Introduction
Marketers need to take interest in changing consumer lifestyle and buyer behaviour because these two elements facilitate a deeper understanding of the consumer. Consequently, communicating and convincing markets to purchase one’s products can become more effective if these two issues are properly understood. Buying behaviour is critical to businesses because it allows marketers to determine how purchasers think and choose from a wide range of product packages available to them (Donnely & Peter). The link between these two factors is founded on the premise that consumer’s personalities are mostly illustrated through their purchasing behaviour.
Therefore, divergent personalities lead to divergent buying decisions or similar ones depending on the reasoning behind the decision making process. While consumer lifestyle affects buying behaviour, one must not assume that the former remains static. Indeed several social, political and economic factors come together to alter lifestyle trends. It is therefore critical to analyse how changing consumer lifestyle is affecting buying behaviour. The literature review will therefore focus on how changing consumer lifestyle affects buying frequency, buying choice, buying methods and buying processes; the latter four factors all reflect buying behaviour.
Analysis
Effect of changing lifestyles on buying processes
Suwanvijit (2009) carried out a research in Songkla province, Thailand amongst a group of three hundred consumers through the use of questionnaires. It was found that changing consumer lifestyle had an adverse effect on buying processes. They found that a change in consumer income had a negative effect on buying processes because the time allocated to buying went down by fourteen point seven percent.
Additionally, it was found that alterations in the status of the consumer reduced shopping time by five point eight percent. Another divergent finding on buying processes was done by Kokli and Vida (2009) who asserted that buying processes were affected by either internal or external processes. Internal processes were characterised by feelings, experiences, motivation, personality and involvement. External processes were defined by subcultures, culture, family, social class and demography. The latter assertions therefore indicated that changing consumer lifestyles towards different demographics or social classes had a profound effect on buying processes because the evaluation processes chosen by individuals were more rigorous when the commodity was seen to be more reflective of their lifestyle.
Issues such as quality, warranty and price would all be considered critically or not depending on the lifestyle of the consumer. This study differed from Suwanjavit (2009) findings since the latter author asserted that less time was spent when purchasing commodities if one’s lifestyle was altered negatively especially in terms of their income yet Kokli and Vida (2009) stated the opposite. This may be because Kokli and Vida (2009) were studying the purchase of prefabricated houses which are strategic products or long term commodities while Suwanjavit (2009) were looking at short term household goods.
Effect of consumer changing lifestyles on buying choice
Grunert (2006) found that changes in lifestyle had a negative effect on buying choice. Many consumers valued convenience. This implies that they wanted products that could be cooked easily. Since the product of concern in the research was meat; it was found that consumers tended to shy away from such ‘difficult’ products like meat so as to save time. Changing consumer lifestyles therefore negatively affected buying choice and buyer behaviour in this case. Furthermore, it was found that changing lifestyles caused most consumers to be increasingly aware of their environment and animal rights.
This also caused them to stay way from meat and meat related products. This research indicates that certain product categories can become casualties in today’s rapidly altering consumer lifestyles and marketers must be sensitive to these inclinations or they must come up with strategies to fight them. Thogersen (2005) echoes these sentiments when he asserts that sustainability concerns can affect buying choice when consumers decide to purchase environmentally friendly products. Suwanvijit (2009) also found that there was a distinct correlation between alterations in consumer lifestyle (through diminished income) and choices of favourite goods; favourite goods were altered by 2.8% after a change in consumer income. It can therefore be said that buying choice and consumer lifestyle are directly related.
When consumer lifestyle alters negatively then this causes a reduction in buying choices since consumers tend to restrict themselves. Conversely, a change in family size had a 2.3 % effect on buying choice for favourite goods. Consumers’ behaviour as seen through buying choice are radically transformed by changes in lifestyle. Sometimes, this may work for or against a certain product. If family incomes diminish and consumer lifestyles reflect the lower end of the spectrum then chances are consumers will minimise their purchase of certain commodities. On the other hand sometimes consumer lifestyle may reflect the high end of the spectrum but still work against certain commodities that are perceived negatively by such high end consumers as was illustrated by Grunert (2006).
