Task 1:

1. Describe the main stages of the purchase decision making process. In your

answer explain factors affect buyer behaviour. Ans: Consumers are individual and they buy products for personal consumption. Consumer behaviour is the mental and emotional processes and the observable behaviour of consumers during searching purchasing and post consumption of a product and service (Batra & Kazmi, 2004). Understanding buying behaviour is a complex task for every manager. There are various factors which influence the consumer to buy products such as external factor internal factor and also marketing. Consumer behaviour involves study of people buy, what they buy and when they are buying. Buying behaviour is mingled with the consumer behaviour, psychology, culture and society.

If we look the diagram above we can clearly see that in the External factor there are some division like culture, groups and situation which affect the consumer buying behaviour and same goes with Marketing and Internal factors as well. Consumer Decision making process: It is a process which is undertaken by the consumer when buying any products. Consumer purchase decision making process is a problem solving or need-satisfaction process. In order buy any products consumer may pass through a series of steps which is illustrated in figure 2.

Figure: The consumer purchase decision making process ( Blackwee et al (2000) Need: Mostly consumer purchase decision making process starts with when consumer recognizes any needs or problem. This is the vital stage where consumer recognises the needs and decided to buy any products or service. Information search:

After recognizing the problem, consumer now tries to find the solution by asking friends or goes to market to seek advice. Source of information can be including personal, commercial or personal experiences. Evaluation of alternatives: Before going to purchase consumer is always try to seek for the alternatives. Consumer evaluates various features, option which might solve the consumer problem or need. Evaluation also can be seen as a process which is depicted below diagram:

Fig: The evaluation system ( Lancaster 1

Purchase: In this stage consumer try to select the brand and retail outlet to purchase the desired product. Mostly consumer prefers to purchase less valuable products from nearby retailer and high valuable products from renowned retailer. After deciding where to buy, consumer step forward to buy to the products. Post purchase Actions: The art of affecting marketing is to create customer satisfaction. Most of the business wants repeat customer and they are also rely on it. If the customer is able to receive desired results from products that time there is a tendency that customer turns in to a repeat customer. On the other hand, if the products does not satisfy the consumer need s that time consumer will not go for future purchase from same products or retailer.

1. For individuals and markets identify theories that have been produced which explain buyer behaviour.
2. How does brand loyalty, corporate image and repeat purchasing connect together.

Ans: for the consumer Band is symbol of product, a promise and also a signal of quality. There are some bands, by remembering their name consumer gets a satisfaction as they are satisfied with their products and services. Brand lives in the minds of people by their products, their service and what people have experienced over time. To create brand loyality and resonance consumer experience with the product must meet the functional needs of consumer. Sometime people use a specific brand only for the social social image. A consumer becomes loyal when he or she repeatedly buys the same brand products. Loyal customer can be for the good quality of the brands or can be only brand name which allows the consumer to buy the products. According to Teich (1997), loyalty is developed over period of time and loyal consumers are the repeat consumer that means consumer are re-buying of a brand, regardless commitment. Customer satisfaction has frequently been suggested to be the leading determinant of loyalty is said by Lam and Burton (2006). No Brand want to loose their corporate image as this is one of the main attraction for consumer and Brand knows that as long as can stay with image, they will always have loyal consumer which are the repeat consumer. At conclusion, we can say that brand loyalty, corporate image and repeat consumer are solely inter-related with each other.

Task 2: Q. Evaluates the different methods of market research. Ans: Research is all about the enquiry to find and acquire new knowledge. Marketing research helps the organization to make decision by providing relevant, accurate and timely information. Marketing research can be conducted by two major ways. They are a) Qualitative research b) Quantitative research Qualitative research: According to Ghauri et al (2006), qualitative research is an open ended, in-depth and seeks unstructured responses which able to evaluate and reflect the persons inner mind, feelings on the specific subjects.

Quantitative research:

According to Creswell (2003) quantitative methods are used chiefly to test or verify theories or explanations, identify variables to study, relate variables in questions or hypothesis, use statistical standard of validity and reliability and employ statistical procedures for analysis. This type of research involves with the numerical information from surveys. It is quite useful to get the information from the survey if the survey contain meaningful question and the responder respond truthfully. Qualitative research 1. The aim is complete and with detailed description. Quantitative research 1. To classify the features and construct statistical models in an attempt to explain what is observed is the main aim of quantitative research. 2. Researcher is not fully focused or aimed what he or she is looking for 2. Researcher is fully focused and know what exactly what he or she is looking for. 3. Recommended during earlier phase of research projects. 5. In this method researcher use in-depth interviews and also use participants observation. 4.Recommended during latter phase of research projects 5.Here researcher use questionnaires, surveys etc.

