A Report on Marketing Intelligence and Buyer Behavior - John Lewis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing intelligence and buyer behavior within the context of John Lewis. It begins by outlining the major stages of the purchase decision-making process and applying relevant buyer behavior theories. The report identifies factors influencing buyer behavior and defines key terms like brand loyalty, corporate image, and repeat purchasing, evaluating their interrelationships. It then explores market research objectives, techniques, and the use of secondary data, assessing the viability and reliability of research findings and proposing a market research plan. Furthermore, the report assesses market trends within the retail sector, identifies John Lewis's key competitors, and evaluates the company's opportunities and threats. Finally, it identifies techniques for assessing customer responses, designs a customer satisfaction survey, and re-evaluates the survey's success. This document aims to provide a thorough understanding of marketing intelligence concepts and their application in a real-world business scenario.

MARKETING INTELLIGENCE

Table of Contents
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
a) Describing major stages of the purchase decision making process.........................................4
b) Application of buyer behaviour theories in the context John Lewis......................................6
c) Factors that may affect the behaviour of the buyers................................................................7
d) Defining terms brand loyalty, corporate image and repeat purchasing and evaluate the
relationship between them...........................................................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
a) Identification of market research objectives.........................................................................8
b) Identification a range of market research techniques and evaluate their use and effectiveness
......................................................................................................................................................8
c) Use of secondary data to attain market research objectives.................................................8
d) Assessment of viability and reliability of market research findings........................................9
e) Preparing a market research plan to obtain information..........................................................9
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
a) Assessment of market trends within retail market in which M&S is operating its business...9
b)identification of key competitors of John Lewis....................................................................10
c) Evaluation of John Lewis opportunities and threats..............................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
a) Identification of a various of techniques used for assessing customers responses and
evaluate their effectiveness........................................................................................................11
b) Designing and complete a customer satisfaction survey.......................................................11
c) Re-evaluate the success of the completed survey..................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
In every business organization, various kinds of information are collected related to business
activities and analyze that data in order to fulfill the aim of taking right decision regarding
pricing, market development, business expansion etc. In order to get success in the competitive
market, organization have to adopt some concepts of marketing intelligence .In this manner,
manager gather information about the business environment and conduct business operation
accordingly (Li and Li, 2011). By this, company can able to sustain in the competitive market
and gain effective success. Marketing intelligence concept is related to collect information from
various sources , analysis that data and breaking information into the several subset in order to
get desired purpose of organization. In a simple word it can be said that marketing intelligence is
that concept under which corporation contributes such efforts which distinct from its rivals. With
assistance of the marketing strategies and important decision, manager of firm develop planning
to gain effective outcome from the business environment. In this project report various stages of
purchase decision making process has been addressed. In addition to this, various components
which affect the buyers behavior at the time of purchasing has also discussed. Furthermore, a
range of marketing research techniques and their evaluation has also studied with respect of John
Lewis Company. The major objective of this report is to understand the marketing intelligence
concept and also determine buyers behavior and purchase decision making process.
TASK 1
a) Describing major stages of the purchase decision making process
Individual behaviour is very sensitive and complex which may affected by various kinds of
components very quickly. At the time of purchasing product and services in the market,
individual survive from various stages and he affected by various kinds of components. By
crossing several stages, person can take the decision of purchasing of product and services. In the
context of John Lewis, stages of buying decision making process of its customers are as follows-
Problem recognition-Under this stage individual analysis its problem related to requirement of
particular product and services. In this stage, individual thinks that something is missing from his
life and it becomes important to determine that requirement to again get back to live normal life
(Fan, Lau and Zhao, 2015). So in this context, John Lewis have to find the develop requirement
of customer of target demographic so that it can offer right and relevant product and services to
buyers in the market.
Information search- Once the requirement are recognised than in the second stable, individual
start to estimate those alternative options that can able to meet his demand. For this purpose, they
discuses with families and friends and search on the internet. In addition to this they can also
take help from their past experience.

Information evaluation-Once customer has found that what will satisfy his requirement then he
start to search for best deal. In this stage, customer analysis the information about the product
quality, prices, features and branding.
Figure 1Consumer decision making process
Source: Li and Li, 2011
Decision- After evaluates and analyse the information about the particular product and services,
in the next stage customer decides to purchase that product and services. However it is risky
situation where probability of success or failure of buying decision.
Post purchase decision- Once the purchase has made it become significant to know that whether
the product or service satisfy their requirement or not. The company brand loyalty can lead by
the customer post purchase decision.
b) Application of buyer behaviour theories in the context John Lewis
The product adoption process

