Consumer Behaviour Towards 21st Century Marketing
INTRODUCTION
The consumer behaviours studies have been the major concern of marketers in all industries. Consumer decision of purchasing, consuming, and disposing of the products are the behaviours of consumers, and it is essential for marketers to explore these behaviours for improving their marketing strategies (Dudovskiy, 2012; Hoyer & Macinnis, 2008; Perner, 2016; Tallo, 2007).
Problem statement
The behaviour of consumers towards 21st century fashion marketing is a relatively new topic. Several marketing topics have been the concern of marketers since years, but this topic has been the least discussed topic. Therefore, it has been decided that the behaviour of customers towards modern marketing is discussed, and the fashion industry’s customers are observed.
Scope:
The lack of knowledge regarding the behaviours of the fashion industry consumers can put the potential new entrants at a significant disadvantage. Even, due to this fact, some major brands are enjoying the partial monopoly in the market. This is the problem that discourages many potential businesses to enter in the market and discourages the small existing fashion organizations. The reason to select the topic is that it will contribute to the understanding of marketing students and marketers that how customers are responding to different marketing activities. It will help the marketers in deciding on their marketing strategies that they can use aggressively to attract the customers and get maximum response from their target audience. Students will be able to understand the ways through which they can attract customers.
Aims:
The aim of the research is to investigate the consumer behaviours towards modern marketing and determine that how these marketing activities affect customers.
Objectives:
The objective is to extract the qualitative data from case studies, articles, and other secondary resources.
LITERATURE REVIEW
History
The roots of the theories of consumer behaviour can be found from the studies of psychology at the beginning of 20th century (Wang, 2010). However, the modern marketing started about 60 years ago. Due to enhanced competition, businesses were a danger of closing their operations. Before the 2000s, building relation with consumers was not important, marketers were focusing on quality only that later became a standardized phenomenon (Lin, 2015). In the 2000s, marketers took the marketing at a new level. During the economic crisis of 2008, all industries faced immense financial meltdown. It was hard for companies especially fashion organizations to convince the customer to spend on their brands (Lutz, 2012). Customers are the rationale decision makers, and they are concerned about their interests only (utility theory) (Schiffman, Kanuk & Hansen, 2007; Zinkhan, 1992). Therefore, companies started marketing their products aggressively, and the social media utilization increased in 2009. Marketing techniques helped firms in attracting customers by increasing product awareness, engagement, and involvement (Kim & Ko, 2012).
Theoretical background and models:
Marketers did hard to find out the ways through which they can communicate their messages to customers efficiently and effectively, so the target customers can better understand the advantages they can achieve by consuming their products (Clow, 2007). Ultimately, customer oriented marketing became the major concern of organizations because customers are the only factor that can drive their businesses and give them then reason to be in the market for long (Shimp, 2003).
Some of the communication models that have been discussed by researchers and academicians include compensatory models, persuasion model, and integrated model of marketing (Bangura, 2011; Fill, 2005; Jerman & Zavrsnik, 2012). From all these models the most discussed one is integrated marketing. Integrated marketing encourages the development of effective ways through which the needs of customers can be satisfied. Identification of the ways of communication that contribute immensely in influencing the behaviours of consumers is a critical activity of integrated marketing communication. Integrated marketing allowed marketers to understand the effectiveness of communication by getting the desired reaction or receiving the required response from consumers (Smith, Smith & Berry, 1999).
In result of modern marketing efforts or integrated marketing efforts, the positive behaviour of consumers towards marketing increased. This has been possible because word of mouth boosted, people started taking parts in blogs, searching brands on websites, liking them on Facebook, and Twitter and online marketing encouraged them to directly buy from iPod, iPad, and iPhone (Alreck & Settle, 1995; Kozinets, 2006; Mohr, 2013). The field of consumer behaviour has evolved (Becker, 2004; Robertson & Kassarjian, 1991). People are the core of marketing strategies; the changes in consumer behaviour derived the traditional marketing communication efforts to personal contact efforts and modern marketing grew rapidly (Salai & Kovack, 2011). Due to the changed consumer behaviour and high competition, the marketers started using multi-step communication models rather using one of two-step. Marketers started using relationship marketing techniques that include satisfying the needs of customers and retaining them (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010). This strategy helped the fashion organizations in generating competitive advantage through generating positive word of mouth (Stokes & Lomax, 2002).
