Personal Development Plan: Consumer Profile and Macroeconomic Trends

This report presents a personal development plan centered around the author's consumer profile, financial strategies, and the influence of macroeconomic trends. The author, a digital marketing manager with two income sources, analyzes their spending habits, brand preferences, and technology interests. The report examines the impact of global GDP stability and income inequality on consumer behavior, emphasizing the importance of cautious financial planning. The author reflects on the strategic marketer's perspective, highlighting the role of demographics, psychological factors, and purchase patterns. Peer engagement provides a comparative understanding of consumer profiling, its implications on marketing strategies, and its role in evaluating economic, social, and political factors. The analysis underscores the importance of adapting to changing macroeconomic conditions and making informed decisions for future financial stability and family well-being, considering the current economic climate and potential future income disparities.

Running head: FINAL PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
FINAL PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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My Consumer Profile
The consumer profile is focused towards evaluating the characteristics that the target
audience will look for in a given product or service. I have two sources of income from the two
jobs in which I am currently employed. One is the family business that I have been a part of for
the last nine years. The other job I am part of is that of a digital marketing manager for a local
luxury resort. The later job helps me to gain more in order to support the changes that have been
brought forward in my life. Due to the higher cost of living in my native country Maldives, I hsd
sent my wife and my three daughters to the neighboring Sri Lanka. They have been living better
lives there due to lower living costs. However, as my income has grown I am looking forward to
reunite the entire family in Maldives. I am a very rational spender and spend my money wisely. I
am very enthusiastic for all things tech. Thus, I read a lot of tech oriented books. I also buy a lot
of gadgets mostly through online shopping. I read a lot of tech reviews to buy the best available
gadgets considering the budget that I have at the given time. In case of books I always like the
hard copy books over the digital books. I am a very brand focused person. My disposable income
is due to increase in the future. I want to save more for the education of my daughters, being
constant in future with my current buying habits.
Impact of a macro-economic trend on consumer profiles
One of the important macro-economic trends globally to look forward to will be the
relatively stable growth of the global GDP (Christensen, Gillingham and Nordhaus 2018). The
world economy is seeming to be stabilizing to some extent. This would greatly affect my
professional and personal life. It is important to know that the current economic predictions are
showing that the immediate future would be one in which the global demand will be

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strengthened. This would mean that most of the global sectors would experience better growth in
demand than recent years. My work as a digital marketing manager for the resort is going to
become little more rewarding than previous years. This would mean that I would have more
disposable income. In turn, this would help me to give my wife and three daughters a better
standards of life in my base country of Maldives. However, all might not be very well as it has
also been projected that chances are that the stability would be short lived. This is because, many
places across the globe are still facing lower economic growth than expected. Hence, although
the slight stability of the world economy can be a good news I believe it would not be giving me
the kind of growth opportunity that I might have expected.
As mentioned above, the growth of the global economy will be relatively stable.
However, the unstable conditions will remain nonetheless. Hence, it becomes a risky situation
for me. I would not be able to make any large investments. I would have to take steps that ensure
that in future I am not affected by any financial difficulty. It becomes important for me in this
unstable situations to think deeply before making any form of investments or financial
commitments. Considering the current economic trend of relative but temporary stability, there
are more future considerations that have to be made rather than the present ones. In future
income inequality might rise if the market does not recover for a longer period of time. This can
cause rising prices of commodities which in turn will affect my living standards. I have
commitments towards my family that can be affected by the changing situations that affect the
microeconomic environment. I perceive income equality to be the most important threat that can
affect people in the current economic situation. Income inequality is a situation in which single
individuals tend to have more wealth accumulation than other members of the society. In

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extreme cases the contrasting income of a poor person can be almost equal to zero than that of
the wealthy (Duncan and Murnane 2014).
The current global situation can affect the future of my family as well as the other
members of the society. In the future income inequality can rise meaning that the prices of
commodities as well as cost of production of the various organizations would rise. This can
result in lesser returns to the worker despite same or even more effort provided on the job. The
current time is testing for the average consumer. This is because a portion of the previous income
inequality remains while at the same time things are to be temporarily alright (Baumeister 2002).
However, in the future there remains the threat of higher income inequality. Considering myself,
I have to think again about bringing my wife and daughters home in Maldives despite currently
having the financial capacity to provide them with greater living standards. I have to think more
about my future spending that would actually make me more cautious about my present spending
habits.
On a wider socio-economic and political scope the volatile situation of the current world
demand functions can induce various behaviors from the influential to the lesser privileged
sections of the society. It is important to note that at this time the higher sections of the society
can call for a reduction in taxes (McCall and Percheski 2010). In case of Maldives this would
mean the resort owners. This can increase the revenue of my resort and help me to earn more.
However, this would mean that the state would be forced to spend lesser on infrastructure. This
in turn can affect my quality of life and would be more harmful for the lower earning sections of
the society (Dabla-Norris et al., 2015). Given the current situation of temporary stability it
becomes important that effective decisions are taken by all people.

