Analyzing Consumer Behavior and Decision-Making at The Ritz London

This report delves into the intricacies of consumer behavior within the hospitality industry, using The Ritz London as a case study. It examines the consumer decision-making journey, mapping the path to purchase for tourism services and discussing the importance of understanding this process for marketers. The report analyzes the influence of cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors on consumer behavior, while also comparing and contrasting the decision-making processes in B2C and B2B contexts. Furthermore, it evaluates various market research approaches and methods used to understand the decision-making process, providing valuable insights into how marketers can effectively influence different stages of this process. The report concludes by emphasizing the necessity of understanding customer behavior to forecast future demands and expectations, enabling the development of effective marketing strategies.

Understanding the customer

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Covered in PPT.............................................................................................................3
P2 Covered in PPT.............................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3 Examine the stages of the consumer decision making journey and map a
path to the purchasing for a given tourism service.................................................3
P4 Discuss why it is necessary for marketers to map a path to purchase &
understand consumer decision making in hospitality industry...........................4
P5 Compare and contrast the key differences of the tourism decision-making
process in the context of B2C and B2B......................................................................5
P6 Evaluate the different approaches to market research and methods of
research used for understanding the decision-making process.........................6
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Understanding of the behaviour of the consumer is generally the part of the
organisation and it is called to be a study of an individual which is a part of selecting of
various products and services on the basis of needs of the consumers. In the changing
of the macro environment, it has been suggested that consumers has a genuine need to
attain maximum level of satisfaction within various factors. The report includes one of
the hospitality organisations which are known as The Ritz London and it is a well-known
hospitality brand of United Kingdom. The Ritz hotel is a five star hotel and it is famous
for its well accommodation and lavishing beauty. The report also includes cultural,
social, personal and psychological factors that influence the consumer behaviour. In
addition to this, there is analysis of the different level of decision making in hospitality
industry (Russell, 2019).
TASK 1
P1 Covered in PPT
P2 Covered in PPT
TASK 2
P3 Examine the stages of the consumer decision making journey and map a path
to the purchasing for a given tourism service
Understanding of the behaviour of the consumer is defined as a concept on which
various segments of buyers are well organised in terms of individuals and
consumers. Consumer behaviour has a main idea of decision making process and
attitude of the buyers towards the brand. There are steps which needs to be well
functioned and should use by The Ritz London for mapping of the path. There are
mentioned below.
 Need Recognition- Researchers say that first step which every consumer should
use is the decision making process and need recognition. This step reflects that at
this stage the buyers or a consumer establishes the needs and motivation of the
purchasers. The marketers of United Kingdom and Ireland must have such type of
ability on which the consumers should have deeper knowledge and purchasing
power ability on the basis of need recognition so that the power of consumer make
it a competitive power in the situations that will arises at the time of purchasing.
 Collecting of the Information- This is the next stage after the need recognition
which suggests that if a consumer is making a decision then they should gather all
the information of the market in terms of other competitors of the favourable
products. This is a time where consumer must have suitable offerings that can
easily satisfy the needs. To gather some information, there are various ways which
are helpful in gathering such as magazine, newspapers, internet and many others.

The marketers can make use of Search Engines Optimisation for keeping close
contact with customers.
 Evaluating Alternatives- The next stage is evaluating the next best alternatives.
The consumer should collect the information and must know the merits and
demerits of the competitors. The consumer subsequently makes their choices in
relation to the offering, the brand and the suitable price structure.
 Selection of purchasing the product- This stage is seems out to be the crucial
product on which consumer will take a final decision and make purchases of the
respective products and services in which they are satisfied or can be satisfied. The
marketers of United Kingdom can only collect feedbacks of the consumers in which
they purchases their products so that they will consume the experiences of the
customers and uses them in the next best alternatives. It can be also suggested
that these feedbacks are very important to offer the best products in the future.
 Evaluation of the decision after the purchasing of products: This step is seems
out to best last step which suggest that consumer should have their proper
evaluation after consuming the products. This step will decide the future purchase
for the brand and therefore sales can be made on the basis of received feedbacks.
P4 Discuss why it is necessary for marketers to map a path to purchase &
understand consumer decision making in hospitality industry
It is important for the marketers to understand about the decision making process of the
customers so that they will achieve maximum profit and satisfaction.
 It leads towards understand the reason behind purchasing of a product or
services.
 Marketing department can prepare their marketing strategies according to
customer buying behaviour (Lowe and et. Al., 2019).
Importance of mapping a path to purchase:
The Ritz London should map the purchasing path of customers that is the process and
an important part of the consumer decision making process.
Economic view: The base should have perfect according to the customers and the
level of various type of judgements must be well accurate.
The emotional view: It refers to responds on the basis of inner drive and state of
mood.
Passive view: It provides insight of different customer viewpoints so that future
marketing strategies can be formed.
Importance of consumer decision making-
There are three levels of customer decision making that is assisting in solving of
different associated problems:
Extensive problem solving: In this stage the customers have not established specific
criteria of product evaluation.

