Report on Consumer Behavior and Insights for Oceanic Hotel - Unit 37

This report delves into the intricacies of consumer behavior and insights, particularly within the hospitality industry, using the Oceanic Hotel as a case study. It maps the consumer decision-making journey, outlining the five stages of the buying process and emphasizing the importance of understanding these stages for effective marketing. The report differentiates between B2B and B2C models, analyzing their distinct decision-making processes and exploring relevant marketing research approaches. It evaluates the influence of marketers at each stage of the consumer decision-making process, offering practical examples to illustrate key concepts. Furthermore, the report discusses the mapping of consumer decision-making in the hospitality industry, detailing the steps involved in the customer journey, from inspiration and research to booking and service delivery. The analysis highlights the significance of providing excellent service and gathering positive feedback to foster customer loyalty. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of consumer behavior, decision-making, and marketing strategies in the hospitality sector.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
AND INSIGHTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAPPING OF PATH FOR CONSUMER DECISION MAKING.................................................3
Path Mapping for Purchasing......................................................................................................3
B2B and B2C.................................................................................................................................13
Differences between decision-making processes of B2B and B2C models..............................13
Approaches to market research..................................................................................................15
INFLUENCE OF MARKETERS..................................................................................................18
Evaluation of marketers’ influence on the different stages of the decision-making process
(B2C and B2B)..........................................................................................................................18
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
A consumer is an individual who is the decision-maker of purchasing products or
services for personal use and not for any manufacturing, industrial or resale purpose except for
B2B consumer. Consumers basically drive the market economy by their choices. The decision-
making process of consumers includes identification of needs, gathering of information,
evaluation of alternatives and selecting appropriate product or services. The Oceanic hotel is a
medium-size hotel in UK which provides luxury to the travellers. It facilitates numerous guests
with affordable and stylish suites, bars, virtual aquariums, and restaurants where they can enjoy
food anytime. The decisions differ in different business models like B2B (business to business)
and B2C (business to consumer). This report will demonstrate the stages of decision-making
journey o f a consumer for purchasing products and services in context on hospitality industry
and the significance of developing a path map of purchase by marketers in order to understand
the consumer decision-making process. The key differences between the decision-making
process of consumers in regard to of B2B and B2C and the relevant approaches and methods for
marketing research is evaluated to analyse buying behaviour using examples of from various
product types from different industries. Also, the ways in which marketers can influence various
stages of this decision-making process is explained in brief.
MAPPING OF PATH FOR CONSUMER DECISION MAKING
Path Mapping for Purchasing
All the marketers want to expand their business whether small or big in which the
customers play a significant role. The Hospitality Industry in UK is also depended purely on the
needs of the customers (Lynch and Barnes, 2020). The main aim of the marketers is to create the
need among the people for certain products they deal with. Then, the customers feel the need to
buy the service and satisfying the customers which results in increasing the overall sales and
profit margin.
The marketers earlier followed the purchase funnel for exploring the customers but nowadays
they changed this traditional approach and prefer decision-making process of consumers to
satisfy them.

There are five sages of consumer buying process. They include the five steps that the consumer
goes through purchasing services or goods. It is essential for the marketers to comprehend those
stages in order to make the buyer to make the purchases.
Figure1 (5-stage model of the consumer buying process,2020)
” For example, Kotler & Keller (2012) in their book describe this model in detail and explain
additional stage of the model - disposal stage”.
Stage one is needs awareness/problem recognition. This is where the customer realization of
need becomes factor. The marketer’s idea is by creating an imbalance from the present status to
the preferred status which imbalance creates the needs of the consumers and make them order
the service or goods. This need would appear right away and usually is an internal stimulus -
basic impulse. There is an external stimulus, those come from the influence of the outside. In this
case promotions and advertising is used by the marketer. By creating the want in the consumer,
knowing they have need which are unfulfilled and a service or a product that satisfy it.
Furthermore, making the circumstances to create the feeling in the consumer of been insecure by
not having this product. For example, the Oceanic Hotel will create a need for the customers to
visit the hotel and use all its facilities. The guests will feel insecure without having a stay in the
hotel which forces them to stay in that place.
Stage two- because of the developed want or need the person starts the search of information for
the variety of offers that can be ordered in order to fulfil their want or need. In this case the
person will check the two of the options external and internal so he can decide. The internal
search is the memory information utilized from experience of the service and product in the past.
The external search comes from family and friend and their experience in order for the consumer

