Consumer Behaviour: News Article Analysis Assignment - [University]

This assignment analyzes two articles focusing on consumer behaviour. The first article discusses PepsiCo's challenges in adapting to the shift towards online shopping and the preference for experiences over material purchases, highlighting the influence of Amazon and the changing distribution landscape. It emphasizes motivation-need and social aspects of buying theories. The second article explores the impact of 5G technology on consumer behaviour, particularly in advertising and marketing, and how connectivity influences customer preferences. It discusses the role of marketing in adapting to these changes. The assignment highlights how businesses must adapt their strategies to changing consumer behaviours driven by technological advancements and evolving preferences, and also identifies the gaps in the articles, such as the need for more detailed discussion on customer experience.

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Consumer Behaviour
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author notes

1
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Article 1: PepsiCo echoes retail woes of consumer shift to experiences, online shopping
By Janet Freund, thestar.com, July 13th, 2017
This article is about the changing behaviour of the customers in the present times.
Most of the customers are opting for the online options in consumers good rather than
visiting the stores for their purchase. The changes in the distribution system in influencing the
buying decisions of the consumers. The business of PepsiCo and some of its competitors are
been effected as the customers showing less interest in the traditional retail business. Other
than that the consumers are leaning more towards the favouring experience than the material
purchase.
The change in customer behaviour has influenced the company and whole industry.
The entry of Amazon Inc. and its distribution strategy has compelled the other companies to
sell their products directly to the customers in online platforms. As the customers are leaning
more into favouring experiences, there could be seen a surge in the industries like restaurant
and leisure. On the other hand, apparel stocks has 25% fall in business and customer staples
industry has fallen by 8% in 2016 (Freund, 2017). Companies that have some share in the
multiple industries are been in a better place as their scopes are varied (Von Leipzig et al.,
2017). But the companies like Coca-Cola or some other like that are facing problems in
changes of strategies. Companies that are in a vulnerable position as they mainly operate
through the brick and mortar stores, sees the need to change their business strategies. Thus,
the customer shifts towards online shopping is influencing the business of PepsiCo or some
other companies at large.
The theories that are implied in this article are focused on motivation-need buying
theory and social aspects of buying theory. Knowing of the buying behaviour of the
customers are the basic necessity of any company. In the said article, there is the case study
of PepsiCo that is facing losing their customer base as they have traditional distribution
designs for their products. This is the era of technology, the trend of online buying is the most
reliable and appreciated one. This fulfils the psychological needs of the buyer as they could
have quality products to them with minimum physical involvement (Reim, Sjödin & Parida,
2018). Again the direct selling is more personal experience for the consumers. This is why,
they are attempting for more online products than stores and vending machines like that of
PepsiCo or Coca-Cola.
The second concept in this article is the fulfilling of social aspects for the customers.
According to this theory, the customers are influenced by the reference group and social
trends. The companies like Amazon Inc. has changed the social preference of the customers
in which they want to deal. Again, the customer behaviour theories says that the company
that is more flexible to change are more likely to survive the changing trends of customer
behaviour. PepsiCo is less vulnerable to the adverse results of changing customer behaviour
for same reason.
The context of favouring experience and distribution strategies should be discussed in
more details in this article. These two aspects are the main game changer in this topic of
business. Therefore, the elevated information in this two topic would increase the validity and
importance of the article.
The article talks about the business models that uses the online medium for their
product distribution and promotions. PepsiCo has a good advertising effect and it has been
able to sustain good reputation in the market for their promotional endeavours. Only the
traditional distribution process is effecting the business numbers of the company. Therefore,
this aspect of business need to be discussed in details for the company’s welfare.
The second thing is the favouring experience. There are several theories and concept
of favouring behaviour of the companies to attract the attention of the customers towards

