Consumer Behavior Report: Luxury Product and FMCG Purchasing

This report delves into the realm of consumer behavior, specifically examining the influences on purchasing decisions for luxury products, using Michael Kors bags as a primary example. It meticulously explores the impact of both psychological factors, such as culture, social class, reference groups, family dynamics, status, age, occupation, lifestyle, and personality, and sociological factors, including reference groups, family, and social status, on consumer choices. Furthermore, the report provides a personal reflection on the purchasing style for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), outlining the five key processes involved in the decision-making journey, from problem recognition to the final purchase. The analysis incorporates relevant theories and research to provide a comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior in both luxury and FMCG contexts, offering valuable insights into the motivations and influences that shape consumer choices.

Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behaviour 1
Contents
Impact of the psychological and sociological factors on the purchasing decision of the customers on a
luxury product.......................................................................................................................................2
Purchasing style for the fast moving consumer goods...........................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................7

Consumer Behaviour 2
Consumer behaviour is stated as the study of the way customers, groups or organizations
prefer, buy, use and dispose of goods and services in order to satisfy their requirements and
wants. The consumer behaviour influences the buying decisions of the customers. The
consumer behaviour helps marketers to discover the products required and the obsolete
products in the market. It assists marketers to present the products so that it can put a
maximum impact on the customers. The report includes the consumer behaviour associated
with the purchase of the Michael Kors (MK) bags. This report comprises the way
psychological and sociological factors influence the buying decision of customers on a luxury
product. The purchasing style for the fast-moving consumer goods has been also discussed in
the report.
Impact of the psychological and sociological factors on the purchasing decision of the
customers on a luxury product
Both psychological and sociological factors have become much more significant day by day.
The marketing takes place with the requirements of the customers and ends with satisfaction.
As everything revolves around the customer so the study of the consumer behaviour becomes
a stipulation. Nowadays customers have great options to pick so persuading of the customers
by the marketers has a critical impact on their buying. It is needed to study consumer
behaviour by the marketers in order to encourage the customers (Bruttel, 2018). The
psychological factors influencing customer behaviour on the purchase of Michael Kors bags
are mentioned below.
Culture: The culture is a complex framework of a set of beliefs and principles held by the
customers and these describe the role played by the member of the community. The culture
also describes the ethnicities and the customs of the community. The customers contained by
the society can easily determine the culture which is helpful in defining the buying behaviour.
So, MK deeply studies the culture prevalent in the society which can persuade customers to
buy bags (Clemons, et al. 2016).
Social class: The societies usually have certain social classes which exist within. Before
selling products and services to the customers in the society, MK first discovered the class to

Consumer Behaviour 3
be targeted such as higher class which is usually interested in buying luxury bags. The class
of people is determined by the income, education level and a complete host of other aspects.
Reference groups: A reference group is a group which is associated with the consumers to the
buying decisions. A person is likely to buy the products just because the members of their
reference group are acquiring the same product (Villena, and Craighead, 2017). The reference
group can include family, friends and other people of the same industry or the higher class to
which the customers associate themselves. The reference groups are identified to have to
change impact across the luxury products and brands. In the reference group, there is one or
more leader who influences the buying decisions of the group (Wu, Chen, and Chen, 2015).
Family: The buying decision of a customer is also influenced by family members. The
opinions of the family members are also sufficient enough to influence the purchasing
decisions of the customers. When people start to live together, whether they are associated by
blood or marriage, their buying decisions will surely influence the buying decisions made
(Gong, Choi, and Murdy, 2016). For instance, a lady buys bags of MK; it will also influence
other ladies of the home to buy the same.
Status and people: Individuals who belong to the specific groups, circles, clubs or
organizations will discover themselves playing several roles within the groups. The status and
role to be maintained by the persons within the group will influence their buying decisions.
For instance, people tend to buy MK bags when it comes to maintaining the standard within
the group. Having MK defines a class. It is a psychological factor that it is like to have the
luxury to have an MK bag (Sheu, 2016).
Age and life stage: Both age and life style has a significant role in the buying decision made
by the customers. The motivations of the customer purchase changes with the different ages
and life stages. After attaining a certain age, persons believe in purchasing just luxury items
only then having ordinary items. The prices to be charged by the company do not have any
role if a person is specific enough to purchase the luxury items.
Occupation of the customer: The occupation of the customer affectsthe buying decisions as it
concludes the income, interests and social status. So MK segments to its customers as per the
occupations. The company have a normal range at the nominal prices which can be had by
the medium income group whereas there is an elite range which has to be purchased by the
higher income group (Bhattacharya, Singh, and Nand, 2015).