to purchase a new product. Moreover this can be done as well as by looking it to a variety of
controlled sources by marketers such as ads, TV, banners, brochures. Furthermore if the
consumer had an experience with the specific service, product or with something close to those
they want to order could influence their decision. For example, the customers of Oceanic hotel
will be attracted by the feedbacks of the customer’s past experience on all the social networking
sites and online platforms and also by getting the positive reviews from their friends and
families.
Third stage- after checking all the alternatives, a question may rise like “The product do I need
it”. The choice is made usually by the quality, price or brand. Hence usually because of
experience or emotion with the service or goods could mater in the decision of buying. However,
the marketer here should step in and makes sure of the awareness of the brand. This consumer
process is individual in this case the person is trying to find the best offer. For example, the
Oceanic hotel can give sufficient offers and discounts which forces the guests to make the
decision for the hotel. The hotel must provide the guest with the best experience so that they
change their decision and stick to that hotel.
Forth stage- after careful consideration and evaluation the consumer transvers to purchasing
process. After the chosen brand is picked the consumer has to make the order itself. However the
consumer may have the intention to buy, but not to make the order, in this case may be need it an
additional decision of when and how much to be spend. The time of order varies due to the size
and the amount of the order. Usually orders with small amounts are ordered quicker. The oceanic
Hotel must set the prices of the booking such that it does not make the guests to go for other
hotels. After decision making also, some customers do not book because of the high prices.
Fifth stage- in the final stage satisfaction and dissatisfaction plays a huge role. At this level the
consumer provides the review and makes the evaluation of the service or product. Moreover, if
the service or product they ordered met their expectation will lead to more purchases or
influencing over other people which creates the opportunity for this service or product to be

bought again. However, if there is negative feedback could lead to exactly to the opposite. This
is a moment which is very important for the marketer to catch. On another hand in case of
satisfaction the consumer should be made a loyal. The Oceanic hotel must provide the guests
with all amenities demanded by the guests so that they give a positive review and feedback. The
main goal of the hotel must be to satisfy the customers and made them loyal towards the service.
The Hospitality Industry is the most demanded industry in UK which involves the travel and
tourism along with the accommodation facilities in hotels.
When planning for a travel and staying in hotel, the things which are presented to others are
getting ready, packing of bags and the beginning of the journey but when the emphasis is laid on
the things which force the travellers to plan for a travel and accommodation is the point where
the mapping if Consumer''s Decision-Making Journey comes into play.
Mapping helps the marketers to keep a tab on the changing demands if the travellers and the
ways to satisfy them. There are many models made for describing these decisions of consumers
but one of them is discussed below :
The above figure shows the steps in mapping of Decision-making of consumers in hospitality
industry.
Figure2: Mapping of Consumer Decision-Making in Hospitality Industry
Source: the hotel business along the customer journey,2018

