaviours in order to influence the
process of decision making. It is done by analysing how a customer behaves towards a particular
product or service sold by a business. Sometimes a customer buys a products and does not
chooses to buy it again, sometimes a customer keeps coming back because of the individual's
likeness and association with the product etc.
Understanding of these behaviours allows the organisation to conduct an analysis on how
their products and services are performing into the market. As per this analysis and
understanding of the customer behaviour the organisation tends to make necessary changes in its
products and services. After doing these changes, the new products and services are marketed
and promoted heavily in the market (Han and Yoon,2015). This makes the customers attracted
towards the sold products and gives them a chance to use them again. At last, it influences the
decision-making process of customers (B2C) and businesses (B2B) towards the sold products by
a particular company.
Use of digital audience research progresses to comprehend and change customer behaviour
Businesses are using digital audience research developments in order to understand and
influence their customer behaviour (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2015). Today, digital technology
is allowing the businesses to understand the behaviour of the buyers towards their products and
services easily. The businesses are easily collecting and storing the data on their particularly sold
products and services and making decisions to change them accordingly. Also, the businesses
tend to understand the customer behaviour from these approaches as well. Businesses as per the
collected data evaluate what changes can keep the customer satisfied and most importantly what
attract them in buying the sold products and services. After the evaluation, the changes are
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implemented on the products and services sold by the company and later the business
successfully influences the behaviour of the customer towards the sold products and services of
the company. Along with it, this helps the businesses to reach new growth and earn better
profitability as well.
Conclusion
Businesses needs to understand in what manner they should serve both businesses and
customers as per the set needs and requirements from both sides. As per the above drawn
conclusions, it can be seen that the culture tends to play a major role in influencing the decision-
making of a customer. Along with it, it has been seen that organisations across the world are
making use of digital technologies in order to ease the process of understanding and influencing
the behaviour of the buyers. It helps the business to reach new growth and development along
with gaining more customers and achieve better profitability.
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