Understanding Customers: Micro and Macro Aspects in Tourism Sector

This report explains the micro and macro aspects of understanding customer with relevant theories and examples considering the tourism sector. It also discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry.

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Understanding
Customers

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Explain the micro and macro aspects of the understanding customer, applying theories and
examples considering the tourism sector. ..................................................................................1
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Understanding customer for the business organisation means having a clear idea of the
customers needs and expectations which need to be adopted by the enterprise so that the it can
regulate its customer experience strategy. It is very important aspect if the organisation fail to
understand its customers then the enterprise will not be able to grasp the opportunities to satisfy
its customers and this will decrease in the profits of the business organisation. Consumer
behaviour can be defined as understanding the buying pattern of the customers and how they are
influenced and make their purchasing decisions. If the organisation is introducing a new product
then there are chances of failure because it is very complex to understand that how the customer
will react and the perception towards the new product or service offered by the business
enterprises. There are various factors such as change in technology, lifestyle, fashion, market
trends, disposable income which leads to change in consumer behaviour. The businesses use
various technologies such as big data tool to identify the purchasing decisions of the
consumers(Haber and Fargnoli, , 2019). This report consists of the micro and macro aspects of
understanding customer with the relevant theory related to tourism sector.
MAIN BODY
Explain the micro and macro aspects of the understanding customer, applying theories and
examples considering the tourism sector.
Understanding consumer behaviour refers to the knowing the persons or group of
individuals and employees including all the activities which are liked together with an business
organisation. It concerns about the consumers attitude, taste and preferences and the emotions
which affects the purchasing decisions of the individuals. It is important to identify and study the
consumer behaviour for the business organisations. If the companies focus on understanding
customer than it will be able to fill the gaps in the marketplace and find the goods that are
required and the the goods that are outdated in the marketplace and identify the goods and
services which are required and the products which are outdated can be removed or developed in
such a way that satisfy s the customer's need. The consumer behaviour not only comprises of
attracting new customers but it also co consists of how to retain the existing customers. This
means that if a consumer is satisfied with the product and the brand then it is for sure that the
consumer will not shift to the other product or brand. This aspect should be identified by the
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organisations that it is important that the existing customers should not be ignored and the
organisation should adopt the strategies so that the existing customer is able to trust the brand
and the product in future also. The consumer behaviour also depend son the market trends. As
the pandemic and the covid-19 has created a huge impact on the consumers mindset. People are
now worried about their health and hygiene factor. This has impacted the business organisations
and specially the tourism sector(Tomazelli, and et.al., 2017). The marketers or the marketing
department need to analyse the new perceptions in the minds of the customers. The expectations
from the tourism sector has been changed after the pandemic. The companies need to identify the
factors and the demands of the customer.
There are two aspects within the external environment such as micro and macro which
can impact in the understanding consumer behaviour. These factors are not in control of the
marketers but it is important to evaluate and identify such factors as they are responsible in
influencing the customers purchasing decisions. The micro aspects of the environment is an
immediate environment that affects the business organisations. It regards considerations linked to
customers, suppliers and local stakeholders, encompassing regulatory bodies and local
government agencies. While the macro aspects are those factors which are out of control and it
comprises of the external factors of the environment which can affects the small and large
companies at a bigger scale(Migdadi, 2020).
The micro aspects considers the various factors related to the environment psychological
factors of the customers which is related to how they think and observe the product or services
offere4d by the business organisation. There are various things which can be considered in the
consumer purchasing decision such as the family background, the culture, religion which can
affect the customers. The above factors can affect the consumer and they can switch to the other
product. So it is important for the organisations to find out the solutions to such factors and use
strategies which cannot affect the d3ecision of the consumer. There is a theory which can be