Consumer-Journey Mapping
Objective
The company in the Hospitality Industry aims at understanding the customer in the best
way it can by analysing the consumer behaviour and by making them interacted visually by its
products and services.
The steps considered in the customer journey decision-making are discussed as below:
Travelling Inspiration
The main thing before planning to take a service is the need to do so. The need for
travelling can be created through many mediums such as interaction with friends, seen a travel
experience of someone or by advertisements for planning a trip (Wilson and et.al., 2018). There
are many online and offline platforms for marketers to make the customers feel the need for
travelling.
The hotels in UK use the advanced technologies for such purpose. The people there are very
socially active. So, to target more people, the descriptions of hotels are represented in the news
letters, networking sites like Facebook, Instagram etc. The complete details of hotels are
provided in those posts including the amenities provided, special offers, pictures of experiences
etc. to awake the public's interest towards them.
The people are much inspired by going through the memories of their friends who travelled
recently to different places and about the fun moments and the enjoyment they had experienced.
These all things can make any person go crazy for travelling and stay in hotels.
Researching
After having planned for a travel, the main thing the customer does is the complete
research of the place where they want to explore and stay. For this, they choose online options to
visit the hotels and places (Scott and et.al., 2017). So, the marketer of the hotel must ensure that

their hotel is represented very well on the social platforms. This will create a good image for the
hotel in the eyes of persons willing to travel.
The travellers will select some hotels among many in terms of amenities provided and prices and
will go through their reviews and feedbacks on various sites like Facebook, Google,
HolidayCheck etc. for checking the experiences of the guests stayed recently and will look on the
factors in favour and against of it.
The main things which force the travellers to decide staying in a particular hotel are the
presentable websites having all the information, the snaps and videos of the hotel, the positive
reviews if the customers stayed, and the information that is exposed on various online sites and
apps. After this stage, the people become mentally and physically ready for travelling to a
particular place and staying at a particular hotel for accommodation.
Process of Booking
This is the decision of purchasing. After lots of research which lasts for days, weeks or
sometimes months, the traveller decides for the hotel. The Booking process is mainly done using
2 methods i.e., via email or the official website of that hotel. This process must be easily
accessible and summarized because a person after decisioning also can reject for the hotel if the
method of booking seems complicated.
So, the hotels must focus on their presentation on online platforms having user experience of
good quality, brief content and especially attractive prices according to the people they target.
Here, the people who were normal travellers become the customer of that particular hotel.
Service On the Location
This is the phase for which the above mentioned steps were highly emphasized. The
comfortable stay is the main aim of the customers and the hotel owners (Anderl and et.al., 2016).
At this stage, the customers become the consumers. The quality of the experience during the stay
decides whether they will tell others not to choose that place, or they will recommend for the stay
at the hotel to friends and relatives.

There are many factors to be focussed on during the stay such as cleanliness of rooms, hygiene
of all the areas of hotel, service at the rooms, the best cuisines at the restaurants according to the
consumerism's demand, calm and peaceful environment maintained, listening to every problem
and working upon it at the same time and many more. The hotel owner cannot do all the
purposes. So, it appoints particular individuals and teams allotted for efficient performance and
result in every field.
The efficient performance of all the employees working there and the effective results will
definitely satisfy the customers, and they will recommend others to decide for the same which
will increase the number of consumers and enhancing the overall progress of the hotel thereby
improving the image or goodwill.
Post stay based on Loyalty
The main goal of the hotels in this phase is to retain maximum number of customers by
securing the loyalty towards the brand and the hotel (Oliveira, Birrell and Cain, 2020). The
marketers must appreciate the customers for their loyal and peaceful stay. Also, they must
remind them regularly for their positive attitude during the stay in the hotel and motivate them
frequently for staying again next time whenever they plan for the same.
They can perform these above mentioned processes by the means of newsletters and social
networking sites. The corporate blog can be proved to be a good source of promoting. They must
also offer them certain discounts and offers such as if they will give 2 or more customers to the
hotel then there booking price will be reduced to half, their transportation will not be charged
and many more. The effectiveness of this phase will attract many more customers to the hotel.
So, this is how the journey of the consumers decision-making ends and the starts again may be
with another customer. By understanding and implementing this mapping effectively will
definitely help the hotels to reach their goals of getting growth rapidly.