Positive consumer behaviour towards the modern marketing is growing, as consumers are becoming active promoters of their brands (Reichheld, 2003). The major aim of all businesses is to create customers, only the well-conceived strategy of marketing can affect the consumers’ behaviour. Change in social and cultural values contributes to behavioural changes that also change the behaviour of customers towards marketing. Therefore, fashion marketers must consider these changes as opportunities (Salai & Žnideršić, 2011).
Marketers have an ability to influence the behaviours of consumers by using different communication strategies (Blackwell, Miniard & Engel, 2006; Bray, 2008) that best suits the situation and behaviour of the target audience. The cognitive theory explains that the consumers’ behaviour towards the marketing can be gauged through the actions of consumers (Aslin & Rothschild, 1987; Willcox, 2013). For example, buying and using the brand and commenting on social media are a positive response; however disposing the product and giving negative comments is the pessimistic behaviour of the customer towards marketing. The pessimistic behaviour can be the reason of cognitive dissonance (Sharma, 2014). Therefore, it is essential for marketers that they design their campaigns in a way that the new message does not conflict with prior one. Researches also revealed that the consumers’ perception regarding brand based on marketing information heavily influence their decisions (Shen et al., 2012).
METHODS AND DESIGNS
Methods
The grounded theory and content analysis methods will be used and according to the methods, the data will be collected through multiple secondary sources such as articles, research papers, magazines, newspapers, blogs, and case studies. Further, the gathered information will be analysed to make a logical conclusion.
Research design
The explanatory research design will be deployed as the research on this topic has been conducted before, and exploration has been done. Therefore, based on secondary data, the further explanation of existing facts will be done.
List of References
Alreck, P.L. & Settle, R.B. (1995). The importance of word-of-mouth communications to service buyers. Proceedings of American Marketing Association, Winter, 188–193. Available from https://www.tib.eu/en/search/id/BLCP:CN015193621/ [Accessed 20 February 2016]
Aslin, T. M., & Rothschild, M. L. (1987). An introduction to a cognitive-behavioral perspective of consumer behavior. Advances in consumer research, vol. 15, pp. 556.
Bangura, A. S. (2011). Changing Attitudes And Behavior Of Consumers With Marketing Communication. Available from https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/30427/Bangura_Abdul_Salam.pdf [Accessed 20 February 2016]
Becker, T. C. (2004). Consumer Behavior Research In The Evident Of The 21st Century. Available from: https://www.uni-hohenheim.de/fileadmin/einrichtungen/marktlehre/Forschung/Verbraucherverhalten/consumer_behavior21.pdf [Accessed on February 20, 2016]
Bhardwaj, V., & Fairhurst, A. (2010). Fast fashion: response to changes in the fashion industry. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 165-173.
Blackwell, R. D. Miniard, P. W., & Engel, J. F. (2006). Consumer Behavior. Thomson South-Western.
Bray, J. (2008). Consumer Behaviour Theory: Approaches and Models. Available from: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/10107/1/Consumer_Behaviour_Theory_-_Approaches_%26_Models.pdf [Accessed 20 February 2016]
Clow, K. E (2007). Integrated Advertising, Promotion and Marketing Communications(3rd ed.). Pearson Education.
