University Assignment: Consumer Motivation and Diffusion Responses

This assignment presents a student's responses to two posts on consumer behavior, focusing on consumer motivation and the diffusion of innovation. The first response analyzes a post on consumer motivation, discussing how companies should target customers while maintaining ethical practices and addressing the potential for materialism. The second response evaluates a post on the diffusion of innovation, highlighting how companies like Starbucks can leverage diffusion theory to expand into new markets, such as Australia, by customizing their offerings to meet local consumer preferences. Both responses demonstrate an understanding of key marketing concepts, consumer decision-making processes, and the application of theoretical frameworks in real-world scenarios. The student references relevant academic literature to support their arguments, providing a comprehensive analysis of the topics.

Running head: RESPONSES TO POST
RESPONSES TO POST
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1RESPONSES TO POST
Response to Post 2
The post on Consumer Motivation is a comprehensive post which states down the manner
in which the company would be required to follow a comprehensive policy in regards to
attracting the different customers in a right manner (Barbopoulos & Johansson, 2016). The post
has given the theory related to the consumer motivation in the right way and provided how the
companies would be required to target the population in a manner such that the various goals and
objectives of the firm can be achieved and the customer needs can also be fulfilled. However, in
this scenario, the case of the legitimacy of these needs and wants comes into question. It can be
rightfully mentioned that, it is the role of the different companies to ensure that, although
targeting the consumer is a considerate strategy, the needs of the customers cannot be
materialized and the legitimacy needs to be maintained accordingly. Very often the firm engages
in unethical activities to encourage the different customers to purchase the products and hence,
this can be considered to be rather incorrect and may influence the customers incorrectly and
lead to additional purchases (Kim & Drumwright, 2016).
Therefore, this post is a good example of how the firm would be required to target the
various customers in a legitimate manner and how the customer needs can be met easily.
However, it also becomes critical to understand that, various organizations often arises
materialism within the different participants who are present and in consideration with this, can
lead to the purchase of unwanted products and related requirements accordingly.

2RESPONSES TO POST
References
Barbopoulos, I., & Johansson, L. O. (2016). A multi-dimensional approach to consumer
motivation: exploring economic, hedonic, and normative consumption goals. Journal of
Consumer Marketing.
Kim, E., & Drumwright, M. (2016). Engaging consumers and building relationships in social
media: How social relatedness influences intrinsic vs. extrinsic consumer
motivation. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 970-979.

3RESPONSES TO POST
Response to Post 3
The post serves as a critical appraisal of the manner in which the different companies
generally tend to arrive at an understanding of how the different customers in the different
countries would be required to be dealt with. In addition to this, the post provides a critical
understanding of the various factors which generally influence an individual to make sufficient
decision making (Frederiks, Stenner & Hobman, 2015). In addition to this, it states an exclusive
example of how Starbucks has been able to attain success in terms of the diffusion theory. All in
all it provides a comprehensive analysis of the Decision making of the consumers and how the
diffusion theory can contribute towards its understanding.
In order to increase the number of customers, Starbucks can include a new menu which
would cater to the tastes of the target market (Maniatis, 2016). At present the company has kept a
standardized menu which has perhaps prevented the firm from being successful in Australia. In
consideration with this, it becomes considerably successful for the enterprise to customize the
menu and on the basis of this, take advantage of the audience characteristics so that they are
being able to expand to Australia and are being able to fulfill their global expansion goals.
Therefore, the Diffusion model serves as a successful theory which can thereby assist an
enterprise to expand successfully in the long run and to ensure that, they can capture a large
number of customers.

4RESPONSES TO POST
References
Frederiks, E. R., Stenner, K., & Hobman, E. V. (2015). Household energy use: Applying
behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and
behaviour. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 41, 1385-1394.
Maniatis, P. (2016). Investigating factors influencing consumer decision-making while choosing
green products. Journal of Cleaner Production, 132, 215-228.