MGBBT0UCT Essay: Analyzing Micro & Macro Aspects of Customers

This essay delves into the critical importance of understanding customer behavior for businesses, especially in the tourism sector. It examines both micro and macro aspects that influence customer purchasing patterns. The micro aspects, including customers, competitors, and suppliers, are analyzed using models like the Engel, Kollet, Blackwell (EKB) Model. The macro aspects, encompassing social and economic factors, are discussed in relation to sociological theory. The impact of these factors is illustrated with examples from the tourism industry, particularly considering the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumer decisions. The essay concludes that a thorough understanding of consumer behavior is essential for marketers to introduce new products, predict customer expectations, and ultimately meet their needs, ensuring business growth and profitability.

Understanding
Customer

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERNCES:..................................................................................................................................7
Books and Journals:....................................................................................................................7
Online:.........................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Understanding customers is very important for the business which helps them to serve
goods and services according to the demands and requirements of customers. In order to provide
a great customer care, it is very fundamental that organisation must deliver what they promise. It
involves knowing customers so well that the firm is able to anticipate the requirements and
exceed their expectations. Understanding customers requires to be attentive whenever there is an
interaction with them (Alhomaid, 2019). Business can serve potential rewards to enhance
customer loyalty and bring new business with the help of positive word of mouth
recommendations and many more. However, understanding consumer' mindset is not easy and
most often needs a deep analysis to know their purchase patterns and preferences so that one can
anticipate the expectations. If a company fails to understand the purchase pattern of the
consumer or their reactions towards a brand, product or service then there will be a greater
chance of the failure. It is complicated to understand the behaviour of customers. Customers
spending patterns affected due to various factors such as change in fashion, trends, technology,
disposable income or any other. The following assessment is considering micro and macro
aspects of the customer behaviour with appropriate models, theories and illustrations related to
tourism industry.
MAIN BODY
Consumer Behaviour refers to the study of consumers and the way they exploit to selct,
consume and the dispose of services or goods, encompassing consumer's behavioural, mental and
emotional responses. Understanding behaviour of the consumers is the key to any marketer in
order to influence the buying patterns of customers. By knowing how customers decide on a
good, marketers can able to realise the needs and expectations of the product. This will support
in the representation of brand's offerings that leads to maximum impact on the consumer's
psyche. Overall, it is the key secret to reach the maximum customer base and engaging them
with the organisation, while converting them to buy from the company. It involves individuals,
groups or firms and all the functions linked with the shop, consume and dispose of products and
services (Chandra, 2019). It includes customer's attitudes, emotions and preferences that affect
the purchase decisions. The understanding of consumer behaviour identifies the individuals
qualities such as personality lifestyles, demographics and behavioural variables. It also identifies

the influences on the customer, from social groups such as family, sports, friends, reference
groups to community in common.
Both micro and macro fall into the categories of the environmental scanning. The
common scope of environmental scanning is that it is a part of the analysis of the global
environmental analysis. Such analysis are typical to carry forward but plays a vital role in the
business.
Micro environment is that environment that affects directly on the business. It is
associated to that specific area where the business operates and directly impact on the functions
of business. They have the ability to influences regular business proceedings and usual
performance of the organisation. Still, the effect is not long lasting (Choudhury, Mukherjee and
Datta, 2018). The micro aspects of the consumer behaviour includes customers., suppliers,
competitors, resellers and the general public. Customers, are the most important in the micro
aspects of the consumer behaviour. The type of customer base that the organisation attracts and
the thinking behind buying the product are going to highly influence the way to produce
marketing campaigns. The consumers can be B2B, B2C, local, international and many more. The
key factors that deals with customers are stability of demand, prospects of the growth of sale,
intensity of competition and relative profitability. Competitors, they are the ones who sells same
or similar kind of product in the market (Vazquez and et.al., 2020). Therefore, the sale and
marketing strategies matter a lot to the company. In order to increase customer base, it is very
important for the company to know about its competitors. A customer can easily switch to other
brands if they sell similar kind of product or service, or the competitor offers low prices, high
quality or additional benefits that it can be easily shift by the customers. Engel, Kollet,
Blackwell (EKB) Model, it expands on the Theory of Reasoned Action. It is a five step
procedure that is used by the consumers while making a purchase decisions. The first step
reflects that customer assimilate most of the marketing materials they see on the newspapers,
television or online. One the customer gathers the information, he shifts into data processing
where he compare the data to expectations and past experiences. The customer shifts to the stage
of decision-making after a deep thought, selecting the product on rational insight. Customers are
influenced in this phase by external factors (Four Consumer Behavior Theories Every Marketer
Should Know, 2020). It is important for the markets to facilitate enough data about the offerings
to drive the customer to keep the product of the firm under the consideration for purchase.

