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Buyer Behaviour & Market Research

Introduction

The essence of marketing is fundamentally based on exchange relationships that exist;

more so as commonly used, when money is provided for by a customer in the exchange of

goods and services in provision by a supplier. The number of different roles that a customer in a

transaction can be involve with include the customer being either the buyer, payer, or user. In

the event that a customer is the buyer, this involves them as being the individual who seeks out

a specific product or service. This selection may either at a personal level or on behalf of others.

Nonetheless, what is crucial is that there is the selection in process. In lieu of the payer, this is

that actual financier of the selected product or service. This role in essence involves making

actual purchase for purposes of ownership or use (Buyer Behaviour, N.D.).

Finally, looking at the customer within the transaction from a user role, he now becomes

the ultimate recipient and as well as the beneficiary of the product or service. User role provides

the customer with actual access to what was procured or selected, and what was paid or

financed. There is an importance in the value of such distinction, in that it enables any

marketing efforts as well as associated activities to have the correct focus on the exact

individuals concerned in the transaction (Buyer Behaviour, N.D.). This concept of value is

also shared by such large firms in the United Kingdom like JDM Food Group wherein whereas

they work with an excess customer base of 250, their supplying of whole-head products to

encompass value products that are processed to be ready to eat has seen them increase their

turnover with at least 520% between the years 2008 to 2015. This feat has only been made

possible via their targeted development of their three key strategic business areas of

manufacturing, retail and foodservice. JDM is an excellent example of a firm that has explored
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opportunities in the manufactured products segment, having taken advantage of the available

growth opportunities within the market and providing for such value added capabilities into

their products such as smoking, roasting, caramelising and reduction (Ambitious Plans, 2015).

Buying decisions vary in complexity and importance, and as such, it is crucial to

classify them if at least to better understand their respective characteristics, the marketing

strategy implications that each type of purchase behaviour entails, and their associated products

to which they apply. The types of purchases that are usually made can generally be classified

according to how involved the buyer is in the process, as well as whether any such involvement

is usually based on any decision-making procedure or action-based in relation to habit. For

example, the purchase of property is typically a high-involvement purchase that is based purely

on a decision-making process (Iman, 2006). Concurrently, marketing decisions are usually a

combination of information based on facts and judgement. Marketing decisions should

therefore always be based on facts, in which marketing research comes into the fore in the

collection of useful information. Marketing research enables a form raise the level of work

needed, while highlighting pertinent facts on which any management may base it decision

upon. In this sense, marketing research may be defined as the systematic collection, recording

and analysing of data about marketing problems to facilitate decision making (Tyagi & Kumar,

2004, Pp. 28-30).

Major Changes in Consumer Attitudes towards Manufactured Food Products in the Last

10 Years

In deciphering consumer attitudes towards manufactured food products in the last

decade, the health consciousness of consumers has become an increasingly crucial factor that

has been driving the manufactured and agro-food market. The onset of healthier food products
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have over time entered the global food markets and more so with force in recent years while

rapidly garnering market share. As such, the food industry has responded to such images and

claims, including manufactured and organic foods that consumers select in the hope that they

have benefits to their health promotion recipes. The manufactured foods and drinks segment has

performed well for many years especially in terms of market penetration and innovation to keep

customers still clinching to them. This is in spite of recent trends advocating more for healthy

organic foods which has also been catching up in these two areas. Various researches have

concluded that the better consumers perceive the components of healthy foods and their

determinants, that these are vital success factors for market development and penetration as

well as the ability to successfully negotiate market opportunities (Azzurra & Paola, 2009).

Deciphering food consumption trends and projections into the future, both globally as

well as for the various regions of the world, it serves to note that throughout the world, there

have been major dietary shifts occurring. This has been witnessed even in the most basic

consumption of staples and moving towards more diversified diets. The accompaniments that

have occurred with such changes in the consumption of food at all levels have been substantial

health results. Populations in such countries can be attributed as undergoing huge and fast

transitions in the experiencing of nutritional transitions. This transition has a diverse nature

which may be the outcome of alterations in socio-demographic factors as well as a myriad of

other consumer characteristics. Well within these factors would include urbanization and the

marketing of the food industry, and the policies in place as regards trade liberalization

(Kearney, 2010).

The Effect of Attitudes on Actual Behaviour in the Context of a Planned Purchase

and an Impulse Purchase

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Consumers can be perceived at any point as being ordinary individuals who are actively

engages in various activities as may be related to the buying of services and products. It is

therefore no surprise that the consumers psychology deals with a similar number of issues as

one would expect in general psychology, which are usually memory and cognition, judgement

and decision making, affection and emotion, group dynamics, and a many other similar topics

that are usually covered in psychological literature. Attitudes inform behaviour, and as such, the

general agreement is that any the essence of consumer behaviour embarks and is associated

with the actual act of making a purchase of a specific service or product. At issue in this process

that informs attitude is the search of information that customers do that are relevant in

informing them of the purchase decision, the selection of where they will do their purchase, as

well as any other actions that are performed prior to, as well as in the service of the purchase.