2
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
them. The popularity of the brands are increased if the customers experience a more
personalised experience while buying the product. The companies could definitely earn more
consumers trust if they invest their research on developing favouring experience for the
customers.
Article 2: A Decade Of Connectivity Transformed Consumer Behaviour. Here’s How
5G Could Spark The Evolution
by Forbes.com Jan 31, 2020.
This article talks about the changing perspective of the technological world and the place of
connectivity devises in it. One can easily trace the changes sin the customer behaviour when
it comes about the usage of mobile phones and digitally being connected to the world. The
invention of the mobile phone was to talk to distant people. Now the technology depends on
the speed of data transfer and connectivity. This article specifically talks about how the
advertising of the modern times and tracing of new customers with the help of technology. In
this article there is the discussion of how the new technology of 5G could be effective for
studying and understand the customer behavioural process and therefore, gaining advantages
in business scenarios (forbes.com, 2020).
In this article there is detailed analysis of the customer preference change in the 5G
era. The performance of the companies are not enough if they do not have the access to
customers need. The modern customers are up to more personalised experience in every
sector (White, 2015). The online advertising and all other tools can give the companies scope
to develop a relationship with the customers effectively.
In any sector of business the customer behaviour pattern influences the business
hugely. This is the base of organisational decision making as well. The type of responses and
need of the customer should be identified by the authorities so that they could design their
business strategies accordingly. The changes in the customer behaviour are more rapid after
the technological interventions (Zhang, Kandampully & Bilgihan, 2015). They have the
power of internet of things. The information is more transparent and therefore, sometimes
crucial for business. The most important field is the advertising and promotional tools. These
has changed hugely after the connectivity has increased. Therefore, the companies could take
the help of these 5G technologies to be connected to more customers and influence them.
Influencing the psychological and social perimeters of the customers are the concept
that are more relevant in present day business. This is the concept of cust9mer behaviour that
is in focus of this article. The use of technology to influence the mind-set of the customer are
not new now. The increasing popularity of online platforms are relevant here. According to
the data of this article, the number of cell phone users in America is 81%, when this number
was 35% in 2011. This huge leap in the number of cell phone users show how these devises
and connectivity has an impact on consumer mind-sets. Through the advertising process
through connectivity, the companies should try to connect with more consumers. They could
find a huge number of consumers as well. As the 5G technology gives more speed and
connectivity options top the customers, the company could use it to attract the attention of the
customers and promote their business through it.
The role of marketing in customer behaviour is another crucial concept discussed in this
report. According to Dewalska–Opitek & Wiechoczek (2017), the changing context of
advertising could be seen as the traditional TV commercials are decreased and more
advertising are done on the search engines and social media. The main purpose of this is to
connect more people at the same time. The TV commercials are one sided, there is no scope

3
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
for the customers to know more than what is delivered (Maslowska, Malthouse & Collinger,
2016). The websites are the rich source of information for the product. Also the 5G
connectivity is instrumental in developing strong networks between the companies and the
customers.
The article has only talked about the marketing part and has less discussion of the customer
experience aspects. This part of marketing could be discussed in details in this study.
This article is about the changes in customer behaviour because of changing in
technology. The first thing that comes in mind is the variations of marketing aspects that
could be done through connectivity. There are discussion of how the companies could use the
new technology to find new customers and connect with them. It also has the part that
discusses of the advertising changes in modern times. One must not forget that all these are
centred on the customer experience specifications. The article should have explored this part
of business so that there would be an idea of how the companies could work to increase
customer satisfaction through pleasing experience of the customers.
The 5G networks could be used to have more direct interaction with the customer.
They could feel more akin to the companies. With sharing the information the companies
could also get the feedback instantly. All these could be done with the help of the new
technology. Product designing and presentation can be another aspects of discussion here.

4
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
References
Dewalska–Opitek, A., & Wiechoczek, J. (2017). Customer citizenship behaviour towards
customers and enterprises operating in medium high-tech sector. Theory and
Application in the Knowledge Economy, 248-262.
forbes.com (2020), T-Mobile for Business BrandVoice: A Decade Of Connectivity
Transformed Consumer Behavior. Here’s How 5G Could Spark The Evolution.
(2020). Retrieved 9 February 2020, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmobile/2020/01/31/a-decade-of-connectivity-
transformed-consumer-behavior-heres-how-5g-could-spark-the-evolution/
#5b71cf16e0ea
Freund, J. (2017). PepsiCo echoes retail woes of consumer shift to experiences, online
shopping | The Star. Retrieved 9 February 2020, from
https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/07/13/pepsico-echoes-retail-woes-of-
consumer-shift-to-experiences-online-shopping.html
Maslowska, E., Malthouse, E. C., & Collinger, T. (2016). The customer engagement
ecosystem. Journal of Marketing Management, 32(5-6), 469-501.
Reim, W., Sjödin, D., & Parida, V. (2018). Mitigating adverse customer behaviour for
product-service system provision: An agency theory perspective. Industrial
Marketing Management, 74, 150-161.
Von Leipzig, T., Gamp, M., Manz, D., Schottle, K., Ohlhausen, P., Oosthuizen, G., ... & Von
Leipzig, K. (2017). Initialising customer-orientated digital transformation in
enterprises.
White, C. (2015). The impact of motivation on customer satisfaction formation: a self-
determination perspective. European Journal of Marketing.
Zhang, T. C., Kandampully, J., & Bilgihan, A. (2015). Motivations for customer engagement
in online co-innovation communities (OCCs). Journal of Hospitality and Tourism
Technology, 6(3), 311.