Autoweb (2009) asserted that lifestyle changes in demographics i.e. from young to old affect buying choice since certain commodities tend to favour certain demographics. In this case, car design by automaker Ford has a positive contribution towards buying choice because alterations in demographics (lifestyle) are an important determinant in the creation of Ford’s products. The overriding theme in the latter researches on buying choice and hence consumer behaviour is that changing lifestyles have made consumers more aware of the choices available to them and this implies that they are likely to select products that meet the needs of their new lifestyles.
Effect of changing lifestyle on buying frequency
Buying frequency is affected by consumer lifestyle in terms of economic capabilities of buyers as argued by Mc Daniel, Rao and Jackson (2006). Suwanvijit (2009) affirmed that there was a direct relationship between buying frequency and changes in consumer lifestyle. In their study, consumer lifestyle was represented by income and shopping frequency represented buying behaviour. A 2.3% drop in buying frequency corresponded to a change in consumer lifestyle through reduced income. This illustrates that the market for certain commodities was likely to remain the same while that of others was going to go down.
Overly, this has a negative effect on product purchases across most product categories. The latter findings were somewhat similar to what had been found by Douglas et al (1976). The latter authors used fashion involvement as their parameter for consumer lifestyle and buying frequency was assessed by the number of times that their consumers bought clothing items that were fashion conscious. It was found that highly fashion involved consumers tended to pursue fewer casual or low end clothing and buy big ticket items. This finding indicates that one’s lifestyle had a direct effect on the rate at which one bought clothes from a certain category.
It was found that the more one’s lifestyle leaned towards fashion the higher their chances of purchasing a certain commodity. This research had taken on the latter hypothesis: that fashion involved consumers were more likely to report greater volumes of clothing purchases and highly priced commodities than their counterparts in the non fashion conscious segment. This hypothesis was affirmed in the research and denotes the fact that buying frequency was dependent on lifestyle.
Certain high end lifestyles had a positive effect on buying frequency and hence consumer behaviour. These individuals were found to be more willing to buy products from almost all products categories including casual slacks, dress shirts and fashion accessories. They were also willing to pay more for those commodities. Although the area under analysis i.e. Toronto, Canada had a low representation of highly fashion conscious individuals, this still did not undermine the immense volumes of clothes and clothing items that were purchased by the latter group. This supports assertions made by Suwanvijit (2009) on buying frequency and changing lifestyle.
Thogersen (2005) brings in a new direction in this discussion because he does not believe that changing lifestyles will necessarily lead to heightened buying frequency. He affirms that when people are sensitised about sustainability then they may exercise more caution in purchasing. To this end, marketers need not make sweeping statements on the influence of social class on buying frequency since other concerns like sustainability can hamper that.
Effect of changing lifestyle on buying method
The Thai study found that most consumers had a more positive attitude towards modern trade outlets than traditional trade outlets. In this case, modern trade outlets referred to convenience stores characterised by immense product variety and integrated services that allowed for the use of credit (Suwanvijit, 2009). Traditional trade was characterised by use of cash as a means of payment and focused on singular products.
The latter study does not necessarily concur with findings on buying methods in other parts of the world. This implies that marketers must be cautious about generalising findings obtained from different markets of the world. Thailand is a developing economy; its market dynamics are different from those ones in developed nations like the UK. The degree of technological adaptation and credit markets is not identical in these two regions.
Conversely, one cannot assert that the actual buying channels applicable in Thai will be the same ones in the UK or other western nations. However, this research still provides some useful insight on the relation between changing consumer lifestyle and buying methods; it indicates that consumers tend to prefer modern methods over traditional ones if lifestyles alter.
In order to understand the latter assertion, one can look at a study carried out in Ireland by Grunert (2006) concerning changes in meat behaviour. The authors found that there was a preference for easy and convenient shopping over specialised meat providers. Although fast and convenient shopping differed substantially in Ireland than it did in Thai, the underlying theme is that changing consumer lifestyles have created a shift in buying methods towards easy and fast methods. The latter study therefore validates the former study on buying methods as a method of buying behaviour.