For example, a previous act of buying a certain purchase like a washing machine may have

embarked with research of relevant information as regards the items specification, consultation

from family and friends, the reading of magazines, the watching of advertisements, as well as

any other source of information. The information thus obtained narrows the decision to be made

to only be inclusive of a couple of brands and manufacturers. This is the point at which the

customer would visit a couple of stores or web sites prior to deciding on the particular brand of

reference. The informed choice would have an associated attitude as to the reasons the customer

solely feels and believes that the choice being made would have the best utility for them (Ajzen,

n.d.).

Role of Involvement on Purchase Behaviour in Manufactured Food Product Sector and

How Marketers Might Influence Involvement

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Food is a part and parcel of every individuals core existence, whether it is prepared at

home or elsewhere. The world of manufactured foods has transitioned via many drastic

changes, moving away from the wholesale form of manufactured foods to be more inclusive of

value added consumer-related packed foods, and which in essence has led to the swinging

paradigms in lifestyles and food habits. The manufactured food market has transitioned

especially so as a result to shifts in socio-economic conditions that dictate that the choice of

what to it is at the sole discretion of the individual (Kaur & Singh, 2014).

The individual consumer is today more pluralistic in their behaviour than they were in

the past. It is not uncommon to see individuals choosing to make low-priced purchases for

domestic use, yet make a premium purchase when with a group of individuals. This type of

variegated shopping has not been left behind either with the manufactured food products sector.

There are fewer purchases that constitute to the traditional huge stocking up on a weekly basis,

and today, shoppers are making multiple weekly stops between premium stores and discount

stores. Over a decade ago, fast moving consumer goods companies wherein manufactured food

products also fall into only had a few sales channels to consider. There were largely limited to

supermarkets, hypermarkets, traditional small and medium retailers, and convenience stores.

Purchasing behaviour was thus easier to keep track of, but since then, there has been the coming

up of various discounters who have make notable inroads such as no frills and low variety

outlets that continue to impact on consumer behaviour and the role that marketers have in such

environments. Nonetheless, the result of all these changes has been the greater demand as

witnessed for more brands and products with varying packaging, sales methods and sizes

(Shriram, 2015).
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The attention to cost of manufactured products is not an indicator that there is need for

pruning off lagging products from the portfolio. However, marketers can also influence

involvement by realigning manufactured products around a more cleverly chosen brand sets

that are able to cover the broad spectrum of consumer needs more efficiently and with minimal

overlap. The inherent ability to adapt product line complexity in a cost effective manner is in

itself an inherent competitive advantage. As manufactured food product companies move to

cover as many retail channels as possible, marketers on the other hand need to be able to devise

ways in which promotional spending and trade terms may be simplified. The management of a

wide array of outlets as well as marketing opportunities for this product segment is not as

simple as it may seem (Shriram, 2015).

Conclusion

The evolution of manufactured food products modernization and the dynamic changes

in the buying behaviour of consumers has seen this industry grow exponentially. In order to

capture the opportunities of the growing manufactured food product market, marketers need to

continue deciphering mechanisms of confluence engagement in this segment. Many

organizations continue to invest huge amounts of capital within this segment and having their

marketing teams create a presence to tap into the demand for the increasing modernization of

the manufactured food product market. The increase in consumption expenditure as a result of

urbanization has made its fair contribution in breaking of the conventional societal setups and

providing a ready and growing desire for quality food, and for a people who have lack of time

demanding to have convenience. The consumption patterns that the manufactured foods product

market has provided can clearly be said to contribute to human development especially when

such consumption increases the capabilities of individuals, products, and organizations while
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also enriching the lives of individuals with a minimal impact of their well-being. It should be

noted thus that the nutrition transition into manufactured food products need to have any

negative outcomes. The rising outcomes of a population as well as the availability of food can

and does have quite some positive outcomes on the health of a population.
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Bibliography

Ambitious Plans for JDM Food Group (2015) Food Processing. [Online]. Assessed 8

December 2016.

Ajzen, I. (N.D.). Consumer Attitudes and Behavior. [Online]. Assessed 8 December 2016.

Azzurra, A. & Paola, P. (2009). Consumers Behaviours and Attitudes towards Healthy Food

Products: The Case of Organic and Functional Foods. A Paper Presented for

Presentation at the 113th EAAE Seminar. [Online]. Assessed 7 December 2016.

Buyer Behaviour and Market Research (n.d.) BPP Learning Media Ltd. [Online]. Assessed 7

December 2016.

Iman, A.H.M. (2006) Basic Aspects of Property Market Research. Malaysia: Penerbit.

Kaur, I. and Singh, S. (2014) Consumer Behaviour Purchase of Processed Cereal Food

Products in Punjab. IOSR Journal of Business Management. 16 (2): 47-57.

Kearney, J. (2010). Food Consumption Trends and Drivers. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 365 (1554):

2793-2807.

Shriram, K.B. (2015). 2015 Consumer Goods Trends. Strategy&. [Online]. Assesses 8

December 2016.

Tyagi, C.L. & Kumar, A. (2004) Consumer Behaviour. New Delhi, India: Atlantic Publishers &

Distributors.