BPS107 Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Psychology - Free Samples

In this report, you must demonstrate an understanding and application of various consumer behaviour concepts and theories by analysing the facts gathered from the video and the survey, and present strategic recommendations. You will be required to incorporate recent peer-reviewed literature in order to justify your proposed recommendations.

Scenario: Imagine that you have just been employed by the company of your chosen FMCG product that you analysed in your earlier assessments. You have recently learnt that the company’s customer loyalty has declined over the last year and that repeat purchases are at a historic low.

You have now been asked to prepare a report in which you must critically analyse company’s current marketing strategy and marketing communication mix and its alignment to your findings in assessment 1 and 2. More specifically, you will need to determine if identified consumer behavioural factors in previous assessments align with company’s current marketing focus. Based on your analysis, you are also required to provide at least three strategic recommendations to the board of directors, along with reasons for recommending further improvements, all of which must be based on scholarly sources.

 

nd vitamins in addition it can be a good source of fibre and carbohydrates (Caldwell and Kadan, 2016). The one serving of cereal can provide up to 25% daily value trace minerals and vitamins to the human body (Caldwell and Kadan, 2016). The Australian Bureau of Statistics in May 2014 has released the report related to the consumption of Breakfast cereal by the Australian. The report states that in Australia 36% people aged 2 years and over eats breakfast cereal every day among them 34% are females and 39% are males (Australian Breakfast Cereals Manufacturing Forum, 2016).  In addition, the report states that the Australian adults who are 19 and above eats around 203 grams of cooked porridge breakfast cereals and 48 grams of ready to eat breakfast cereals (Australian Breakfast Cereals Manufacturing Forum, 2016). The Australian Guide to healthy Eating stated a standard serve of cereal or grain as ¼ cup of muesli, 30 grams of wheat cereal flakes and ½ cup of cooked porridge (Australian Breakfast Cereals Manufacturing Forum, 2016).  For adults aged 19-70 years at least 4-6 servers of grain food is recommended however it also depends on the peoples energy needs.  

Critical analysis

Breakfast cereal is the chief household product which is consumed by everyone on a daily basis. It adds as a healthy meal especially for breakfast. Cereal is healthy for consumption for human body and is good for metabolism (Chand 2018). It can be consumed daily. The detailed marketing strategy for breakfast cereal is as follows:

The marketing strategy for it would be very simple. The customer should get to know about the services or the business of the product (Blakeman, 2018). The company should clearly communicate its objective and benefits of the product to the customer in a very clear manner. The target of the product, i.e. breakfast cereal should be achieved. The main focus should be to recover the partial cost of the product.

The main sources to implement this strategy are as follows:

1. Good brand image for the product should be established
2. Many exciting offers should be there to attract costumers
3. Loyal customer base should be established (Chatterjee, Adhikary, Sen and Kar, 2018)
4. Sales should be increased
5. Increase costumers by making them feel that their presence is valued by the company.

The below presented are some of the main marketing strategies that can be adopted by  the business corporation for marketing the Breakfast Cereals in the Australian Markets:

Market segmentation

In this, the main thing to be done is to segment the customers on the basis of various factors like needs, perceptions, requirements, expenses, living standards, behaviors, purchasing habits and many other factors. For the product breakfast cereal, here is the market segmentation strategy presented below. These are divided into various sub groups:

• Demographic segmentation:  this type of segmentation is done on the basis of the factors like gender, age and income of the buyers. Like for the product, breakfast cereal, it is easy to identify the age group, as it is consumed by people of every age group. Same is in the case of gender. The product is a basic requirement and it does not cost much, so it is affordable for people of every possible income group.
• Psychographic segmentation- In the present case of psychographic segmentation, the main factors which comes into account is lifestyle, personality and the social class of the buyers. These are the factors which contribute to this segmentation sub group. This helps the company to establish the product in the market (Davcik and Sharma, 2015). Like personality will directly impact the sales of breakfast cereal. All these factors affect the buying decisions of the consumers. These must be wisely considered by the company before launching the product in the market.
• Behavioural segmentation- in this type of segmentation, the main elements are buying decisions and preferences of the costumers. Only health conscious customers are going to buy the breakfast cereal (Fill and Turnbull, 2016). Others will avoid it. So these things are to be considered by the business entity.
• Geographic segmentation- while developing the product, and especially during its market, factors like family size and income; also age should be considered by the company. These impact the sales of the product; breakfast cereal.

Marketing positioning:

Company should be aware about the position of the product into the market. They should effectively communicate what they are offering to the costumers. The delivery of the products should be safe, of desired quality and at time (Kaushalya and Fernando, 2015). There should be no delays in the delivery process. The services are one of the main factors. These things play a major role in establishing a good brand image of the product into the market. He attributes of services should be considered by the company in the market region. The company should generate awareness about the product by spending good amounts on the promotion.

The marketing strategy should be very simple and communicated in a very clear manner. The marketing strategy of the product, breakfast cereal is presented below in a step by step form:

Research

The company should be aware about the market size. During the development of product, the prior focus should be on the taste of customers (whether they are interested in the particular product or not) what are ready to pay for the product and many more aspects (Oliver, 2014). Then the second factor which comes into account is of the various other companies selling the same product. There should be proper analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the rivalries present in the market. Generally, there is a strong competition regarding size, price, and many other aspects.

Costumers

The prior focus should be on customers obviously as they are the ones around whom the whole process revolves. The company should identify its target audience. There is a segmentation of costumers on the demographic, psychographic, geographic and behavioral basis. These are the key segments for costumer analysis. The costumers whom should be targeted are to be identified in a very clear manner (Ryan, 2016). Then the next step would be to meet the needs and requirements of this costumer base on the basis of above data. Like here the product is breakfast cereal, then the target would be the customers who prefer healthy food. So there will a product for health freaks to maintain their health.