Limited problem solving: At this stage the customers are using a problem solving
approach where there is establishment of brand preferences (Gejke, 2018).
Routine response behaviour: At this stage the customers already has experience of
various product categories in order to evaluate the product. Small scale research is
conducted at this stage (Borden, Coles and Shaw, 2017).
Above mentioned are stages where management of Ritz London will take timely
decisions to map the customer journey.
P5 Compare and contrast the key differences of the tourism decision-making
process in the context of B2C and B2B
There is a huge difference among the decision making process in regard of B2B
and B2C businesses that exist in order to offer various purposes and objective. B2B
offer its products and services directly to other businesses and B2C sell its significant
products to the consumers as after accessing prominent needs and wants in specific
manner. Moreover, B2B marketing strategies are useful for the various businesses
meanwhile, B2C marketing is concerned with various marketing practices that are
useful for customers.
Basis of difference Business to Business Business to Consumer
Decision and the behaviour
of Buying
In terms of TUI, they offer
significant products and
services after assessing
several attributes and
elements which include
prominent pricing,
preferences and taste on
the grounds of customer
base.
In B2C, customers are the
one who tends to judge
prominent elements in order
to analyse the quality of
product and quantity in
terms of effective cost and
tends to remain competitive
within the business
environment.
Analyse requirements Company need to identify
the significant trends in
market area because
customers are very
demanding.
It leads to cover huge
geographical area and also
take significant feedback in
terms of meeting both
supply and demand for
prominently offering suitable
services.
Market scope The market scope for TUI is
vast as the needs and
wants of customers.
In terms of B2C, they tend
to reach towards the
potential results in order to
analyse the requirements of
various businesses.

P6 Evaluate the different approaches to market research and methods of research
used for understanding the decision-making process
For an organisation it is very important to accumulate significant information and
concerning statistics to identify the taste and preferences of customers. In terms of this,
various types of businesses include B2B and B2C tends to use different approaches for
research according to the nature of business and objectives that are evaluated as
under:
Research approach for B2C businesses:
 Survey: It is undertaken as the significant approach in order to gather prominent
information and knowledge considering the preferences and taste. In terms of
this, prominent information is collected and gathered from the large number of
customers that tends to remain more competitive within the market.
Market research in terms of B2B businesses:
For B2B business, various major factors are useful in order to collect prominent
information and knowledge undertaking the secondary source to collect data
undertaking books.
 Books and Records: B2B businesses tend to collect significant information with
the help of prominent records that are available within the market and also not
much costly and time consuming. As with the help of available public records,
company tends to find out prominent result from it in order to develop significant
services and products respectively.
P7 Evaluate how marketers can influence the different stages of the tourism
decision-making process
On the basis of customer decision making process the important role which is
played by the marketers is to educate the customers in identifying the needs of the
products and the requirements of the procedures. Moreover, in addition to this the
requirements needs package of tours from the marketers and it has a significant
responsibility so that the effective and the best plan should be achieved and the
prices will be taken. Also the customers never switch towards the different service
provider. In terms of achieving the significant task they also have to prominent
priority in order to implement effective work to significantly collect effective type of
information regarding their customers like prominent purchasing, early experience,
and types of tour packages which customers prefer and so on. In relation with TUI
UK and Ireland, they use social media, mails and direct contact in order to attract
the interest of customers and also try to educate them. Along with this, by showing
the significant pop ups, respective organisation also try to communicate on direct
basis in order to sell their products. In terms of this, two prominent theories are
mentioned as under:
Cognitive learning: The theory suggested that marketers get effective idea which
is concerned with the current trends of customer behaviour. The prominent data of a
company and a design strategy gives significant information of customers and an

effective brand image and reputation within the business environment. It is also useful in
order to achieve competitive advantage and also helps in their long term sustainability.
Behaviour theory: Another theory which is keep into the consideration is the
behavioural theory. This theory is able to improve the theory tends to improve the
buying behaviour and also impact the decision making ability of customers. Along
with this, it tends to consider conditioning factors that leads to identify the
prominent interaction of customers with the significant surroundings.
CONCLUSION
It can be summarized from the above made discussion that in hospitality brands it is
necessary to develop insights of customer behaviour so that there can be proper
forecasting of future customer demands and expectations. It leads to timely and proper
formulation of strategies according to changing customer expectations. It is necessary
to map the purchasing path of customers so that the way they are making decisions can
be properly ascertain in the specified time period.

REFERENCE
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Predispositions. Academy of Management Review, 45(2), pp.280-303.
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Journal of Marketing, 53(6), pp.1038-1050.
Russell, N., 2019. Understanding Willing Participants, Volume 2: Milgram’s Obedience
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