Consumer Behavior Report: Fast Food Lanka Ltd, Marketing and Ethics

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of consumer behavior within the context of Fast Food Lanka Ltd, a fast-food chain in Sri Lanka. It begins by outlining the significance of understanding consumer behavior for the company, emphasizing customer retention, differentiation, and the ability to predict market trends and gain a competitive advantage. The report then delves into the influences of cultural, social, and personal factors on consumer behavior, particularly focusing on the impact of these factors on the target market of parents and children aged 8-16, considering the introduction of a new meal package. It examines how cultural values, subcultures, and social classes shape consumer choices. Furthermore, the report addresses ethical issues in marketing and advertising to young children, specifically in the context of the new meal, evaluating the potential implications of marketing and advertising practices on children. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and implications for Fast Food Lanka Ltd, offering insights into effective marketing strategies that align with consumer behavior and ethical considerations.

Consumer Behavior | Individual Assignment | 1
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

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Contents
Acknowledgement .......................................................................................................................... 3
Executive summary ......................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Q 01. significance of understanding consumer behavior to Fast Food Lanka Ltd ......................... 6
Q 02. Influences of cultural, social and personal factors ................................................................ 8
2.1 Cultural factors...................................................................................................................... 8
2.2 Personal factors ................................................................................................................... 10
2.3 Social Factors ...................................................................................................................... 13
Q 03. Ethical issues in marketing and advertising to young children ........................................... 14
3.1 Marketing ............................................................................................................................ 15
3.1.1 Ethical issues in marketing to young children ............................................................. 15
3.2 Advertising .......................................................................................................................... 15
3.2.2 Ethical issues in Advertising to young children .......................................................... 16
Conclution ..................................................................................................................................... 19
References ..................................................................................................................................... 20
Figure 1:Influences of cultural, social and personal factors ........................................................... 8

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Acknowledgement
I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all those who always guided me
and gave me the possibility to complete consumer behavior Report. I take this opportunity to
express my utmost regards to our respected lecturers whose unparalleled knowledge, moral fiber
and judgment along with their know-how, was an immense support in completing this assignment
report in a highly successful manner. I would also like to acknowledge with much appreciate,
especially my classmates have made valuable comments for my report. I also specially thanks for
my parents that who encouraged me and about strengthening me at all the time.

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Executive summary
The main purpose of this report is Discuss various marketing activities, mainly promotional
planning.This report further assesses the Fast Food Lanka, which runs a chain of restaurants in
Sri Lanka that specializes in food, is launching a new meal targeting young children between the
ages of 08-16: small burgers, fried chicken nuggets and French fries and small pop drinks (cool
Drink) Includes meal marketing activities that are primarily targeted at parents as well as young
children, planning promotions.
First, it describes the significance of understanding consumer behavior to Fast Food Lanka Ltd
with the importance. Next, targeting parents, the potential impact of cultural, social and personal
factors on their consumer behavior will be further discussed using the new food package
introduced by Fast Food Lanka Pvt Ltd.This report further discusses the potential ethical issues
in marketing and advertising to young children and how it affects children.

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Introduction
A fast food restaurant, also known as a quick service restaurant within the industry, is a specific
type of restaurant that serves fast food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in
fast food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked
in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take
away, though seating may be provided. Fast food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant
chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods
and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels.
Fast Food Lanka Limited operates as a chain of restaurants in Sri Lanka and specializes in fast
food, including burgers, wraps and fried chicken products. The company is launching a new meal
targeting small children between the ages of 08-16, including small burgers, fried chicken nuggets
and French fries and a small pop drink (soft drink). In order to compete with industry giants and
attract target market segments, Fast Food Lanka must promote effective strategies.

