Consumer Behavior:

Consumer behavior is defined as the behavior that consumer display in

searching for purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of product and services
that they expect will satisfy their needs. Consumer behavior focuses on how
individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money, effort)
on consumption related items. This includes what they buy, why they buy it, when
they buy it, where they buy it, how often they buy it, how often they use it, how
they evaluate it after the purchase and the impact of such evaluation on future,
and how they dispose of it. In another words, consumer behavior can be define as
the behavior of individuals in regards to acquiring, using, and disposing of products,
services, ideas or experiences. Consumer behavior also includes the acquisition and
use of information. Thus, communication with consumers and receiving feedback
for them is a crucial part of consumer behavior which is of great interest to
marketers.(Kent Huffman 2007)

Customers and Consumers:

The term “customer” it typically used to refer to someone who regularly

purchases from a particular store or company. Thus, a person who shops at we use
Shopping Mail or who uses Texaco gasoline is viewed as a customer of these firms.
The term “Consumer” more generally refers to anyone engaging in any of the
activities used in our definition of consumer behavior. Therefore, a customer is
defined in terms of a specific firm while a consumer is not. The traditional viewpoint
has been to define consumers strictly in terms of economic goods and services. This
position holds that consumers are potential purchasers of products and services
offered for sale. (Jennifer Aaker 1998)
Marketing Strategy:

Marketing strategy is conceptually very simple. It begins with an analysis of

the target market which includes company, conditions, competitors, and
consumers. Next, Market segmentation: This involves identifying product-related
need sets, grouping customers with similar need sets, describing each group and
selecting an attractive segment to serve. The marketing mix includes the product,
price, communications, distribution, and services provided to the target market.
The final stage Outcomes involves analysis of firm’s product position and customer
satisfaction resulting from implementation of the strategy.(Tanner Okun1990)
Brand preference:

Brand preferences represent a fundamental step in understanding consumer

choices. A deeper understanding of such preference dynamics can help marketing
mangers’ better design marketing program and build a long term relationship with
consumers. Despite the existence of some studies investigating how brand
preference is built and changed, most of them focus on examining factors from
consumer behavior perspective or advertising perspective. (Schmitt 1999)

Customer satisfaction:

Customers are always aiming to get maximum satisfaction from the products
or services that they buy. Winning in today’s marketplace entails the need to build
customer relationship and not just building the products; building customer
relationship means delivering superior value over competitors to the target
customers. Whether an organization provides quality services or not will depend on
the customers’ feedback on the satisfaction they get from consuming the products,
since higher levels of quality lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction (Kotler&
Keller. 2009)

Advertisement effectiveness:

Advertising effectiveness pertains to how well a company's advertising

accomplishes the intended. Small companies use many different statistics or
metrics to measure their advertising effectiveness. These measurements can be
used for all types of advertising, including television, radio, direct mail, Internet and
even billboard advertising. A company's advertising effectiveness usually increases
over time with many messages or exposures. But certain advertising objectives can
be realized almost immediately. (Rick Suttle 2009)
Brand awareness:

Brand awareness is a Extent to which a brand is recognized by

potential customers, and is correctly associated with a particular product.
Expressed usually as a percentage of target market, brand awareness is
the primary goal of advertising in the early months or years of
a product's introduction.(Aaker1999)

Celebrity endorsement:

Celebrities are people who enjoy public recognition by a large share of a

certain group of people. Whereas attributes like attractiveness, extraordinary
lifestyle or special skills are just examples and specific common characteristics
cannot be observed, it can be said that within a corresponding social group
celebrities generally differ from the social norm and enjoy a high degree of public
awareness. Last but not least, celebrities act as spokespeople in advertising to
promote products and services (Friedman 1995)

Brand preference in soft drinks sector:

William R. George (1999) reveals purpose of study of factors responsible for

brand preference in soft drink industry, increasing competition more, due to
globalization is motivating many companies to base their strategies almost entirely
on building brands. Brand preference means to compare the different brands and
opt for the most preferred brand. This brand preference is influenced by various
factors. In the identification of factors affecting the brand preference, it was
concluded that Brand persona is the most effective factor that affects the brand
preference. This Brand persona deals with the personality aspects or the external
attributes of brand, thus it can be said that consumer prefer any brand by looking
at the external attributes of a brand.