Macro aspects of consumer behaviour consists with many factors. A marketer should
try to know the aspects that affects the consumer behaviour. Social influences is one the major
aspect that delivers fundamental impact on the consumer decisions (Dedeoğlu and et.al., 2020).
Consumers are the social beings and they roam around the different people who affects their
purchasing behaviour. A person try to imitate other persons and desires to be socially accepted in
the community. Therefore, their buying behaviour is affected by the other humans around them.
They may affected by family, roles and status, reference groups and many more. Economic
aspects, the purchase behaviour also affects by the economic factors of a nation or a market.
When a country is well-fixed, the economic situation is strong, which leads to greater supply of
monetary value and great buying power of customers. When a buyer experience a positive
economic situation, they are more likely to invest on the purchasing the products or vice versa.
Sociological theory, explains behaviour as involving the group activities of human encourages
by group pressures. It is observed that human as social creatures are strongly influenced in their
purchasing by socio-cultural environments in which they live. The reference group also delivers
a strong impact on the individual behaviour. Knowledge and recommendations of references
make it simple to define why customers behave in certain manner and more fundamental for the
marketers' prediction (Consumer Behavior Theories, 2021).
In tourism sectors, there are various organisation such as The Ultimate Travel
Company, London Travel agency and many more, that are affected by the both micro and macro
aspects of the consumer behaviour. These companies have been majorly impacted by the buying
pattern of the consumers (Minocher, 2019). The purchase decisions of the company signifies the
sale, growth, revenue and profit of the business. The sale of the company is dependent on the
seasons of the country. But due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic from past two years, tourism
industry affects a lot as customer decisions regarding travelling and hanging around the country
have been minimized. Now they are like to avoid decisions in which they have to interact
physically because of the spread of the virus. They become more health conscious and try to
remain healthy and hygienic in a best possible way.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report is that understanding consumer behaviour is very
fundamental to marketers in order to introduce new product in the market and predict the
expectations of customers in order to meet them. There are two aspects of consumer behaviour

that are micro and macro affects the buying pattern of customers. Micro aspects deals with
consumers, competitors and many more which is quite vital to consider by the marketer. Macro
aspects deals majorly with economic or social factors which influences the decisions regarding
shop. Both aspects relatively mentioned with appropriate theories or models. Lastly, the essay is
discussed with suitable examples of tourism industry that how customer shopping decisions has
been made.

REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
Alhomaid, A., 2019. The effect of religion and culture on the consumer behaviour of young
females in Saudi Arabia.
Chandra, M., 2019. Impact of Consumer Behaviour on Hotel Sales. NOLEGEIN-Journal of
Leadership & Strategic Management, pp.33-49.
Choudhury, N., Mukherjee, S. and Datta, B., 2018. Consumer Decision-making at the Base of
the Pyramid: Synthesis of Literature and an Integrative Framework. The Marketing
Review, 18(3), pp.270-306.
Dedeoğlu, B. B. and et.al., 2020. Understanding the importance that consumers attach to social
media sharing (ISMS): Scale development and validation. Tourism Management, 76,
p.103954.
Minocher, X., 2019. Online consumer activism: Challenging companies with Change. org. New
Media & Society, 21(3), pp.620-638.
Vazquez, D. and et.al., 2020. Examining the influence of user-generated content on the fashion
consumer online experience. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An
International Journal.
Online:
Four Consumer Behavior Theories Every Marketer Should Know, 2020. [Online] Available
Through <https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/four-consumer-behavior-theories-every-
marketer-should-know/>
Consumer Behavior Theories, 2021. [Online] Available Through
<https://www.iedunote.com/consumer-behavior-theories>