Consumer Behaviour and Insight: Travelodge Case Study Analysis Report

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of consumer behaviour, examining the influence of cultural, social, and personal factors on consumer choices within the hospitality sector, specifically using Travelodge as a case study. It explores the impact of digital technology on consumer trends, highlighting the shift in consumer habits and spending patterns. The report breaks down the consumer decision-making process, from need recognition to post-purchase evaluation, and analyzes the importance of understanding consumer behaviour for businesses. Furthermore, it differentiates between hospitality decision-making processes in B2B and B2C contexts, outlines various market research approaches, and investigates how marketers influence consumer decisions. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of consumer behaviour insights for strategic decision-making and customer loyalty in the competitive hospitality market.

Consumer Behaviour and Insight

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Influence of Different Factor on Consumer behaviour..........................................................3
P2 Change in the Consumer Trends Due to Digital Technology................................................6
LO2..................................................................................................................................................8
P3 Consumer Decision Making Process......................................................................................8
P4 Importance of Knowing Consumer Behaviour.....................................................................12
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................12
P5 Difference between hospitality decision-making process in B2B and B2C.........................12
P6 Different approaches of market research..............................................................................13
LO4................................................................................................................................................14
P7 Marketers influencing decision-making process..................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Consumer behaviour is considered as the study of individual or group of people’s activity
that is related to the purchasing, using, and disposal of goods or services which includes the
emotional, mental and behaviour of consumer (Schütte and Ciarlante, 2016). This study is most
important for organization to know their behaviour and interest. This thing help them to design
product and services of organization by knowing the behaviour of consumer they can effectively
provide them product and services which can satisfy their need because consumer satisfaction
leads to customer loyalty. Travelodge is a private limited company that is working in the
hospitality sector. It was founded in year 1985 and it’s headquarter is in Thames, England,
United Kingdom. It is mainly operating in UK, Ireland and Spain. The impact of different factor
will be evaluated for the behaviour of consumer. The path of purchase will be analyzed in the
report. The report is examining different type of researches that can be used by the organization
to evaluate the influences on the hospitality sector customer decision-making process. The
process of the influencing the consumer decision-making will be evaluated, which is used by the
marketers. The importance of the consumer behaviour will be analyzed through the whole study.
LO1
P1 Influence of Different Factor on Consumer behaviour
Cultural factors
Cultural factors are classified in the three different categories that can influence the
consumer behaviour. These classified stages are consumer culture, subculture and social class.
These factors can be further explained as-
Consumer’s Culture
Consumer culture is one of the most important factor for the buying process of consumer.
Impact of culture is too high on the interests and daily life style. The culture which is followed
by individual person change their needs accordingly (Horner and Swarbrooke, 2016). For
example the consumers who visit Travelodge have different demands which basically reflect
their culture and tradition they follow. This how culture influences behaviour of consumer.
Subculture

There are different sub groups in the main culture who are differentiated by their
individual views. The views of individual person in sub culture make their mind set accordingly.
They follow some beliefs. These beliefs influence them in the different manner. Their beliefs
force them to use a particular view to make purchases or buy services in Travelodge.
Social Class
This category is sub divided on the basis of the economic status. The people who are
from the different economic status have different demands and choices. In Travelodge they ask
for different services. Selection of the services is based on the charges of the each service.
Consumer likes to by the product that are affordable for them.
Social Factor
Social Factors are classified in three categories which are reference group, family and social role
& status.
Reference Group
This groups some standards that can influence the behaviour of consumer and force them
to use the services of Travelodge that comes under their standards.
Family
This is the most important factor that can affect the buying behaviour of individual
person. Family background influence the thinking of the individual person (Parsons, Maclaran
and Chatzidakis, 2017). The family members can affect the buying decision of consumer. This
how in Travelodge the consumer can ask for services that suggested by the family members.
Social Role and Status
The social role encourage to set an example for others. This tendency can influence them
to buy services in the Travelodge. Social role is all about being a role model for others.
Personal Factors
These personal factor are associated with the personality and personal factors of the
individual person. This is are further divided in different categories which are-

