FMCG Marketing Report on Consumer Behaviour - MBA404 Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of consumer behavior within the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry. It explores the multifaceted factors influencing consumer decisions, including cultural practices, social dynamics, and psychological influences. The report delves into how culture, subculture, and social class shape purchasing habits, alongside the impact of reference groups, family, and individual roles. Personal factors such as age, occupation, and economic situations are also examined, as are psychological elements like motivation, perception, and beliefs. The report offers strategic recommendations to control and influence consumer behavior, emphasizing the effectiveness of mental strategies such as emotional appeals, addressing product shortcomings, repositioning competition, promoting exclusivity, and introducing elements of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. The report aims to help marketers to understand the consumer behavior to implement better marketing strategies.

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FMCG MARKETING REPORT ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
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Executive Summary
Fast moving consumer goods are goods characterized by short shelf life, quick sales, and
cheap to acquire. The consumer behavior controls the consumption of such products.
Consumer behaviors are dynamic and are determined by several factors like cultural
practices, personal factors, social factors, and psychological factors. The cultural factors are
further divided into the social class, sub cultural activities, and culture. Personal factors
include customer’s age, his or her occupation, and the prevailing economic situations. The
social factors include social group, family, and the roles and status an individual holds in the
society. The psychological factors include motivation, perception and the beliefs one holds.
There are various recommendations on how to control consumer behaviour, but the mental
strategy has proved to be more effective. These psychological strategies include running an
emotional idea, revealing the shortcomings of the product, repositioning competition,
promoting exclusivity, and the introduction of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................6
Cultural Factors.....................................................................................................................................7
Culture...............................................................................................................................................7
Subculture..........................................................................................................................................7
Social class........................................................................................................................................8
Social Factors........................................................................................................................................8
Reference groups...............................................................................................................................8
Family...............................................................................................................................................9
Status and roles of the consumer.......................................................................................................9
Personal Factors....................................................................................................................................9
Age and Life Cycle..........................................................................................................................10
Occupation and Lifestyle.................................................................................................................10
Economic situation..........................................................................................................................10
Psychological Factors..........................................................................................................................10
Motivation.......................................................................................................................................11
Perception........................................................................................................................................11
Beliefs and Attitudes.......................................................................................................................11
Recommendations...............................................................................................................................11
Run an Emotional Idea....................................................................................................................11
Reveal your shortcomings...............................................................................................................12
Reposition your competition............................................................................................................12

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Promote exclusivity.........................................................................................................................13
Introduction of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.....................................................................................13

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Introduction
Fast moving consumer goods are those products that are manufactured and released to the
market as quickly as possible and are relatively cheap. These products include the foodstuff
that consumers use on their day to day life operations such as over-the-counter drugs,
packaged foods, beverages, toiletries, dry goods and other types of foods that are consumed
on a daily basis like meat (Anisimova 2016, p. 59). To a consumer, these goods are priced
goods, very perishable, involve frequent purchases and require deep involvements. On the
other hand producer and suppliers view these products as sold in high volumes, affect
extensive distribution networks, they have low-profit margins and are of short shelf life.
The industries involved in the manufacture and supply of fast moving consumer goods is
characterized with a lot of innovations (Benlian, Titah, & Hess 2012, p. 130). This is due to
the dynamic nature of consumer needs and behavior that demand for the need to come up
with new ideas in the production process that includes packaging, marketing, advertisements,
and getting feedback from the customers to help improve consumer satisfaction.
A fast-moving consumer good can be multipurpose in that it can be put to perform different
but related tasks. For instance, the product presented in this report, soap can be used in
different but associated jobs like bathing and washing (Chaudhary, & Bisai 2018, p. 45). The
research conducted on this product showed that the consumption of the product is affected by
various factors ranging from gender, age, culture, class and personal beliefs of the customer.
This report is based on the findings of the research that was done concerning the consumption
of soap. The study helped highlight some consumer behaviors that every producer needs to
put into consideration when coming up with a fast moving consumer good (Dootson et al.

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2016, p. 35). Factors that determine consumer’s choice was found to be Cultural factors,
social factors, and psychological factors.
Cultural Factors
Cultural practices that prevail where the consumer comes from play a big role in his or her
decision to purchase a good (Harris & Daunt 2011, p. 245). These practices promote or
discourage the consumption of some commodities within the society. The methods may be
subdivided into the culture, subculture, and social class.
Culture
Cultural practices are the generally accepted behaviors in the society. In this case, a society
can be termed as the market, a place where the sellers interact with the buyers but majorly
dominated by buyers (JAE HOON HYUN & SUK BONG CHOI 2018, p. 89). The society,
the market can be a country or a community with some generally accepted set of behavior
that can either promote or discourage the purchase of some goods. The seller needs to fully
understand the prevailing cultural practices in society, country, and our community to know
how the dominant practices would affect the purchase of the products.
Subculture
Some sub cultural practices within the society may as well control Consumers' behavior
within a given cultural setup. These subdivisions of culture may include race, religion,
geographical regions, nationalities, and trade restrictions. These subcultures affect people

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differently in a given society (Anisimova 2016, p.135). For instance, belief in a given country
may support the consumption of pork meat, while another religion within the same country
prohibits the same. The marketers need to identify the needs, culture, and subcultures of the
target customer lest they fail.
Social class
The consumers in a given subculture can further behave differently depending on their social
class. Social class may be described as a group of people who share some socially recognized
status such as wealth, education, professionalism, and occupation (Benlian, Titah, & Hess
2012, p. 450). Sellers should know that consumers within the same social class tend to
behave the same and therefore the marketing activities carried out should be well calculated
to avoid mix-up.
Social Factors
According to Jalil, Talukder, and Rahman (2014, p. 243)Social factors such as the status and
family of the consumer, role played by the consumer in the society as well as the reference
groups have varying influence on the ability and purchasing behaviour of an individual.
Reference groups
Consumers get involved in some peer groups in their daily life. These groups influence the
behavior of the customers. For instance, students whose friends mostly drive a certain model