The following model assist to the John Lewis in order to understand the perception and choice
of customers for a particular product and services and get the success in the market. In this model
contains the following five stages –
Product Awareness-In this stage, corporation makes efforts to generate awareness of product and
services in the mind of target customer (Haverila and Ashill, 2011). In this manner, company
uses effective marketing campaigning, video, lading pages, images, social channels etc. With
assistance of these sources, firm raise awareness in the target customers.
Figure 2 Product Adoption process
Source: Mitic and Kapoulas, 2012
Product interest-In this stage, customer are ready to learn about the product and services./With
help of this stage, customer can access more information about the product by use of social
media, video, blogs, white paper etc.
Product evaluation In this stage, customer compare and examine the product and services and
evaluate their usefulness. With assistance of this stage, John Lewis can make improvement in the
existing product and services.
Product Trial- Trail of a good assist customer to take decision whether to buy the commodities of
John Lewis in future or not. For this, corporation can distributes some free sample to its
customers so that buying behaviour can studied (Henley, Raffin and Caemmerer, 2011).
Product adoption-It is a final stage under which customer takes final decision to purchase
particular product and services of cited organisation. In this stage, company requires to ensure
that deliver goods meet the expectation of target customers in the market.

c) Factors that may affect the behaviour of the buyers
Customer behaviour is very sensitive which may affected by the various components at the time
of purchasing the product and services in the market. It is the study of how group, individual or a
company select and buy of a particular commodity in the market. There are various kinds of
customer such as B2B, B2C, C2B, C2C etc. There are various kinds of components which can
affect the customer purchase decisions. These components are as follows-
 Cultural-The culture refers to the individual beliefs, thoughts, living standards etc. This
component affect customer purchase decision for example a well cultured person p[refer
to buy a highly branded and quality product.
 Social- This component is related to the reference group like family, friends etc. At the
time of purchasing, individual most like top purchaser those product which is promoted
by their favourite celebrities.
 Personal- In this includes individual personal conditions like occupation, living standards,
financial condition etc. At the time of purchasing, individual economic condition and life
style most affect them (J. Trainor, T. Krush and Agnihotri, 2013). For instance low
economic status not allow him to purchase high branded products.
Factors affecting organizational buyers:
Organizational buyer are those who purchase the product and services in order to survive
their business activities and function. At the time of purchase the business product and
services, organizational buyer may affected by the various factors which are as follows-
 Environmental- In this various factor can affect organizational buyers like political,
technological, social, legal and environment.
 Organizational- According to the company policy, strategy, objective, process and
culture, business enterprise have to take the decision of buying of products.
d) Defining terms brand loyalty, corporate image and repeat purchasing and evaluate the
relationship between them
Brand loyalty – Brand loyalty defines by the process when a person trust on a particular brand
and continuous purchase products of the same brand again and again.
Repeat purchasing: When a customer buys same product or a same brand again and again is
known as repeat purchasing. In other word it can be said that a customer buys same brand that
swaps the previous purchase which is already customer.
Corporate image- It defines the activities of the organization and which kinds of product and
services offer by it to its customers. The corporate image develop by the customer review and
their numbers of purchasing.

Relationship between three terms: Brand loyalty, corporate image and repeat purchasing is
interconnected with each other. For instance, John Lewis have to adopt effective marketing
techniques and strategy in order to attract the large number of customer toward the product and
services. This will improve and develop effective corporate image and if customer fully satisfied
from that product and services then they will purchase product and services again and again
(Cacciolatti and Fearne, 2013). This will improve the brand loyalty and corporate image so it can
be said that these all term have interconnected and relationship with each other.
TASK 2
a) Identification of market research objectives
John Lewis is the world largest for retail outlet in the world which delivers a high quality clothes
products. The market research of cited venture have following objectives-
 To determine the opinion of the customer towards the new launched shoe product of John
Lewis which has been recently launched in the UK market.
 To explore the customer satisfaction level related to the new shoe range of the John
Lewis.
b) Identification a range of market research techniques and evaluate their use and effectiveness
In order to conduct market research, qualitative and quantitative techniques can be used by the
John Lewis. Techniques effectiveness an usefulness are as follows-
Quantitative technique- In this market research, John Lewis can take the various source of
research like questionnaire, personal interview, surveys etc (Brooks and Simkin, 2012). With the
help of these techniques, company can analyse the market condition by use of facts, statistical
figures etc.
Qualitative technique- This market research technique assist cited venture in order to collect
important information about the opinion of customer after using new shoe of company along
with their satisfaction level. In this manner, company conduct personal interview, observation,
focus group in order to gather data about customer opinion.
c) Use of secondary data to attain market research objectives
Secondary data is that data which is collected by the different secondary sources such as
books, government records, firm’s financial statements, statistical association, trade
association etc. The major advantage of secondary data is that company can easily estimate
the various complaints and review of the product and also they can consider their purchasing
level (Ayub, Adeel, Muhammad, and Hanan, 2013). This sources is reliable and valid over
a period of time and this can referred by a person for his study. John Lewis can use
secondary data in order to consider the sales and profit statement. Cited venture can referred
some other secondary sources such as articles, books, journals, government sources etc.

d) Assessment of viability and reliability of market research findings
In order to analyse the assured and reliability of market research, cited venture can use the
test-retest concept. In this manner, company applied over the gathered data more than two
times within the given time duration. With assistance of this concept, company can determine
the collected data from secondary source to attain market research objective. Along with this,
the gather information from secondary sources has considered after the year 2010 and this
has ensured that the following information has valid and reliable.
e) Preparing a market research plan to obtain information
In order to analyse and obtain the information about the customer satisfaction level about
new launched shoe range, John Lewis has developed a market research plan which is a
follows-
Activities/ Duration in week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
choose of market research
topic
prepare marketing research
plan
emergent marketing plan and
objectives
conduct literature review
collection of Research
methodology
Carrying out primary research
check collected data
assessment of findings
Conclusion and
recommendations
Draft submission

