MBA404 Consumer Behaviour And Marketing Psychology

Introduction

The report aims to suggest strategic recommendations for a product of FMCG sector, which has confronted with a challenging situation regarding customer loyalty (Rishi 2013). The proportion of repeat purchases has become surprisingly low. Management has identified the issue as a result, of poor market research as well as have decided to conduct extensive market analysis to understand contemporary customer behaviour in order to increase both the sales and customer loyalty. At first, providing an overview of the product, Garneir shampoo, and its potential in its market segment will be analysed. The report will critically examine the market scenario and consumer behaviour to understand the trend among the consumers. This analysis includes different driving factors such as perception, motivation, cultural background, family and lifestyle differences that help the organization to have an idea on consumers purchasing decisions (Srivastava 2013). According to that, logical and strategic recommendations will be provided. As per the outcome of market analysis, this report will try to make a strategic approach towards framing entirely different marketing strategy for the mentioned product.

Overview of FMCG product: Garneir shampoo

Garneir is the second largest brand of L’Oreal group dealing with international hair care and skincare ranges with availability of various sub-brands of hair care like Ultra DOUX, Fructis, Ultra Blends and many more (www.garnierusa.com, 2018). The mission of the brand is to provide innovative as well as affordable hair care solutions to satisfy the requirements of both men and women. Recently, as reported, the company is collaborating with UNICEF to serve social and environmental sustainability purposes. Their concentration always remains on differentiating products infused with natural elements. The target audience had widely accepted the hair care range by Garneir after its market launch largely because of its blend of essential natural ingredients. It did not take much time to come under the limelight. However, with the progression of time it has been observed that shampoos of this company is not doing business well. Customer loyalty has decreased at a level from where it is difficult to recover if necessary measures are not taken at the earliest.

Considering the market trend of choosing organic products Garneir introduced several variations of shampoo previously. Garneir Ultra Blends Revitalizing Shampoo, Garneir Ultra Blends Nourishing Shine Shampoo and Garneir Ultra Blends Intense Repair Shampoo are assumed as popular among the youngsters the most. Whereas, Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Shampoo is used irrespective of age groups. Since the day of market launch, the products have been creating positive approach towards female customers the most (Frank, Enkawa and Schvaneveldt 2014). Acknowledging the recent market scenario, as per (Srivastava 2013), the objective of this report is to identify the consumer behavior, which is influenced by several factors such as, perception, lifestyle, cultural background and many more. An extensive market research and critical analysis of data will assist to understand the phycology behind purchasing decisions of different consumers.

Critical analysis of data 

According to the responses collected from the market survey, the company has received both the positive and negative feedbacks. The products are mostly used by above the age of 10 years. On average, the demand of its hair care range is the highest among the age group of 10 to 30 years. Whereas, 70% of female consumers prefer to use Garneir shampoo, on the contrary only 30% male considers Garneir as reliable brand. Consumers have different preferences regarding washing their hair, according to hair type and choosing budget for their toiletries (Helm and Landschulze 2013). It has been observed from the research that several factors like culture, lifestyle preferences, attitude towards the products determine purchasing behaviour (Haghshenas et al. 2013). In order to understand, consumer behaviour related theories can be consulted.

Consumer behaviour theories

According to Hennig-Thurau and Hansen (2013), competitive business environment of 21^st century encourages the marketer to think of creative marketing principles to draw attention of maximum number of potential customers. Before framing the strategies, marketers consider human behaviour in order to understand psychological and economic aspects.  Theories of consumer behaviour help to address issues regarding their purchasing practice both individually and in groups, the levels of purchasing decisions and attitude after purchasing and many more. A well-understood market scenario helps marketers to enhance the effectiveness of campaigns to influence customers the most.

• Theory of reasoned action:According to Montano and Kasprzyk (2015),  a consumer takes a specific action expecting specific consequences. As per the studies of Siu, Zhang and Yau (2013), in the case of Garneir shampoo if consumers feel that the products are not meeting their expectations, they decide not to retain by switching off to some other brands. Marketers must realise consumers’ interest in terms of gaining positive results.
• Theory of impulse buying:Whereas, other theories of consumer behaviour focuses on rational buying; Hawking Stern solely believe on the concept of impulsive behaviour of customers being influenced by advertisements. Marketers explore this opportunity of impulsiveness by using creative ideas while conducting promotional activities (Imam 2013). As Garneir carries an international brand image consumers do not think twice before investing and tend to switch off if the expectations are not being fulfilled.
• Motivation-need theory: Garneir, while designing hair care range researched immensely to find out what are the basic issues women are facing regarding maintenance of hair. The company has designed various shampoos for versatile need of hair, which make the customers’ think about purchasing to satisfy their needs. The problem begins when some customers misestimate their needs and fail to understand the hair type. Eventually, stop using Garneir shampoos being dissatisfied.

