Consumer Research Report: Theories, Gaps, and Contemporary Issues

This report delves into the realm of consumer research, examining the significance of consumers for business organizations and their impact on economic growth. It explores key theories like the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which are used to predict consumer behavior based on attitudes and intentions. The report also investigates the attitude-behavior gap, discussing situations where consumer attitudes and actual behaviors may differ due to factors like social pressure, emotional complexities, and market limitations. It highlights the importance of understanding these dynamics for businesses to develop effective marketing strategies and tailor their approaches to diverse consumer behaviors. The report emphasizes the need for organizations to analyze consumer behavior to better understand their needs and preferences.

Contemporary Issue in Consumer
Research

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 1...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Consumers are to be considered as important part of any business organisation. The
progress of any organisation is always dependent upon the its consumer as they are the entity
who shall buy the services from the company and raise the profit. Many organisation carry a
consumer research which will help them to know what shall be the behaviour of a consumer and
how a company shall plan all its assets.(Welch, 2013.) The relationship between the attitude and
behaviour of the consumer shall determine that what are the main demand of a consumer and
how a consumer going to react on a particular situation. The following project shall reflect a
basic study on the behaviour of a consumer and discuss about the various strategies which shall
be used by the company in order to assess the behaviour of a consumer and to find the relation
between the attitude and behaviour. The project shall also conduct a detail study of gap between
attitude and behaviour of a consumer,
QUESTION 1
Theory of TRA and TPB regarding prediction of behaviour.
A consumer for any business organisation are very much important. These shall be
considered as the key principle of the organisation which will raise the demand of goods and
services and as the demand of goods and services shall be increasing, the production of any
company will also increase by which the other people shall be able to have job makings the
goods and services which a consumer wants the importance of consumers can be imagined by
the increase in the economy of the country.(Reichert, Lambiase, 2013.) It has been assumed that
consumer who are spending upon goods and services make up close to 70% of the GDP in UK.
If consumer will stop raisin g demand then many worker shall be out of demand as well as the
company shall not be able to make profits out of its production.(Kendler, Parnas, 2015.) So it can
be considered that the consumer are considered as essential part for the company. As half of the
the profit of a company are dependent upon the consumer so it is very important for the business
organisation to realise and to understand the nature or behaviour of a consumer. To understand
the behaviour or the attitude of a consumer in a better way, some of the scholars have
propounded many theories which will help an organisation to understand how an individual will
act or behave on a particular situation. For an example the theory of reasoned action which has
been propounded by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen in 1967 to be considered as one of the three

classic model of persuasion and also used in the discourse communication. This theory mainly
focus on to the behaviour which has been carried out by an individual as a voluntary behaviour.
According to this theory when a person shall perform any certain intention in the act, then that
intention shall be considered as his actual behaviour. Such behavioural is known as intentional
behaviour. The result which shall be incurred from intentional behaviour is that there shall be a
belief that performing a certain behaviour will lead towards the specific outcome.(Sheehan,
2013.) It is very important that when a certain behaviour has been carried out by an individual
then it must reflect his intention, an intention in an act will always determined by behaviour and
attitude. The theory of a reasoned action will reflect that when the intention of a person is strong
in nature regarding certain behaviour then it shall lead towards increase in the effort to perform
the behaviour. According to Ajzen an Fishbein there are two factors which will determine an
intention of a person in a particular behaviour which is attitude and subjective norm. an attitude
of as person can be defined as the opinion or the suggestion which a person makes on a particular
situation or the behaviour. Any opinion will determine its attitude.(Martens, 2016.) An attitude
of a person could be positive or negative where as on the other hand a subject norm is a
particular behaviour of a person which arise from the social pressure that is when the person
feels social pressure then certain act are to be performed or not. When attitude and subjected
norms shall be combined together it will determine the intention of a person in a behaviour. For
an example taking a view of a consumer, when a consumer wants to buy any good or wants to
attain any service his opinion of a particular good shall determine its attitude and the social
pressure of buying it or not shall determine his subjective norm by which his intention can be
easily framed regarding behaviour of that person in context to buying a product.(Cova, Maclaran,
Bradshaw, 2013.)
On the other hand, a theory of planned behaviour has also being propounded by Icek Ajzen to
study an attitude of an individual is theory of planned Behaviour. The theory have worked on the
various aspects to be determined in the attitudes of an individual in the behaviour. The theory
states about the Normative belief which states about the pressure to be built on an individual
regarding doing of any task or not where as on the other hand the theory talks about the control
belief, which states about the behavioural control. A control in the behaviour of an individual
shall reflect about the self efficiency of a person. The theory states that when a person perform
an attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm, precieved behavioural control when compiled

