Sample on Marketing Intelligence

Buyers purchase behavior process includes five stages which are as follows:

Need recognition and problem awareness: The first and most important step of buyers buying behavior is need recognition. Purchaser must recognize the need. If customers have no need, there is no purchase. New fashions can motivate the people to buy new products. They must decide the wants that clear the decision of purchases (Callingham, 2004).

Information search: After recognizing the want customers need to collect sufficient information to fulfill their needs. There are many sources like personal sources, experience sources, public sources, commercial sources through which they can get data. They can use information from Internet, TV, books etc (Cheng, 2004).

Evaluation of alternatives: Once purchaser collects the valuable information than they require evaluating the alternative products and services which can fulfill the needs of the consumers. In today's competitive market there are kinds of product or services which have same kind of nature. Purchasers need to find out the best product and services which are  close to their wants. Than they can evaluate them on the basis of quality, price, availability etc. factors (Hague, and et.al. 2004).

Purchase decision: It is the main step of purchase decision process. After well research buyer decide to buy a particular product from available alternatives. It is the step where kinds of factors which can affect the decision of purchase like cost of the services or products, availability etc.

Post purchase evaluation: After buying a product and use of services consumers need to evaluate result of the purchase decision. It is the final step which helps them in future decision making regarding the goods (Hammond, 2013).

Theories Of Consumer Behavior

There are kinds of Theories Of Consumer Behavior which are as follows:

Economic Theory: This theory of buying behaviors is related to economical factors which can affect the decision of the purchasers. It is the traditional theory which assumes that consumers have full awareness about all available alternatives in market, prices and income. They just compare the utility of various alternatives which they can buy with their income. There are kinds of economical theories like marginal utility theory, absolute income, relative income and permanent income hypothesis theory (Hedin, Hirvensalo and Vaarnas, 2011).

Psychological low of consumption Theory: It is basis to income theory. This theory says that when income of the purchaser increases, consumption also increases. But not in the same ratio as the increases in the income. It provides many situations of income and expenditures of the consumers for finding out the buying behavior of the customers.

Generic theory: This theory says that buyer purchases the goods or services after proper research. If they recognize a need then they find out the alternative products and evaluate them then make decision of buying (Jenster and Søilen, 2009).

Cultural theory: This theory believes that culture of the person affects buying decision of the purchasers. Social beliefs, income, religions, education etc can affect the purchasers.

Environmental theory: It is the theory which provides the environmental factors which can influence the decision of consumers. The theory says that environment in which buyer lives decides the needs of buyer. For example if buyer lives in village, they do not purchase pizza etc. products (Kolb, 2008).

The followings are the major factors which can affect the buying behavior

Cultural: Culture of the people influence the buying decision regarding any product or service. It includes religion, tradition, moral values, caste, languages etc factors which decide that consumers will buy goods or not. For example Hindus are vegetarian; they will not buy the non vegetarian goods.

Social: This is also a big factor which includes groups of societies, family, relatives and status etc factors. These  factors decids the life styles of the customers. It affects the decisions of the individual to buy a product (Pahl and Richter, 2009).

Personal: Personal factors of the individual also affect the decisions of consumers. Factors like age, gender, education, income level, personality, lifestyle etc decide the wants of the person. Perception of any individual regarding a particular product can influence the buying behavior of the buyers (Rana 2009).

Psychological: Many a times psychological factors like attitude, motive, perception, beliefs etc. factors affect the buying behavior, it called psychological effect. These factors decide that they should buy or not.

Marketing: In today's high competitive market they have many marketing factors which influence customers behavior which are product specialties, pricing, qualities, place of distribution, promotional schemes etc. these factors are more important than others because today there are many alternatives available for one product. Buyers choose the products which are easily available in market, has good quality with affordable piece (Ravitch, 2010).

