Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

Middlesex University
Business School London

MKT 4005 BRANDING AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Module Leader: Dr. Simon Manyiwa Academic Group: MA Marketing Management January 2010 Names: Manzil Madhwani (M00291693) Assessment: Individual Coursework Date: 9th July 2009

Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

Table of Contents

1.

Introduction

2.

COHORT/AGE GROUP

3.

PERCEPTIONS

4.

VALUES, MOTIVATION AND CULTURE

5.

COGNITIVE LEARNING, COMMUNICATIO, RECOGNISE VS RECALL

6.

ATTITUDES

7.

PERSONALITY AND CONSUMPTION

8.

MISCELLANEOUS

10

9.

References

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Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

Introduction: Luxury an English word and luxe, a French word, are derived from a Latin term luxus. The Oxford Latin Dictionary says luxus as soft or extravagant living, opulence, sumptuousness, opulence, luxuriousness, indulgence. It is present in the consumption patterns since the ancient age. (Dubois B., et al., 2005) and a luxury good was meant to be as a scarce and rare item mainly available to the very few from elite class. (Nuneo and Quelch,1998 cited in Hauck and Stanforth, 2006). In the Industrial Revolution it reached the masses and was attainable to other social classes. Since then the term is continually being redefined and in contemporary period it refers to any high prestige product or service of a specific tier (Hauck and Stanforth, 2006). It is about the product category and luxury is a differentiating factor of the brand within a product category. (Kapferer, 1997). Consumer behaviour can be defined as the behaviour that consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). It focuses on the way the individual makes decisions for spending their time, money and effort on the specific to be consumed item. It is not as simple as it may seem in the previous statement as it covers a lot of ground as there are lots of factors which play dynamically in many probable combinations on the mind of purchaser before the final decision is made. Luxury products form a big market in todays market place. Consumer behaviour studies are very important for producers, manufacturers and markets for developing effective marketing strategies as it can help to device tailored marketing activities for the micro-segments. This report evaluates a case study The behaviour of the young towards luxury products by Danielle Allrs. (Antonides and Fred, 1999). The case study describes a survey research carried out on young people in France. It aimed at knowing the spontaneous awareness, aided awareness and the perceptions of young people about luxury and their desires of luxury goods in the near future. It gives a summation of the research outcomes in terms of the aimed questions of the survey mentioned above. The first section shows a list of brands listed for which many had an instinctive awareness and the second shows their selection from a list of brands. Further it gives a summary of their value perceptions of luxury and their dreams of luxury. This report gives a good opportunity to summarize from the case study, the
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Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

relevant theories and concepts of consumer behaviour in the luxury product category. Several theories have been identified in the case study 1. Cohort/Age group, 2. Perceptions, 3. Values, motivation and culture, 4. Cognitive learning, communication, Recognise vs Recall, 5. Attitudes, 6. Personality and consumption, 7. Miscellaneous. They will be covered in detail in the following sections. 1. Cohort / Age group: The era in which a consumer is born creates for that person a cultural bond with the millions of other born during the same time period. Our needs and preferences change with our age as we grow older and in sync with many others who are close to our own age. (Solomon et. Al, 2009). Consumers age has a significant influence on his/her identity. Cohorts are defined as groups of individuals who are born during the same time period and who experience similar external events during their late adolescent and early adulthood years (Meredith and Schewe, 1994; Ryder, 1965 cited in Hauck and Stanforth). The importance of cohorts is based on the assumption that individuals are highly influenced by events that occurred in their coming-of-age years. Cohort analysis can aid in tracking and forecasting changes that will take place. (Hauck and Stanforth, 2006). One result in this case study shows that the items of table arts sector was least known to the young French population and the reasons mentioned are evolution of life cycle in which the marriage rates are low, families are disintegrated and traditional family meals are not considered as sacred. These items might have been more meaningful and more relevant to the perception of luxury to the previous cohorts when the culture was different. Also all other findings that are in the case study relate to a specific cohort which prevailed in France during 1999. The brands that were emerging in that period might be the top and most recognised brand in the present cohort. When we consider culture as an influencing factor in consumer behaviour, the age group considered here will have its own nuances of the sub culture and so different specific implications for marketer. All the perspectives that have been held by the sample population will be specific to just that age group. The reference to quality, beauty, aesthetics as near to the perspective of luxury and signs of ostentation, originality and exoticism as far from the perspective of luxury items is consistent throughout the target population and implications are limited to young French consumers only.
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Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