These theories are prediction of consumers’ purchasing decisions and marketer can frame strategies according to predictable patterns of their behaviour. Although, impulsive buying is a noteworthy part, sensible thinking and decision-making process effect the marketing procedures more dominantly (Shekhar and Raveendran 2013).

Purchase decision

There are five stages, which customers consider while selecting a product for buying. These stages have been identified evaluating consumers’ psychology while purchasing and experience after purchasing a product. It is true that there are impulsive buyers, yet most of the buyers invests time and considers options rationally before purchasing. The stages of purchasing are as follows.

• Recognition of need:The desired product must have some purpose to serve in consumers’ lifestyle. In a case of selecting a shampoo, female consumers seek for something, which reduces hair fall and make the hair damage free mostly. A large proportion of men does not really bothered about what effect it is delivering for them a good fragrance is priority. Although, teenagers irrespective of genders, attentively follow the advertisements and a tendency of maintaining good looks are noticeable among them (Parmar 2014). However, they are that segment of the market, where customers frequently change their choices and switch between one product to another for the sake of experiment. Therefore, Garneir must focus on the age group of 20 to 30, as they are sensible buyers in terms of fulfilling specific needs.
• Availability of information:Marketers are responsible for creating the brand awareness via printed or media advertisements and social networking sites to ensure highest accessibility of the information for the consumers. As described in Leeflang et al. (2014), advanced technology and extensive usage of smartphones enable the consumers to search as well as compare products for resolving their problem. Garneir must make the marketing sector firm enough to penetrate knowledge of customers about the hair care range.
• Evaluation of alternatives: As mentioned before, evaluation and comparison depends on information. After gathering information potential consumers examines the attributes to see if the product would be helpful for them or not. Technically, if the buyer has to emphasis on the consequences they tend to research extensively before choosing a product. Garneir shampoos must deliver the results that they have promised in their promotions; otherwise, task of customer retention would be difficult.
• Making purchase decision:This is the critical stage where actual purchase is done. Consumers seriously consider both the positive and negative feedbacks regarding product. Product pricing or economic condition of the target market play a crucial role here.
• Post-purchase behaviour: Consumers have a plenty of time to decide whether they should switch to other products or not entirely based on satisfaction level. It has been observed from the journal Gunnell et al. (2014), this feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is integrated with difference between their initial perception and actual performance. Consumers, who are rational enough and whose shopping behaviour is highly consequence oriented, they will not further invest on such ineffective products.

Garneir shampoo concentrates on every kind of hair needs. Starting from oily scalp to dry or damaged hair to dull; solution of almost every hair hazards are presented by the product range. However, losing the customer loyalty is not a healthy sign for a business. Therefore, in recommendation section along with better marketing strategies, customer retention method will be discussed as well.

Recommendations

As per the goal of initial survey, it was conducted to determine consumer perception towards the use Garneir shampoo and its satisfaction level. After gathering feedbacks from 50 respondents it has been concluded that Garnier has a decent market position where 70% of females and only 30% of males prefers to use Garnier shampoo. However, according to the balance sheet the tendency of rebuying has reduced at a large scale from the previous year. In this section, consumers’ psychology will be integrated with marketing principles to regain the trust of customers and the objective would be to transform the feasible strategies into sustainable practice of organisation (Martínez and del Bosque 2013).

Before determining the strategies, it is important to understand the reason behind such downfall. The general reasons are as follows.

• Loyal customer base can be disappeared if marketers choose unethical methods of promotions, which eventually helps to raise customers’ expectations (Leonidou, Leonidou and Kvasova 2013). When customers cannot integrate the results with expectations, they switch to other brands.
• E-commerce websites and internet share a pack of information, which are transparent and helps to fix business deals. Failed loyalty programmes, and inability of identifying market trend can be the biggest reason for losing customer loyalty.

It does not take much effort to establish a solid customer base if product quality is delivered as it has been promised in the first place (Segoro 2013). Keeping it as a key strategy, some strategic recommendations can be mentioned acknowledging the scenario.

