Consumer Behaviour Business Degree with Marketing Assignment

Consumer Behaviour Business Degree with Marketing - Assignment Example Marketers need to know what their customers need and want and they also need to know how their customers make decisions about buying and using products. As such, this report for Starbuck’s senior executives seeks to explore different factors that influence the behaviour of different customers towards a particular product or service. The report is divided into two parts and the first part is mainly concerned with establishing the extent to which motivation and the benefits sought by the customers go hand in hand towards the satisfaction of the needs of the targeted consumers. The second part seeks to establish the significance of understanding the family life-cycle and family decision making in order to make the organisation to be in a position to market their products and services more successfully. The report will also focus on how the marketers can focus on different factors which influence customer behaviour in order to positively change it through the effective use of diff erent elements of the marketing mix. Recommendations will be given in both cases. 1. Motivation of the customers is mainly influenced by their behaviour hence it is imperative for the marketers at Starbuck’s to first establish the behaviour of their consumers in order to be better positioned to satisfy their needs. Hawkins et al (1998, p.7) define customer behaviour as â€Å"the study of individuals, groups, or organisations and processes they use to select, secure, use and dispose of products, services, experiences or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts these processes have on consumer and society.† This definition implies that there are indirect influences on consumer decisions. As such, any profit oriented organisation must satisfy the needs and wants of the customers. The realisation that long term survival of companies is only possible if customer satisfaction has been achieved has led the companies and their employees to motivate the customers towards their pr oducts. In their quest to satisfy their needs, customers also seek to derive benefits from consumption of particular products hence the attempt to satisfy these benefits by the marketers goes hand in hand with the concept of motivation. To understand motivation is to understand why customers do what they do. The philosophy of marketing rests on the premise that customers’ needs are the starting point from which all other activities can be planned (Cant, 2002). However, there is need to take a motivational approach to establish the needs of the customers which influences their buying behaviour. Basically, motivation occurs when a need is aroused that the customer wants to satisfy. A need refers to something physical or psychological that the body must have to function and develop (Cant, 2002). As such, motivation is the driving force within the individuals that drives them to act in a particular way. According to Kotler & Armstrong (2004), a motivated person is ready to act an d he is influenced by his or her own perceptions of the situation. People have different perceptions of the same stimulus and when they act, they learn something new. In the process, they acquire beliefs and attitudes that will shape their behaviour if they are satisfied that they will derive benefits f