Age and Life Cycle
On the different stages of life needs and demands of individual person are different on the
basis of their requirement they look for relevant services. This is how age and lifecycle of
individual person can change their buying process in the Travelodge.
Occupation
As per the occupation define the professional status of person. Their demands and needs
are different. They are more specific about their demand. These people look for services that are
important for them and avoid the irrelevant services in the Travelodge hotel.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle of the person the way to live the life. People chose particular lifestyle as per
their interest. This lifestyle force them to look for the services which are associated with their
regular life. They look for same comfort level in the Travelodge.
Psychological Factors
Psychological factors are related to the mental condition of the consumers. This factors
are related to the satisfaction level of consumers.
Motivation
Motivation level is depended on the satisfaction of the consumers if they are satisfied
with the services then their motivation will be high(Szmigin and Piacentini, 2018). This
motivation can help them to revisit the Travelodge.
Perception
Perception is main thing in the consumer organization relation, The perception of
consumer make them to select organization to purchase product and services of Travelodge. By
influencing their perception organization can encourage to buy their product.
Experience

The post buying experience is most important for their satisfaction. Better and
satisfactory experience can encourage them to reuse the services are products of same
organization.
Attitude
Attitude is all about the behaviour intention and belief and feelings towards the business.
Their positive and energetic attitude towards Travelodge shows their interest towards purchasing
service and product again.
P2 Change in the Consumer Trends Due to Digital Technology
There is huge impact of digital technology on the consumer trends. Consumer trends are all
about the customer behaviour and spending habits. The digital technology can change the trends
in the national and international market (Biswas and Roy, 2015). Digital technology can force
and encourage the consumer to change their decision related to buying specific product and
services.
Use of Mobile Technology
The digital technology is about use of technology in the business operations. There are many
people are connected to the mobiles and they are using internet to buying products and services
that are provide by different organizations. The organizations like Travelodge are using the
digital technology to provide facility to the consumer to book the rooms and other services
online. The booking process through id faster, efficient and cost effective for consumer and this
also allow hotel to make relevant changes in services before arrival of consumer (Javornik,
2016). People are aware of these services.
Influence of Social Media
Social media is a part of the digital technology and both organization and consumer are
using the digital technology. Organizations are using it to perform marketing and promotion
activities to attract more consumer towards their organization. Their purpose to influence
customer to use the services of Travelodge. There are millions of people are using the social
media application like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. The hospitality sector
organization use their pages on these social media platform to get more consumer views and

clicks on company website. Their purpose to increase the number of clients of hotel. Use of
social media has huge impact on the consumer behaviour.
Generational Needs
The old generation were using the traditional methods to buying product and services but
new generation is aware of the digital technology. They use the digital technology to get faster
and effective services. This fast services are more satisfying and error free. This is how digital
technology force the consumer to change their traditional method of purchasing product and
services (Kaur and Singh, 2017). The faster and efficient service change their mind set to leave
the conventional methods of purchasing and use the advance and new digital technology.
Improve the Consumer Loyalty
All the organization wants to increase their revenue for immediate basis but the long term
relations are more important for them. This more important for organization like Travelodge to
make loyal to full fill the long term goals. This is only possible by providing better services to
the consumers. By using technology it is easy for Travelodge to provide better satisfaction to the
consumers by tracking their needs and demands.
Data Security
Data security is one of the most important in the digital technology. There both type of
effect on the consumer trends (Caruana, Carrington and Chatzidakis, 2016). There are some
advantages and disadvantages of digital technology. Advantages of digital technology drives the
consumer to use the digital technology to get services of the services of Travelodge. The data
security is main concern of the consumers, if organizations are providing better services then
customer will buy their product and services through digital technology. In the opposite
condition for security concerns people wants to avoid the online and digital technology for fund
transfer and sharing personal details.
There are Different ways to improve and influence the decision of the consumer to make
them buying services of the Travelodge. Some of the methods are-Providing better services
which can help them to achieve the consumer loyalty, increase the revenue generating from each

