Department of

Business Management
University of Calcutta

ASSIGNMENT

Consumer Behaviour
Consumer Behaviour – Module I

(MBA , 3rd Semester)

Submitted by :-

SUMAN SAHA
C.U. Roll No : 95/MBA/180012
Class Roll No : 12
Consumer Buying Behaviour : Focus of
Vaseline Body Lotion
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.

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).
Robert G. W. 1969. Classified segmentation into two main groups which is demographic
segmentation and segmentation on the basis of consumer perception which comprised Self- perception,
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
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
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.

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 post- consumption
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)
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.