Consumer Behaviour 4
The lifestyle of the customer: Generally people belong to several occupations, social classes
and cultures and have lifestyles which differ from each other. The lifestyle to be maintained
by the customers helps MK to know the interests, activities and opinions of the customers
regarding the brand. There are several lifestyles which are associated with the several kinds
of customer behaviour. MK designs its bags as per the lifestyle sustained by the customers
(Xu, Cenfetelli, and Aquino, 2016).
Personality and self-perception: All the customers are different and view themselves in an
innovative way. The perception of the customers is combined with their personalities. It
governs the products and services to be preferred to the customers (Ramya, and Mohamed
Ali, 2016)
The sociological factors influencing customer behaviour on the purchase of Michael Kors
bags are stated below:
Reference group: The reference groups comprise buyer reference groups like friends, family
members, social organizations; professional organizations have heavily influence the
selection of the brand. These group members affect the value and behaviour of others in
society. A person purchasing luxury items will influence another person to purchase the same
(Yang, Zhang, and Xie, 2017). The reference group is likely to impact a person in at least 3
ways. 1st, an individual will face new behaviour and lifestyles, 2nd is the ideas and thoughts
which will affect the person’s interests and will adapt to the reference group. The final one is,
formed force conditions may influence the choice of the brand of the product. Here reference
group varies from the opinion leaders and these leaders are likely to influence the buying
decision of the customers. For instance, a person is thinking of buying a bag and confuse
between the two brands LV and MK. The influencing opinion of the leader for the MK bag
will influence the individual to buy the MK bag. The opinion leaders are likely to enhance the
status of the individuals in the group (Bai, Sheng and Li, 2016).
Family: The family members form the basic structure of the initial reference group and
influence buyer behaviour. It is believed that in every person’s life, two types of families can
be formed. The first type of family is a family in which a person is born and grows and the
politics, region and education rely directly on that family only (Gong, Choi, and Murdy,
2016). The other one is a family in which a person’s behaviour is affected by the children and
persons under the supervision. The purchasing decision of a customer is surely affected by
the nature of the family and creates a demand for luxury products. A person buying an MK

Consumer Behaviour 5
bag will surely influence another family member to purchase the bag of the same brand
(Hartwig, et al. 2015).
Social status: The social status of an individual throughout life relies on the clubs, family
groups and organizations. The position of an individual within the group is defined by the
status of the individual. In order to maintain status in the society, an individual is likely to
purchase the luxury bags of MK. It defines the class and maintains the status in society. The
organizations and the leaders assist to choose the brand and make the final decision (Kalaycı,
2015).
Purchasing style for the fast moving consumer goods
The fast moving consumer goods are necessities for the people for their daily lives in order to
enhance the lifestyles. The usage of luxury goods can surely fulfil the self-concept by having
a superior social appreciation from the community. I believe in purchasing luxury goods as
these are superior and different from everyone. The luxury items have even become a
necessity which begins where need ends. In order to look different, I prefer to buy the luxury
bags of MK. It has become a necessity to carry such bags on the work as it reflects the status.
The bags of MK are more fulfilling and inherited good quality. The purchasing style for the
goods has been identified under the five basic processes. The first is identified as problem
recognition; it assisted me in identifying the difference between reality and expectation. Here
I started to think about the bag and search the factors which cause the difference like own
experiences or external stimuli. As soon as I identified the need, I start to search the bags of
several brands. I create the solutions and assess them as per the information found. This step
was identified as ‘alternatives evaluation’. The evaluation covers four parts, evaluation
criteria, attitude, belief and intention. After the evaluation of each plan, I made a choice
which was most suitable as per my need (Kang, and Jindal, 2015). I was influenced by the
purchasing behaviour of the persons residing in the same society. Their purchasing behaviour
influenced my purchasing behaviour as I wanted to have a luxury bag but was confuse
between the several brands. It offered me direction and guidance in the purchasing process
and helped in meeting my needs. It even helped me in searching for information for the bag
along with the buying conditions and usage. People even evaluated their product experience
of the same society. The demographics also played a significant role in the whole purchasing

Consumer Behaviour 6
process. For instance, in the search of alternative brands, I generally asked my friends for
their opinion. Add on, I evaluated my psychological characteristics which distinguished my
needs from other brands. The reference group also served standard and assisted to compare
value and attitude. The reference for the purchase of a bag has an influence on the
behavioural processes. In interacted with people and it directly or indirectly influenced my
purchasing decision regarding the bag.
The group consists of family, groups, social groups and shopping groups assisted in making a
conscious effort to behave diversely than the specific group. It influenced the product
category along with the brand choice purchase decisions. The reference group enabled me
with the models and several reasons which explained the reason for purchasing a bag (Rajala,
and Tidström, 2017). Finally, I ended up purchasing the MK bag after inquiring for the
several luxury bags. As it has specific attributes in order to satisfy my needs.

Consumer Behaviour 7
References
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moderating role of institutions. Journal of Operations Management, 41, pp.12-24.
Bhattacharya, A., Singh, P.J. and Nand, A.A., 2015. Antecedents of buyer opportunistic
behavior in outsourcing relationships. International Journal of Production Economics, 166,
pp.258-268.
Bruttel, L., 2018. The Limits of Buyer Power: Experimental Evidence. Review of Behavioral
Economics, 5(2), pp.149-167.
Clemons, E.K., Wilson, J., Matt, C., Hess, T., Ren, F., Jin, F. and Koh, N.S., 2016. Global
differences in online shopping behavior: Understanding factors leading to trust. Journal of
Management Information Systems, 33(4), pp.1117-1148.
Gong, T., Choi, J.N. and Murdy, S., 2016. Does customer value creation behavior drive
customer well-being?. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 44(1),
pp.59-75.
Hartwig, R., Inderfurth, K., Sadrieh, A. and Voigt, G., 2015. Strategic inventory and supply
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Kalaycı, K., 2015. Price complexity and buyer confusion in markets. Journal of Economic
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Kang, B. and Jindal, R.P., 2015. Opportunism in buyer–seller relationships: Some unexplored
antecedents. Journal of Business Research, 68(3), pp.735-742.
Rajala, A. and Tidström, A., 2017. A multilevel perspective on organizational buying
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Sheu, J.B., 2016. Buyer behavior in quality‐dominated multi‐sourcing recyclable‐material
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497.

Consumer Behaviour 8
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