Customer Behaviour
Consumer behaviour is an essential topic of discussion and research for every business looking forward to grow in any particular market. Companies have the task to understand their target market and put resources together to study their nature and much more about their relationship with the product they produce. Consumer behaviour may be affected by various factors such as age, educational background, social status and gender. Therefore business should understand that products might differ in marketing styles as they target different people. It implies that the marketing strategies used for different products within the same company may differ maybe because of the target consumer. Consumer behaviour entails the study of how individual customers or organizations select goods, buy, and use or dispose ideas to satisfy their needs. Generally, consumer behaviour refers to the actions of consumers in the souk and the motives of these actions. These behaviours also encompass the attitude with which consumers receive a service designed for their benefit. Consumers might give a beneficial service a cold reception and end up missing the opportunity to reap the best out of it. Scenario where these behaviours have been experienced are many from which this essay will focus on one.
Activities for older adults are programs that offer a wide range of activities and lines from which older adults choose for their daily routine. The programs were established during the government of the 44th president of the United States with the help of the First Lady and a team of medics who were interested in the health and wellness of older people. The decision makers for the program included the government, nonprofit organizations and the health care department. The program is meant to offer services such as education, creativity, social, music and range of various physical activities. It is established to run in group setting to encourage regular attendance, personal interactions, and community involvement of the older people within United States. The older people experience social isolation which the programs have activities with a potential to reduce. The isolation in most cases is as a result of poor health outcomes experienced with age. The expected beneficial outcomes of the programs include improved health, reduced isolation, better quality of life, reduced falls, higher levels of activity and improved mental health. The service has been received in the society differently by the consumer group due to their diverse behaviours encountered in marketing of the nonprofit services. This essay will focus on analyzing the activities for older people services in light of potential customers’ consumer behaviour.
Primary decision making forces that influence older people in the programs
It has been well established that physical activities are beneficial for people of all age groups. The activities in the resistance training program help reduce the symptoms of chronic illness, they increase the strength and bone density of individuals and improve the ability of the engaging in activities for daily living. Despite all these advantages and many others, the older people have other forces that influence their decision whether to join or remain excluded from these activities. Statistics show there is an upward trend in the number of older people in the society and those above sixty years are expected to be at least two billion by 2025. It also shows that less than 15% of the older people population participates in the resistance programs two times a week which is the minimum recommended frequency according to the guideline. There are various researches that have been conducted to ascertain the barriers and motivators to older people participating in these programs. The reports show that the old people differ in perspective and knowledge concerning the need for resistance program activities. Some older people believe the activities are good and helpful while other still believe the activities are not necessary at their age.
The consumer behaviour of the older persons towards the resistance training programs is also affected by different microeconomic factors. Microeconomic factors involve resources availability and usage and how it impacts different individuals’ ability to engage in activities and businesses. Some of these economic factors include personal income, income expectations, family income, the amount of savings, customer credit and the amount of liquid assets the consumer possess. Most old people are retired and might not have a stable source of income to cater for the cost of engagement in the resistance training programs. Therefore, most of the potential consumers consider the economic situations before getting involved in these activities. Essentially, they should also create a way to of accommodating potential consumers who might be discouraged by economic factors from participating in activities for older people. The psychological factors that influence consumer behaviour of old people include perception, learning, attitude, and motivation. Motivation is a key factor towards encouraging the consumers to engage in the programs because it speaks to the internal needs of the consumer. It then develops a drive to take up an activity, like it and benefit from it. Marketers should understand how to motivate consumers and equally deal with the barrier factors such as negative perception and attitude.