The above figure shows the steps in mapping of Decision-making of consumers for hotels.
This process if Mapping is done in all the industries including the Hospitality Industry in UK for
knowing the customers more and building strong relation with the particular company. This
strategy is the biggest and one of the most effective of all in 2020 for all the business persons
(Rosenbaum, Otalora and Ramírez, 2017). Besides producing new products and emerging in the
competitive market, the one thing which is most important is enhancing the experience of the
customers.
The Mapping is important for the marketers of all the companies due to numerous reasons. This
enables the owners to have a clear idea of what to be presented to the customers and what not.
They get to know about the existing trends in the industry and provide services accordingly
(Mohsenin and et.al., 2018). For example, the trend of social media increases, then it must carry
all its promotional activities through networking sites and online platforms to reach maximum
number of people.
The marketers become aware of the points to be mentioned during advertisement for the hotel
and restaurant at the right time. For example, if some pandemic like Covid-19 is caused due to
Figure 3: Mapping of Consumer Decision-Making Journey for Hotels
Source:THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY,2018

spread of a virus then it's promoting must highlight the sanitization activities and the safety
measures used by the employees of the hotel. This attracts more number of travellers to stay in
such a hygienic hotel.
This also provides the information about the struggles of the customers, the information they
want from you which will help you to provide good customer experience. The company's
emphasis must be laid totally on making the customers satisfied by giving good quality products
and services whose idea will be analysed by the mapping process of decision-making if
consumers.
It will facilitate all the sectors of the company including the designers by getting the feedback
from customers about their experience staying in a room of particular design. So, with this
mapping all the departments of the hospitality industry can be facilitated by knowing about the
relevant and irrelevant elements for the satisfaction of customers(Solomon and et.al., 2017).
Factors influencing consumer behaviour
Behaviour of consumers is affected by following factors:
Cultural: These factors greatly affect the behaviour of the consumers towards making decision
for a hotel or a travel. This defines the wants of the people. Culture can even segregate the group
of people on the basis of race, religion, nationality etc. The wants of people also depend on
whether they belong to upper class, middle or lower. The Oceanic hotel being a medium sized
hotel provides amenities at affordable prices so every sector can plan for it.
Social: It is mainly based on family, friends, relatives, status etc. this have face-to-face effect on
the people who plans for a travel or staying in a hotel. The consumers are majorly affected by the
reviews and feedbacks of neighbours, co-workers etc. for staying in a hotel like the Oceanic
hotel.
Personal: These factors include the age, stages in life, occupation, financial condition, physique
and many more (Cavanaugh, 2016). So, the oceanic hotel takes this advantage and provide
services to all the people for any age group. These factors decide the place and the hotel where
they will have a stay.

Psychological: It plays a major role in the decision making process of the consumers for a hotel.
Psychology of a person can change a big NO to big YES. It is the mental stability which helps
the person to make decisions. Even some people stays in a hotel and its peaceful environment to
stable their mental state. If a person has booked the tickets for the oceanic hotel and suddenly it
gets a negative feedback, then its psychology changes and it cancels the booking.
Levels of Consumer Decision Making
When talking about selecting one of the alternative to solve a problem, there comes 3
different kinds of problem solving spread which are referred to as consumer decision making
levels which are as follows:
Extensive Problem-Solving
In this level, the customers are completely unaware of the products and services of the
hotel. So, this critical situation needs to have a depth research of the decisions which can be
made for choosing a particular hotel and also to choose one brand from all the available ones.
Here, the things are involved highly, are of high cost like hotels, properties etc. and involves
much risk on using the service for the first time.
Limited Problem-Solving
Here, the person is aware partially about the products, some existing brands and offering
but is unaware of the new brands. So, they had to add or modify their existing knowledge to
evaluate the brands (Hamilton and et.al., 2019). These things are mostly the repeated purchase,
are involved at a moderate rate, are of affordable costs and have fewer risk associated with it.
Routinized Problem-Solving
Under this level, the person is completely aware of all the products, offerings and the
brands. The goods in this are involved the least, much inexpensive and are bought frequently
with no risks involved. The person purchases these things regularly and in routine. These have
brand loyal customers because they use it on a regular basis.