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Consumer profiling critical reflection
My personal profiling makes me a consumer who likes to save more for the future of the
family. However, at the same time I spend significantly on the gadgets and technology. A
strategic marketer can have a different view of my profile, which can altogether provide a
different perspective of by decision making and buyer behavior. Consumer profiling is
essentially the summarizing of data of consumer. The summarizing includes the shopping
behavior, income level, lifestyles, preferences, demographic information, etc (Valletti and Wu
2016). If my consumer profiling is done by a strategic marketer it can be somewhat different
from what I have undertaken as part of the study. The strategic marketer would actually consider
variables such as demographics, psychological factors and patterns of purchase behavior. The
analysis of a strategic marketer would be different from my analysis because a strategic marketer
would be considering more factors than I have in my personal profiling. A strategic marketer
would profile me differently as my decisions would be considered on the basis of the economy
and not my personal perspectives (Asioli et al., 2017). Hence, there would be certain variations
in regards to by buying capacity and behavior. My decision to keep my family out of Maldives
and the reasons for the same might not be very essentially considered as the profiling would be
considering my personal purchase habits. My buying habits can be considered though
psychographic analysis of the process. It is important to note that my psychographics would
consider points such as my brand favoritism and my technology oriented buying behaviors. In
essence both I and the strategic marketer would have some opinions that can greatly be similar.
The influences will remain the same that are family, age and income. However, as per the
strategic marketer more emphasis would probably be on the factor of income. This is because I
would be placed on the higher to medium income group.

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I believe that the consumer profiling is an important tool for assessing the values of the
various aspects that govern the decisions of the consumer. It helps to create a wholesome
analysis of the consumer. Additionally it is an important measure of the various macroeconomic
factors that can affect the consumers at any given time. It is important to consider that the
consumers are affected by various macroeconomic aspects that in turn affect their
microeconomic behavior. Customer profiling helps to trace these behaviors and connect them
with the changing macroeconomic situations. According to me it helps to create a strong
knowledge base for the marketing functions of organizations. In regards to the consumers, it
helps in the creation of good user experiences. This becomes possible due to the knowledge of
customer value that can be acquired. However, at the same time there are essential limitations of
this strategy. It can force the grouping of various different users into one. Heavy groups are
created that take into consideration people of diverse groups. Hence, people of different tastes
and preferences can be clubbed together causing significant confusions at times.
Reflection on peer engagement
Perspectives vary from person to person. Hence, it becomes necessary that all the
important perspectives of a given subject is considered for developing wholesome understanding
of the subject matter. My reflections were effective in understanding how effective customer
profiling is necessary for creating effective marketing strategy. It is important to note that
customer profiling helps to create a better knowledge based environment through which
organizations and the individuals that serve as their customers can both be addressed. The
reflection actually helped me to understand customer profiling effectively by putting myself into
the position of the customer and analyzing the aspects that govern my purchasing behaviors. Peer
engagement provided further scope for understanding the significance of consumer profiling. It

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helped me to understand the opinions of my peers in regard to the same and many vital questions
that I had in mind in regards to the subject were answered. Moreover, I got the chance to
compare my peers profile with that of myself. Customer profiling is not only important for the
understanding of the market value and forming marketing strategies but has other implications. It
is an important tool for evaluating economic, social and political factors that affect the lives of
consumers. This could be known only through the comparative understanding of my own
reflections with those of my peers. Hence, it can be said that in future my marketing practices
can be enhanced through the base that has been created with the help of the complete study. I
would apply the derived understandings while framing future marketing strategies for my
organization.

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References
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consumer behavior. Journal of consumer Research, 28(4), pp.670-676.
Christensen, P., Gillingham, K. and Nordhaus, W., 2018. Uncertainty in forecasts of long-run
economic growth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(21), pp.5409-5414.
Dabla-Norris, M.E., Kochhar, M.K., Suphaphiphat, M.N., Ricka, M.F. and Tsounta, E.,
2015. Causes and consequences of income inequality: A global perspective. International
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Duncan, G.J. and Murnane, R.J., 2014. Growing income inequality threatens American
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and Drone Applications (IConDA) (pp. 55-59). IEEE.
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