Impact of Psychological and Sociological Drivers on Consumer Buying Behaviour: Focus of Vaseline Body Lotion

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1 International Journal of Accounting & Business Management Vol. 2 (No.1), April, 2014 Page: ISSN: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Research Paper Impact of Psychological and Sociological Drivers on Consumer Buying Behaviour: Focus of Vaseline Body Lotion Ishola Abdulfatai Idomi FTMS College, Technology Park Malaysia Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ishola.abdulfatai.idomi@gmail.com Abstract Psychologically when asked what motivate or why consumer buys the item, goods and services, probably there will be difficulties in explaining what influence consumer s decision on a specific product, though as a consumer the main motive behind everybody shopping or activities is to obtain goods and services that will meet their needs and wants. Marketing mix is a strategy which comprises Product, Place, Price and Promotion; this play an important role in consumer buying behaviour for instance, Ivan Pavlov classical conditioning theory of learning process show how learning process of a product could influence the consumer buying behaviour. Purpose - This paper has been done to examine how marketing mix influence consumer buying behaviour towards Vaseline body lotion through psychological and sociological drivers. For over 135 years Vaseline brand marveled at skin and it has been part of cultural norms of some societies like Indian, African etc. The Vaseline product including Vaseline Hand and Body Lotions, Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, and Vaseline Men, etc. (Unilever, 2013.) Design/methodology/approach The approach is by reference to and synthesis of other author s version of consumer behaviour, psychology, sociology and marketing which is distilled into a simplified method. Findings The findings or outcome of the study are summarized into components, starting with consumer motivation, learning and memory of consumer towards Vaseline body lotion, influence of Promotion and effect of promotion in consumer s attitude change, price strategy for recognizing consumer needs, cultural influence and family to shape consumer purchase decision, Place as a strategy to influence consumer buying behavior, consumer decision making process on buying behavior towards Vaseline body lotion. Originality/ value - This paper will explain how Unilever Global Corporation applied marketing mix as a strategy to influence their consumer buying behaviour probably to promote purchase and consumption by consolidating psychological and sociological drivers to maximizing their sales and dominance of the market share. Keywords: Psychological Drivers, Sociological Driver, Consumer Buying Behaviour 1. Introduction Consumer buying behaviour is usually influenced by both psychological and sociological driver s at the most basic level of the phenomenon of consumption, the process by which people or organizations purchase, use and disposed products and services is to satisfy needs and wants. The processes by which consumers decide which products and services they will select can be highly complex (Solomon et. al., 2007). Psychological forces is an interdisciplinary concept which combines perception and attention, information processing, motivational determinants of consumers buying behaviours, attitude formation and change, and influence of advertisement on consumer responses, this also include consumer decision making process, (Jansson and Catherine, 2010). ISSN: Page 96