2. Perceptions: For a specific product the perception can be described as how the people/ individuals/ consumers see it as. It can be defined as the process by which an individual selects, organises and interprets the selected stimuli. It focuses on what we add and take away from the stimuli sensations as they assign some meanings to them. (Solomon, et al., 1999). Only a small amount of the total exposed stimuli (vision, smell, sound, touch and taste) is processed as they are filtered at various stages prior to being processed. The eventual interpretation of a stimulus allows it to be assigned a meaning. Perception has strategy implications for marketers as the consumers make decision on what they perceive rather than the objective reality. (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). This concept is very much proactive when it comes to luxury products. A consumers perception of a product being a luxury product or not first of all will depend on the way the word luxury is decoded by the specific consumer. Weather the product is a luxury or not may vary in different situations depending on the consumers perception. (Barnier and Rodina, 2006). Two result observations are very important additions to this concept. 1) The luxury products mentioned spontaneously, most belong to same sectors like perfumes, clothing, fashion, leather goods, accessories, costume jewellery and jewellery. This gives us a slight idea of the category of products which fall under the luxury recognition of product. If the positioning of a product from one of these product categories based upon the offered value is done as a luxury item, it is likely that most respondents will perceive it as a luxury item. Dior, Chanel, Yves SaintLaurent are the chosen top brands belonging to the mentioned product categories. Also when asked to select from a list of brands, Dior, Chanel, Yves Saint Lauren were recognised most frequently. 2) There was a wide disparity in their criteria referring to luxury. When asked What luxury mean to you?, various responses were observed like, opulence, beauty, aesthetics, wealth, magnificence, splendid, sumptuous, high quality, superfluous, useless, ephemeral, superficial, very expensive, good taste, elegance, discrete. Results also show that youngsters perceive the luxury items as a quality product, well known, elegant, communicating beautiful and selective quality, refined in

Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

distribution and high on price. A set of values was consistently far from their perceptions of luxury goods like ostentation, originality, exotism. 3. Value motives and culture: According to Schultz and Zelenzy (1999), values can be regarded as beliefs that guide the selection or evaluation of desirable behaviour or end states. A customers luxury value perception and the motives for luxury brand consumption are not simply tied to a set of social aspects of displaying status, success, distinction and the human desire to impress other people, but also depend on the nature of the financial, functional and individual utilities of the certain luxury brand. (Wiedmann, Hennigs, and Siebels, 2007). Weidmann, Hennings and Siebels (2007) also propose value perception model showing that a value perception has various dimensions like the financial dimension, functional dimension, individual dimension and social dimension. The dimensions the values of price, quality, self-image, hedonism and prestige lie within the previous four dimensions. When the young people of France were asked about their views on a luxury brands, they replied with the value perceptions i.e. the values according to them that are attached to the item that form their perception of luxury. They seek the following values in a luxury item: Beauty,

aesthetics, elegance, seductiveness distinction. mention of and Their foreign

designer brands the simplicity, familiarity of image,

commercial success, originality aggressiveness and are

also important values for them. The overall priorities that the consumers attach to different products, is determined by the culture. The relationship between consumer behaviour and culture can be treated as a two way street. (Solomon et al., 1999) New brands chosen by
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Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