adopted by the business organisation in order to eliminate or identify the micro aspect and can
implement the strategies to understand the consumer buying behaviour. The personal variable
model, this theory states that the marketers need to identify the personal factors which influences
the buying behaviours. The factors varies from an individual to the another individual for a
certain product or services. Such factors are age, income, occupation and lifestyle. For example,
the age factors affects the purchasing decision because people buy products according to the life
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cycle, the purchase of the chocolates is more when the person is child and as the person grows
the preferences changes according to the lifestyle and the age(Ng, S.C., Sweeney. and Plewa,
2019)
The macro environment signifies the various factors such as social factors that has a great
impact on the consumer buying behaviour. The social factors has influence on the customer
which can consists of the numerous reasons. Cultural aspect is also affecting the consumer
behaviour which consists preferences, tastes, values, behaviour and perceptions of society to
identify the macro factors and identify the customers perceptions the business organisation can
use the theory or a model known as The black box model, this model states that the relationship
between the customer and business organisation who offers the product and services forms
through a phenomenon which is known as market exchange. This model is based upon the outer
stimulus responses that means that a point triggers in the minds of consumer to make purchase
decisions which is affected by various factors such as marketing message, sampling, promotions
and many more(Park, ,and et.al. 2020).
The tourism industry is the most affected after covid-19 and need to focus on the various
aspects in order to understand the perceptions of the customers. One of the best examples is of
EastJet Airlines that are affected by various factors of environment. The pandemic changed the
perceptions of the customers towards tourism. The way before the people use to travel, plan trips
with their family and friends. But, now the individual is more worried about his/ safety and
heath. The government guidelines and health factor has lead to change in the lifestyle which has
impacted in the change of the consumers preferences. But as of now, the situation is been better
and now the industry sector is trying to observe the perceptions of the customer which need to
adopt by the business organisations in order to meet the expectations of the customers. The
companies need to now focus on the hygiene factor to maintain the health and safety measures of
their staff members and clients. The places in United Kingdom such as Tower of London, The
Cotswold and many more have been affected due to the situation in the world. This has lead to a
big change in the environment as well as for the business enterprises and as an individual(Yrjölä,
,and et.al., 2019).
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that the study of the customer behaviour refers to
understanding the perceptions or the purchase buying behaviour. It is very important for the
marketers to understand their customers in order to meet their expectations and demands. If the
business organisation is planning to introduce new product, it is very crucial that the marketing
department first analyse the market trend and the behaviour of the consumer that how they will
react on the new product and whether the product will be useful for the consumers. The two
aspects which is micro and macro factors of environment influences the purchasing decision of
the customers. The main factors which are identified are social, economical and emotion related
factors which impacts the consumer buying decisions. The business organisation can use the
different theories for the better understanding of the customers for their benefit. The personal
variable theory and black box model can be taken into consideration. The most affected industry
is tourism sector. The perceptions have been changed after covid- 19 which has become now an
important aspect as the expectations changes due to the change in the lifestyle and the external
factors.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bozkurt, B., 2019. Understanding the Customer. In Debates in Marketing Orientation.
Emerald Publishing Limited.
Haber, N. and Fargnoli, M., 2019. Prioritizing customer requirements in a product-
service system (PSS) context. The TQM Journal.
Migdadi, M.M., 2020. Knowledge management, customer relationship management and
innovation capabilities. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
Ng, S.C., Sweeney, J.C. and Plewa, C., 2019. Managing customer resource
endowments and deficiencies for value cocreation: complex relational
services. Journal of Service Research. 22(2). pp.156-172.
Park, J.K., ,and et.al. 2020. Exploring internal benefits of medical tourism facilitators’
satisfaction: customer orientation, job satisfaction, and work
performance. Journal of Healthcare Management, 65(2), pp.90-105.
Tomazelli, J., and et.al., 2017. The effects of store environment elements on customer-
to-customer interactions involving older shoppers. Journal of Services
Marketing.
Yrjölä, M.,and et.al., 2019. A customer value perspective to service experiences in
restaurants. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 51, pp.91-101.
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