Q. For these methods discuss their validity and reliability Ans: According to Kirk and Miller (1986) there are three types of reliability which can be reffered to quantitative research. a) The degree to which a measurement, given repeatedly, remains the same b) The stability of a measurement over time c) The similarity of measurements within a given time period (pp.41-42) Regarding questionnaire which is one of the methods of quantitative, Charles (1995) said that results of questionnaire remain quite similar over a period of a time and these attitudes of this method referred to as stability.

According to Joppe (2000), validity in quantitative research is all about to find to measure or how truthful the research results are or is research element helping the researcher to find the research objectives? The validity in quantitative research is about construct validity which was said by Wainer and Braun (1998). Examination of trustworthiness is crucial to ensure the reliability in qualitative research. Regarding this Seale (1999) said that, trustworthiness of a research report lies at the heart of issues conventionally discussed as validity and reliability (p.266). Q: for a business sector e.g food retail identify two companies and using some secondary sources describe the context they are trading in. Mintel may be of help. Ans: Below there is a brief description on how Tesco and Sainsbury trade in market. Tesco: 5 year rolling business plan is the Tesco business strategy of long term growth and returns for shareholders. Tesco divided its business into different units which follow their objectives to fulfil the aim. Tesco make sure that employee have good understanding of companys strategy, value, positive attitudes and expected performance. Tesco use internal communication process to make sure that the entire employees have good knowledge on what is going on and also about their responsibilities to fulfil Tescos goal. Performance of Tesco is monitored by both internal and external audit. Audit committee reports to board each year on its review of the effectiveness of the internal control systems for the financial year. All the information above was secondary data which can be found in Http://www.tescoplc.com. Sainsbury: Sainsburys value remains just as relevant in the current economic climate though customers are concern for price as well as environmental issues. Beliefs of Sainsbury is that by considering environment as well as ethical issue is another way to do the business and this is the way they are meeting their customers need. Sainsbury closely works with their stakeholders and always try to understand the issues and their points of view. Sainsbury gives importance to conduct a research to find out the position of organization in the market. Here author used the secondary data which can be found in http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk.

Task 3:

In the first quarter of its financial year, 14.6% sales growth was reported about UK supermarket Giant Tesco.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4618061.stm).

Tesco proved its strong establishment over all rivals in the supermarket wars. Tesco not only known for its food products, they are also quite strong brand as a non-food market as well. Compared to the Tescos last year financial performance, it is clearly shown their growth and the profit was 2bn than previous year. According to Tesco, The core UK business has shown continued growth, our international operations have delivered a strong start to the year, our non-food market share has improved and our retailing services have also performed well. Tesco not only successful in UK only, they have more than 2,300 stores in 13 countries and 5.5% grew their international sales on a like-for-like basis. (http://news.bbc.co.uk) . Tesco is now looking forward to expand their business in many more countries and want to establish more in nonfood areas such as CDs, clothing and electrical goods. Now Tesco wants to open in new branch in India, this is what there next plans. According to Tesco, they are doing better than recession. Tesco also believes the worst of the recession is over and is sounding bullish about the year ahead. Sir Terry said: "The recovery has taken hold. UK customers came out of recession in summer of 2009 and these are not moments but long-term trends as world economies recover." (http://www.freshplaza.com).

Tesco, which operating their business more than 14 countries very successfully even though they have quite a lot competitors. Tesco focus on customer needs by providing various range of products. Tesco maintained their popularity by listening to customers and responding to their needs. The grocery market has changed a lot regarding their range of products or price. Before 1995, Sainsbury was the strong supermarket but in 1995 Tesco overtook Sainsbury and able to occupied 15.6% of the UK grocery retail market by 2001. Tesco gained the belief of the consumer by consistently providing good service with good reasonable products. 'Tesco's strategy is far ahead of Sainsbury it has grown a strong UK core, and then rapidly developed international stores, built good non-food sales, expanded into retailing services and exploited ecommerce successfully' Data monitor, food retailing analysts. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Tescos one of the strongest competitors was Sainsbury which strategic errors was one of the main reasons for its downfall in 1995. Morrison, which is another competitor of Tesco, struggling to absorb Safeway and in 2004, issued its first profit warning in 37 years. Asda is another strong competitor of Tesco and can be said that Asda is the only super market with the potential to become throne in the side for Tesco. Clothing department of Tesco and Asda are quite famous

in UK. Tesco claims that its clothing ranges, Cherokee, Florence and Fred, are the fastest growing in the UK both in value and in volume, with a 4.4% market share. In spite of many rival organizations, Tesco is still able to run the business successfully.