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Q 01. significance of understanding consumer behavior to Fast Food Lanka Ltd
Consumer behavior
Consumer behavior covers a broad variety of consumers based on diversity in age, sex, culture,
taste, preference, educational level, income level, etc. Consumer behavior can be defined as “the
decision process and physical activity engaged in evaluating, acquiring, using or disposing of
goods and services.”
With all of the diversity to the surplus of goods and services offered to us, and the freedom of
choices, one may speculate how individual marketers actually reach us with their highly definite
marketing messages. Understanding consumer behavior helps in identifying whom to target, how
to target, when to reach them, and what message is to be given to them to reach the target audience
to buy the product.
The study of Consumer Behavior helps in understanding how individuals make decisions to spend
their available resources like time, money, and effort while purchasing goods and services. It is a
subject that explains the basic questions that a normal consumer faces − what to buy, why to buy,
when to buy, where to buy from, how often to buy, and how they use it
Customer Retention
Consumer behavior is not just important to attract new customers, but retaining existing customers
is also very important for Fast Food Lanka Ltd. When a customer is pleased with the latest children
package introduced by Fast Food Lanka Ltd, he/she will make the purchase again. Therefore, the
product should be marketed in such a way that it convinces the customer to buy the product again
and again.
Consumer Differentiation

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In marketing, consumer differentiation is a way to distinguish a consumer from several other
consumers. This helps to make a target group of consumers with the same or similar behavior.
Although Fast Food Lanka Ltd has targeted customer statistics for the Fast Food Lanka Ltd
business, the company may still have differences between individual customers. Every customer
group is different and their needs and requirements are different than other groups. Once a marketer
is aware of the difference in each customer segment, he or she can design separate marketing
programs. Accordingly, with Fast Food Lanka Ltd, the selected age group for the sale of this new
food package is children between the ages of 08 and 16 years.
Consumer differentiation will help to tailor Fast Food Lanka Ltd strategies to the needs of varying
customer groups. When consumer differentiation is done, Fast Food Lanka Ltd can expand the
width and breadth of company services. Fast Food Lanka Ltd will be able to effectively serve a
wider group of people.
Predicting Market Trend
Consumer behavior analysis is the first indication of a change in market propensity. For example,
the recent trend of Fast Food Lanka Ltd's customers towards eco-friendliness and healthy
food.This changing market trend was observed by many brands including Fast Food Lanka
Ltd.Based on customer behavior, Fast Food Lanka Ltd came up with healthy food options.
By conducting consumer behavior study, a company saves a lot of resources that might otherwise
be allocated to produce a product that will not be sold in the market. Based on consumer behavior
the company decides on production strategy which will save on warehouse costs and marketing
costs.
Competition
As the Consumer Behavior Study helps Fast Food Lanka Ltd gain a competitive advantage, this
study can provide products that are more competitive than Fast Food Lanka Ltd based on customer
expectations. Thus it helps to enhance the competitive strengths of the company.

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Q 02. Influences of cultural, social and personal factors
Figure 1:Influences of cultural, social and personal factors
Consumer behavior is influenced by many different factors. A marketer should try to understand
the factors that influence consumer behavior. Here we discussed about few major factors that
influence consumer behavior.
2.1 Cultural factors
cultural factors comprise of set of values and ideologies of a particular community or group of
individuals. It is the culture of an individual which decides the way he/she behaves. In simpler
words, culture is nothing but values of an individual. What an individual learns from his parents
and relatives as a child becomes his culture.

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Cultural factors have a significant effect on an individual’s buying decision. Every individual has
different sets of habits, beliefs and principles which he/she develops from his family status and
background. What they see from their childhood becomes their culture.
Based on religion, fast food Sri Lanka should adapt their new product. Different meats are used
for burgers and sauerkraut. These include a variety of meats such as chicken, beef, orc meat, and
fish. Some people do not eat meat products based on their religious beliefs. That is, most Hindus
are vegetarian. Since beef is considered a sacred animal, even Hindus who eat meat will not eat
beef, and Muslims will not eat pork. Therefore, fast food Sri Lanka should offer alternative meat
products for them. Furthermore, cultural influences lead to a change in habitual consumption
 Culture and societal environment
Culture is crucial when it comes to understanding the needs and behaviors of an customer.
Basically, culture is the part of every society and is the important cause of customer wants and
behavior. The influence of culture on buying behavior varies from country to country therefore
Fast lanka Food Ltd have to be very careful in analyzing the culture of different groups, regions
or even countries. Throughout customer’s existence, an customer will be influenced by customer
family, customer friends, customer cultural environment or society that will teach customer values,
preferences as well as cosmetics has greatly expanded.
 Subculture
Each culture is made up of smaller subcultures that provide a more specific identity and
socialization for their members. Subculture is a group of beliefs shared by a subculture of major
cultures, including nationalities, religions, ethnic groups, and geographical regions. Many
subcultures have important market segments and Fast Food Lanka Ltd needs to tailor its product
and marketing programs to suit their needs.
Food packages often communicate in different ways, sometimes even creating specific food
packages. For a single type of food package specifically targeting an age group, gender or specific
subculture.

