Social Influences On Buying Behavior Of Consumers Of Nike, Essay.

Reference Groups and Buying Behavior

Question:

Discuss about the Marketing Consumer behavior Nike.

This report analyzes some of the social influences on the buying behavior of the consumers of Nike. Nike manufactures and sells a lot of products, one of which is the range of sportwear apparels. The customers of Nike come from different socioeconomic backgrounds and have different decision-making process for buying a product. There are a large number of factors present in the society that can affect the decision-making process of these consumers (Schlegelmilch, 2016).

Social influences on the buying behavior of the customers can be defined as the factors present in the society that can affect the decision-making process of an individual for a product or service. There are a wide range of social factors that can affect the decision-making process of an individual for a product or service. This report focuses on the sportwear apparel sold by Nike and the social influences on the buying behavior of the corresponding customers in the market (Parente, 2014).

Reference groups

Each and every individual in the society has a number of people close to him or her. These people surround the individual to share his or her feelings, situation and condition. These people are considered to be the reference groups of an individual in the society. Each and every individual in the society are used to share their opinions, views and feedbacks with their close ones or the members of their reference groups. This in turn allows the members of the reference groups to have a lot of influence on an individual. The feedback, views and opinion of the members of the reference groups affect the buying behavior of an individual to a significant extent. This section of the report focuses on some of these reference groups that have significant influence of the buying behavior of an individual in the society (Shih, 2013).

The reference groups can be divided into two major categories, primary and secondary group.

Primary group

This reference group of an individual consists of his or her family members, relatives, friends and colleagues. Basically, the people that an individual interacts regularly are considered to be a part of the primary reference group of an individual. The members of the primary reference group affect the buying behavior of the individual in a number of ways.

• They already have used the products from Nike and have their own opinion about the quality of the products. This in turn allows them to affect the buying decision of the individual to a significant extent.
• The primary group member might be loyal customers of Nike, which in turn affects the buyer behavior of the individual positively.
• If an individual has his or her family living together, then it affects the buying decision of the expensive premium sportswear. In such a scenario, the individual would prefer going for an average quality sportswear and spending rest of the money on the family members (Tuten, 2014).
• The buying behavior of an individual is greatly affected by the lifestyle of the members of the primary reference group of the individual. For example, if the members of an individual's primary reference group don't spend a lot on sportswear apparels, then it's unlikely that the individual is going to spend a lot on the premium sportswear apparels.
• The lifestyle of the members of the primary reference group of an individual in terms of health and fitness also affects the buying behavior of the individual. For example, if the members in the primary reference group of an individual don't focus a lot on buying the premium sportswear products, then the individual also might not be interested in buying expensive and premium sportswear products.

Secondary group

The secondary reference group of an individual consists of the people that the individual interacts less frequently. Some of the examples of the secondary reference group of an individual are the professional organizations, alumni associations and large public forums like clubs. The influence of these secondary reference groups on the buying behavior of the individual is minimal in comparison to the primary groups. So, the buying behavior of the individual for the sportswear products of Nike are influenced to a nonsignificant level (Mullin, 2014).

The individuals living in a society can be divided into various categories based on various factors. One such category is the economic value of the individuals in terms of their total revenue and income capacity. This categorization of the individuals in the society is called the socioeconomic classification. The socioeconomic class of an individual also influences his or her buying behavior. Hence this factor influences the buying behavior of the customers of the sportswear products sold by Nike to a significant amount (van den Driest, 2014).

• The individuals in the high socioeconomic class generally don’t bother about the price of the product as long as the quality is very high and the brand is a popular one. So, the customers of Nike in the high socioeconomic class are fine with the high price tags of the products and this social factor won’t be an influence on their buying behavior.
• The individuals in the middle and upper middle socioeconomic classes focus on the value that they yield from the premium products that they buy. These customers of Nike focus on the value that they get by buying any of the products from the range of premium sportswear sold by Nike. So, the customers from this socioeconomic class are influenced a bit by the social factor in their buying behavior, but focus on the value they yield by purchasing the products.
• The individuals in the low socioeconomic class don’t generally purchase premium products and put more importance on other aspects of their life than buying premium products. The customers of Nike from this social class generally won’t buy the premium sportswear range of products. These customers generally purchase the premium products with promotional offers and discounts (Morgan, 2015).