Brand loyalty is the result of consumer behavior and satisfaction. It is the position where customers believe on one brand only. But brand loyalty is more than repeat purchasing because buyer can repurchase the product according to situation like availability of product, price etc. Corporate image is the mental picture that incurs when people talk about any firm’s name. It is the managerial image of any company. It is the image created by after sales services, customer’s relationship, feedback etc. Repeat purchasing is the position where buyer buy product continuously of same brand. There are very valuable relation between brand loyalty, corporate image and repeat purchasing (Casillas and Martínez-López, 2010).

If company has a good reputation, it will increase the brand loyalty and finally it will motivate consumers for repeat buying. So all the aspects of buying are interrelated with each other. Many a time repeat purchasing can increase the brand loyalty and image of the company in persons mind. A reliable brand can increase the reputation of the firm and it will also increase the continuous purchasing activities (Trim, 2004).

Generally Sainsbury has two types of marketing research techniques which are as follows

Primary research

It is the first type of research in which analyst gathers original information directly from market rather than other sources. It increases the cost of the research and development department. It is useful for Sainsbury. It produces absolutely new data for their research (Cacciolatti and Fearne, 2013). Followings are the main primary research techniques.

Surveys: It is the best way to generate exact information of the market. With the help of questionnaires, they can gather valuable data from the large samples which represent the whole market. They can do personal survey, telephone survey, mail or email survey of the market.

Direct observation: Direct observation can give accurate information of the market. They can use videotaping in stores and market to observe actual behavior of the consumers (Nwokah and Ahiauzu 2009).

Interviews: It is the form of survey which is unstructured and has open ended questions. It is used when market segments are very small and coverable. It the technique where analysts directly communicate with the consumers and asks some questions to them. It is the way of generating dada in fast way. It is more reliable and valid because they get data directly from consumers by conversation.

Focus groups: Analysts can use these techniques to gather actual data of a particular group. They can conduct interviews or survey to find out the information (Johns and Doren, 2010).

Secondary research

In these techniques analyst uses data which already has been used for other research. It reduces the cost of the research and development department. It is useful for small and medium enterprises. It gathers data indirectly from market sources. Main secondary researches techniques are Internet browsing, existing market research, existing data from own research, information from experts and agencies, research of competitors etc.

Sainsbury must make some special plans to obtain information from market of UK. The main objectives of the company are provided great quality product at fair prices with high level of service (Dishman and Calof, 2008). Company wants to focus on operational excellence. They want to make place on consumers’ heart. For achieving the objective of the company they must choose the primary research techniques to analyze the market effectively. Sainsbury can manage the survey of the market of UK. Company should make the questionnaires which include lot of questions related to customers' needs, quality standard, price, culture related, income etc. Than they should conduct the survey using E-mail, mail and telephones.

Sainsbury needs reliable data so they should choose the reliable sample groups who fulfill the questionnaires. They should arrange information from 1000 questionnaires because it will give the accurate information of the consumers. After getting the information they should analyze the data in effective manner. They can use many mathematical and statistical techniques to find out valuable results from available data. After survey they will know their consumers very well. Sainsbury should provide product and services to their customers according to the result of the survey for touch the heart of every customers (Trim and Lee, 2008).

Sainsbury’s company uses several types of techniques to examine the response of customers. Assessment process includes collecting information from customers based on their suggestion on particular thing by doing this reputed firm make stagey and increase the level of consumer satisfaction. Mainly company collects information through questionnaires, surveys and customer suggestions (Hammond, 2013). Techniques of assessing a customer’s response are described as follow: 

Customer’s service questionnaire: Firm prepared a questionnaire that includes customer’s complaints regarding products, question related to their shopping experience and fill information about problems related to services involved in conducted survey. It can be a short physical survey that helps organization to understand the customer's problem and their perception about them.

Customers Suggestion:  Businesses can be improving through helpful customers suggestions. This method is different from surveys or questionnaires because it worked through listening to customers’ opinions. Reputed firm fill out a suggestion form and maintain information in a secured manner so these business information helps organization to determine customers’ wish about product  purchase or services which they offers (Smith, 2010).

Customers Expectation: Established firm considers every customer’s response and understands their demands and needs about product. By doing this company identifies the customer expectations and satisfy them by deliver right product at right time and if any improvement or changes are required then changes in product on basis that.

