Consumer Behavior on Furniture

As the economic conditions Is tough and challenging In recent years. Cost of living Is increasing, especially for those new home starters, Like new couples, families with new-born member, or moving out of parents home. For the general new home starter, money terms and financial issue is a big concern on their everyday life. The need and purchase of furniture would be an inevitable process as they need to start building up and furnishing their new home. They would opt for products that offer the benefits of good living standard, but without sacrifice too much of their earning or income.In the situation and target group we focus on in this analysis, KEA and Preterit would be more likely be the choice to be made In the final decision. Purchasing off-the-shelf product, rather then tailor-made, good customer value and affordable price are a few major criteria In such case. However consumers would have different consideration for their decision depending on their Individual factors. From h aving the wants and demand to the step of making purchase decision and consumption. There are deferent factors that would influence and affect the consumer decision.There are two sources that influence buying behavior. The first one is formal sources which are kind of well-planned and paid sources. The second source is informal, which is kind of a not pre planned and non-paid sources like family, informal sources, social class and culture etc. Marketing Efforts Product KEA offer product with Scandinavian design and attractive appearance, KEA provide materials to suit the many different needs and precise preference. The large catalogue of choice in products maximize the chance of finding products to your needs.Preterit offer very generic type of product that perform the basic practical and functions. Preterit have few numbers of choices in each category, if you have some very specific preference, it might be hard to match your exact want and desire. Promotion Both KEA and Preterit ha ve utilized web page, social media and also sales promotion to attract customers. KEA have a strong buzz each year, promote using television advertisement, often using humor that create buzz and recall rate. Preterit focusing on adverting in newspapers, and leaflet with coupons.Also PIP memberships as a loyalty programmer that encourage repeat purchase. Price Both KEA and Preterit has set affordable price for their product that attract many customer and purchase. Also note that since the products KEA offer are unique and with brand, customer are more Justified if they are paying a bit more. However Products that Preterit offer are more generic and very uniform, customer might switch to other brand with similar product offered by a lower price supplier, so that Preterit have to compete with price or otherwise provide products with better perceived value and customer benefits.Place Preterit which has almost 30 retails covered in Hong Kong, when compared to KEA which has only 3 stores in Hong Kong but a larger comprehensive stores. The slightly remote distance and limited distribution channel might be a bit pull back if you are a busy person or if you only want to make small quantity purchases. But if the customer would like to buy a range of product or simply enjoy the shopping experience of ‘KEA. This desire will become a driving force strong enough to stimulate the action of visit and purchase. Family Family is a basic concept in society.The main structure of family is married couple, nuclear family and extended family. Besides, single-parent family and unmarried family are included as well. Consumer can be easily influenced by parents, siblings, and relatives based on their past experience. Nuclear family and extended family may prefer to buy from Preterit. The perception from Preterit is classic design, fair quality, and ready-made model. KEA provide Scandinavian design with good quality and flexible combination as well as wide range of color for selec tion which reinforce the motivation of married couple to buy from them.Informal sources Informal sources are basically unpaid and unplanned. The opinion leader could be our friends, neighbors, colleagues, teachers, and idols. Nowadays, it is quite common to ask opinion leader about the brand and product before consumer make the decision of purchase. Preterit and ‘KEA, he will ask opinion leaders and the comments from opinion leaders will influence consumer's behavior. Other non-commercial sources Other non-commercial sources including different types of social media and editorial content are unpaid.Consumer can compare Preterit and KEA products by browsing following sources Editorial content from newspapers, magazines Blob, Forum Photo sharing websites Brand community Discount and promotion websites TV Programs Social class Social class has its own characteristic of values, attitudes and behavior that distinguish the member of various social classes, see below diagram In terms of income, lower middle class consumers only can afford lower price products from Preterit because of limited budget.Middle class consumers have sufficient money to spend on KEA products which can reinforce their self-image and taste. Culture and Subculture Culture is shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that form and influences perception and behavior. It is learned through transmitted from enervation to generation, which included Formal learning from parents and siblings Informal learning, such as teachers and idols Technical learning, such as school and professional institute Product preference and brand loyalty always influence from one generation to another.For example, parents will bring along their kids to KEA for shopping because they enjoy shopping in KEA with different products for selection and even kids can