consumer, provide better satisfaction to the clients and identify their need to provide more
convenient services to them.
LO2
P3 Consumer Decision Making Process
The consumer decision making process is most important for organization. This is the
process which is followed by the consumer to buy a product or a services. The consumer buying
process can be classified in different steps which are used by the consumer to make final
decision to buy a particular product (Trail, 2015). These steps of consumer decision making
process are- Recognition or Problem, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase
decision and post purchase decision.
Recognition and Problem
This is the first step of the consumer purchase decision. Without need no one would
purchase anything. The purchasing process or consumer decision making starts with a need or a
problem. In the initial stage consumer find a need or face a problem which can not be solved
with the currently available resources. In this case they need help to solve the particular problem
which can be achieved by making available relative resources, product and services. In this step
want of consumer make them feel that they need something to solve a particular problem. For
example consumer are planning a tour and need to arrange an accommodation at a particular
location. This is a need a problem which can be solved by purchasing services of a hotel like
Travelodge. This is how a problem leads to recognition of a need. In this step consumer feel lack
of resources which they need to buy.
Information
There are different ways are used by the consumer to collect the information about the
resources that can help the individual to full feel needs of solution for their problem (Lim, Soutar
and Lee, 2016). The information searching process can be divided in two types which are-
internal and external. The internal information is based on the personal thinking and experience.
On the basis of this personal experience and thinking individual person search for product or
service that can help the person to find the solution for particular problem. The other type of
information search is external search. Which is based on the information searching from the

external sources like people around, media, internet and suggestion form other specialist people.
This is how person can gather information from different solution to find solution for their
problem or product that full fill their demand. In this process consumer looks for different
alternatives for their problems. There are various organizations which are providing services that
are similar to the Travelodge. Customer have various options among which they have to select
one of the best effective.
Evaluation of Alternatives
As per the information collected by the consumer they have multiple options to meet their
demands, there are different brands are their which used to provide same kind of products and
services (Shiel, do Paço and Alves, 2019). This set of multiple brands is also known as the
evoked set. Evoked set is the list or group of product that comes first in the mind when thinking
about the product. This could be result of internal or external research. These some final options
that are considered by the consumer for buying. As the consumer have multiple choices which all
are similar, at this moment prospect theory help to find the last solution that can help the
customer to select one final product. In this theory, the similar product are compared on the basis
of profit and loss. In this process all the options are compared on this basis evaluation. On the
base of this profit los evaluation process last product or services is shortlisted by the person. For
example there are different which are providing same product but on the basis of profit loss
evaluation the Hotel Travelodge is one of the best in its category.
Decision Making
As final product or services is sort listed in the step the shortlisted products are analysed
on the basis of different features which comes along with the product or services. On this
analysis the many products are eliminated in the process and the last remaining product is
selected by the person for purchasing. In this process compare the product on scale of
convenience. For example the accessibility of the Travelodge is better than other organizations
(Christou, 2016). This is how in this step final selected product is purchased by the consumer.
Post Purchase Evaluation
This is the step where the consumer use the product and gain experience with it. This is
one of the most important step for the organization that is providing service to the consumer. On

the quality and performance of the service or product customer feel satisfactory or unsatisfactory.
The product is evaluated on the basis on their expectations. There are different cases are possible
which drives the loyalty of consumer. If the product or service is highly satisfactory then it can
help the organization to get loyal customer, if product or service is optimum performing then it is
also good for company and if the post purchase experience is not good as it was expected to be
then it can cause value loss to the brand and company can lose kits customers in future. The
positive and negative experience drives the loyalty of consumer in positive and negative way
(Narula and Desore, 2016). For the example if the services provided by the Travelodge are not
good than customer will shift to other hospitality sector organization.
This is how all the consumer decision making process works for the organization like
Travelodge.
Factors that can Influence the Consumer Behaviour
There are different factors which can influence the decision of consumer are-Heuristic,
marketing mix and technology.
Heuristic-This practice is not applicable for all the condition. In case of the hotel selection is not
possible to try all the hotels at same time and it can take long time. This approach is good for the
cheap products which can be used multiple at a time.
Marketing Mix- The 4P’s of marketing have huge impact on the consumer purchase behaviour.
These P’s are- Product, Promotion, Place and Price.
Product- For product factors like quality and service are considered by the customer. If the
quality and performance of the product are good then it is a positive sign for the customer and
organization. This can force the consumer to buy the product.
Price- This is one of the most common factor for the consumer. They are mostly influenced by
this decision. If the services and product provided at Travelodge are good at pricing than
consumer will be attracted by the services of hotel and they will make their mind set to revisit the
hotel in next visit. This is how price influences the decision of the consumer.