Colour and flavour rule consumer preferences:

 Donnelly (1995) said intensity of colour and the flavours are the key drivers
behind consumer acceptance of soft drinks. But packaging and labelling are not as
important for winning over consumers, according to findings published in the
journal Food Quality and Preference, The study involved consumers at different
stages of development and highlights the importance of adopting a “sensory
marketing approach,” said the researchers from French research organisation
Adriant, the University of Rennes. “Companies need to continuously innovate to
maintain market leadership,” wrote the researchers. “When the market is
overloaded the challenge consists in creating innovative products able to attract
and satisfy consumers.”“This experiment showed the feasibility of the proposed
multi-sensory design method based on mixed qualitative and quantitative
approaches.” The study also demonstrates the importance of flavour and colour
selection for new products. The global flavours market was been valued at some
US$18bn in 2006 (Business Insights). Meanwhile, the value of the international
colourings market was estimated at around $1.15bn in 2010, up 2.5% from
$1.07bn in 2007, according to Leatherhead Food International (LFI). Natural
colours now make up 31 per cent of the colourings market, compared with 40 per
cent for synthetics, according to LFI.

Sense of consumers:

Stephen Daniells (2008) said these four factors were identified for the
formulation: four colour intensities), three flavourings, two label types (soft versus
hard), and two pack sizes (standard versus oversize). By using both quantitative
(hedonic testing) and qualitative (focus groups) approaches, the researchers found
that “the main factors which drive consumer preference for this concept are colour
intensity and flavouring”. Indeed, colour intensity accounted for 43% and flavour
32% of the consumers’ overall liking. “Pack size and label type are taken into
account by the consumer to a lesser extent,” they added. “This methodology of a
qualitative screening associated to a conjoint analysis on relevant sensory
attributes has shown good performances to fit consumers’ expectation: it has now
to be reproduced, as every brand, concept and product is a unique combination
designed for a specific consumer group,” concluded the researchers.

Taste or health:

Beverly J. Tepper (1998) examined the relative contributions of taste and

health considerations on consumer liking and purchase intent of cola drinks. Eight
types of commercial cola drinks were evaluated by 305 adult consumers who also
completed a brief questionnaire on soft drink consumption habits. Data were
analyzed using factor analysis. Results revealed that purchase intent of cola drinks
was strongly related to degree of liking and to several key sensory attributes
including saltiness, drinks flavor and greasiness. These variables emerged as the
first factor in the analysis, suggesting that consumers perceive these characteristics
as being most important in their choice of cola drinks. Second described a health
dimension and was related to respondents' attitudes toward fat in the diet. Third
factor comprised two remaining sensory attributes (color and crunchiness), which
apparently were of minor importance to the respondents. These data suggest that
in spite of current concern about reducing dietary fat, health remains secondary to
taste in the selection of cola drinks for consumers in this population.

Consumer awareness and consumption pattern of soft drink product:

MitaSujan (1990) aimed to investigate the degree of brand awareness of

various soft drink products in relation to background and education of the
household, the consumption pattern of various soft drink products consumed by
respondents in the light of their areas, income levels and education. a sample of200
respondents comprising 100 form rural area and 100 from urban area were taken.
Data are analyzed with the help of mean. The finding of this study reveals that
there is low degree of brand awareness in rural areas, whereas there is a moderate
degree of brand awareness in urban area. The highly educated rural and urban
respondents have high degree of brand awareness for soft drink products, and the
less educated rural and urban respondents have low degree of brand awareness for
soft drink products.