2 Robert G. W Classified segmentation into two main groups which is demographic segmentation and segmentation on the basis of consumer perception which comprised Selfperception, products perception and values perception. Unilever Vaseline body lotion is for the general populace, including both sex and all classes of the people, though women are identified as potential customer for their market target based on the market data analysis whose shows that 88% of female are using body care worldwide. Product positioning were attributed to individual mind and it is a complex set of perceptions, impression and feelings about a products that occupies consumers mind in relative to competing products, (Kotler, et al, 2007, pp. 365). However, perceived quality is given consumer judgment about a product s overall excellence or superiority and is different from objective or actual quality, it s a higher level abstraction rather than a specific attribute of a product, (Valarie A, 1988). Consumer Motivation for Vaseline body lotion: Motivation is basically referred to as consumer behavior, since motivation is a psychological driving forces within an individuals which impels them to action and this produced by the state of tension that exists as a result of an unfulfilled need, (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2010, pp.106). Maslow s hierarchy theory is adopted to evaluate consumer decision making process i. Esteem needs: Self confidence and recognition from members of society ii. Social needs: Be more comfortable, get more attraction and senses of belonging iii. Safety needs: skin protection and healthy skin Esteem Needs: This can be referred to as egoistic stage of Maslow theory where individual need is center on ego, status, self-respect, and feeling of self-confidence, prestige and recognition for accomplishment. This is outwardly directed need that is include prestige, reputation, status and recognition from other member of the society which can be derived by using Vaseline body lotion, this is the perception, expectation of the consumer while using Vaseline body lotion, (Hiriyappa, 2009). Social Needs: This is referred to individual needs for love, acceptance, affection and friendship and its motive are socially attach to Vaseline body lotion at this stage, it is belief that by using Vaseline body lotion, the body will attract many people and their will be more affection, acceptance and satisfying human relations with other people and this are more motivated by the love, (Hiriyappa, 2009). Safety Needs: This stage is where individual is concern about the security and safety of their needs, that is consumer are focuses on physical safety and security of their body or skin. It became the driving force behind an individual s behavior and Vaseline body lotion is guaranty all this by their motor Feel good, Does good, (Hiriyappa, 2009). Learning and Memory of consumer towards Vaseline body lotion. Consumer learning is the process that continually evolves and changes due to new knowledge acquired which can be gained through reading, discussions, observation and thinking or from actual experience, (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2010). What consumer knows, think and feel about Vaseline body lotion come as a result of learning process. According to Pavlov theory three basic concepts were derived from classical conditioning theory; repetition, stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination. Classical conditioning Process stage through TV advertisement has helps Unilever to shape their consumer buying behavior; what they learn before advert (unconditioned stimuli), during advert (unconditioned stimuli) and after advert (conditioned stimuli). Obviously classical conditioning learning process influenced ISSN: Page 97

3 consumer buying behavior because some consumer salivate and remember that they need some specific product by seen the advertisement. 2. The influence of Promotion towards consumer s attitude formation Prior promotional purchases can actually influence the consumer buying behaviour more than the prior brand usage and in a situation where the effects of usage dominance are greater than promotion enhancement that means promotions can be used as an effective method for building the market share, (Bridges et al. 2006). However, consumer create attitude formation as a result of their frequent experience gaining from other product that is produced by Unilever company (brand) which is favorably repeating satisfaction to the consumer, unconditioned stimuli. Primary mean by which consumer formed attitude towards goods and services is through direct experience, Vaseline impact Attitude formation on consumer strongly based on personal experience, direct marketing, mass media and internet influence, Unilever is distinguish Vaseline body lotion on the basis of its qualities attribute by strategically adopted non-price promotional method such as advertising, sales promotions, coupons, free gifts and special orders so as to create attitude formation for consumers. The Effect of promotion in consumer s attitude change (Cognitive Dissonance) for Vaseline body lotion. Cognitive dissonance is very much related with attitude change, dissonance occurs when two cognitions (knowledge or thought) are inconsistent with each other, and if consumer is trying to make balance in their cognition. According to cognitive dissonance theory, want of harmony or inconsistency can occur when consumer have conflicting thoughts about an attitude object and if dissonance occur after purchase is called post purchase dissonance, (Sandip S. 2012). For the purpose of this study, consumer s attitude change will be evaluating by the advertising method of promotion and how it s influence on consumer buying behaviour. Let s look into this customer complained about Vaseline lotion from India. For Instance, according to Complaint Board, (2012): (One Maharashtra complained about Vaseline product I bought Vaseline healthy even tone 350ml and 200mls Body Lotion at Phumulani Mall in Olifanstsfontein (Tembisa) Shprite Checkers. It was so thick that I couldn t even put my finger inside the jar so I took a table spoon to mix it so I can be able to use it. To my surprise it gave me terrible rush. I was very disappointed as I was looking forward to great results because I like glowing even skin tone not dull dry skin, and because I trusted the brand hence I went for it). However, in the case of post purchase dissonance attitude change are the frequent outcomes of an action or behaviour of the consumer; promotion method can be a variety that can open to consumer to reduce post purchase dissonance because it can reduce the unpleasant feeling created by the consumer thought, (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2010., pp. 271). Promoting Vaseline body lotion as marketing mix is actually influencing consumer buying behaviour, Unilever purposely including messages in their advertising specifically in order to aim at reinforcing consumer decision by complimenting their Vaseline body lotion (product), and to ascertain the confidence in Vaseline body lotion, to providing detailed brochures on how to use Vaseline body lotion by offering stronger warranty or guarantees. 3. Sociological drivers elements: The Vaseline body lotion Price strategy for recognizing consumer needs. Price positioning strategies with technique called target costing can be apply, because woman are the core target audience of Vaseline body lotion and this make it easy to adopt ISSN: Page 98