The motivator factors that influence the decision of this consumer group towards these activities include a desire to prevent disability or deterioration. The group of old people who are knowledgeable about the importance of physical activities in maintain physical strength find it as a reason to engage in resistance training activities. While encouraging older people to engage, the trainers should help them consumers how the activities influence their physical ability. It is because the benefit can act as a decision making force to join in the program. The second primary motivator is feeling more alert, better concentration, and building muscles. Groups of old people who like body building activities can be easily encouraged to join resistance training programs to maintain or rebuild or begin building their physical posture. In many cases older people who are starting to lose the ability to concentrate get the motivation to join in these programs to stop the progress of the situation and improve their conditions. Others are motivated by the progress of their fellow age mates who have improved conditions than their own situation. Older people in most cases exhibit these consumer behaviours while they seek to evaluate a service or activity. They are easily motivated by the success of their fellows to engage and seek an improvement of their condition.
On the contrary, there are several barriers which hinder the decision making forces of older people concerning physical activities in resistance training programs. Some of these barriers are common myths which suggest to them that physical exercise is no longer appropriate for their age. The common myths include my myths such as older people are physically weak and frail. The myth concludes that that for that reason older person should refrain from activities that engage their bodies fully. The misconception states that as the body ages it does not require much physical activity. The reason is because it is hazardous and might injured injure the frail body. The myth that only sustained and vigorous activity is useful to the body has discouraged older persons because they cannot manage to be as vigorous with the activities. Some of the old people fail to join the physical activity programs since some of them have a higher cost to maintain. In other cases, many sports activities attract young adults in large numbers which make the older people to feel unwelcome to engage. The older people feel that the programs have failed to attract them to the programs and therefore, they resolve to sedentary activities such as socializing and reading. These are of the primary forces to decision making against activity programs for older persons by the potential consumers of the service.
The influence of heuristics and experiential engagement in the programs
There are several heuristics that have been adopted to encourage older people to engage in the resistance training activity programs. The marketing officials of the programs have studied the behaviours of the consumers and designed the methods to improve the involvement levels. Some of these strategies include finding the older people and holding conferences in which they are encouraged on the importance of signing up for the programs created for them. In these seminars the marketers bring up subjects of education in which they share knowledge of the importance of physical activities with their target consumers. This presents them with an opportunity to reason with the consumers on how much these programs are meant for their benefit and not profit making. One of the theories of consumer behaviour is reasoned action model. The theory was created by Fishbein an Ajzen in the late 1960s. It centers its analysis on the significance of pre-existing attitudes in the process of decision making. The principal of the model speculates that consumers act on a behaviour service or product with the intension to develop or receive particular outcomes at the end. Therefore according to them consumers are lucid actors who make decisions to act in their greatest interest.
With reference to the theory, marketers of the program have learnt different lessons which they implement in their work. One main lesson is that when marketing, the marketers and consumers must associate the service with positive outcome. The strategy has helped to improve the content of marketer during their marketing rallies. They now focus on the specific positive impacts of older people engaging in resistance training activities. As a result, more consumers have been encouraged to join the programs to experience the impacts and improve their wellbeing. For instance, many older persons have joined physical activity programs after they heard it has a potential to reduce the signs and symptoms of chronic diseases. They joined the program for that specific reason to boost their health status which follows the theoretical speculation of choosing to act in their best interest. The second lesson leant by marketers is the importance of moving the customer through the service channel. It implies that the marketers of the service should avoid long lags in their marketing process. It is because the long lags between initial intervention and completion of the program activities gives the consumers time to talk themselves out of the activity outcome. Therefore, the marketers have learnt to be consistent in reminding the consumers of their purpose and reason of starting with the activities. The strategy has increased perseverance and proactivity of the program members, which has reduced the rate of members dropping out of the program.
The EKB model expands on the reasoned action theory by laying out a process used by consumers when they are making decision to take up a product or service. The process includes five steps that are very applicable in the case of encouraging older people to join physical exercise programs. This is because for these people to make a decision they have to consider several personal factors on how, when, why and what they will reap from the program services. Marketing personnel have had a difficult time in marketing the services before understanding the place of these five steps in the final decision of the consumer. The first step is input, where the consumer listens and absorbs various marketing services they learn from the media and marketing seminars. In this step the customers collect data of what is happening in the different ventures to which they have been led. They take time in the second step to process the information they concerning the different physical activity services they have encountered. The consumer compares the different information input collected from service programs to the desired outcomes and the experiences they have had in the past to determine whether there is need to seek the services.
