MGBBT0UCT: Understanding Customers – Assessment 1

December 2021-2022

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Consumer behaviour refers to the study of analysing individuals or groups and their
preferences, priorities and thoughts related to the consumption and purchase of
services. It focuses on those physiological and physical activities of consumers that
are directly connected with the decision of selecting and purchasing services and
products. The preference of consumer is directly involved in obtaining, consumption
and regulation of products and services (Moutinho, Ballantyne and Rate, 2011). The
study of consumer behaviour is essential for an organisation like tourism agencies
because it develops an understanding of why people consume the service and which
are the factors of their decision making. Numerous stakeholders invest a great
amount in the consumer behaviour analysis project to identify the nature of
individuals as consumer behaviour influence the decision of stakeholders. This
essay establishes the factors micro and macro aspects of consumer behaviour in the
context of the tourism sectors.

The micro aspect of consumer behaviour focuses on the individual decision-makers

such as local stakeholders, competitors, consumers, suppliers or local government.
Understanding consumer behaviour, the microanalysis focuses on specific
information of customers such as desirable services, consuming histories and
preferable brands. The micro aspects of consumer behaviour identify that the
psychology of customers is influenced by their surroundings. The behaviour of
customers and their decision making is changed by the activities of the market.
Furthermore, the study of consumer buying behaviour plays a significant role to the
agencies to understand what services need to release in the market (Cohen, Prayag
and Moital, 2014). For example, the Marshallian model stated that individual
consumers choose their expenditure on services that will offer ‘greatest satisfaction’.
Individuals’ greatest satisfaction depends on their taste and price. The Marshallian
model offered some essential behavioural hypotheses on consumer behaviour such
as, the lower the value of any services ensures the higher rate of consumption
(Laesser and Dolnicar, 2012). Micro aspects of customer behaviour deal with a solo
element of a situation as well as have a narrow focus on overall market. In this
context, agencies need to develop data-based logical analysis rather that theory
based investigation (Wang and Davidson, 2010). Furthermore, micro analysis is
constructed on the behavioural assumptions. For example, in the Stimulus-response
model, the customers are considered as a problem solver and decision maker and

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the service providers are influenced by the thoughts of consumers (Bello, Halim and
Alshuabi, 2018). The marketers are aware of the consumers’ responses. These
responses are the key element of developing market areas such as the tourism
industry.

Kim and Fesenmaier (2017) stated that sometimes consumers take irrational and
emotional decision for consume any service. The marketers who understand the
irrational and emotional behaviour of the customers can offer the best service. In the
context of tourism sectors, this understanding plays a vital role in developing the
value of market. Especially, the emotion of tourists is significantly influenced by their
after-visit experiences, satisfaction and value of the service (Jeong, Kim and Kim,
2020). The tourist marketers and organisations consider the level of emotion of the
consumers and the effort to provide enjoyable services. Another study by Kaplanidou
and Gibson (2010) showed that the stimulus-response theory is widely used in sport
tourism, where emotions are thoroughly related to consuming the service in future.
So the study of consumer buying behaviour plays a major role for the vendors. The
marketers influenced several attempts of the consumers which are connected with
their psychological orientation and economic dimension. In micro aspects of
consumer behaviour, the personal factors indicate individuals’ curiosity and feelings
which is influenced by the culture (Pantano, 2011). On the other hand, social factors
like friends, family or social media influence the service and activities of markets.
Analysing the micro aspects of consumer behaviour also helps the vendors choose
in which way they should present their services (Nash, 2019). In this way, the
marketers gain the perceived value and loyalty of the consumers. There have some
factors that cannot be modified or controlled by the marketers. Brand value is one of
them, for example, influencing consumers’ choices and behaviour. So it can be
mentioned that the micro aspects of consumer behaviour enhance the thoughts and
ideas of the vendors in which way they ensure their optimal situation in the
marketplace.

The macro aspects of consumer behaviour deal with a large scale of consumers’
thoughts and ideas that affect the decision of organisations and agencies. The macro
aspect focus on not only individual behaviour but also cultural influences, social
class and social group influences (Bruwer and Gross, 2017). Cultural influence
defines as a set of tradition, customs, knowledge and habit of the individuals. This

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characteristics are attained by the individuals as a member of society. So analysing
the macro aspects of individual behaviour, the vendors have to analyse the cultural
influences of the market. For example, the motorbike market in Asia and West
promotes different strategy for their marketing. In West, motorbike is promoted as an
individual ride product because of its availability and personal demand. On the other
hand in Asia, the motorbike industries promote their marketing as ‘family vehicles’ for
the family-oriented culture. In the context of the tourism industry, the marketing offers
are promoted based on the income of the individuals. The higher the income rate of
the people, the better facilities are provided in the tourism industry. On the contrary,
in the developed country, tourism agencies offer budget-oriented packet for the
customers because of their limited economic growth. Therefore, social class
represents another important determiner for the marketers. The family background,
education, occupation of the individuals are the key element of social class (Petit et
al, 2017). For example, not all individuals have the capacity to take the service of the
airline in Asian countries than the West. So tourism agencies follow the cultural
behaviour of their targeted individuals. Sigmund Freud stated that people determine
their own feelings and thoughts influenced by the surroundings. These feelings and
emotions are derived from unconscious mind and individuals have no control over it
(Han, 2020). In macro environment of marketing, the marketers and stockholders try
to control over the emotion of individuals by altering marketing atmosphere.