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of cars would most likely buy the same model of car. These groups relate with some products
and that influences the decisions made by the members regarding certain products. It would
be awkward for a group member to buy and use a product that is not common within the
group, it would lead to some stigma (Chaudhary & Bisai 2018, p. 378). Seller and producers
can make great sales when they understand the trends in the groups, mostly when they know
the group leader whose opinions influence the other members of the group.
Family
Buying behaviors of some consumers are the decision makers in the family influenced by
their families. Some families have purchasing norms and values that guide them regarding
some products, and these values make a given family identify with some brands. In some
cases, the buying decisions in a family may be determined by some members of the family
like husband or wife (Dootson et al. 2016, p. 400). Sellers should have such information and
target their marketing and advertisements to the decision makers in the family.
Status and roles of the consumer
Every member of the society bears some responsibilities, roles, and status in the community.
These factors influence the decision-making process of an individual when making purchases
(Liu, Lamberton, & Haws 2015, p. 127). For example, a lady who works as a senior officer in
an organization and is a mother and a wife at the same time makes purchases governed by her

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status, roles, and responsibilities in the society. She may not like to be associated with some
products in the market, not because of her choice but her status.
Personal Factors.
As explained by Anisimova (2016, p. 378), apart from the group factors that influence an
individual's buying decisions in a group, consumers make personal choices when it comes to
what they need .personal determinants in consumer behavior include age, gender, occupation,
economic situation, lifestyle, personality, and self-esteem.
Age and Life Cycle
The buying behaving of individuals changes over time as he or she stops using some products
and introduces others depending on his age (Siriprasoetsin, Tuamsuk, &Vongprasert 2011, p.
256). Life cycle involves the stages in life that an individual goes through like being young
singles, unmarried couples, and married couples and divorced. These stages determine the
consumer's needs and subsequently change their buying behavior as they evolve through the
circles.
Occupation and Lifestyle
The consumer's occupation and profession have impacts on his or her decision when making
purchases. The consumer would want to make investments in line with the profession and
occupation he or she fall in. Lifestyle determines how one lives in the community and the
personal desires.

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Economic situation
The purchases of products by the consumers depend on the affordability of the product, and
this is influenced by the ability of the consumer to make the purchase. The economic
situation of the consumer determines the price and amount of commodities he or she can buy.
Psychological Factors
The psychological determinants that shape a consumer's behavior include perception,
motivation, learning, beliefs, and attitudes of the buyer.
Motivation
Consumer needs are of different urgency. In this case, the more pressing a need is, the more
urgent it is, and eventually the consumer settles it first.
Perception
Perception refers to how consumers select, organize, and interpret information. The three
perception processes include selective attention which refers to when sellers try to attract the
attention of the buyers Anisimova (2016, p. 294) . Another type of interpretation process is
the selection distortion in which case buyers try to interpret the information in a way that fits
what they already believe in. And finally, perception retention refers to when the sellers try to
make buyers understand and retain the information they are given. The sellers try to retain
the information they believe in.

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Beliefs and Attitudes
Customers possess specific beliefs and attitudes toward different goods. Such beliefs and
attitudes influence the brand image and affect consumer purchasing behavior. Sellers
interested in a market dominated by such customers can change their beliefs and attitudes to
support the products introduced.
Recommendations
Run an Emotional Idea
Previous researches have indicated that feature and functional appeals influence customers
but emotional and psychological appeals resonate more with customers. An advertiser who
use psychological contents have proved more effective in the market than the adverts that
focus on features (Khim-Yong Goh, Cheng-Suang Heng & Zhijie Lin 2013, p. 700).
Demonstrating how a new car will improve the life of a customer tends to influence the
customer's decision more than explaining the components of the car and how it works. This
psychological strategy has been used by marketers for a long time and has proven to be
successful. Statements like “We are not here to sell boilers and vats, but the potentiality of
growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.” Made by auctioneers have psychological
manipulation than that expressed when explaining how the boiler works.
Reveal your shortcomings

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Many consumers tend to doubt an advert if it is too spicy and end up not buying the product.
It is no secret that consumers tend to doubt marketing claims–for good reasons. Many aren't
credible. One way to raise credibility is to point out your product's shortcomings.
Banerjee and Pawar (2014, p. 289) illustrated that some of the main global marketing giants
had made such mistakes in the past. Giving information just on the positive side of the
product is a major mistake many marketers do. Psychological mind game with customers
leads to increased sales when the consumers feel that the marketer is honest by mentioning
some of the weaknesses of the product. This tactic helps improve the customer loyalty and in
turn increased sales.
Reposition your competition
Psychological marketers try to manipulate the consumer thinking about the product. This
strategy involves creating a different story or idea about the product. For instance, a
children’s food that does not receive support from adults can be manipulated by creating an
advert blaming the parents for being rude to the feelings of their parents. With this kind of
psychological game, the parents would react by increasing the purchase of the said product
just to prove that they are caring for their children’s feelings.
As explained by Wiederhold and Martinez (2018, p. 471), such marketers are canning and
designed to show that the non supportive group become guilty for not supporting the product.
Before it can be realized, the company can moved swiftly to improve the areas that lead to the
weakness.
Promote exclusivity