select kids' furniture for themselves. The positive brand image begins in early childhood and extends throughout a person's entire life. On the other hand, subculture is a group of people share similar beliefs, values, and common experiences. Subculture group can be differentiated by age, ethnic, religious Consumer Decision Making In decision making process, more than one alternative must be available, even decide not to buy.We focus on new couples how they make buying decision on -bed. Input As we discussed previous in external influence, furniture company's marketing strategy (APS) influence new couple's perception, attitudes and teach them to learn or change their attitudes towards their products. These marketing strategies can hang society's existing code of behavior, culture or subculture is likely to affect how and what consumers purchase in long term if successful. Need Recognition When new couple move out from their parents, even rent or buy a new house, they perceive a need to buy new furniture.Two different problem recognition styles – actual state types & desired state types are described on our ca se. Actual state types, they recognize double size bed is needed. Desired state types, they already have double size bed but desire new design attractive bed, e. G. Princess bed. Purchases Search New couple usually search their memory first, browsing internet, go to shopping and they may engage in extensive search of outside if no experience. Evaluation of Alternatives Evoke set come to their mind such as ‘KEA, Preterit and so on.These evoke set might be influenced by their parents that used before and acceptable. They have already established the basic criteria for evaluation, but not completely established preferred among the choice of brands, than they search for additional brand information. Three specific level of consumer decision making – limited problem solving are examined. When new couple evaluating those brands, they based on their perceived quality of Perceived risk associated with the brand, e. G.Consumer may not handle self- assembly furniture by themselve s after evaluation, and also information costs saved with that brand, e. G. KEA only 3 stores, time consuming to visit and too far away from their home. While the couples collecting information about evoked set brands, two decision rules in their mind – compensatory and uncompensated decision rules. Compensatory decision rules, they evaluate those brand's similar attributes and weighted it, than make a ranking. For example, the size of bed of KEA and Preterit are also fit for their home, they Just weight the price between brands.Uncompensated decision rules when couples evaluate such size of bed exceed, they will forgive that brand. They may make decision to postpone or withdrawal from purchasing after shopping if they cannot find a suitable bed. Psychological Field Motivation As we know that consumer needs is the essence of marketing concept. However each consumer have their vary needs and wants depending on the culture environment and affection. Therefore individual are tri ggered by motivation that drive their individual action.Apart from the primary perspective of having the physical product and its function of furniture that serve the generic goals, in addition, there are also acquired needs. Some might want to have a bit more comfort, safety, reliability for the protection of young kids at home. Some might have the affection and would love to have a warm and pleasant interior and environment so that they can provide a coos atmosphere for their friend and relative when visit, to fulfill the social needs The motives and needs can have positive and negative directions that impel positive rives and negative drives.In most situation for the consumer, it is largely driven by positive motives, for examples, KEA has always inject and project the warm and happy home environment and scene in their promotional materials such as catalogue and advertisement which create a positive desire for consumer to dream of and the need and want of having the pleasant home using the KEA furniture product. Associate the warm and pleasant image with the brand ‘KEA. Motivation can have the bi-direction of positive and negative, it can also be distinguish into rational motives and emotional motives.There are certain types of consumers who would be apparently acting with viewing the amount of benefit they can get from the product related to the cost spent. On the other hand, there are certain type of consumer who would act with emotional motives and subjective ideas. The motives can be aroused by the mood of the showroom or the fashion and trend on design style, color and material used. Perception Perception is more about the subjective of how people think about it rather than the actual objective fact of what it is.The dynamic of perception consists of the aspect of â€Å"Selection† â€Å"Organization† and Interpretation† altogether composes a meaningful coherent picture from individual. Perception can be developed and influence d by advertising and promotion as well as other marketing mix that intended for the positioning. For instance, each year KEA has a new shooting of â€Å"low-price† featured ad shown on television. Using the televisions advertisement media has the advantage of reaching the mass, but catching the audience attention in the clutter is a challenge.Kea has use many witty ideas and humor to catch attention and convey the message of â€Å"low- price†, the use of dramatic visual and theme, exaggerated facial expression, music, mound and motion with the contrast color, figure and ground, bold size fonts, helps to catch attention in order to promote the message. The same applied on the Kea catalogue and in-store poster, using sharp, bright color and big bold fonts on the minimal background, simply