Similarly, the latter two findings were echoed by Sanz (2008) when carrying out a study of mobile buying behaviour. It was found that because of the tendency to look of non store shopping methods and also new trends in shopping. The adoption of greater technology usage was a reflection of lifestyle change especially over the past decade. This was reflected by the fact that five hundred and thirty three million internet users were prevalent in 2001 and in 2007, there were 1460 million internet users; a figure that is likely to have gone up in the last three years. They therefore asserted that the utilisation of technological devices was a sign in lifestyle change.
Additionally, direct shopping was on the increase. However, the adoption of all methods of direct methods was not going to be equal across all markets. Consumers were more interested in those technologies that appeared to be innovative. In other words when a mobile telephone had internet options, television and other media additions, then this was the kind of technology that would receive utmost attention.
However, the latter was not the main focus of the study; the researchers got seven focus groups representing approximately two thousand one hundred and four internet users in Spain. It was found that three major factors as indicators of consumer lifestyle were essential in determining whether or not consumers utilised M shopping. These three major factors were the age of the consumer; the younger consumers were more likely they were to embrace such technologies, secondly, the social class of the consumer; high and middle class consumers used m shopping compared to the lower class and thirdly the behaviour patterns of the concerned members. In this regard, the more behaviour patterns were inclined towards new technologies, the more likely such individuals were to use mobile shopping.
The findings in this research were highly significant in this literature review. First it is essential to establish that mobile shopping is a buying method and that buying methods are an indication of buying behaviour. Additionally, the three factors that were found in the analysis i.e. social class, behaviour patterns and age were all indicators of lifestyle and they have been significantly altering over the past few years. It can therefore be said that changing lifestyle patterns towards higher social class, younger age and technology have a positive effect on consumer’s choice of buying methods with regard to mobile shopping. Sanz (2008) study is therefore very similar to what Grunert (2006) found.
The latter author chose to generalise buying methods by labelling them as fast and convenient while the former author decided to specify fast and convenient methods through mobile shopping.
Kim, Cho and Rao (2005) also confirmed these findings but added a new dimension to the results. In their study, they defined lifestyle in terms of either being net oriented, price oriented or time oriented. They therefore amalgamated what Suwanjivit (2006), Sanz (2008) and Grunert (209) did by providing a more distinctive definition of lifestyle. They found that individuals with a price oriented lifestyle were more likely to embrace online shopping than those who were not.
This argument therefore differs from Suwanjivit (2006) assertions since he claimed that price oriented consumers did not invest in technologies and would therefore result to traditional outlets. The reason behind this difference in findings is probably related to divergent geographies. Kim, Cho and Rao (2005) also found that those consumers who had a time oriented lifestyle tended to engage in more online purchasing than those who were not.
This was an aspect that concurs with Grunert (2009). Kim et al (2004) also asserted that net oriented consumers were more likely to use online shopping than those who were not; a fact that was earlier confirmed by Sanz (2008) who claimed that behaviour patterns leaning towards new technologies favoured the use of mobile shopping. The significance in Kim et al (2005) findings lies in the fact that they confirmed the correlation between changing lifestyle patterns and internet purchasing behaviour or alterations in buying methods.
Conclusion and Areas for Further Research
The literature review on relations between changing lifestyles and buying behaviour is quite comprehensive. Most studies indicate that the inclination towards modernisation as a lifestyle change has a direct effect on buying behaviour as indicated by method, choice, processes and frequency. In terms of buying method, changing lifestyles towards net orientation and time are likely to lead to increased use of fast methods such as online or mobile shopping.
However, findings differed when studies were carried out in a developing nation like Thailand. Buying choice was affected positively when lifestyles leaned towards higher social classes, however, other findings found that concerns for sustainability minimised these choices. The same observation applies to buying frequency. Buying processes were affected by consumer lifestyles differentially depending on the types of products. Time needed to purchase long term products like houses were inversely related to income. However, time required to purchase short term products increased with increase in income or social class of the consumer.
As can be seen most variations in research findings reflect differences in geographical areas chosen by the researches. It would therefore be insightful if future authors on consumer behaviour and lifestyle change selected samples from divergent geographical backgrounds so as to eliminate this interference.
References
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