Primary Reference Groups

So, the social class of the individuals in the corresponding market of operation is a significant influence on the buying behavior of the customers of Nike premium sportswear products. The customers from the different social classes have different preference and priority depending on their purchasing capability.

The social factors identified in the previous section can be considered while designing the marketing strategy for the premium sportswear products sold by Nike. As these factors influence the buying behavior of the customers in the corresponding market of operation, their inclusion in the marketing strategy of the corresponding products allows the design and development of effective marketing strategy, which can lead to significant increase in the sales of these products (Gardner, 2015).

The marketing mix of the premium sportswear products sold by Nike can be based on these social factors that influence the buying behavior of the customers.

As shown in the above image the marketing mix of the range of premium sportswear products from Nike consists of 7 factors product, place, price, promotion, people, physical environment and process (Shank, 2014).

Price

From the analysis of the identified social influences, we can be clear that the price range of the existing premium sportswear products of Nike is a big factor in the buying behavior of the customers. The marketing professionals in Nike can focus on keeping an affordable price for the middle, upper-middle and high socioeconomic classes in the society (Burns, 2014).

Place

As per the social influences identified in the previous section, we analyzed that the demand of the premium sportswear products sold by Nike is high among the upper-middle and high socioeconomic class individuals with healthy lifestyle. So, the marketing professionals in Nike can ensure that the retail stores of the organization are placed at the locations having high frequency of these people. So, the retail stores of Nike can be opened at premium residential places and key locations of the corresponding markets (Kotler, 2015).

Product

The marketing professionals in Nike should ensure that the premium sportswear products sold by the organizations should be of high quality and should be innovative. The high quality of the products along with their innovativeness allows more number of customers to realize more value from them. The realization of more value from the products allows the customers from every social classes and with any reference group to take the decision of buying the corresponding products (Armstrong, 2014).

Promotion

The marketing professionals in Nike should ensure that the promotional activities and offers on the premium sportswear products of Nike are frequently provided to the customers. These promotional offers and activities attract more customers from any social class and with any reference group. This in turn allows the organization to have higher sales of the corresponding products. The marketing professionals at Nike can ensure that the promotional activities and offers are spanned across all the varieties of the premium sportswear range of products sold the organization, which in turn attracts the customers with various needs and requirements to buy the products.

Secondary Reference Groups

People

The marketing professionals at Nike should ensure that the people allocated to interact with the customers at the retail stores of Nike should be efficient enough to persuade the customers of buying the products. The high efficiency of the people involved in the process of making the sale to the customers allows the chance of a positive buying decision from the customers to be high. So, the people interacting with the customers at the Nike retail stores should have effective interpersonal and communication skills to ensure that the customers buy the products and get all their queries resolved to be able to take a positive buying decision for the premium sportwear products sold by Nike.

Physical environment

The marketing professionals at Nike should ensure that the physical environment of the retail stores of the organization is of high enough quality to attract more number of customers. The high-quality environment of the retail stores of the organization allows more number of customers to be impressed with the quality of the brand. The customers also perceive the brand to be of very high quality as per the quality of the physical environment in the retail stores (Iyer, 2015).

Process

The marketing professionals at Nike should ensure that the high-quality manufacturing process of the premium sportswear products sold by the organization are marketed effectively to the customers. The high quality of the manufacturing process allows the customers to perceive the products to be of high quality. This in turn allows the organization to attract more number of customers from the upper-middle and high social classes. The marketing activities focusing on the quality of the manufacturing process of the premium sportswear products sold by Nike ensure that the customers are familiar with the authenticity of the products and the value that the products provide for their price tags (Burgelman, 2015).

The analysis of the social influences on the buying behavior of the customers of the premium sportswear products sold by Nike, revealed a number of factors that should be considered while deciding on the target market for these products. The marketing professionals at Nike should focus on the segmentation of the market based on the lifestyle and socioeconomic status of the customers. The marketing activities for the premium range of the sportwear products sold by the organization should focus on the middle, upper-middle and high socioeconomic classes in the society. This in turn allows the organization to attract more number of customers for the premium range of sportswear products sold by Nike. The marketing activities of the organization should also focus on the individuals in the society with the healthy lifestyle. This in turn allows the marketing activities to be focused on the individuals who put a lot of effort into being healthy and fit through their daily activities. The market segmentation and targeting criteria for the premium range of sportswear products allows more number of customers to be attracted to the products, which in turn leads to increased sales of the products (Granzin, 2015).

References

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