spell out the message in a clear way and to catch attention in a glance.Also, the imagery used in the catalogue are in pleasant color and soft tone, some images will also include models / actors of kids playing happily or family and friends lying back comfortable on couch, creating a warm and sweet feeling and lead to the nonuser to grouping and associate Kea brand and product with sweet and comfortable home in a positive way. TV ad that last for only seconds is very limited, message have to be brief and sharp, it is smart to leave a open-ended closure that the catalogue is out now, to let the consumer to response and find out more from the catalogue by mail, in-store or online.Personality Personality defined as the inner psychological characteristic determine and reflect Consumer who choose KEA need to adopt this new idea and practice that they need to get very involved when purchase KEA product. Consumer who has high consumer innovativeness and low in dogmatism are more likely to accept ‘KEA. Many of the KEA products allow consumer customized and DID to suit their personal need, letting consumer to have some involvement. So to some extended consumer who ch oose KEA has the need for uniqueness, and willing to have some involvement with the high optimum stimulate level.KEA furniture emphasized on design and attracted too many customers who with style conscious, featured many pictorial, nicely photographed visual images on catalogue and other promotional materials. These will be appealing to visualizes type f consumer which should be appropriate for the intended target customer as they position their product / furniture tends to be more like a stylish product than a technical product. Attitude A learned predisposition always influences their attitudes toward or avoids the object.Transcription attitude model consists of cognitive, affective and connotative components, consumers perceive and learn about company's products such as a stylish and self-assembly of Kike's products, price competitive and assembled products of Preterit's products, consumers evaluate those particular products & services attributes, form a preference and intent to buy. KEA has provided customized, DID, Nordic stylish & self-assembly products, and Preterit provided a localized design, assembled products. Those specific brand's product features is influence consumer attitude, both perform attitude-toward-object model.For examples, KEA illustrate FAX wardrobe's features, consumers can customize their individual need with huge range accessories to create their dreams wardrobes. Muff can be based on space, budget, amount of clothing and home-style to create an ideal wardrobe† consumers evaluate the wardrobes functions, what and how it can provide and belief the wardrobes can satisfy their need. Attitudes are also influence by company's marketing strategy, a societal marketing strategy of KEA ‘people & plant' which influence consumer's attitudes towards their brand, attitude-toward-the-ad model is examined.TV ads, Backbone, APS provide an important source to influence consumer's personal experiences, family and friends. These marketing strategies can change consumer's attitudes due a brands is in conflict with consumer attitude. For aforesaid example, an environmentally-oriented ‘People & Planet Positive' strategy, their attitude may change toward to ‘KEA, Resolving woo conflicting attitudes is examined. Advertisements with product specification, real life scenario presented in catalogues which changing the basic motivational function in KEA catalogs.Learning Advertising promotional videos, price & store displays are cues of ‘KEA, Preterit to stimuli consumer's motives directly, consumers responded to surfing their websites they looking for or go to the shops to look around displayed furniture & price. If consumer is rewarded, they learned to associate the purchase with a pleasant feeling and are likely to repeat the learned behavior and become a loyal customer. For instant, KEA store displayed in real life scenario which may serve as a cue for consumers, and constitute their response that they c onsider ready to buy.Reinforcement increases the likelihood that specific response will occur in the future as the result of particular cues. ‘KEA, Preterit are well-know and favorable brand, according to classical conditioning theory, ‘KEA, Preterit are an unconditioned stimulus, the unconditional response is consumer perception, KEA implies that the products are stylish, Preterit implies that the products are practice and popular, conditioned response would be consumer ring their furniture because of the belief that they embody which their name is associated.Instrumental conditioning is examine while consumer learn, for example, stores carry the wardrobes they prefer at prices they can afford to pay by shopping a number of stores (KEA, Preterit, DISC, etc. ), one they find KEA wardrobe meets their needs, they are likely to make decision to buy. While consumer is satisfied, they are more likely to repeat buying furniture at ‘KEA, KEA store loyalty is reinforced. T o reinforce the behavior, KEA perform a positive reinforcement by repeating ‘design better home & low price' messages.By assuring customer satisfaction with their products, the service & buying experience. For examples, KEA business provides home design service a close personalized relationship with customers is also another form of nonproductive reinforcement. A systematic reinforcement encourage customer to repeat purchase, consumer receive their cash coupons after they brought a certain amount. Output When couple find a brand product such as KEA wardrobe fit their need, they decide to purchase. After they used, they evaluate the wardrobe's performance, a postprocessor evaluation is perform. A positive discrimination is when the