• Company needs to conduct several contest programmes with every purchase to make the buying experience exciting. They can organise free hair treatments in L’Oreal salon for lucky winners. Although, it should be kept in mind these are instant techniques of increasing the profitability. Company needs to focus on market trend and issues to make a long-term approach.
• E-commerce websites are tools of measuring customer satisfaction. In order to handle Negative Feedbacks Company must take actions without any delay. Marketers can communicate and ask customers virtually how their experience can be improved or they can assist if consumers are confused between products according to exclusive needs.
• Celebrity endorsement is common among international personal care brands. However, advertisements will be more appealing if along with celebrities positive feedbacks of consumers can be presented via advertisements or virtual posts.
• Communicative participation of both the customers and customer care executives will help to obtain an idea of market trend and demand. The service must be consumer oriented. Garneir must be aware enough about the evolving nature of consumers’ requirements. Ultimate customer retention strategy is to pay attention and differentiate accordingly (Vera 2016).
• Briefly, transparent presentation of product information, avoidance of unethical marketing practices, improving within the capabilities to enhance customer experience and providing quality product is ultimate solution in terms of customer retention.

Conclusion

Consumers’ psychology depends on various factors including cultural background, lifestyle choices, economic condition and attitude towards the brand mostly. As far as retaining customers and maintaining market loyalty are concerned, marketers need to present the shampoos honestly through promotional activities. Customers should not be influenced with false hopes rather delivering them the actual idea will be helpful for them, as they tend to integrate initial perception with the ultimate result. To conclude, it can be stated that Garneir has a well-established international brand image yet authority must address the ongoing issues regarding customer base to sustain in a competitive business scenario of 21^st century. Strategic recommendations can be applied to mitigate issues and regain the customers’ trust.

References

Frank, B., Enkawa, T. and Schvaneveldt, S.J., 2014. How do the success factors driving repurchase intent differ between male and female customers?. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 42(2), pp.171-185.

Gunnell, K.E., Crocker, P.R., Mack, D.E., Wilson, P.M. and Zumbo, B.D., 2014. Goal contents, motivation, psychological need satisfaction, well-being and physical activity: A test of self-determination theory over 6 months. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 15(1), pp.19-29.

Haghshenas, L., Abedi, A., Ghorbani, E., Kamali, A. and Harooni, M., 2013. Review consumer behavior and factors affecting on purchasing decisions. Singaporean journal of business economics, and management studies, 1(10), pp.17-24.

Helm, R. and Landschulze, S., 2013. How does consumer age affect the desire for new products and brands? A multi-group causal analysis. Review of Managerial Science, 7(1), pp.29-59.

Hennig-Thurau, T. and Hansen, U. eds., 2013. Relationship marketing: Gaining competitive advantage through customer satisfaction and customer retention. Springer Science & Business Media.

Imam, F., 2013. Gender differences in impulsive buying behavior and post-purchasing dissonance under incentive conditions. Journal of business strategies, 7(1), p.23.

Leeflang, P.S., Verhoef, P.C., Dahlström, P. and Freundt, T., 2014. Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era. European management journal, 32(1), pp.1-12.

Leonidou, L.C., Leonidou, C.N. and Kvasova, O., 2013. Cultural drivers and trust outcomes of consumer perceptions of organizational unethical marketing behavior. European Journal of Marketing, 47(3/4), pp.525-556.

Martínez, P. and del Bosque, I.R., 2013. CSR and customer loyalty: The roles of trust, customer identification with the company and satisfaction. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 35, pp.89-99.

Montano, D.E. and Kasprzyk, D., 2015. Theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior, and the integrated behavioral model. Health behavior: Theory, research and practice, pp.95-124.

Parmar, S.M., 2014. A study of brand loyalty for cosmetic products among youth. International Journal for Research in Management and Pharmacy, 3(6), pp.9-21.

Rishi, B., 2013. Determinants of Brand Trust for FMCG Products with Special Reference to Shampoos Category. Asia-Pacific Journal of Management Research and Innovation, 9(2), pp.221-227.

Segoro, W., 2013. The influence of perceived service quality, mooring factor, and relationship quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 81, pp.306-310.

Shekhar, S.K. and Raveendran, P.T., 2013. Role of packaging cues on consumer buying behaviour. International Journal of Engineering and Management Sciences, 4(1), pp.61-69.

Siu, N.Y.M., Zhang, T.J.F. and Yau, C.Y.J., 2013. The roles of justice and customer satisfaction in customer retention: A lesson from service recovery. Journal of Business Ethics, 114(4), pp.675-686.

Srivastava, S., 2013. Factors Affecting Buying Behavior of Consumers in Unauthorized Colonies for FMCG Products. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, 3(7), pp.785-792.

Vera, J., 2016. Two paths to customer loyalty: the moderating effect of the differentiation level strategy in the performance-satisfaction-value-intentions relationship. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 25(2), pp.171-183.

www.garnierusa.com (2018). Hair Care, Hair Styling, Hair Color & Skin Care Products - Garnier. [online] garnier. Available at: https://www.garnierusa.com/ [Accessed 3 Oct. 2018].