Dudovskiy, J. (2012). Consumer Behaviour and its Importance in the Modern Marketplace. Research methodology. Available from http://research-methodology.net/consumer-behaviour-and-its-importance-in-the-modern-marketplace/ [Accessed 20 February 2016]
Fill, C. (2005). Marketing Communications: Engagements, Strategies and Practice. FT Prentice Hall
Hoyer, W.D. & Macinnis, D.J. (2008). Consumer Behaviour”, 5th edition. USA: Cengage Learning.
Jerman, D., & Zavrsnik, B. (2012). Model Of Marketing Communications Effectiveness In The Business-To-Business Markets. Economic Research - Ekonomska Istrazivanja. vol. 25, NO. 1, P. 364-388.
Kim, A. J., & Ko, E. (2012). Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand. Journal Of Business Research, 65(10), 1480-1486.
Kozinets, R.V. (2006). Netnography 2.0. Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing, ed. Russell W. Belk, Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing Inc, 129-55.
Lin, I. (2015). The History of Modern Marketing and Brand Establishment. Business on Market. Available from http://www.businessonmarketst.com/blog/the-history-of-modern-marketing-and-brand-establishment/ [Accessed 20 February 2016]
Lutz, A. (2012). Celebrity Designer Max Azria Tells Us How Fashion Houses Are Coping With The Bad Economy. Business Insider, 1. Available from http://www.businessinsider.com/legendary-designer-max-azria-on-the-economy-and-fashion-2012-9 [Accessed 20 February 2016]
Mihart, 2012). Impact of Integrated Marketing Communication on Consumer behavior: effects on consumer decision- making process. International Journal of Marketing Studies. vol. 4, no. 2, 121-129.
Mohr, I. (2013). The Impact of Social Media on the Fashion Industry. Journal of Applied Business and Economics. Vol. 15, no. 2, 17-22.
Perner, L. (2016). Consumer Behavior The Psychology Of Marketing. USC Marshall. Available from http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/ [Accessed 20 February 2016]
Reichheld, F. F. (2003). The one number you need to grow. Harvard business review. Available from https://hbr.org/2003/12/the-one-number-you-need-to-grow [Accessed 20 February 2016]
Robertson, T.S. & Kassarjian, H. H. (1991). Handbook Of Consumer Behavior. NJ: Prentice Hall.
Salai, S., & Zindersic, R. K. (2011). Marketing Research in the Contemporary Consumer Environment. Management Information Systems. Vol. 6, no. 4, p. 15-22.
Salai, S., & Žnideršić, R. K. (2011). Marketing Research in the Contemporary Consumer Environment. Management Information Systems,6(4), 15-22.
Schiffman, L. G., Kanuk, L., & Hansen, H. (2007). Consumer Behavior. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Shen, B. Wang, Y., Lo, C.K.L., Shum, M. (2012). The impact of ethical fashion on consumer purchase behavior. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal. Vol. 16, no. 2, pp.234 – 245.
Shimp, T. A. (2003). Advertising, promotion and other aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications. Canada: Cengage Learning.
Smith, P, Smith, P. R., & Berry, C. (1999). Strategic Marketing Communications: New Ways to Build and Integrate UK: Kogan Page Publishers
Stokes, D., & Lomax, W. (2002). "Taking control of word of mouth marketing: the case of an entrepreneurial hotelier", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 9 no. 4, pp.349 – 357.
Tallo, T. J. (2007). Business Organisation & Management. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Wang, T. Y. (2010). Consumer Behavior Characteristics in Fast Fashion. Textilhogskolan. Available from http://bada.hb.se/bitstream/2320/7723/2/2010.13.16.pdf [Accessed 20 February 2016]
Willcox, M. (2013). Why a cognitive approach is key to luxury marketing. Luxury daily. Available from http://www.luxurydaily.com/why-a-cognitive-approach-is-key-to-luxury-marketing/ [Accessed 20 February 2016]
Zinkhan, G. M. (1992). Human Nature and Models of Consumer Decision Making. Journal of Advertising. Vol. 21, no. 4. 138-149.