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 Social class
Every society has some kind of social class and it is important for marketers. This is because the
buying behavior of people in a given social class is similar. In this way, Fast Food Lanka Ltd's
new food package for toddlers can be tailored to different social classes. Social class seems to
depend not only on the parental income of those young children but also on various other factors:
wealth, education, employment, and so on.
There are three different social classes in our society. They are upper class, middle class and lower
class. These three social classes differ in their buying behavior. The upper class consumers want
to maintain their status in the upper class goods society. Middle-class consumers buy carefully and
gather information to compare different food outlets of the same product, while lower-class
consumers buy impulsively.
Again there may be educational considerations. Wealthy but less educated people usually do not
buy a computer. We need to consider another factor in the social movement in which a person
climbs the social ladder (for example, the poor may have a middle class and the middle class may
have a good education for the children of an ignorant family) or the bottom of the social ladder
(for example, the rich may be poor , Or children from a highly educated family may not continue
to education).
Therefore, the manager and team of Fast Food Lanka Ltd should carefully study the relationship
between social classes and their consumption patterns and take appropriate steps to appeal to the
people of the social classes that the products of those consumer parents mean.
2.2 Personal factors

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It includes such variables as age and lifecycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle
(activities, interests, opinions and demographics), personality and self-concept. These may explain
why our preferences often change as our `situation' changes. Decisions and buying behavior are
obviously also influenced by the characteristics of each consumer.
 Personality
Personality changes from person to person, time to time and place to place. Therefore, it can
greatly influence the buying behavior of customers. Actually, Personality is not what one wears;
rather it is the totality of behavior of a man in different circumstances. It has different
characteristics such as: dominance, aggressiveness, self-confidence etc. which can be useful to
determine the consumer behavior for particular product or service. In order to maintain a
competitive advantage, fast food managers need to understand the areas that drive consumer
preferences and incorporate those elements into their marketing strategies as the personality of the
target market is highly dependent on external influences.
 Age and way of life
when we target a parent as a consumer does not buy the same products or services for every time.
their lifestyle, values, environment, activities, hobbies and The lifestyle of a consumer will
influence on the behavior and purchasing decisions.
For example, adults parent consumer and children’s may be particularly interested in providing
small introductory food packages for the parents or children’s, as these packages are tailored to
suit small children (so purchase packages reserved for them). here we mainly aim ages between 8
to 16 years.
 Motivation
When a person is motivated enough, it influences the buying behavior of the person. A person has
many needs such as the social needs, basic needs, security needs, esteem needs and self-
actualization needs. Out of all these needs, the basic needs and security needs take a position above

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all other needs. Hence basic needs and security needs have the power to motivate a consumer to
buy products and services. These factors will motivate the consumers to refer to Fast Food Lanka
among rivals.
 Personality and self-concept
Personality is the set of traits and specific characteristics of each individual. It is the product of the
interaction of psychological and physiological characteristics of the individual and results in
constant behaviors. It materializes into some traits such as confidence, sociability, autonomy,
charisma, ambition, openness to others, shyness, curiosity, adaptability, etc.
While the self- concept is the image that the individual has or would like to have of they and they
convey to their entourage. For example, Fast Food Lanka Ltd.’s forthcoming package of new mini-
drives will cultivate a positive image of creativity and taste in young children. By doing so, parents
who recognize these values can attract customers and feel the value of their self-concept by
purchasing a small food package for their children from Fast Food Lanka Ltd
 Income
Income has the ability to influence the buying behavior of a person. Higher income gives higher
purchasing power to consumers. When a consumer has higher disposable income, it gives more
opportunity for the consumer to spend on luxurious products. Whereas low-income or middle-
income group consumers spend most of their income on basic needs such as groceries and clothes
and foods.
Accordingly, the new food package to be introduced by Fast Food Lanka Limited will be priced
to suit all income earners. Thus, this will enable middle class income earners from high income
earners to purchase this food package for their children. This will greatly enhance the customer
base of Fast Food Lanka Ltd.