Tesco is giant strong supermarket in UK retail market. Tesco feels that UK has diverse population and for this reason ethnic products getting more importance. Tesco always tried to fulfil the demand of the consumer and that is why Tesco decided to introduce some ethnic products to increase their range of products as well to keep their loyal customer. Till now Tesco successfully introduced Asian, oriental, AfroCaribbean, Kosher, Polish and Halal foods. Tescos Asian Halal section is strong way to keep the existing customer as well as to attain new customer. (http://www.justfood.com) By introducing ethnic products Tesco gained more popularity as well as more regular customer which is the biggest asset for any organization. Tesco also introduce halal chocolate for their Muslims consumer which was produced by Ummah foods. By appealing to Muslim consumer Tesco extended their range of ethnic products as well able to retain their consumer. Threats which Tesco can face regarding ethnic products could be the quality of the products as they are imported by Tesco from various countries to fulfil the demand of consumer. Another can be, Tesco had to employee people from particular region to find about the products as well as Tesco had spend money for market research.

How ethnic products influence the consumers as well as how ethnic products help the Tesco is important to find out. It is quite proven that ethnic products help the Tesco to gain more consumers with lots of profits. Organization cannot make future plan without having clear idea about products especially if it is about ethnic products. Market research always helps organization to find their organizations position as well as to find out any products affect on consumer. To find how the ethnic products will affect towards Tesco, researcher can take the help of qualitative research method. Qualitative research will help the researcher to find out about consumer reaction towards Tesco and its ethnic products. Researcher also can take the helps of Quantitative research methods as well. If the researcher take the help questionnaire process than it will help the Tesco to make future plan. Questionnaire can accomplish by randomly chosen people or can be on focused group of people. It is all about how the questionnaire is set up to meet the Tescos aim.

Task 4:

For my research I have choose Tesco as my company. Tesco has variety of ethnic products range and has diverse consumer. In my opinion, to find about consumers response towards ethnic products, I can take the help of questionnaires. I have selected 5 questions which contains different question to find about how consumer feel about ethnic products. Participants are randomly chosen with different age range. Participants were quite enthusiastic to answer the questionnaire and I have received a high number of positive responses. After conducting the survey, it is clearly shows that people are really appreciated the ethnic products. Some participants were really pleased as they get chance to taste different countries products. Tescos halal section increases the number of loyal consumer. During the survey all the participants detail were kept confidential as long as they were agreed to openly participate.

An example of Consumer satisfaction survey sheet is blow:

Survey on Tescos Ethnic products

Name: 1. What do you think about Tescos ethnic products: a) Dont know b) It is a good start c) Very good 2. Do you want Tesco to introduce more ethnic products? a) Yes, Tesco should introduce b) I dont think Tesco need to introduce ethnic products c) Dont care as long as I can get my products 3) Do you think Tesco gained more popularity because of ethnic foods? a) Agree b) Strongly agree c) Disagree d) Strongly disagree 4) Tescos Halal products gaining more loyal consumer. a) Definitely b) Dont know what is halal c) May be Age

5) Are you satisfied what is Tesco offering as ethnic products? a) Agree b) Strongly Agree

c) Disagree d) Strongly disagree

Thank you for your corporation.

References: 1. Seale, C (1999). Quality in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 5(4), 465-478)
2. Wainer, H and Braun, H.I (1998(. Test validity, Hilldale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum

Associates.

3. http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/cr09/index.asp?pageid=21 4. (http://www.just-food.com/news/tesco-extends-ethnic-food-range_id113419.aspx 5. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/migrationtemp/2802222/Tesco-faces-threat-to-

land-bank.html
6. http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=62319#SlideFrame_1). 7. Http://www.tescoplc.com/plc/ir/corpgorv/riskmanagemen 8. http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/cr09/index.asp?pageid=21.