Home customers survey: Organization can also use this method to better understand the customer perception towards product or services. They can use email survey and phone survey. Some time   customer's receipts are also attached in home base survey.  Based on customer's latest interaction with staff members include their feeling about service which he received and understand their opinion about the product (Hague and et.al. 2004).

To achieve the objectives of Sainsbury they must use secondary data for their research. Followings are the source of secondary data of Sainsbury to achieve marketing research objectives.

Information through Internet: It the easiest way of research in which analysts gather information from internet then they find out the best outcomes of the research. Sainsbury can use this facility to find out the nature of the customers of UK (Smith, 2010).

Information from agencies: Sainsbury has many agencies which provide valuable data for research activities. Analysts can use the data for their research which may be reliable. Company can get data from many agencies like colleges, trade associations etc. which provide important data regarding customers needs and behavior (Xu, 2005).

Other: Magazines and news paper, competitors etc. can provide valuable data to a researcher for their research. Research of the competitors may be important source for Sainsbury because they can provide reliable information of consumer buying behavior.

To check the satisfaction level of customer, Sainsbury’s organization conduct a customer’s satisfaction survey. Open ended and closed ended questions are included to know the perception and attitude of customers. This program focused on measuring customer perceptions about it delivers including factors like customer's problem; understand it in well planned manner, promptness, and staff responsiveness (Smith, 2010). It helps organization to understand the evaluations of their retail store, measure satisfaction level about products or services, Buying and Motivation experience, product use satisfaction and information related to auto purchase/ lease satisfaction.

Opportunity

• Acer Company targeted Young generation especially mid size businesses.
• It focused on R&D kind of activity and lead to many innovative kinds of products.
• It offered opportunity for committed talented persons from everywhere (Acer, 2014).
• By Introducing flat hierarchy in organization, they give chance to middle management and improve decision making processes (Cheng, 2004).   
• It encourages local shareholders to invest in firms. It integrates with other global company to manage global talent and reserve their capital. By doing this, they expand their business operations and increase competitiveness in global market.  
• Acer adopts aggressive price strategy and it is suitable for economic recession type of condition also. It has tight control on Overhead Costs (Pahl and Richter, 2009).
• Economic downturn is favorable for low-price products. It works on Economies of scale and tries to expand its network in other nations.
• Growth in Chinese market where brand preferences are weaker. Acer company has opportunity to targeting various segments by introducing multiple brands and it is possible to establish  joint ventures in various countries.

Threats

• The resources offered by Acer are slim.  
• It has less presence in business to business market.
• For midsize business, Acer has limited product portfolio.
• Negative People’s perception about products because they think products are manufactured in Taiwan and use low quality products (Cheng, 2004).
• Company has still no strong brand name so it is problem for establishing to enter in global market.
• The company also faces challenges regarding acquisition of counter parts and development of multiuser system.
• Due to large competition present in market decline the market share of company and strong rivals present in market like Samsung, Dell etc.  
• Fake products and imitations that affect the sales of Acer Company.
• The other problems that are faced by organization is availability of managers who have international experience (Acer, 2014).

Conclusion

Marketing is the tool of making relationship with customers. It plays very important role in today's high competitive market. The above report provides knowledge of consumer buying behavior. The study helps to understand the theories of buyers' behavior. There are kind of factors which can affect the buyer's decision to buy a product. Market research plays very critical role to gather valuable information regarding market. By using this information company can make products according to requirement of the consumers at affordable price. Best marketing awareness can make any type of industry successful in the world.

References

• Hague, P. and et.al., 2004. Market Research in Practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
• Cheng L., 2004. The New Knowledge Economy of Taiwan. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Callingham, M., 2004. Market Intelligence: How and why Organizations Use Market Research. Kogan Page Publishers.
• Trim, P.R.J., 2004. The strategic corporate intelligence and transformational marketing model. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
• Johns, P. and Doren, D.C.V., 2010. Competitive intelligence in service marketing: A new approach with practical application. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.

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