together shall help in harping of an individual behaviour. In planned theory of behaviour , a
behaviour of a person shall be studies on the basis of his reaction towards public relation, health
care etc.(Venkatesh, Thong, Xu, 2012.)Consumer behaviour is a vital aspect for economy.
Consumer behaviour is the study of people that how people make decision about what kind of
product they want to buy, need or in act regards to a services. It is very critical to understand the
consumer behaviour to know about their potential needs which will respond to a new product or
services in the economy. Further, the consumer behaviour explain that how consumer will
allocate their income in relation to the purchase of different kinds of commodities. The theory of
consumer behaviour describes that how consumers will buy different kinds of goods and
services. There are certain approaches which have been done on the basis of consumer behaviour
and some of them are as follows:
The utility theory of demand- This means that consumer buy goods from which they satisfy their
needs. In other words, satisfaction of consumer needs can be measured in term of utlis and utils
is the unit of measure. It can be analyse in a total utility and marginal utility.
Law of Diminishing Marginal utility- It refer as when total utility of consumer increases the
marginal utility of consumer decreases of the particular product which consumer is consuming.
In simple words, the intensity of consumer behaviour decrease when more and more products is
consumed by them.
hence it can be seen from the theories that, with the application of certain behaviour theory, it is
easy to evaluate the attitude of an individual on a particular situation. Thus, it is very important
for all the business organisation to understand that what kind of behaviour shall be prevailed by
the consumer and hence the company can work according to that.
Attitude and Behaviour gap
Sometimes it became really difficult to determine the behaviour of a person. A behaviour is
always determined by the attitude an intention of a person but sometimes certain situation comes
when attitude may not help to determine the behaviour of same. It is because, its impossible to
make a inference of the thought which has been going in the mind of a person. There are certain
situation in which an attitude of a person could be negative as well as positive. In both the
situation, a kind of behaviour which has been prevailed by the organisation will be different and
it is impossible to make an assumption on such a situation.(Benckendorff, Zehrer, 2013.) There
are certain scenario in which it is not easy to determine the expression of an individual by which

behaviour cannot be determined. An attitude in a person is the build of feelings and emotions but
there are certain people in the world whose emotions and feelings are not easy to determine and
as the feelings shall not be determined it became impossible to know the actual behaviour or the
attitude of a person. For an example, if a consumer wants to buy clothing from an organisation.
On looking to collection which has been placed by the company, a consumer is neutral. Then
such b behaviour will describe its attitude and as in this situation the consumer is being neutral
towards collection so it became impossible to determine whether he will buy the garment or not.
(Giesler, Veresiu, 2014)An attitude is always based upon the the knowledge and belief of a
person but when the belief shall not be able to determine then an attitude cannot be examined by
the person. There are situation in which an attitude of a person id completely opposite to the
behaviour which will lead to mismanagement for an example a consumer who is confused
between whether to buy any commodity or not will differ in his attitude and behaviour. It has
also been observed that there are situation in which the consumer or the individual has to behave
different from his attitude and that occur due to various opinion. An opinion to a situation could
be negative or positive. There are consumer who carry an attitude with not to avail any kind of
services but then when step into the organisation or store they get attracted towards the product
and make a behaviour towards buying the commodity.(Lysonski, Durvasula, 2013.) So it can be
easily concluded that there are situation when it became impossible to determine the behaviour
and an attitude of a person that is why there are many theories propounded by the scholar to
study and analysis the behaviour of a person or a consumer so that necessary steps could be
taken against a particular form of behaviour.(Kim, Ritchie, 2014.)
An attitude-behaviour gap of a person can be explained as the consumer who says while buying a
product that they are concerned about ethical issues but they are lacking in expressing or they do
not necessarily express in their market behaviour. Ethical issue of a consumer shall be referred to
ethical consumerism which is referred to consumer activity based on the positive buying. Such
attitude and behaviour gap come from many factors just like social demands to be placed on
consumers. At relational level there are situation comes in which an individual makes a feeling
that his actions or the judgement has been constrained by others. And such restriction has been
impose due to ethical issues by which the consumers were not able to express their market
behaviour. The main reason behind a behaviour and attitude gap is because generally people or
the consumer fail to explain their demand or they fail to behave in the right manner. There are