the young people over the local luxurious brands can affect the culture too. The culture can also have an influence on the four first order dimensions of value perception. For example, if we take uniqueness as a value, it is very less sought after by Europeans as compared to Russians as it is more important in their culture. (Wiedmann, Hennigs, and Siebels, 2007). So it can be said that overall responses from the French youngsters also reflects specific values of the culture of France. Table sets lost its luxury connotations with a change in the culture where more disintegrated families are seen with time. 4. Cognitive Learning, Communications, Recognition versus Recall: Cognitive learning is a result of a mental process which views people having a problem solving approach who use the information around them to help themselves understand the deciding environment. In this approach, conditioning is also a cognitive process and occurs because of development of conscious hypotheses and evaluation and there are linkages between stimuli and responses. (Solomon, et al., 1999). Recognition and recall are the tests conducted to determine that weather or not the consumers remember the brand. (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). Recall tests are unaided and recognitions are aided and same stands for this case. Communications from a brand and knowledge of the activities of that brand help the cognitive learning. Both spontaneous awareness (recall) and aided awareness (recognition) results showed that, brands like Dior, Chanel and Yves Saint-Laurent were the most frequently mentioned and frequently recognised brands. Also the awareness of the activities of the brands confirmed. Hermes too was recognised frequently and also their activities were known to people. The same with Loris Assaro, Guy Laroche and Givenchy brands being less frequently mentioned and also the awareness of activities of the brands was low. This indicates the communications and advertisements by this brands having direct effect in the cognitive learning process of consumers and helping the recall and recognition. Results showed that very less of the youngsters perceive fur as a luxury product which may be indicating that they already have enough of cognitive lesson about the ecological reasons. 5. Attitudes: Attitude is a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way with respect to a given object. The attitudes relevant to purchase

Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

behaviour are made up by the direct experiences of product, word of mouth information, media exposure, internet and direct marketing activities. (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). There are various theories in the area of attitudes of consumers towards products and brands. First we will discuss first, the tricomponent attitude model. (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). The tricomponent attitude model is formed of cognitive, affective and conative components. The first part is formed of cognitions of a person. As explained in cognitive learning a perception is formed based on the prior and existing knowledge. The emotions and feelings about a product or a brand form the affective component. The third component of conation is the likelihood or tendency that an individual will undertake a specific action or will behave in a specific manner towards the attitude object. For example, fur items are being virtually rejected by the young people of France shows their negative attitude towards fur. Reasons being ecological and ostentatious signs of wealth which show us their prior knowledge of product, negative feelings and it implied the tendency of not buying fur items. American and English brands were found to be appealing to the students and Italian brands were obtaining popularity which shows the overall positive attitudes towards certain foreign brands. There is also theory of reasoned action that shows the cognitive, affective and the conative components. (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). But this theory takes into consideration also the subjective norms which act within the circumstances to alter the behavioural outcome of a purchase situation. A need generation is the actuating point in this model of attitude formation. Some brands were mentioned by many people and the best known brands were actually those which were favoured by the interest of consumption. The perceived usefulness of brands of certain product categories imparted the overall positive attitudes towards such brands. For example, Lacoste for sports-wear, Weston for shoes, Benetton and Chevignon for young and casual clothing. When asked about products that they dream of or have a wish for consuming in near future, the responses included good restaurants, nice cars, fashionable and quality wardrobe, beautiful jewels, exclusive perfumes, exclusive beauty products and living in most fashionable areas. This response suggests that as they are willing to consume these products, their attitude towards the products is positive. Certain brands with these product offerings will also be looked upon by positive attitudes. Attitudes do change with time as cognition is a
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Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

continuous process. A result shows that brands like Boucheron, Gien and Lalique had comparatively weak image in the past but are improving every year and are becoming clearer. 6. Personality and consumption: Marketers try to make appeals to consumers on the basis of their personalities. The researchers tend to see consumer consumption situations as a reflection and an extension of the consumers own personality. Personality can be defined as those inner psychological characteristics that both determine and how a person responds to his or her environment. (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). The inner characteristics that constitute an individuals personality are in a unique combination and so the personality makes one human different from other and personality reflects individual differences. Despite the personalities being consistent, the consumption behaviour often varies according to other factors that affect the behaviour like environmental, situational and sociocultural factors. The personality is consistent and enduring. Personalities can also change under certain circumstances. Brand Personality: Consumers can also subscribe to the notion of brand personality. This means that they attribute various descriptive personality-like traits or characteristics to different brands in a wide variety of product categories. Christian Lacroix is considered as young, funny and outlandish and has a focused image in media. Jean-Paul Gaultier is considered as famous, atypical and very linkable. Kenzo is considered as young, modern and very characteristic. All the above brands have their own personality and they are admired by many young people of France and are becoming increasingly popular. Self Image: Self images are the perceptions of self of the consumers. They try to approach products with images that could enhance their self-concept and avoid those products that do not enhance the self image. So some strange selections against the market perceived personality can be justified by the selection made on the basis of self image of the consumers. When asked about the qualities or attributes of a person who is a luxury enthusiast, consistent responses were found. According to the French students, someone who likes luxury tends to be a man or woman of taste, who is elegant and stylish and cultivates a certain way of life. Sometimes they were considered as a snob or a show-off. If the young French
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Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

