Executive Summary
Marketing communication strategy is significant towards the success of a product in a highly stratified market where there are several alternatives. Since time in sundry, marketers have come up with different strategies to influence customer purchasing habits. Among the most controversial yet successful strategy has been the use of advertisements. Several past types of research indicate that the consumer purchasing process behavior is influenced by the type of adverts, which are generally designed to appeal to a specific demographic target market. This study focused on reviewing the relevance of two adverts in terms of their influence on the consumer purchasing behavior process.
To achieve this aim, the five-step buying process behavior model was adopted. The advertisements used in the analysis were the Nivea Skin Care (advert A) and Mortgage Shop (advert B). The two advertisements are meant for specific market segments, with advert A targeting women while adverting B targeting potential homeowners from across different age brackets.
The literature review suggested that advertisements have the potential of influencing different aspects of consumer purchasing behavior such as arousal, pleasure, stimulus, and dominance. The same findings were confirmed in the research where regression analysis establishes a more or less similar level of influence for each aspect for the two products. The findings revealed that the five-stage model is applicable in the two adverts and clients cannot bypass any stage in a completed purchasing process.
Introduction
Consumer behavior is influenced by a myriad of factors. Specifically, the buying process is persuaded by the five stages of the buying decision process. The first stage is problem recognition followed by information search and evaluation of possible alternatives. The fourth stage is the purchasing decision which is completed by the post-purchase decision.
In this marketing report, the treatise concentrates on two products and how they are advertised to appeal to different customer segments. The first product is the Nivea Skin Care product featuring the image of the famous American artist called Rihanna (Figure 1). The second product is the Mortgage Shop product featuring an image of a coat that is official and casual (Figure 2).
The two advertisements are designed to appeal to different customer segments and reach the target of influencing the purchasing behavior of these segments. This report attempts to identify the demographic market segments that the advertisements target and relate the findings to the consumer buying decision process and other theories of consumer behavior.
Research Background
Different findings on consumer buying behavior research have influenced many companies to create advertisements for products to align them with the targeted consumer demographic dynamics. Since time in sundry, the invention of media has created the ideal environment for manipulating the perception of customers on products and services through advertisement. The efficiency of an advertisement depends on the agenda that should be communicated to appeal to a specific consumer demographic.
According to Bowden (2009, p. 69), adverts have been used to align consumer behavior to the ideals and set the pace for general product acceptance. According to different consumer behavioral psychologists, attitudes and behaviors of consumers can be altered through pragmatic conditioning and strategic marketing research on the needs and desires of the targeted market (First & Khetriwal 2010, p. 99).
Therefore, this research attempts to relate the content and presentation of the two advertisements to different demographic market segments that they are targeting to influence. Specifically, the research will carry out comparative analysis to put the findings into perspective.
Research Problem
Companies that come up with advertisements are always strategic in their approach to influence consumer behavior in a systematic manner. For instance, in the two advertisements, the use of warm color and catchy words stand out. Besides, the use of the image of a celebrity in the Nivea ad was well thought to gain from the aspect of celebrity endorsement. This means that Nivea has adopted proactive and catchy advertisements to appeal to young and middle-aged women. The analysis of consumer behavior in this research is based on models and theories to understand the internal and external pressures that the adverts create in the buying decision process.
Thus, at the end of the research, it will be possible to relate two advertisements to the demographic market segments that they influence in the complex buying decision process among the targeted customers. Therefore, it is important to review if the five-stage decision-making process is the same for the two products or not. Besides, it is necessary to examine the possibility of consumers skipping some of the stages as influenced by either of the adverts or not.
Literature Review
The literature review touched on the theories of consumer buying process behavior from different books and academic journals. The materials gathered from these sources were authentic since they are authored by reputable researchers. According to Ira (2010, p. 29), there are internal and external factors that influence the consumer buying process from advertisements and other marketing strategies.
The authors listed motivation, attitude, perception, and emotions as part of the internal influences since they alter the purchasing patterns and product acceptance. The external influencers are physical aspects of an advertisement such as color, language, and presentation (Solomon, Russell-Bennett & Previte 2012, p. 45). To make an advert more catchy and directly appealing to the targeted clients, Rhim and Lee (2009, p. 38) opined that there is a need to balance the attractive design, content, and dynamics of presentation to relate a product to the targeted demographic market.
Several theories have been put forward to explain the consumer buying behavior process. For instance, Tversky’s prospect theory relates the perception of a customer to the level of satisfaction of a product as influencing his or her product acceptance from an advert (Gladden & Funk 2008, p. 16). This means that rationality in the purchasing process can be modified by a well presented and accurately drawn advert that appeals to a specific market segment.
