Exploring Factors Influencing Retail Buying Behaviour: M&S Group PLC

This report explores the various factors influencing customer buying behavior in the retail sector, specifically focusing on Marks & Spencer Group PLC. It delves into psychological, social, cultural, personal, and economic factors that shape consumer choices. The study investigates the impact of effective advertising, pricing strategies, and product features on buying decisions. Utilizing a qualitative secondary research approach, the report analyzes existing literature to address key research questions related to these influences. Findings highlight the importance of understanding consumer behavior for companies like M&S to gain a competitive edge, improve brand image, and enhance profitability. The report concludes with recommendations for future research and practical implications for businesses in the retail industry, emphasizing the need to adapt to changing consumer preferences and market trends. Desklib provides students access to similar solved assignments and past papers.

EXPLORING THE FACTORS INFLUENCING CUSTOMERS
BUYING BEHAVIOURS OF RETAIL PRODUCTS: A STUDY OF
MARKS AND SPENCER GROUP PLC
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ABSTRACT
Purpose: The main purpose of conducting the present study is to analyse the factors
influencing customers buying behavior of retail products. There are different factors that have
influenced buying behaviour of consumers towards that brand. These are personal factor, social
factor, physiological factor and many others.
Methodology: In this there are different types of research methods are applied for
collecting as well as analysing data systematically. The present study has carried out qualitative
secondary piece of data that does not deal with numerical and statistical piece of information.
This study has only considered secondary type of information data for addressing each question
of the research in effective and efficient manner.
Results and findings: Main findings of this research is changing buying behaviour of the
customers helped Marks and Spencer in increment of customer as well as improving their
profitability. Customer buying behaviour is significant for a company in attainment of
competitive advantages within minimum time and in successful manner.
Conclusion and recommendations: It is concluded that consumer buying behaviour is
important and significant for M&S in improvement of their brand image and goodwill in
marketplace as well as in customer’s mind. It is concluded that research aim and objectives are
accomplished through the research questions.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my superior thanks of gratitude to my tutor for their support and
guidance in completing each activity of the dissertation in successful manner.
I would also like to expand my special thanks to my friends and families for their
appropriate guidance in accomplishing research aim and objectives successfully.
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Contents
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................3
Contents...........................................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................6
1.1 Background Context..............................................................................................................6
1.2 Problem Statement.................................................................................................................7
1.3 Rationale of research.............................................................................................................7
1.4 Research questions.................................................................................................................8
1.5 Research aim and objectives..................................................................................................8
1.6 Snapshot of methodology......................................................................................................8
1.7 Structure of research..............................................................................................................9
LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................................10
What are the factors influencing customers buying behaviours of retail products?..................10
What is the impact/roles of effective advertising on customers buying behaviors?..................12
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY.................................................................................................19
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................19
3.2 Research Philosophy............................................................................................................19
3.3 Research design/strategy.....................................................................................................19
3.4 Research approach...............................................................................................................20
3.5 Data collection.....................................................................................................................20
3.6 Data analysis techniques......................................................................................................21
3.7 Ethical consideration...........................................................................................................21
3.8 Conclusion of chapter..........................................................................................................21
Chapter 4 – Findings & Analysis...................................................................................................22
Introduction................................................................................................................................22
Theme 1: The factors influencing customers buying behaviours of retail products..................22
Theme 2: The impact/roles of effective advertising on customers buying behaviours.............24
Theme 3: The factors determining the choice of products........................................................27
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Theme 4: The various pricing strategies which determine the customer’s choices...................29
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................31
Chapter 5........................................................................................................................................32
5.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................32
5.2 Review of research objectives.............................................................................................33
5.3 Major findings.....................................................................................................................33
5.4 Practical and theoretical implication of findings.............................................................33
5.5 Recommendation for future research...................................................................................34
5.6 Limitations...........................................................................................................................34
5.7 Recommendation.................................................................................................................35
5.8 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................36
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................37
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Context
Customer buying behaviour introduces to the action taken by customers before purchasing
a services or products. There are four types of consumer behavior that are habitual buying
behavior, dissonance-reducing buying behavior, variety-seeking behavior and complex buying
behavior. Along with this, consumer buying behaviour refers to the study of individuals, groups,
or companies an all the activities linked with the purchase and use of products and services
(Boca, 2021). There are different factors that influencing customers buying behaviors towards
retail products. These are psychological, social, cultural, personal and economic. These are main
factors that have direct influence on buying behaviour of consumers towards particular product
or services. In this, advertisement is one of the main factors that influence on consumer buying
behaviour. Advertising is a promotional strategy used by business organisation for creating brand
awareness in the customers’ mind to take buying decision.
