Importance of Consumer Behaviour - Coursework Example

Business Concept Insert Name Institution Start-ups and medium-sized business lack the integration of cultural values in their marketing strategies since they opt for economical that is budget friendly marketing which is simply within the limit of their budget. This is a problem which has far reaching implications given that introduction of a new brand into the market requires intensive advertising such that it evokes a perfect sense of identification with the consumers (Stangler, 2012). Consideration of consumer behaviour is fundamental in dealing with this problem. Successful brands have always adopted an intensive campaign of advertising whereby consuming that specific product becomes part of their culture and a sign of an aesthetic, or prestigious value in the society. For instance, the TV adverts for the Heineken brand of alcohol is usually associated with the coveted European football Championship trophy. Thus, the sense of victory and championship gives the brand an aspect of cultural value wherein it is perceived as a prestigious, great drink. In addition, the nature of the European football championship is a series of competitions that take place yearly, thus part of life of the members of the European community. This aspect is crucial in making the brand an integrated part of the consumers culture (Wharton, 2013). Consumer behaviour is instrumental in consumption of goods and services. Therefore it is no doubt; cultural values influence consumer behaviour to a great extent. The environment in which people are brought up in impart them a set of values and distinct ideologies that inform their individual behaviour in reference to consumption of goods and services. Thus advertising in such different scenarios calls for an in-depth understanding of the underlying cultural values which are likely to attract potential consumers of a brand or product newly introduced to the market. Cultures are further influenced by subcultures which entail age, gender, status and geographical locality. However, it is noteworthy that at some point, cultural influence is overtaken by personal knowledge in the context of consumer judgements. Cultural knowledge is explicitly put across as the inherent theories in the surrounding world we live in; which are extensively shared by the members of the community. Personal knowledge is a customized additional of values to the cultural knowledge. In most cases, personal knowledge contradicts cultural knowledge. For instance, the personal taste and preference is different from cultural perceptions and leads to judgments that one makes pertaining to consumption of goods from a personal reference without being considerate of cultural values or cultural knowledge that one is associated with in his or her environment (LaPlante, 2005). Start-ups and medium-sized business around the world are in need of marketing for their products and services. The manner in which they advertise their products or services is influenced by the medium used for advertising. For instance, TV adverts are mostly passive and less persuasive given that a start-up or medium-sized business has limited appeal to the wide global market. That is, a start-up or a medium-sized business has limited market share and provides goods or services to a specific problem to a specific population of consumers (Mooij, 2010). For any business to achieve a mark in consumer consumption behaviour, it must appeal to either the personal or cultural knowledge that influence their consumption behaviour. In most multinational companies, the trend has been to adopt localization in which the culture of the company is adjusted to match the culture of the local people. Thus, use business methods and principles of management that assimilate and accommodate the local culture should be done such that the brand or product being marketed becomes part of the culture of the local people (Mooij, 2010). The apposite way to address the marketing nightmare for start-ups and middle-sized business is through grassroots marketing wherein the consumers are part of advertising and are involved in the marketing process. My business venture would solely offer marketing services. Thus, marketing for start-ups and middle-sized companies would entail creating affiliations with the target markets. For instance, liaising with tertiary institutions would facilitate a marketing plan such that the company representatives in liaison with affiliated university students sell their business to the university population through the university’s entrepreneurship and networking clubs. This would typically entail setting up marketing sites at strategic points within the university and its constituent campuses. Essentially, this would last a week (during the working hours) in which the university entrepreneurship club members would be trained on the product or the brand the guest company is marketing and together with the company sales and marketing personnel carry out an awareness program in the entire university. In fact, the entrepreneurship clubs would in turn, enroll more members form the club and other students to market the brand or product to other university students. This would be less costly since the company staff would not need extra sales and marketing personnel. Instead, the university entrepreneurship club members would take this responsibility with considerable monetary incentives and internship opportunities to motivate them throughout the activity. Additionally, the awareness program would be enhanced by use of banners containing information on the product or service being advertised. The awareness program would be characterized of invitation for the prospective consumers to form teams and express their personal knowledge of the product or service on social media and the product’s or service’s social media platform on the company’s fan page and its website. In turn, the company would award the most original and catchy expressions and descriptions of the product or service on the merit of its uniqueness with each member receiving an award whilst the runners up would receive classified gifts as well to award their efforts. Another aspect of the marketing strategy would be to set billboards with the university compounds in strategic points and at proximity of every marketing site in order to draw prospective consumers. Eventually, a periodic inter-campus and inter-university forum would be set for competition to discover the finest of the authentic, imaginative personal knowledge of the product or service being featured with a prospect of inviting the media to report the event live or during period news broadcast (Mooij, 2010). The ultimate eventuality would be to network the company with the university population through the respective entrepreneurship and networking clubs or rather organizations wherein information interchange and interaction would be amplified through functions such as corporate visits and forums. The networking and entrepreneurship clubs would serve as the intermediary between the university fraternity and the corporate world or rather the companies advertising their products or services within the environs of the university (LaPlante, 2005). I believe this would serve as a meaningful channel of marketing since the university consists of people from different cultural backgrounds both young and middle-aged who are the driving force of change in the modern technology driven economy. Thus, by adopting their perspectives and integrating them in the marketing strategies, advertising would achieve success. This is mainly because universities offer opportunities to interact with people in the real world and give them sample products to test as opposed to passive advertising through the TV or road billboards or search engine advertising. Additionally, the university community harbours future professionals in different industries and they will no doubt influence the environment in which they live in terms of business and consumption (LaPlante, 2005). The customers of this avenue of advertising will definitely agree with me on the effectiveness of advertising to young minds that are more flexible and resourceful especially with direct interaction that this advertising avenue offers. In addition, there are numerous and evenly distributed universities in most developed and developing countries thus, this channel of advertising would reach quite a large number of people and help in building a brand identity of the product being launched and establishment of links between the consumers and the service provider or the product manufacturer. Lastly, out-sourcing is known to be cost friendly especially in terms of human resource management. Outsourcing marketing services is essential and will save both money and human resources for my customers. In reality, only a handful company sales and marketing representatives will be required to train the participants from university entrepreneurship clubs who will take the roles of lead brand ambassadors and marketers (LaPlante, 2005). The operational issues involved are logistical organisation. My customer that is a company interested in out-sourcing their marketing operations to my venture will have to order their marketing program and select which universities the program is to be executed and send a handful of their sales and marketing representatives. Additionally, arrangement has to be made with the respective universities to acquire the permission to use the university premises and conduct the marketing program. The feasibility of this concept is largely dependent with the sponsors and investors who will take the risk to invest hence contribute adequate capital to open and office and hire staff to serve the company as well acquire business premises and market the company to possible consumers of their products or services. References LaPlante, A. (2005). When Does Culture Matter in Marketing?Stanford Graduate School of Business. Retrieved from http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/when-does- culture-matter-marketing Mooij, M. (2010). Consumer Behavior and Culture: Consequences for Global Marketing and Advertising. Amsterdam. Sage publishers. Okazaki, S. (2012). Handbook of Research on International Advertising. London: Edward Elgar Publishing. Stangler, D. (2012).How to turn an Idea into a Start-up: Begin with a Business Concept Statement.Forbes.Retrievedfromhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kauffman/2012/06/11/ho w-to-turn-an-idea-into-a-startup-begin-with-a-business-concept-statement/ Wharton, C. (2013). Advertising as Culture. New York: Intellect Books. Read More