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 Lifestyle
People with the same culture, social class and occupation may vary according to their lifestyle.
Accordingly, knowledge of lifestyle in the target market is essential for Fast Food Lanka Ltd to
design a more relevant marketing program for the new food package.
Lifestyle refers to the interaction of the "whole person" with his / her environment. It usually
reflects activity, interest, clothing style, quality, cost and savings, helping others, achievements,
working style, and so on.
2.3 Social Factors
Humans are social beings and they live around many people who influence their buying behavior.
Human try to imitate other humans and also wish to be socially accepted in the society. Hence
their buying behavior is influenced by other people around them. These factors are considered as
social factors. Some of the social factors are:
 Family
The family plays an important role in shaping an individual’s buying behavior. A person develops
preferences by looking at family-bought products from an early age and buys the same products
as they grow up. Accordingly, parents become more careful when buying different foods for their
children. The package makes it easy for parents to buy this food package again and again for the
children because of its layout.
 Reference Groups
Reference groups have potential in forming a customer attitude or behavior. The impact of
reference groups varies across products and brands. Generally, all the customers in the reference

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group have common buying behavior and influence each other. Fast Food Sri Lanka can use
influencer marketing strategies to effectively promote the new product being launched. Fast food
Sri Lanka can target more influencers than the overall target market, because these influencers can
change the behavior of the younger generation today. Not only them, but also family, friends,
relatives influence customer behavior. Word of mouth about the new diet can significantly change
the behavior of young children.
 Roles and Statuses
A person plays various roles in many groups throughout his life. He has to play different roles in
family, club, office, or social organization. A role consists of the activities that a person is expected
to perform. For example, a person is father for his children, husband for his wife, son for his
parents, friend for his friends, boss for his department, and a member of social organization.
Every role carries status. For example, the sales manager at Fast Food Lanka Ltd has more status
than the sales officer. Product people choose to communicate or represent their roles and situations
in society.Therefore, Fast Food Lanka Ltd should be aware of the quality symbol potential of
products and brands.Fast Food Lanka Ltd should try to connect products and brands with specific
roles and status. This will encourage parents to purchase the new food package that Fast Food
Lanka Ltd is introducing to their children.also Changes in consumer behavior patterns are
primarily influenced by people's role and status. Accordingly, fast food Sri Lanka can target upper
and middle class market related consumers in promoting their new product.
Q 03. Ethical issues in marketing and advertising to young children

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3.1 Marketing
Marketing is a process that involves design, creation, research and data mining about how to best
align the idea of a product or service with the target audience. Marketing helps to define the product
even more than the actual product does.
3.1.1 Ethical issues in marketing to young children
The fact that so many commercials on TV, online, in games targeted to children are for foods that
are high in calories and low in nutritional value, makes the ethical problem even sharper. On the
other side, hundreds of psychologists, marketing experts as well as corporate lawyers develop
strategies, which make kids to want attractive “fun” products.
Is it ethical to address commercials for sugar-coated cereals, fast food restaurants, candy to
children? According to the research in families with young children, the kids are exposed to
advertising pri-marily within the family home. At the same time, parents admit that they grew up
with beliefs of consumerist culture themselves, where the child has the “right to want” and
rejecting child´s needs is considered as cruel attitude. The target group of the campaign are parents
of 8 to 16 year-olds. It´s primary goal is to offer a critical view of children's media consumption
and food choices.The campaign does not intend to blame parents for not being responsible enough
for their children or to fight advertising promoting unhealthy food and drinks to kids. .It rather
shows the extreme cases of parents indifferent attitude and attracts attention to the side effects of
buying unhealthy food for their children, such as obesity and parent-child conflict.
3.2 Advertising
Advertising is defined as a form of marketing communication used by companies to promote or
sell products and services. In essence, advertising is one of the components or subsets of marketing.