There are various factors which influence the buying behaviour of customers. They
generally buy the products by determining their features, benefits and drawbacks (Varah and et.
al., 2021). In order to gain success, it is important to influence the buying behaviour of customer
of retail products. Customers are the key ingredients for the success of business, it is necessary
for company to attract and retain consumers in order to improve the performance and
profitability of business. The buying behaviour of consumers can be influenced by providing
them relevant information about the product and its quality so that they can make purchase
decision in effective and efficient manner (Wojciechowska-Solis and Barska, 2021). There are
few factors which influence the buying decision of customer such as economic factor, functional
factor, personal factor, marketing mix factor, social factor, cultural factors, psychological factors
and various other factors.
Within this research, Marks and Spencer is a major British multinational company with
headquarters in London, England, UK. M&S was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and
Thomas Spencer. Company is specialising in selling clothing, food products and home products.
M&S clearly knows the importance of promotion and gives special attention to all the activities
related to promotion or advertisement. They do advertisement through electronic media, social
media etc. They advertise their brand through different channels in the television, they promote
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their brand by making celebrities their product's brand ambassador. They are associating with the
other marketing brand to promote their products (BUI, NGUYEN and KHUC, 2021). They keep
advertising on various media posts, portals and sites. Along with this, all these are effective ways
of advertisement that change the buying behaviour of the customers towards the brand.
Therefore, changing buying behaviour of customers is important part for M&S because it helps
them in attaining competitive advantages successfully. There are various advantages of changing
consumer buying behaviour that are consumer differentiation, retention of consumers, design
relevant marketing program, predicating market trend, innovate new products, stay relevant in
the market, improve customer services, helps in increasing business profitability and many
others.
1.2 Problem Statement
Todays, it is a biggest problem for companies how to change consumer buying behaviour.
Changing consumer buying behaviour is a biggest task because some time this create conflict
among employees, reduce customer loyalty and many others. This is a major problem that direct
impacts over the business performance and profitability of an organisation (Sarah and et. al.,
2021). In order to overcome this problem, there will be a requirement of using available sources
that are books, articles, publication research, magazines and many others. These sources are used
for literature review that helps researcher in identifying the ways for changing consumer buying
behaviour towards the brand. Therefore, with the help of present research, problems that faced
by companies can be resolved in effective and within minimum time period.
1.3 Rationale of research
Main rationale behind conducting this research is to identify the effective ways of changing
consumer buying behaviour along with its importance to the M&S. Main motivation behind
selecting current topic is to determine the significance of changing consumer buying behaviour
for the growth and success of company. Current research is important for various stakeholders
that are M&S, customers, students and researchers (Fernandes and et. al., 2021). For researchers
present research helps them in improving their research skills that are data collection, time
management, presentation, decision making and many others. All these arte main skills and helps
researchers in attaining its personal and professional goals. For students, this research is
important for them by enhancing their understanding regarding the factors influencing customers
buying behavior of retail products. For M&S, this research is essential for them by providing
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information regarding the effective ways through which they can easily change consumer buying
behaviour towards the brand. Therefore, all these are main stakeholders that would be benefited
from the current research.
Another rationale behind conducting this research is to fulfil the research gap. Within this
research main gap is that there was lack of information regarding the factors along with their
influence on customers buying behavior towards retail products. In previous studies, there was
lots of data available about the benefits of consumer buying behaviour for an organisation
(GILITWALA and NAG, 2021). This is a main gap and for addressing this, secondary sources
are used for literature review. Therefore, present investigation is significant in fluffing the
research gap as well as achieving research aim and objectives in successful manner.
