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.

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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.