4 price/quality relationship method of pricing to influence social class status of the society. Vaseline body lotion of high price categories are best suit the taste of high class status of income earner, while the low price is basically strategic to attract all different of social classes of the target market in the society. There is constellation of specific lifestyle among social classes according to consumer researcher, evidence found shows that belief, behaviours, attitude and activities tend to differentiate the members of the class from upper-upper class to lower-upper class, upper-middle class to lower-middle class and to lower-lower class, (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2010). Cultural influence and family to shape consumer purchase decision Cultural belief, value and customs are continued to be followed as long as people derived satisfaction. By the time people are not satisfying with the specific standard of the culture they replaced or modified it with another so that the resulting standard will be in shape with the current needs and desires of the people, this reflect on how consumer make decision on what to buy and where to buy it, ( Schiffman and Kanuk, 2010). Cultural values can influence consumer behaviour through purchase and consumption and the meaning is transferred into the life of the consumer, cultural meaning is drawn from a cultural world (Vaseline activity, individuality, mastery, and performance). Place as a strategy to influence consumer buying behavior (Vaseline body lotion) Distribution channels referred to as place in marketing come next after the product, price and promotion has been decided by the company, it concerns with getting right products with a right price to the right consumers, at a right place and at a right time. Unilever marketers used indirect channels of distribution as an effective way in distributing Vaseline body lotion to the consumer so as to make it available for consumption in a right place and at right time. Unilever adopted indirect distribution channel, Vaseline body lotion is distributing through intermediaries such as discount store, a specialty retailer and a special wholesaler, (Wong et al. 2011). However, this method of distribution can influence consumers buying behavior through peers and as well as reference group. Group dynamics can be related to interaction and forces influence between group members in a social group, (Nair and Suja, 2009). 4. Consumer buying behavior towards Vaseline body lotion (Decision making process). In order to understand consumer buying behavior as well as decision making process of consumers towards Vaseline body lotion, there is need to combines both psychological and sociological drivers of consumer behavior which mostly had discussed earlier on the previous part of this course work. Table below illustrate the stages of consumer decision making. ISSN: Page 99

5 Sources: adopted from: Blackwell, 2005 The process in the table above consist of six stages which are; need recognition, Information search, pre-purchase evaluation of alternative, purchase, consumption and postconsumption evaluation that are group in to dissatisfaction and satisfaction; Unlike, Solomon model of decision making stages that classified in to 5 stages. Need Recognition: Unilever always help to solve consumer s problem of recognizing their need and want by adding value to Vaseline body lotion through commercial TV which show excitement of owning Vaseline product. According to Solomo s model, the advert made by Vaseline will help consumer to solve their problem recognition which always occur between differentiating the actual and desire state of need, (Solomon, M., 1996). Information search: To buy a product consumer need to get more and accurate information on different alternative products that available in the market, maybe consumer has bought some product previously that didn t satisfied his/her want, so they need information about new brand, (Blackwell,2005). Though, Solomon s model stated that consumer pay more attention to product information by talking to friends, visiting stores or through YOUTUBE, (Solomon, M., 1996). Unilever Vaseline body lotion provide more information through various advertisement; for example, company web, internet advertisement like YOUTUBE, brochure attached to their pack, warranty and guarantee on their package. Pre-purchase evaluation of alternative product: consumer need to narrow down their choices by evaluating the brand. For example, price of the product, color, size etc. Unilever offered Vaseline body lotion in a various package, many variety of color and different size of package at a convenient place anytime. Solomon s model stated that at this stage consumer evaluate the product before selecting the alternative choice, but consumer only concern about problem solving which occur from their problem recognition. In other word consumer is looking for problem-solving benefit from the product, (Solomon, M., 1996). Purchase: this is to understand how consumers choose; what types of decision is made by the consumer? Choice heuristics and provide communications that encourage brand decision; for example, consumer buying behaviour can be influence by place such as internet or store, warranty on package, (Blackwell, 2005) ISSN: Page 100