1.4 Research questions
 What are the factors influencing customers buying behaviors of retail products?
 What is the impact/roles of effective advertising on customers buying behaviors?
 What are the factors determining the choice of products?
 What are the various pricing strategies which determine the customers choices?
1.5 Research aim and objectives
Research aim:
The aim of the current research is “To analyse the factors influencing customers buying
behavior of retail products”: A study of Marks and Spencer group plc
Research objectives:
 To analyse the factors and the impact of effective advertising on customers buying
behavior
 To understand the importance of customers buying behaviours for different organizations
 To determine the different strategies that organizations can use to develop effective
advertisements
 To determine the influence of customer buying behaviors on organisations
1.6 Snapshot of methodology
Methodology is the process of collecting accurate information regarding the topic. There
are various types of research methodologies that are useful in gathering in-depth information
regarding the factors influencing customers buying behavior of retail products. These are
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interpretivisim philosophy, inductive approach, qualitative secondary research, cross-sectional
approach and many others. All these are effective and useful methodologies for researcher
because these helps researcher in gathering secondary information as well as achieving research
aim and objectives in successful manner (Islam, 2021).
1.7 Structure of research
There are different chapters that are effective in completing full dissertation in successful
as well as systematic manner. All thee chapters are explained as below;
 Introduction: This is a first chapter that incudes various information such as background
of the research, problem of the research, research questions, research aim and objectives,
snapshot of the methodology and many others. All these are main information that helps
researchers in doing next chapter in systematic manner.
 Literature review: This chapter is important in collecting secondary information from
various sources that are books, journals, magazines etc. These are main sources that helps
investigator in gathering in-depth information about the topic (Menidjel, Bilgihan and
Benhabib, 2021).
 Research methodology: This is another chapter that is significant for researcher in
collecting accurate data through different types of methodologies. These are research
philosophy, research approach, research choice, research strategy, time horizon and many
others. All these are main methodologies that helps researchers in gathering secondary
qualitative data effectively.
 Findings and analysis or analysis of findings: This is another chapter that is important
and significant for investigator in evaluating gathered information through research
analytical tool. Within this research, thematic analysis is used by researcher as an
analytical tool. This is an effective tool as it helps investigator in evaluating gathered
qualitative data through the themes or patterns (Luu and Baker, 2021).
 Conclusion and Recommendations: This is a last chapter that includes information
about the all activities in accurate and systematic manner. In conclusion, all information
is concluded in systematic manner that helps in identifying achievement of research aim
and objectives. In recommendations, some appropriate suggestions will be given to the
M&S in changing of buying behaviour of customers.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is the chapter that focuses on carrying out secondary piece of
information from the sources such as books, articles, newspapers, journals, publications and so
on. This chapter mainly focuses on addressing the research questions with theoretical piece of
information in the decided time duration.
What are the factors influencing customers buying behaviours of retail products?
According to Luu & Baker (2021), consumer buying behaviour is greatly influenced by
several factors. Company always appoints a marketer so that they can understand about the
various factors that influence consumer behaviour. There are many factors that influence
customers buying behaviour are:
Psychological factors: Human psychology is one of the integral factors that directly
influence the consumer behaviour. These factors are not easy to evaluate and measure. Some of
the integral psychological factors that drive the behaviour of consumers are:
Motivation is one of the considerable defining factors that influence the buying behaviour
of customers of retail products. A common motivation theory is Maslow's theory of hierarchy of
needs. This is the model that is based upon five different levels of human requirements which
include: psychological needs, social needs, esteem needs, safety needs and self-actualisation
needs. With this customer give more importance to security requirements and basic needs above
all these mentioned needs.
Perception is the other factor that plays major role in attracting large number of
customers. This basically shows that how customer gathers information about the specific
product and service and generate an appropriate image regarding a particular product
(Rachmawati, Shukri, Azam and Khatibi, 2019). It is identified whether they get influenced
towards the product or service through an advertisement, feedback, review etc. With this
customer form an image regarding the product offered by retail companies. Now customers are
more influenced by products through surfing the Internet, exploring mobile phones, watching
television and many more.
