Women and Consumer Behaviour
INTRODUCTION
Consumer behaviour can be defined as “the acts of individuals directly involved in obtaining and using economic and services, including the decision process that precede and determine these acts.” (Engel et al, 1968, p 5)
Buyer behaviour refers to “the acts of individuals directly involved in the exchange of money for economic goods and services and the decision process that determined these act. “(Engel et al, 1968, p 5).
Both consumer and buyer behaviour differ amongst the population as people have different wants and needs. Therefore it is untrue to say that ‘working women buy products and services essentially the same as non working women.’ No two people are similar as physiological factors, cultural forces, economic considerations, interpersonal relationships, personality, self-concept, and learning are variables that shape goals and influence. (Runyon, K.E. 1980).
However consumers can be put into groups if they have similar characteristics, i.e. if they come from the same social class, background, age, lifestyle. Working and non-working women can be segmented in two separate groups. They are different because of many influences. Some are external due their social environment. What they do with these social stimuli involves a psychological process that differs from each other. These social influences and internal processes may evolve into a decision by the consumer to make a purchase or not. (refer to table 1). (Engel et al, 1968). As both groups possess different characteristics, it is necessary for marketers to understand that they will have different wants and needs.
Table 1. Factors influencing behaviour
Personal Psychological Cultural Social
Age & Lifestyle Motivation Culture Reference groups
Occupation Perception Subculture Family
Economic Learning Social class Roles & status
Personality Beliefs
Self concept Attitudes
Cultural
Engel et al, (1968) suggest that culture refers to the unique patterns of behaviour and social relations that characterises and distinguishes it from other societies. Culture is not inherited genetically, it is rather the result of learning. Parents, teachers and schools help indoctrinate each generation into a cultural decision...
... middle of paper ...
...viour.’ Pub-Holt, Reinhart and Winston, Inc. (1968,)
Runyon, K.E. ‘Consumer Behaviour and the Practice of Marketing.’ 2nd edition. Pub-A. Bell and Howell Company (Northern Arizona University) (1980).
Adcock, D., Bradfield, R., Halborg, A., Ross, R., ‘Marketing Principles and Practice.’ Pub-Pitman Publishing (1993).
Journals
“What Every Marketer Should Know About Women.” Harvard Business Review 56, 3 (1978): 73-85
European Business ASAP (Jan,1997 v37 p54)
European Business ASAP, (September,19,1991 p5)
Spiro, R.L “Persuasion in Family Decision Making.” Journal of Consumer Research 9, 4 (1983): 393 – 402
Bellante, D., and Foster, A.C. “Working Wives and Expenditures on Services.” Journal of Consumer Research 11 (1984): 700-707
Bartos, R. “The Moving target: The impact of Women’s Employment on Consumer Behaviour.” Journal of Marketing 41, 3 (1977): 31-37.
Internet
WWW.Mintel.com - Women 2000, ‘Women and Shopping: The Role Of Convenience.’ (11/01/99)
WWW.Mintel.com – Women and Finance (27/10/99)
WWW.Emerald.com. Bartos, R. “The Moving target: The impact of Women’s Employment on Consumer Behaviour.” Journal of Marketing 41, 3 (1977): 31-37.
As early as the nineteen fifties women were identified and targeted as a market. In a consumer culture the most important things are consumers. Advertisers convinced homemakers that in order to be a “good” wife and mother you must have their products and appliances to keep a clean and perfect home. The irony of this ploy is that consumers must have money to buy, and so trying to improve their quality as homemakers, off into the workforce women went. This paradox left women ...
Carter's (1984) interesting argument regarding young women and their relationship to consumerism and the market owes much to early feminist critique. Carter insists that the "image industries" are acutely aware of gender difference which operates as a "dominant variable for the construction of consumer groups." She takes the youth subculture theorists to task for not recognizing this. In this case, she focuses on the female consumer in post-war (West) Germany (Gray and McGuigan, 1997, p. 92).
Stern, Barbara B.; Holbrook, Morris B. “Gender and Genre in the Interpretation of Advertising Text”. Gender Issues and Consumer Behavior. Ed. Janeen Arnold Costa. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1994.
Hetherington, K. (2009) ‘Consumer Society? Shopping, consumption and social science’, in Taylor, S., Hinchliffe, S., Clarke, J. and Bromley, S. (eds)
...ement purchase behaviour. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 31 (7), 732-745. [Online] Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy4.lib.le.ac.uk/journals.htm?articleid=17099905 (Accessed: 15/03/2014).
For centuries, women has always been dominated and controlled by men. Society has viewed women as the weaker gender and relied on men in order to survive. As time went on, things have changed, society has became more advance and so are women. During the World War II, women have increased their role in the society by replacing the men’s in the labor market and also increased their status in the society. Today, the growth of women in the work force continually to raise and so are their status. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the National Bureau of Economic Research, statistics have shown 58.1% of women were in the labor market in 2011 (USBLS) compared to employment rate during the war was 35% of women in the labor market in 1945 (Bussing-Burks). So what factors must have interested women to move from being housewife to the work force? Explanations can be derived through observations of their relationship in the household, their relative status in the society, and their rationality in decision-making.
Schiffman, L., O’Cass, A., Paladino, A., D’Alessandro, S. & Bednall, D. (2011). Consumer behaviour. (5th ed). Australia: Pearson.
Within the study Marketing, a crucial concept to understand is Consumer behaviour. Consumer behaviour according to (Ha & Perks, 2005) can in some ways be described as an Umbrella term / Concept which contains many other sub-topics and concepts that stem from the original concept of Consumer Behaviour. (Soloman, Russell-Bennet, & Previte, 2016) States that Consumer Behaviour is the study pre-Consumption, Post Consumption and Consumption phases of a consumer 's decision-making processes.(Soloman, Russell-Bennet, & Previte, 2016) however, states that the study of Consumer behaviour takes into consideration more than just what is being offered to the consumer in terms of goods and services and the processes involved pre, post and during consumption.
Women's Role In The Economy “The Transfer of Women’s Work from the Home to the Market”. “The transfer of women’s work from the household to commercial employment is one of the most notable features of economic development” (Lewis, Historical Perspectives on the American Economy P. 550). In colonial America, there was a distinct sexual division of labor. Men were property owners and heads of households. A man’s responsibilities included staple crop farming, hunting, and skilled craftsmanship in order to produce commodities for market (An Economic History of Women in America, pp. 1).
„X Neal, C. Quester, P. and Hawkins, D. (2000), Consumer Behaviour: Implications for Marketing Strategy, McGraw-Hill: Sydney
The term models of consumers refer to general view or perspective as to how and why individuals behave as they do. Specifically, models of consumers have been examined in terms of the following four views:
2. Today marketers can collect and analyze data about consumer behavior, one person at a time; this is the relationship approach to marketing.
Shiffman, L.G. & Kanuk, L.L. 2010. Consumer behaviour. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River. NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Peter, J. P., & Olson, J. C. (2010). Consumer behavior & marketing strategy (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Mooij, M.de. (2004). Consumer Behavior and Culture, Sage Publications, Page 102, Page 119, Page 274, Page 275