Significance of customers in business including tourism - Solved sample

Introduction

According to Kotler, the person who purchases the good or service does so for a specific reason (Qazzafi 2020). The decision to buy the product is not based on the intention to use it. It is also possible to buy the item for someone else.

For instance, a person is not required to be a consumer in order to ask a friend or anyone else to sell them something. As a result, the customer is the only one who purchases the good or service.

Consumer behaviour plays a key role in determining a company's value, including in the tourism sector (Soares and Sousa, 2022). There is a lot of value in consumer behavior, and the essay includes various examples of it. Similar to this, the essay will comprehend the distinction between a customer and a consumer. The final section of the essay will discuss how information technology can be used to assess consumer behavior.

• Difference between customer and consumer
• significance of customer in businesses including tourism
• definition of consumer behavior
• Different types of consumer behavior

1. habitual consumer behavior
2. variety seeking consumer behavior
3. complex consumer behavior
4. dissonance reducing consumer behavior

·         Role of information technology (IT) in understanding the behavior of consumers

Difference between customer and consumer

Customer

The person who purchases a good or service is the customer (Solan 2020). The customer's decision to purchase a product is based on their preference for a particular brand, even though it is not a requirement that they will use it.

Customers can be brand loyal because they are buying the product for a specific user, rather than for their own personal use (Nguyen and Nguyen, 2021). Customers can also be leaders or heads of departments, depending on a specific product, store, or other business entity for which they are purchasing the product. Because they haven't used the product or service themselves, customers may be careless when making purchases, or they may make wiser choices because of their user experience.

Consumer

The consumer is the person who purchases goods and services for their own use. The customer is therefore distinct from the consumer in that the consumer is the one who purchased the product, taking into account that the consumer is going to use or utilise the product of the first material; as a result, the decision-making processes between the two can differ (Bukhari et al., 2019).

Consumers choose products based on a variety of criteria and elements, including their unexpected taste for a particular brand. It is due to the fact that the consumer will be the one to use it personally.

Significance of customers in businesses including tourism

Without customers, there is no such thing as business. The businesses are pursued by organisations or even different entrepreneurs. Because, they are aware of the cutting-edge tactics that will draw in the majority of customers and consumers worldwide. Customers hold a significant value in business because without them, no sales of goods or services can be made, and thus no operations can be started (Barquet 2019).

Every business, whether it is selling a specific product or attempting to sell a service, needs customers who can either purchase the product or, at the very least, value it enough to recommend it to others.

Example

The same applies to tourists who want their guides to provide them with better services. Then, they will eventually have favorable comments about the staff members' performance and will work to promote the services themselves by highlighting the tour guide's or particular location's superior performance.

Definition of consumer behavior

Consumer behaviour is the psychology of how a person decides which goods or services to purchase (Sari and Suyanto, 2020). Consumer behaviour as a whole is based on the strategies created, in particular by the company's management, for product promotion and labeling so that it can draw in the consumer or be tailored to the consumer's behavior.

Types of consumer behavior

        i.            Habitual consumer behavior

 

Habitual consumer behaviour is based on a customer's propensity to purchase a specific product from a specific retailer for any brand; this can include a consumer's daily routine of shopping for food or clothing (DUONG et al., 2021). Another factor that affects the way a product is packaged is; such as if the product comes in a package or if the packaging has a nice look or feel to it then it would increase the sale of that particular item.

      ii.            Variety seeking consumer behavior

 

Consumer behaviour based on the behaviour of a consumer who constantly looks for a variety of options whenever the consumer is going to purchase a specific product is known as variety seeking. Due to the growing use of technology, the majority of consumers today are adopting a variety-seeking behavior (Indahingwati et al., 2019). Customers are constantly looking for something unique to buy since the internet has provided many applications for users where they can share their experiences and daily routines over social media.

Today, for instance, there are people who are more interested in technological products. A mobile phone is one of these items, and whenever someone is going to buy a cell phone, there are many options available to them, even within a single brand, to help them decide.

    iii.            Complex consumer behavior

 

The complex behaviour of the consumer who is prepared to purchase a product they have never heard of before is the foundation for complex consumer behavior. When a consumer wants to buy something like a refrigerator or anything else that they have never used or thought about before, it can be difficult for them to understand information and descriptions and they are more likely to turn to other people like agents and other different people (Victor et al., 2018). Therefore, this is the time when a client or consumer needs some and assistance in making a difficult choice.

    iv.            Dissonance reducing consumer behavior

Dissonance consumer behaviour is primarily based on understanding how consumers behave when they repeatedly purchase the same product or brand without recognising the differences between it and competing brands' features. Therefore, it is the purchasing behaviour that is based on the slight variations between various brands. In this situation, decisions to buy can be made based solely on a consumer's brand loyalty and their ignorance of the differences. It may be based on being unknown or being informed enough to know about one brand and continue purchasing it.