6 Product choice/purchase: This maybe be refers to decision making implementation stage based on Solomon model; He stated that at this stage consumer actually implement their purchase decision, after selecting item or brand to buy and a specific outlets though their choice might be based on heuristic, (Solomon, M., 1996). However, heuristic is an efficient rules that people often used to make judgement and their decision, it is a mentally shortcuts that normally focusing on one aspect of a complex problem and ignoring other problem, (Lavidge and Steiner, 1961; Blackwell et al., 20011). Consumers are expected to use their cognitive resources in forming beliefs (cognitive component) towards the attributes of Vaseline body lotion, which in turn may result in the development of an overall feeling (affective component) in the sense of liking/disliking Vaseline body lotion (product). Consumers with a positive attitude toward Vaseline body lotion are expected to be more willing to buying it considerably than consumers with a less positive attitude toward Vaseline body lotion. Post-purchase use and evaluation: this is an expectation stage to decide if Vaseline body lotion is good but if not that mean the customer we have to suffer for post-purchase dissonance, it might be called buyer s remorse. Meanwhile, cognitive dissonance occur when customer largely become psychologically and emotionally distress about the product been purchase, though this will definitely affect the Vaseline body lotion; however, If this occurs that mean the product did not meet the expectation of the consumer and consumer may decide not to patronize them again. Unilever offer a warranty along with instruction booklets also toll-free troubleshooting line to call if this occurs. Disposal of the product: Unilever package can be recycle since consumers are more concerned about the environmental issue, this can be easily disposable after used, (Blackwell, 2005). 5. Conclusion Unilever as a brand are able to effectively succeed in promote their product (Vaseline body lotion). Moreover, utilization of effective marketing strategy are really influence consumer buying behaviour through the means of both psychological and sociological drivers such as advertisement, motivational forces, information process, peer group, family and cultural influences which played major impact in consumer purchase decision. Functional value are serving consumer needs to their satisfactory level; this is actually motivating and reflecting on consumer attitude formation change which bring to consumer attention and perceiption about Vaseline product, as a result of this drivers consumer buying behaviour were fully influenced, this paper can be subject for future research. References Blackwell, R Consumer Behaviour. 10th ed. Massachusetts: South-Western College Pub. Caroline, T. and Jennifer, D Market Segmentation. [e-journal] 2 (3), pp Available through: web.ebscohost.com database [Accessed 2nd November, 2013]. Complaint Board, Vaseline: Consumer complaint and reviews about Vaseline. [Online] Available at: < [Accessed 26th November, 2013] Flemming, C and Hanse, S Emotions, Advertising and Consumer Choice. [e-book] Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press. Available through: < onsumer+response+to+decision+making+process+by+solomon&f00=all&p01=%22con sumer+behavior%22+or+%22psychological+aspects%22+or+%22consumption+%2 8Economics%29%22+OR+Consumers+OR+%22Decision+Making%22&f01=subject> [Accessed 26 October, 2013]. Gutman, J. and Reynolds J. T, Laddering Theory, Method, Analysis, and Interpretation. [ejournal] 24 (4), pp Available through: web.a.ebscohost.com database [Accessed 28th November, 2013] ISSN: Page 101

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