Attitude and beliefs is the other important factor that prompts the buying decision.
Attitude and behaviour of an individual influences the purchasing and buying decisions of
customers. It plays significant role in shaping the brand image of the product in the mind of
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customers. So, understanding attitude and belief of a consumer becomes significant and useful
for many marketers of the organisation for designing several marketing campaigns.
Social factors: Customers are the people who are very social and get easily attracted with
the views and attitudes of the customers. Buying decisions of the customers are directly impacted
to some extent by the many people around. Customers always want to imitate other human
beings so that they can fit in surroundings. Hence, social factors influence buying behaviour of
customers regarding products of the retail companies. Some of the significant social factors are:
Family plays quite considerable role to impact purchasing behaviour of customers
(Victor and et. al., 2018). Customers form an aversion towards particular products from their
childhood by observing their families utilise that particular product and insist in using those
products as they grow up.
Roles and status is the other vital social factor that plays significant role in changing the
buying behaviour of customers. The higher position they hold in the society, the more their status
affects the way they buy and purchase products. This can be simply explained that CEO of an
organisation has different purchasing pattern and an employee has different buying pattern of in
comparison of CEO.
Cultural factors: Every customer has specific ideologies and values that are formed by
the ideologies and values of the society they exist in and the specific community they belong to
(Cham and et. al., 2018). Their behaviour is subconsciously or consciously influenced by the
culture followed by their specific community.
Cultural factors are generally basic needs, wants behaviours, preferences and wants that
are absorbed by customers from their family members as well as other important people around
them.
Subcultures are one of the parts of culture. These groups always focus on sharing
common sets of beliefs and values. They could consist of people from varied caste, religion,
nationalities and geographies. The whole customer segment is created by this specific customer
segment.
Social class is the other significant factor and this is identified by occupation, residence
location and education of the customers (Dhanabalan and et. al., 2018). The social class is the
other significant component keeping the successful influence of consumer behaviour.
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Personal factors: Alongside cultural, social and psychological factors, every customer
has that factor that are personal to them that directly influences their choices. These are the
factors which vary from one person to another, introducing different behaviours and perceptions.
Age is referred as the primary factor that impacts the preferences of consumers. It is
determined that teenagers like to make flashy and vibrant buying choices of teenagers. On the
other hand, elderly people like products which are less vibrant and soberer.
Income is the other significant buying behaviour of customers that has great contribution
in affecting this. It is identified that the higher income of the customer shows that customers
have more purchasing power. On the other hand, customers having lower income do not take
more interest in buying more products frequently.
According to Rabbani, Heidari and Farrokhi-Asl (2018), it has been identified that the
major factor that plays significant role in influencing customer buying behaviour towards retail
product is personal factors. Personal factors play important role to influence customers such as
age. Teenagers and youngsters are the people who are easier to influence towards products of the
company because they are continuously active on different channels of social media. Whereas
the older people are not easier to influence because they have certain preferences and needs
which are difficult to change. The other personal factor is income because buying behaviour of
customers depend on their salary or remuneration. So, students are the people who do not earn so
they are not at the stage where they could purchase more products of the company. On the other
hand, people who have great income are easier to get influenced towards products of the
company.
What is the impact/roles of effective advertising on customers buying behaviors?
According to Sunderaraj (2018), advertising is the method of communication for convincing
an audience to take buying decision about a product or service and providing information to
viewers and observers. Advertising is considered as one of the renowned marketing tools to
create awareness about the product in the mindset of a prospective customer for taking eventual
buying decision. Advertising with the assistance of all mediums influence prospective as well as
existing customers but social media and television are the strongest medium to advertise and
because of its mass reach, it could influence not only attitude, exposure and lifestyle of an
individual but in longer run, it could simply influence the culture of an organisation. When a
customer watches an advertisement about the organisation or its offerings and increases likeness
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