Consumer and Organizational Behavior

Consumer and Organizational Behavior Name Institutional Affiliate Consumer and Organizational Behavior Question 1. Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is one of the effective theories of communication upon which business organizations can evaluate their consumer’s response to a particular product or brand from the wide range of their promotional activities CITATION Pet12 \l 1033 (Petty, 2012). The essence of product promotion is to increase the consumer’s knowledge of a product and to enhance its penetration into the market for increased sales volumes as well as generation of profits. Achieving the outlined outcomes depends on the ability of the promotional activities to appeal to the interest or attention of consumers and thus persuading or influencing their purchasing decisions in favor of the product in question. According to the ELM MODEL, the message communicated by an advert may take either the peripheral or central route in the thought processes of consumers CITATION Pet12 \l 1033 (Petty, 2012). The central route processing refers to situations where consumers have an existing knowledge of a product and hence have motivational factors to consider in making the final purchasing decision CITATION Pet12 \l 1033 (Petty, 2012). It involves a high level of elaboration as witnessed in Sue’s advertisement approach for the Gillette razor brand in New Zealand. Consumers had prior knowledge of the brand and only needed a reminder of both the quality and functional features of the razor. Instead, Sue’s promotional strategy creates a negative attitude towards the product as it evokes public debate on the sensitive issue of sexual harassment, which may also affect the organization’s image. It would be advisable to capitalize on revitalizing the consumer’s attitude towards the razor using influencers such as Teddy Crews in showcasing the quality and functional features of the product. The advert should focus on provoking a central route processing system among users by providing a precise description of the functions and thus increasing the motivational levels towards the use and preference of the razor brand. Question 2. The steps taken by consumers in their decision-making process include recognition of a problem or need, searching for information concerning the identified product to satisfy the need, evaluating the available options for satisfying the recognized need, purchase of the item or service, and post-purchase satisfaction or dissatisfaction from the same CITATION Sta17 \l 1033 (Stankevich, 2017). Recognition of need refers to the identification of something that consumers find valuable but missing in their lives. Such would be the case for tech-savvy individuals with old phones at the height of new releases of advanced phones with better features as advertised by Ansel. The need for an advanced phone with better quality features to carry out one’s daily phone operations will drive the consumer to search for the newly available gadgets through various platforms. Ansel’s use of billboards along highways, social media apps such as YouTube and other Google platforms function as effective search engines for consumers. Consumers can easily access information about the new phones in the market through the billboard advertisement or bump into the same while going on with their normal browsing activities across the social media platforms and other applications. The information collected from the wide range of platforms provides consumers with different options or alternatives from which to choose their preferred phone with advanced features. Ansel makes use of both the functional and price features of the firm’s new brand of mobile phone and thus influencing consumer’s choice in favor of Advert Co. The consumer’s analysis of the product features, as witnessed from the search engines and evaluation of how the new mobile phone device will satisfy their needs, leads to the purchase of the preferred brand of Advert Co.’s new phone. The level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction after the purchase depends on the consumer’s experience with the product and thus making for the customers’ feedback and review of the same. Question 3. According to the data collected on consumer’s responses to the “functional razor” advertisement, a sample of 45 participants recorded an average score of 4.3 in functional attitude towards the advert. The average 4.3 score in the attitude towards the advert was slightly different from the overall attitude of the same sample of participants towards the brand in the advert with a mean score of 4.6. The difference between the two variables is representative of a standard deviation of 0.3 between the attitude towards the advert and the overall attitude to the brand. The willingness to buy the brand based on the advert’s influence reflected an average score of 4.3. There were no significant differences between the attitude towards the advertisement and the willingness to buy or purchase the brand concerning the “functional razor” advertisement. The mean score for Sue’s “Social topics” advert, on the other hand, produced different results with a 4.6 score on the sample’s attitude towards the advert and 4.3 for overall attitude towards the brand. A negative standard deviation for this case as indicated by the slight variation of 0.3 between the two variables. The willingness to buy the brand further decreased in comparison to the previous draft with a mean of 3.8. Both advertisements had small significant over the consumers’ overall attitude towards the brand. A variation of 0.3 between the two variables for each of the adverts is significant of the small impact towards the consumer’s attitude over the brand. However, Sue’s advert had the biggest impact on consumers’ willingness to buy as indicated by the average score of 3.8 recorded on the same parameter. The willingness to buy reduced by 0.5 following the run of Sue’s advert as it went down from 4.3 to 3.8 for “functional razor” and “Social topics,” respectively. It would be advisable to come up with a functional advertisement with additional elements that evoke positive emotions among the consumers for increased sales of the Gillette brand of razors. Question 4. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions play a significant role in the evaluation of both the employees and consumers’ behavior within a given country or region across the world. Among the six Hofstede’s cultural dimensions include the power distance index, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance index, long-term versus short-term orientation, and Indulgence versus restraint CITATION Hof111 \l 1033 (Hofstede, 2011). Ansel's decision to buy an expensive watch due to his increased income is symbolic of the impact of the cultural differences in consumer behavior. Ansel’s colleague, Gary, further finds it odd that one would buy such an expensive watch as he chooses to stick with his old in-expensive watch serving the same purpose of telling time. Ansel’s actions are indicative of a high score in the sixth Hofstede’s cultural dimension of indulgence versus restraint CITATION Hof111 \l 1033 (Hofstede, 2011). He expresses his freedom to gratify his physical and emotional needs as he enjoys wearing the lavish watch on his wrist, which further makes his fun, especially at his new place of work. Gary, on the other hand, appears to be more restraint in spending money as he is surprised by Ansel’s extravagant spending on the watch despite the small monthly discretionary income from work. The symbolic consumption between the two individuals indicates the presence of cultural diversity with the organization and its influence in their actions and behavior concerning various aspects at both the institutional and individual levels. One may be allowed to make an overall conclusion concerning Ansel’s national culture based on his consumption behavior. The symbolic consumption, for instance, indicates that the Indonesian nation has a high indulgence versus restraint score when it comes to personal gratification of needs CITATION Hof111 \l 1033 (Hofstede, 2011). The Kiwis, on the other hand, come out as individuals who exercise a lot of restraint in their expenditures and thus reflecting a lo...