Role of information technology (IT) in understanding the behavior of consumers

Understanding complex decision-making processes is the foundation of consumer purchasing behavior (Barquet 2019). It involves comprehending the consumer's actual purchase. Porter consumer decisions can include some parameters of features that can be evaluated by management to determine the degree of complexity and understand the decision to be made because not every choice will result in an increase in sales. Information technology plays a significant role in helping the organisation understand why customers choose to buy a particular good or service.

There is a need to acknowledge that there is a problem, and that the behaviour of the consumer is significant to businesses because it allows for the analysis of the consumer's actual needs. Thus, it enables your company to create its ideal marketing strategies through the internet's platform while utilising technology, such as promotional emails and promotional strategies over the social media platform, using a variety of platforms to sway consumers' attention. It is only possible when consumer behaviour is appropriately analyzed.

Similar research on consumer behaviour has been conducted by organizations (Barquet 2019). The business must understand consumer behaviour in order to determine the dominant goods and services on the market and develop a suitable marketing plan. Similar to the alternative evaluation, whenever a market is cornered by some products, a company may decide to manufacture or produce an alternative product to draw in customers.

Organizations can gain insight into customer purchasing patterns from consumer behavior, which helps them evaluate the value of the product, the store, the packaging, and the method of purchase. It is impossible to deny the virtual reality of shifting consumer behavior. Because, it enables customers to have a variety of real-world experiences by using products and services from around the globe.

It enables consumers to view products or services in person and take pictures of them. This is due to the fact that using a referral from a friend or family member opens the door to numerous other users who have already used the product and services. Because, it's crucial to incorporate information technology. Because consumers are the most visible in the information available on the online platform, there is no doubt that the digital transformation has changed their behavior.

Information technology can be advantageous to businesses overall, including the tourism sector. Because, it is crucial to show consumer behaviour and help them comprehend how to improve their experiences when they see even the destination. Therefore, it is very important for a tourist to know that the destinations are accessible via social media platforms. Any celebrity or other person can be used in the marketing campaign on a variety of platforms to promote the location.

Conclusion

In summation, the focus of the paper was on understanding the definition of a customer—someone who buys a product for a purpose other than using it for personal use. Thus, a thorough outline is followed throughout the paper, which also discusses the distinction between a customer and a consumer as well as the importance of consumer behaviour in various industries, including tourism. On the other hand, various consumer buying behaviours, such as habitual, complex, variety, and dissonance-reducing behaviours, are discussed.

It has shown that the value of consumer behaviour to the organisation is greater. They should conduct thorough research before developing a variety of marketing strategies to draw in customers, as well as a plan to improve the current product in order to produce substitute goods or services. In order to analyse this, the paper has focused on how information technology helps businesses, including those in the tourism industry, draw in customers.

 

References list

 

Barquet, E.A.G., 2019. Analysis of the Consumer Behavior of the Members of the Savings and Credit Cooperatives for the Integration of Electronic Financial Services in the City of Guayaquil. International Journal of Business and Administrative Studies, 5(5), pp.303-311.

Bukhari, S.F.H., Woodside, F.M., Hassan, R., Shaikh, A.L., Hussain, S. and Mazhar, W., 2019. Is religiosity an important consideration in Muslim consumer behavior: Exploratory study in the context of western imported food in Pakistan. Journal of Islamic Marketing.

DUONG, N.T., LE HUA XUAN, Q., PHAM THI, T.D., PHAM, V.K. and LE, N., 2021. An empirical study on consumer behavior towards food and beverage services in Vietnam. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 8(6), pp.297-304.

Indahingwati, A., Launtu, A., Tamsah, H., Firman, A., Putra, A.H.P.K. and Aswari, A., 2019. How Digital Technology Driven Millenial Consumer Behaviour In Indonesia.

Nguyen, P. and Nguyen, L., 2021. A study on game consumer behavior. Management Science Letters, 11(9), pp.2323-2330.

Novita, D. and Husna, N., 2020. The influence factors of consumer behavioral intention towards online food delivery services. TECHNOBIZ: International Journal of Business, 3(2), pp.40-42.

Qazzafi, S., 2020. Factor affecting consumer buying behavior: a conceptual study. International Journal for Scientific Research & Development, 8(2), pp.1205-1208.

Sari, L.W. and Suyanto, A.M.A., 2020. Analysis of consumer preference on choosing e-commerce in Indonesia. Almana: Jurnal Manajemen dan Bisnis, 4(1), pp.38-45.

Soares, D.B. and Sousa, B.B., 2022. The role of communication in consumer behavior in social and nonprofit marketing: the case of psp in Portugal. International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, 19(1), pp.1-13.

Solan, H.P., 2020. Review paper on factors influencing consumer behavior.

Victor, V., Joy Thoppan, J., Jeyakumar Nathan, R. and Farkas Maria, F., 2018. Factors influencing consumer behavior and prospective purchase decisions in a dynamic pricing environment—An exploratory factor analysis approach. Social Sciences, 7(9), p.153.