The third step in this model is decision making after a period of thought on whether the program services are essential. The step is based on rational insight the consumers has about the programs and the credibility of the supposed outcomes of the activities. At this stage the consumers can be influenced by marketers and envisions of themselves after they have engaged in the program services. The consumers in the target group who intend to be more fit and stronger in future days incline towards embracing the programs services. Older people of the contrary opinion might end up disregarding the services in this step. The step of external influences gives the marketing team a second chance after input step to influence the consumer. In this initial stage the marketers should provide the consumer with enough information about the programs. It helps the customer to keep the program under consideration when need for physical activity arises. In the fourth step which is external influence, marketing is important to echo the input that the consumers had initially heard. The marketers have been using lifestyle brands of older people who are still strong as a result of engaging in the programs. The lifestyle brands instill a desire in the consumers to feel, look and act in a certain way after benefitting from the activities. The theory has helped marketer improve their strategies in attracting the older persons into the program of health, wellness and physical activities.
The final theory that has been relevant in creating strategies of marketing the activity for older people program is the motivation-need theory. The hierarchy of needs put forward by Abraham Maslow sends a ripple impact throughout the psychological society. In his theory Abraham states that people act to fulfill their needs based on a priority system with five parts. These needs include survival, safety, love, self-esteem, and actualization respectively due to the order of importance. Marketers of these programs have been able to use this theory efficiently in attracting consumers to the services they provide. The program rallies and seminars have been able to incorporate self-esteem, self-actualization and safety as a necessity in life. The marketing personnel have been able to make awareness time, a time to establish the place of physical activity in the safety, esteem and actualization of any older person. The strategy has made various potential consumers to join the program with the hope of being safer and becoming better in terms of esteem and actualization. The myths that older people are frail and weak has been countered by the fact that physical exercise helps the individuals have stronger bones and even become stronger which is safe. The motivation of these needs have made the programs easy to attract and retain consumers.
The experiential consumption on consumers has brought a positive impact on consumers of these program services. It has provided evidence of effectiveness to those consumers who still doubt whether it is the right decision to make. Some of the experiences older people have had is the ability to do their activities without depending on helpers because their bones and muscles have remained strong and functional. Eighty percent of the people engaging in these activities have remained healthy in their older ages compared to those who do not engage in the programs. One greater advantage of these programs is that members are taught how to choose their diet correctly to boost their energy, immunity and remain young. The mental status and health of the members is several time higher compared to those who choose sedentary activities. Members of the programs are less likely to experience periods of tress since they are less isolated, they have frequent personal interactions and are involved in various community activities. These people are led by the programs to living normal and active life which eventually improves the quality of their lives. The kind of experiences they share with potential members when they get a chance encourages older persons to sign up for the activities with the desire to live better lives. The program has been using the strategy of members sharing their experiences with the target population which has successfully helped in marketing the programs and increased the number of people embracing it.
Consumer behaviour information for these program services can be developed using theories and consumers’ state and experience. The marketing personnel and program ambassadors should also motivate older people not to give up on their desire to live actively in old age. They should as well be educated on the importance of exercising and keeping fit even in their age. Education is important since some of the older people still cling on the myths and misconceptions they learnt that exercise is not fit for older people. Those who believe that exercise makes them weak and is hazardous should be informed that it is through exercise that bones grow strong. This will help us to have active older people societies who do not depend entirely on help to carry out their personal activities. The consumers should as well be helped to connect to the true outcomes of these activities to encourage them desire to be part of the programs. There has been a higher rate of growth in the number of older people embracing the programs in the recent years. Program services marketers should focus on encouraging the member of these programs to become consistent as they look forward to positive results of the activity for older people program services.