certain situation comes in which the consumer shall not be able to express his will or express his
concerned or particular behaviour by which a gap has been created between behaviour and
attitude.(Reisch, Eberle, Lorek, 2013.) It is very important that no gap shall be there in behaviour
and attitude because it will reflect the opinion of the person. If there shall be gap between the
behaviour and attitude of a consumer then necessary opinion cannot be made. The behaviour and
attitude shall be prevailed over market because there are certain market limitation by which
consumers shall be constrained by choices. It has been observed that an individual may not have
an equal and easy access to market or in the actionable information. It has been further observed
that many choices are controlled by other powerful actors. Such control over the consumers
make an responsibility to bring about change through consumption choices. When a concern has
been shown by the consumer regarding ethics, then in such interaction, consumer hope to infer
that such purchase shall be done .(Chua, Banerjee, 2013.)
Hence, it can be concluded from the above division that in a market, sometimes a situation arise
in which a behaviour and attitude gap is created and the reason behind the creation of such gap is
the pure concern of consumer in regard to ethics for the behavioural market.
Example of Fair Trade
fair trade can be explained as when all the activities related to trade and practice that Is
selling and buying of the object I carried out in a fair way. No unfair means shall be used by the
traders. It has been seen that now a the concept of fair trade is getting fail because it is not
always possible to predict the behaviour of a person. And when the attitude of a person is not
being predicted then it is impossible to get knowledge about his positive or negative attitude by
which goals shall not be able to achieve. Behaviour also impact on labour. If somebody is having
a negative attitude it will result into unproductive labour. It is very important to conduct a
productive labour as many things are dependent on it for an example transporting food, water
used in fracking etc. it has been further seen that if a negative behaviour been conducted then it
will effect environment also. That is why various theory have been initiated to predict behaviour
so that goals shall be achieved.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above project that a consumer behaviour is very much
important fro the organisation who has been into the business of providing goods and service. It
has been further explained in the project that, there are many theories propounded by famous

scholar which shall reflects about the study of behaviour of a consumer. It has been derived from
the theory that a behaviour of a person is depended upon the intention and attitude. It has been
further explained in the project there are situation in which it is impossible to predict the
behaviour of a person because of his fluctuating behaviour. The project explained about the
behaviour and attitude gap and how it prevailed over business scenario and market.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Welch, K.E., 2013. The contemporary reception of classical rhetoric: Appropriations of ancient
discourse. Routledge.
Reichert, T. and Lambiase, J., 2013. Sex in consumer culture: The erotic content of media and
marketing. Routledge.
Kendler, K.S. and Parnas, J., 2015. Philosophical issues in psychiatry: Explanation,
phenomenology, and nosology. JHU Press.
Sheehan, K.B., 2013. Controversies in contemporary advertising. Sage Publications.
Martens, L., 2016. Gender and consumption: Domestic cultures and the commercialisation of
everyday life. Routledge.
Cova, B., Maclaran, P. and Bradshaw, A., 2013. Rethinking consumer culture theory from the
postmodern to the communist horizon. Marketing Theory, 13(2), pp.213-225.
Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y. and Xu, X., 2012. Consumer acceptance and use of information
technology: extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. MIS quarterly,
36(1), pp.157-178.
Benckendorff, P. and Zehrer, A., 2013. A network analysis of tourism research. Annals of
Tourism Research, 43, pp.121-149.
Giesler, M. and Veresiu, E., 2014. Creating the responsible consumer: Moralistic governance
regimes and consumer subjectivity. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(3), pp.840-857.
Lysonski, S. and Durvasula, S., 2013. Consumer decision making styles in retailing: evolution of
mindsets and psychological impacts. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 30(1), pp.75-87.
Kim, J.H. and Ritchie, J.B., 2014. Cross-cultural validation of a memorable tourism experience
scale (MTES). Journal of Travel Research, 53(3), pp.323-335.
Reisch, L., Eberle, U. and Lorek, S., 2013. Sustainable food consumption: an overview of
contemporary issues and policies. Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy, 9(2).
Chua, A.Y. and Banerjee, S., 2013. Customer knowledge management via social media: the case
of Starbucks. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(2), pp.237-249.
Online

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