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In other words, if you think of marketing as a pie, then advertising will be an important slice of
that pie.
The primary goal of advertising is to influence the buying behavior by promoting a product, service
or company. To achieve this goal, advertising focuses on creative positioning and media. In doing
so, advertising spreads awareness about what you have to offer.
3.2.2 Ethical issues in Advertising to young children
Children’s Health Abuse Issues: Obesity
A number of health issues have been identified when advertising for children. Among them, the
one who causes the biggest problems is ashamed of being obese. It is defined as the accumulation
of excess fat which can be detrimental to one's health. In today’s world, in many countries, children
prefer to spend their evenings with television and snacks rather than outdoor activities.
As such, some of food restaurants invites people to use their products, pricing and promotion
strategies from a mixed marketing point of view to save less money and get more food. Specially
designed package by food restaurants constantly setting a mindset for Children that food are fun,
as physical evidence shown that those food restaurants had packages made specifically for just
children that comes with toys and collectibles. Furthermore, it depicts for rather just selling for
fast food but is a family adventure for having meal together at fast food centers. In addition, food
resturants uses prints calorie count sheet in trays and claiming that their food will not cause obesity
if consume accordingly.
The impact of such ads is unforgivable. Such unethical advertising immediately leads to more
health problems and leads consumers to “superior” consumers with their products, not only in the
diet but also in the high value of it. Therefore, steps can be taken to deal effectively with these
unethical behaviors that lead to obesity and other health problems.
Credibility and Deceptive Conducts to Advertisements

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In addition to health issues, other ethical issues are related to advertising for children. The
advertisements are filled with a lot of interesting information saying that there is access to an
unprecedented number of innocent children. In some countries there has been a great deal of effort
to reduce and ban child-targeted advertising. Somehow marketers will find ways inside.
Another ethical issue that draws the attention of researches is when food restaurant marketers
involve children’s psychologists in their market research. The reason is clear that these
psychologists are at its best from their profession. They were hired to launch attack to the
children’s mind.
From the 3Ps of extended marketing mix perspective, the people and process that get involve is
unethical, and the physical evidence is the advertising itself. The fact had shown that food
restaurant marketers are viewing children as a “cash machine” that constantly generates profit for
them.
Hence, it is in need of setting stricter rules from the government and policymakers to iron out the
unhealthy advertising that aims to children. Thus, it equally means that by enhancing the credibility
and reducing the deceptive adverse could dramatically infuse promising outcomes.
Conflict of Interest and Misleading Approach in Advertisements
At the root of a success trade comes from an interest of a purchaser. Whereas, research had shown
that such interest often germinates by marketers and advertisers in an unethical approach. They
cultivate children desire by continuously enriching children horizon to an extent of homogenizing
them to be part of the market segment. And legitimately, children turn out to be a good target, a
target that unable to makes accurate decision due to the information that captured by them are
misleading and of conflicting their real interest. Hence, in short, marketers and advertisers are at
their best in limiting children alternatives to only their merchandise. Furthermore, by constantly
misleading children with complex advertising content during their youth, it can lead to
inappropriate social values such as materialism and materialism.

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The effect is so overwhelming that young children can no longer resist the temptation to buy
products promoted by children's celebrities, famous cartoon icons. Thus, children will crave for
these kinds of unwanted products in every way and not to mention the amount of wasted money
that parents have to spend. therefore, such practices are accredited for tackling the outrageous
marketing attitudes that deploy by unethical marketers and advertisers.

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Conclution
Based on this report, Fast Food Lanka is introducing a new meal for children between the ages of
08 and 16, including small burgers, fried chicken nuggets and French fries. The report identifies
significant benefits of understanding consumer behavior and also contextualizes it to fast food
Lanka quality to effectively meet consumer demands. Also, the report provides an in-depth
analysis of cultural, social and personal factors in consumer behavior in a given environment.
Marketers who create a marketing campaign focused solely on children engage in unethical
marketing practices. Therefore, there are ethical considerations and dilemmas that need to be
considered when marketing and promoting activities targeting young children.

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