Promotion- There are different promotion methods are used by the Travelodge. If the promotion
use by hotel are effective than it will positively affect the mind set of customers. This will help
the organization to get more visits of consumers.
Place- In the case of hotel industry the location of hotel is one of the most important thing. The
view of hotel, accessibility of hotel make it more attractive. For example if hotel is easy to access
than clients will select Travelodge as their final and retained choice.
Technological Factors
Now day’s technology is crucial factor in each business. There are different possible
advance technologies are their which can be used by the Travelodge to provide improved and
better experience to consumers. Online technology provide different facilities that can help the
individual customer to stay loyal to Hotel Travelodge (Floren, Rasul and Gani, 2019). These
technology also can help the organization to get better result in the national and internal market.
Marshallian Model
As per this model there are two factors that are satisfaction and affordable. Customer
looks two things when they are buying a product. As per Marshallian model if the Travelodge
hotel is economic and satisfactory than it is good for the consumer and they will select it as their
accommodation because this theory says that people buy those things which are affordable and
satisfactory.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
This model is based on the satisfaction and motivation level of consumers. There are
different category of needs are suggested by the Maslow which are- psychological needs, safety
needs, social belonging needs, Self esteem, self Actualization and Transcendence. All these type
of needs are important for consumer they are willing to take the services of organization which
are full filling all these needs of consumer. By this Travelodge can improve the motivation level
and satisfaction level of customers and encourage them to develop loyalty for organization.
This is how by using different theories and models customer behaviour can be understand
by organization to make effective policies.

P4 Importance of Knowing Consumer Behaviour
The purpose of the business organizations is to conduct business successful with
generating optimum output or profit, by knowing the consumer behaviour they will be capable of
designing effective services and policies which are good for consumer satisfaction. Higher
consumer satisfaction of consumer can help the organization to achieve its long term goals. This
will help Travelodge to understand the needs of consumer and design product and services
accordingly. This can help the organization to be effective with their services and provide better
satisfaction to influence their behaviour. Travelodge can also use this to define its marketing
strategy that could help them to attract more consumer to take services of organization.
LO 3
P5 Difference between hospitality decision-making process in B2B and B2C
B2B B2C
In B2B buying decision-making process,
businesses buy different services for the use in
their companies. For example a small hotel can
order Travelodge's food in their hotel if there is
a shortage of food.
In B2C, buying process, consumer buy
hospitality services for their personal use. For
example, a guest can direct approach to the
hotel to buy rooms and beverages for its
personal use.
In B2B buying, the process of purchasing is
much complex as these service are offered to
other customer which may or may not like it.
In B2C buying, purchasing decision are less
complicated as customer most of the times new
what they want and what are the products and
services which can satisfy their needs.
Within B2B transactions consumers can select
various products and services and pay for the
at a point of sales by using a proper mechanism
of payment which is referred as debit or credit
cards or cash. B2B transactions system is also
complex as compared to B2C. For examples,
Travelodge can buy infrastructure for its hotel
from other company by selecting, placing order
In B2C consumer who buy Travelodge service
pay the same price which is being paid by
other customers but these prices may also vary
depending on the offer provided by the hotel
(Lake, L., 2019). For example, Customer who
agree on placing a large order can enter in
negotiation with the hotel and can ask for
discounts. Here customer can pay to hotel