consumer will like to enhance his/her self image with one of the attributes, will fall into consumption of luxury items. Those who perceive luxury item users as pompous and do not want to let themselves to be considered like that will keep away from falling into luxury consumption. Gender Response: Product personality or persona, frequently endows the product or brand with a gender. (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). Many products are sex-typed and they take on masculine or feminine attributes and consumers often associate them with one sex of another. (Solomon et al., 1999). Gender also seems to influence the instrumentality of products we buy. Miscellaneous: Hedonism - Derived from Greek word hedone, meaning pleasure is the only good in life. In a rational sense, it argues that the pursuit of pleasure makes action rational by making it purposeful.(OShaughnessy and OShaughnessy, 2002 ) The behaviourism whose categories stress materialistic satisfactions is hedonistic. It is not popularly conceived as a sustainable experience. When hedonism dominates the consumer society, the pleasures are uncertain and fleeting. When asked about luxury consumption dreams, the responses which were collected showed their focus on hedonistic values which gave them a sense of well-being, example housing and restaurants and some individual pleasures like clothing and perfumes. Counterfeiting - The luxury industry is particularly hard-hit by the counterfeiting of goods, which unlawfully takes advantage of the prestige of its brands and harms their tradition, identity and image. (LVMH Group, 2010). When asked about luxury items being copied, they regarded the act with horror.

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Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

References: Barnier, V., and Rodina, I. (2006). Which luxury perceptions affect most consumer purchase behaviour ? A cross cultural exploratory study in France, The United Kingdom and Russia. Conference: Venice, 20th-21st January. International Congress "Marketing Trends" (online). Available at: http://www.escp-

eap.net/conferences/marketing/pap.html. (accessed date 7th July 2010). Danielle Allrs (1999). The behaviour of the young towards luxury products. In: Antonides, G. And Gred, W. (1999). Cases in Consumer Behaviour: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp 123-131. Dubois, B., Czellar, S., Laurent., G. (2005). Consumer Segments based on attitudes towards luxury: Empirical evidence from twenty countries, Marketing Letters, Voulme 16(2), pp 115-128. Hauck, W.E. and Stanforth, N. (2007). Cohort perception of luxury goods and

services. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management. Volume 11(2), pp 175188. Kapferer, J.N. (1997). Managing luxury brands. Journal of Brand Management Voulme 4 (4), pp 251260. LVMH Group. (2010). LMVH FAQ, Brand Protection.. (online). Available at: http://www.lvmh.com/fonctionalite/pg_faq_lutte.asp. (Accessed on 4-7-2010). OShaughnessy, J. and OShaughnessy, N.J. (2009). Marketing, the consumer society and hedonism. European Journal of Marketing, Volume 36 (5/6), pp524-547 Schiffman, L.G. and Kanuk, L.L. (2004). Consumer Behaviour, 8 th Edition. NJ, USA: Pearson Education Inc. Schultz, P. Wesley and Lynnette C. Zelezny. (1999). Values As Predictors of Environmental Attitudes: Evidence For Consistency Across 14 Countries. Journal of Environmental Psychology. Volume 19(3), pp255-265. Solomon, M., Bamossy, G. and Askegaard, S. (1999). Consumer Behaviour, A European perspective.4th Edition. NJ, USA: Pretince Hall Inc.
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Manzil Madhwani (M00291693)

Individual Coursework Consumer Behaviour

Wiedmann, P., Hennigs, N. and Siebels, A. (2007). Measuring Consumers Luxury Value Perception: A Cross-Cultural Framework. Academy of Marketing Science Review , Volume 2007(7).

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