Product

The company has to work real hard with the collaboration of its each and every department to generate the outcome. In this case, the product is breakfast cereal which the company would be generating. For this product, to establish a good and positive brand image would be an easy task as this is a healthy product. It would be sold easily in the market regions. The design for the product should easily communicate its health benefits (Scarborough, 2016). There are only two main focuses for the company; that is market segmentation and positioning.

Marketing communication mix

The promotion of products to the targeted audience is very necessary; following are the ways to do same.

Advertising

There should be good promotion of the product. These can be done over radio, television, newspapers (Todorova, 2015). The more advanced method for the same is the use of various social media handles. This will provide effective results to the company.

Personal selling

At the initial stage, the company can promote the product, by selling it directly at the door step and see the response of the costumers on face. There should be a proper distribution channel planned for this process.

Public relation

The company should focus on maintaining good relations with customers. This proves to be very beneficial for the company (Vinayagamoorthy and Kannan, 2015). This will help in establishing a good customer base. It will increase the sales for the product and establish a good brand image for the product.

Discount and promotions:

The company should give exciting offers from time to time. It will draw the attention of the customers and increase the sales. Customers are generally attracted towards discounts.

Direct marketing

This can be done through personal selling and sales promotions. Make phone calls directly to targeted audience yields results.

Strategic Recommendations

Expansion is one of the biggest opportunities that will be proven advantageous for the business organization and is one of the top most recommendations which should be considered significantly for success and growth of business. Expanding and diversifying the business operations and activities in new market regions will be proven advantageous for various business aspects, for instance, for expanding the business entity will have to hire more professional and skilled staff and which will enhance the productivity, performance level, an increase in the market share will also be observed. Moreover, a hike to goodwill will also be observed which shows high level of brand equity. Establishing business to new market regions will add value and additional assets to the business such as the entity will be up-graded by the technological aspects of the region in which the entity will be setting up the business.

Establishing a development strategy is also highly recommended for the business organization for properly marketing of the breakfast cereals in Australia. This can also be considered as one of the initial requirement which is developed on the basis of the principle of generating value in each and every segment. Strategy development will aid the business entity as it will help the business in tackling and dealing with the competing brands. Developing a strategy will also allow the business entity to foresee the future and thus preparation will be done accordingly. .

Further, there is a need of evaluation of the developed strategy and performance level of newly built business units. This process of evaluation will be proven beneficial as it will aid the firm with the reports which will present the lacking points and capabilities, capacity, performance level, and scope of improvements if any. Performance evaluation will also enable the business organization in the development of strategies which will aid in dealing with the competing brands within the market region. Evaluation process will generate the data of the current status and position of the firm in the market. This data will enable the entity in the development of future plans and strategies and which will increase the strength of the firm in various aspects. Moreover, the firm will also be able to know the errors and operational mistakes done if any and timely improvements and rectifications will also be done. This all will result in the enhancement of the overall performance of the business organization.

Conclusion

After summing up the above analyzed report it is inferred that consumer behavior stimulates the business operations of an organization and hence it should be considered as a significant aspect and products should be developed accordingly. The above report analyzed the challenges that are faced and the opportunities that will be attained by the food industry in Australia. After which the focus was diverted towards the development of marketing strategy for Breakfast Cereals for the consumers in the Australian regions.

References

Australian Breakfast Cereals Manufacturing Forum.(2016) Fact Sheet. [Online] Available from: https://www.cereal4brekkie.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/breakfast-cereal-consumption-in-australia.pdf  [Accessed on 3^rd October 2018].

Baker, M.J. (2014) Marketing strategy and management.Macmillan International Higher Education.

Blakeman, R. (2018) Integrated marketing communication: creative strategy from idea to implementation. Rowman& Littlefield.

Caldwell, E.F. and Kadan, R.S. (2016) Learn more about Breakfast cereals.[Online] Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/breakfast-cereals [Accessed on 3^rd October 2018].

Chand, S. (2018) Consumer behaviour: Meaning/Definition and nature of consumer behaviour, [Online]. Available at: https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/marketing/market-segmentation/consumer-behaviour-meaningdefinition-and-nature-of-consumer-behaviour/32301 [Accessed on 3^rd October 2018].

Chatterjee, K., Adhikary, K., Sen, S. and Kar, S. (2018) Identification and Analysis of Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior in Fast Moving Consumer Goods Sector. Business Perspectives–Aims and Scope, p.2.

Davcik, N.S. and Sharma, P. (2015) Impact of product differentiation, marketing investments and brand equity on pricing strategies: A brand level investigation. European Journal of Marketing, 49(5/6), pp.760-781.

Fill, C. and Turnbull, S.L. (2016) Marketing communications: brands, experiences and participation. Pearson.

Kaushalya, A.M. and Fernando, P.I.N. (2015) Does Brand Image Impact on Consumers’ Buying Behavior: Special Reference to Fermented Dairy Products.

Mindaugas, (2017) Marketing Psychology; Influence Consumer Behaviour to Benefit Your Small Business, [Online]. Available at: https://blog.invoiceberry.com/2017/09/marketing-psychology-influencing-behavior/ [Accessed on 3^rd October 2018].

Oliver, R.L. (2014) Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer: A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer. New York: Routledge.

Ryan, D. (2016) Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation.Kogan Page Publishers.

Scarborough, N.M. (2016) Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management. Pearson.

Todorova, G. (2015) Marketing communication mix. Trakia Journal of sciences, 13(1), pp.368-374.

Vinayagamoorthy, A. and Kannan, P. (2015) The Impulse Buying Behaviour of Consumes for the FMCG Products in Salem. Impulse, 2(2).