The agencies try to influence individuals’ interests by producing different

advertisements and promotional offers in the tourism sector. People may attract to
their service and influence their thoughts and beliefs for consuming. In The Nicosia
model of consumer behaviour emphasis on the connection between the marketers
and the consumers through advertisement (Vogt, 2011). When individuals get
massage from the markets, they feel interest to consume the service. In addition to
this model, the marketers able to reach their massage but they have to wait for their
response. If the individuals find any conflict with their beliefs, they may not response
as expected. The Bettman Model of consumer understanding describes that the
customers change their decisions on the basis of limited information. The customers
rarely analyse market for choosing and not interest in the competitors or complex
policy, furthermore, to avoid this issue the customers choose to select services in an
easy way (Nash, 2019). In the tourism sectors, the customers are attracted with the

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advertisement and lucrative offers rather than competitors and aftermath situation.
Sport tourism is the best example of this model. In the current pandemic Covid-19
situation, the t20 world cup 2020 was held with the presence of supporters. In this
context, consumers preferred the splendour of the world cup rather than the
aftermath of the pandemic. Nowadays, it is considered that the macro trends of
marketing will develop with advance facilities. The impact of technology creates a
vast opportunity for both consumers and vendors (Woodside, 2017). For the
availability and accessibility of the technology, the power of consumer is establishing
in the offline and online.

In the recent competitive market, the marketers and tourism agencies emphasise the
consumer behaviour study from the micro and macro level. In the information from
microanalysis, the data will help the marketer to decide the initial stage. In the
tourism and hospitality management industry, micro aspects of consumer behaviour
discuss how personal choice and decision are changing day by day. Unlike micro
aspects, macro aspects focus on the maximum possible customer in a wide angle. A
successful macro analyser ensures the longevity of a project. In this essay, the
theories and theoretical models are discussed which is conducted by different
business organisations. The tourism sector should conduct customer behaviour
analysis from the micro and macro aspects to sustain in the contemporary
competitive market.

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References

Bello, T.A., Halim, F. and Alshuabi, A.I., 2018. The relationship between market
orientation dimensions and performance of micro finance institutions. Journal of
Marketing Management and Consumer Behavior, 2(3). Pp. 18.

Bruwer, J. and Gross, M.J., 2017. A multilayered macro approach to conceptualizing

the winescape construct for wine tourism. Tourism Analysis, 22(4), pp. 497-509.

Cohen, S.A., Prayag, G. and Moital, M., 2014. Consumer behaviour in tourism:
Concepts, influences and opportunities. Current issues in Tourism, 17(10), pp. 872-
909.

Han, S.S., 2020. A factors effecting online social decisions in online consumer
behavior. The Journal of Distribution Science, 18(3), pp. 67-76.

Jeong, Y., Kim, E. and Kim, S.K., 2020. Understanding Active Sport Tourist
Behaviors in Small-Scale Sports Events: Stimulus-Organism-Response
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Kaplanidou, K. and Gibson, H.J., 2010. Predicting behavioral intentions of active

event sport tourists: The case of a small-scale recurring sports event. Journal of
Sport & Tourism, 15(2), pp.163-179.

Kim, J.J. and Fesenmaier, D.R., 2017. Tourism experience and tourism design.
In Design science in tourism, pp. 17-29

Laesser, C. and Dolnicar, S., 2012. Impulse purchasing in tourism–learnings from a

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Moutinho, L., Ballantyne, R. and Rate, S., 2011. Consumer behaviour in

tourism. Strategic management in tourism, 2(2), pp. 83-126.

Nash, J., 2019. Exploring how social media platforms influence fashion consumer
decisions in the UK retail sector. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An
International Journal. pp. 23.

Pantano, E., 2011. Cultural factors affecting consumer behaviour: a new perception
model. Euromed journal of business. pp. 28-30

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Petit, O., Spence, C., Velasco, C., Woods, A.T. and Cheok, A.D., 2017. Changing
the influence of portion size on consumer behavior via imagined
consumption. Journal of Business Research, 75, pp. 240-248.

Vogt, C.A., 2011. Customer relationship management in tourism: Management

needs and research applications. Journal of Travel Research, 50(4), pp. 356-364.

Wang, Y. and Davidson, M.C., 2010. A review of micro-analyses of tourist

expenditure. Current issues in Tourism, 13(6), pp. 507-524.

Woodside, A.G., 2017. Solving the core theoretical issues in consumer behavior in
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