TASK 3
a) Assessment of market trends within retail market in which M&S is operating its business
According to the secondary research it has founded that John Lewis has launched a new shoe
range for males for the age of 18 to 50 year old. In this manner, in the UK market there has broad
market and growth of the footwear industry. There are various big company which deliver high
quality of footwear to the customer in the UK market so cited venture have very high level
competition. Along with changing customer life style and fashion trend, customer desires the
most innovative and attractive design in the footwear (Al-allak, 2010). This has made impact on
the UK footwear industry and it has completely changed the face of following sector. According
to the market research it has founded that there is total revenue of footwear industry is about £5.2
bn with 1.9% growth rate. This is very beneficial for the cited venture to launch new show in the
UK market.
b)identification of key competitors of John Lewis
Competitor analysis is the effective method to analyse the performance of rivals in the
market. In the context of John Lewis there are various rivals such as ASDA, Marks & Spencer,
Tommy Hilfiger, Sainsbury etc. These all competitor have vary tough competition with John
Lewis but still said company is performing very good in the market as it deliver high quality of
customer product and services (Papatya and Papatya, 2011). In order to analyse the competition
in the market, four major elements has considered that is objective, strategy, assumptions,
resources and capabilities. From the analysis it has ascertained that John Lewis has generated
good sales and revenue after the sales of various products and services as compare to its
competitors. It has effective developed its won effective goodwill in the mind of customer and
gain strong position in the market as compare to its rivals.
c) Evaluation of John Lewis opportunities and threats
With the help of SWOT model, John Lewis opportunities and threats can ascertained which are
as follows-
Opportunities Threats
 Opportunity to become the number one
retail outlet in the world by render high
quality of product and services.
 To introduce the new shoes range at the
global level with help of effective
marketing strategies and intelligence.
 It have very high level competition in
the footwear industry at global level
 It have required more finance to launch
new business product in the market.
 Continuous changing technological
development is major threat for

 Opportunity to expand its business
operation at global level and gain
highest profitability and market share in
the retail industry.
company.
 Regular changing customer demand
and preferences about footwear is
major threat for said company.
TASK 4
a) Identification of a various of techniques used for assessing customers responses and evaluate
their effectiveness
Product placement- It is the most effective tool to identify customer responses under which
company can compare the past and present sales of footwear products. With the help of this
technique firm can find out whether the buyer purchase new product or not in the future (Rahbar
and Abdul Wahid, 2011).
Post sales survey- With assistance of this technique, company can easily analyse the past and
present demand of product and services. It assess the actual figure of expected and actual sales of
footwear. The difference of them aid the company to identify actual demand of new shoe
products in the market.
b) Designing and complete a customer satisfaction survey
The primary data is that data which can gathered by company with help of customer
survey, questionnaire, interview etc. In the context of John Lewis, company can identify the
actual customer satisfaction level after using the new launched shoe product with the help of
customer survey. Following question can asked by company in the customer survey-
Demographic information
Name: ______________________
Occupation: __________________
1. From which age group you belong.
 15 to 25 years
 25 to 35 years
 35 to 45 years
 50 years
2. How frequently you are visiting John Lewis showroom for purchasing?
 Daily

 Weekly
 Once in a months
 Once in two months
 Once in a six months
3. From where, you get the information about new shoe product of John Lewis?
 Newspaper
 Email newsletter
 Company website
 Store visit
 Social media
4. New shoe product range increases your satisfaction level.
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
5. Which feature of new shoe range of John Lewis attracting you to take buy decision?
 Price
 Fashionable look
 Brand name
 Quality
 Availability of different designs with attractive colors
6. Would you like to do repeat purchase of same shoes of John Lewis in future?
 Yes
 No
7. Please recommend your opinions by which John Lewis can bring the improvement in shoe
product range.
______________________________________________________________________________
c) Re-evaluate the success of the completed survey
As per the collected data or information by conducting customer survey related to new
launched shoe product it has been ascertained that customers are highly satisfied by the said

product. All participants has successfully filled the information in the questionnaire. On the basis
of the review of the success of the completed survey has stated that researcher has effectively
understood key component which influence customer buying behaviour (Shani and
Chalasani,2013). On the other hand researcher has founded that customers are more attracted
toward shoe quality and attractive style. It has suggested that corporation should improve its
promotional strategy and sell its product by online channels. This will aid to attain the desired
outcomes in the future.
CONCLUSION
In order to get effective success in the competitive market, corporation have to adopt the
effective marketing strategy and intelligence. From this project report it has concluded that John
Lewis have very large number of rivals in the footwear industry so it requires to use more
effective marketing strategy. Company is going to launch new shoe range so market research is
very essential method to get success in the market. It has also concluded that customer buying
behaviour largely affected by their personal, social factors so company needs to consider them.
In addition to this, with the help of effective marketing plan the said corporation can effectively
survive in the competitive market.