On the other hand, the psychodynamic consumer behavior theory notes that there are instinctive forces that customers derive from adverts to drive their desire of accepting or rejecting a product.
In real-life situations, a potential customer has very little control over ID, ego, and superego, especially when a role model or celebrity image is used to endorse the product (Kotler & Keller 2012, p. 33). This means that a catchy advert is likely to increase the level of product acceptance and uptake.
The buying decision process involves the “conviction that different consumers go through a markedly complex decision-making process that is influenced at different stages by several possible variables,” (Tuu, Olsen & Linh 2011, p. 83). The buying process commences with the need recognition followed by information search from which possible alternatives are identified and evaluated. Lastly, the process is completed by the decision to purchase and potential post-purchase decisions.
In summary, the literature review suggests that advertisements have a potential impact on consumer purchasing process behavior through appeal to emotions, perceptions, and perceived quality attached to a particular product. Besides, advertisements appeal to specific segments and can alter product uptake or rejection.
However, little information is available on how the five-stage decision making process function for different products. Besides, it is necessary to examine the possibility of consumers skipping some of the stages as influenced by either of the adverts or not, thus the rationale for this research.
Methodology
Being a relatively short report, the researcher opted for a simple survey consisting of five respondents (Yin 2009, p. 17). The respondents were chosen randomly to represent the age group between 20 and 50 years. Among the five respondents, two were females. The use of a simple survey approach was informed by its affordability and convenience. The respondents were selected based on their accessibility. A simple questionnaire was used to collect the relevant data consisting of the following questions.
- What is your opinion on advertisement A (Nivea) and B (Mortgage Shop) in terms of representing your perceived level of pleasure?
- What is your opinion on advertisement A (Nivea) and B (Mortgage Shop) in terms of representing your perceived level of arousal?
- What is your opinion on advertisement A (Nivea) and B (Mortgage Shop) in terms of representing your perceived level of dominance over alternative products?
- Does the advertisement influence your purchasing decision as it is or do you need to see the product to be completely persuaded?
A simple regression was then carried out with the dependent variable being consumer behavior while independent variables were a pleasure, arousal, dominance, and stimulation. The regression formula applied is summarised in table 1 below.
Y = a0 + a1X1 + a2X2 + a3X3 + a4X4
Research Findings
The summary of the regression result is summarised in Table 2 below.
From table 2 above, the correlation result is summarised in table 3 below.
The generated residual statistics are summarised in table 4 below.
Research Discussion
The above data gives clear information on the standard deviation (0.473) and mean (1.33). Apparently, the results indicated that the difference between the mean of the independent variables was insignificant. This signifies that all the independent variables (arousal, pleasure, stimulus, and dominance) have a more or less similar mean. Thus, the independent variables have an almost similar impact on consumer buying behavior process. The results were similar in the two advertisements and it was apparent that the respondents had the same insights on their influence.
Therefore, the results from the regression analysis suggest that dominance, arousal, stimulus, and pleasure of the Nivea and Mortgage Shop advert, especially when all other factors are held constant. For example, the third respondent indicated that the image of the famous Rihanna in the Nivea advert aroused her urge to use the product. Besides, the product appeals to pleasure since the image of the youthful Rihanna would appeal to the young customers who want to associate with the celebrity (Ghauri & Cateora 2010, p. 22).
Apparently, the regression results indicated that there is a weak but positive correlation between advertisement component and consumer purchasing behavior, probably because of the data sample. However, the findings indicated a positive relationship between advertisement components such as the aspects of pleasure, arousal, dominance, and sensory stimulus attached to the two adverts.
Research Conclusion
The research findings indicated that the consumer buying behavior process is influenced by the adverts that are created to target specific demographic markets. For instance, the respondents concurred that the Nivea advert appeals to youthfulness and beauty as elements of female subjectivity. Since the advert targets the female population, the poster is created with the perfect notion to display the woman’s skin as attractive once laced with Nivea skincare. The emotive language used in the advert is meant to influence the female population to embrace the product.
On the other hand, the Mortgage Shop advertisement is engineered to appeal to the liberal and conservative markets with different offers for each economic class. The picture of the coat elicits mixed feelings and arouses the desire to associate with affordable and ideal financial services. In summary, the five stages of buyer behavior were noted to be similar influencing the purchasing patterns of specific target customer segments.
Reference List
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