Today's society is characterized by consumption and consumers are offered endless amount of choices. This has developed thanks to society's susceptibility to consumption. Market competition is increasing constantly, which forces companies to evolve more and more in order to get a good knowledge of the consumer. A committed company can adapt and develop different marketing strategies using the knowledge of consumer behavior, thereby acting as a competitive tool that strengthens their market position. Products that brings forth a certain behavior of the consumer, such that the consumer will be prone to spend more time in searching information, refers to as high involvement products. During the decision making process, the consumer can be influenced by everything from past experience to perception of personality. The study is designed using only primary data and the survey is based on open interviews with five consumers who have made a purchase of a high involvement product within the last month. With the help of theories and previous research, the collected data analyses some of the different factors that can influence the consumers during the consumer buying decision process of a high involvement product. A clear connection can be found between consumer buying decision process and the different characteristics which are reflected in the study's theory chapter. The most recurrent attributes that the consumers have been affected by the purchase decision process first step, appear to be also upcoming in the following stages. The most frequent factor, as consumers proved most affected by are groups. Primary groups, in the form of parents, family members and friends, returning several times at all of those asked consumers purchase decision process. The reason can be that the feeling of trust from the costumer’s side is higher in the primary groups, while there may exist lack of trust for retailers as they may seem to act for company or personal gain.

The physical and social space in which a consumer finds herself is a large influencing factor on product evaluation and decision-making (Solomon & Rabolt, 2004:434). De Klerk (1999) states that, although most clothing consumers have a preconceived idea about where to go shopping for clothing and which type of clothing is desired, the final decision-making takes place within the store where consumers need information about the clothing products in order to evaluate the quality and to be able to make the final decision. It is said that retailers need to spend enough money, space and time on fitting rooms as the fitting room can be seen as the point and place where most apparel-based decisions are made (Lee & Johnson, sa:2). Fitting rooms are one of the critical areas in clothing stores; this is where the consumer tries on apparel products, makes evaluations about the products, and decisions to buy these apparel products or not (Rea, Mang & Underhill, as quoted by Baumstarck, 2008:12). The research problem of this study is that in order for consumers to evaluate apparel products effectively and to make apparel buying decisions with which they can be satisfied, the fitting room experience plays a role. However, it is not known how consumers evaluate apparel products’ quality and how the fitting room experience should be in order for the consumers to evaluate the apparel products’ quality effectively. Therefore the purpose of this study was to explore and describe the role of the fitting room experience in Mzansi youth female consumers’ evaluation of apparel products’ quality. The retail experience entails the aesthetic (stimulus, emotion and cognition) as well as functional (synchronising impressions, layout, space, service, furniture & fixtures) aspects. Evaluation of apparel quality comprises intrinsic, extrinsic and behavioural characteristics. The behavioural characteristics include the apparel products’ functional (durability, comfort and maintenance) and aesthetic (stimulus, emotion and cognition) qualities. The justification for conducting this research was that this research could lead to the generation of new information. This information may be used by retailers to enhance the fitting room experience in order to make it easier for consumers to evaluate apparel products’ quality, so that the most appropriate apparel buying decisions can be made and customer satisfaction may be increased. The confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm was used as theoretical perspective for the study. This paradigm was integrated with the literature and the relevant concepts to form the conceptual framework which directed the study. This study was conducted qualitatively where the aim was to explore and describe the phenomenon. Phenomenology was used as strategy of inquiry. The Mzansi youth female consumers, who are part of the Black Diamond consumer group, were used as unit of analysis for this study, as the literature indicates that the Black Diamonds are the fastest growing consumer group within South Africa. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to accumulate the participants of the study. Fifteen females took part in this study. Fortunately data saturation did occur, so no more participants were needed. The researcher used unstructured interviews to gather data as well as a photo-elicitation technique. The photos were used as an external stimulus in the interview process. This ensured data with depth and breadth. Two interviews (approximately 30 minutes each) were held with each participant. The second interview was only conducted after each participant had completed a specific task. The data was analysed by using the five steps suggested by Yin (2011:176). The findings showed that the fitting room experience does play a crucial role in the Mzansi youth female consumer’s evaluation of apparel products’ quality. Furthermore it showed that the Mzansi youth female consumers do have clear expectations regarding the fitting room’s aesthetics and functionality, and also how these two elements should interact and should be in order for the Mzansi youth female consumer to be able to evaluate the apparel products’ quality effectively. The findings further showed that when these expectations are not met by the actual fitting room experience it leads to the Mzansi youth female consumer being dissatisfied and therefore stopping her evaluation of the apparel products’ quality or even leaving the store. Therefore this study came to the overall conclusion that the fitting room is the place where the final decision to buy or not to buy is made, and where decisions about possible future visits are made, irrespective of the rest of the retail environment. It should therefore be treated like the queen of the apparel retail environment, and certainly not like the Cinderella. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Consumer Science / unrestricted

As digitalization has evolved over the years, the need for automating procedures for faster results has become stronger. Marketing automation is a software that automates an organization’s marketing activities. Its purpose is to deliver a firm’s personalized messages to the existing and potential customers. Consequently, marketing automation is closely related to content marketing which’s main attribute is to raise brand awareness, and having a higher brand awareness can ultimately affect the buying decision. It has been discovered that there is a lack of research in the existing literature about marketing automation and more specifically in how marketing automation can affect the buying decision by raising brand awareness. Therefore, this thesis aims to examine how marketing automation affects the buying decision through brand awareness and external branding. The theory was outlined by six concepts which were marketing automation, external branding, brand communication, brand awareness, and buying decisions. These concepts led the authors to create six different hypotheses in order to find a link between them.  The data were collected through a self-completion questionnaire, therefore a quantitative study with an exploratory purpose was conducted. The results from the 118 respondents of the questionnaire suggest that marketing automation influences the organizational buying decision by enhancing brand awareness. Moreover, marketing automation has a positive impact on external branding which also has a positive effect on the buying decision. Concludingly, this suggests that marketing automation does positively affect the B2B buying decision through brand awareness and external branding.

Idag finns ett stort utbud av varumärken och ölsorter på Systembolaget och detblir allt viktigare att synas bland alla konkurrenter i butikshyllan. I takt med attkonkurrensen ökar räcker det inte längre att enbart kunna distribuera ett gott öl,även paketeringen behöver vara intressant och trovärdig.Syftet med studien är att undersöka om det visuella uttrycket påverkarkonsumentens val av öl i butik. Syftet är dessutom att undersöka om det finnsett segment konsumenter av målgruppen som köper öl, som är mer eller mindrebenägna att köpa öl med ett mer okonventionellt visuellt uttryck i etiketten.Studien förväntas även kunna påvisa gemensamma drag för konsumenten i dettasegment.Följande frågeställningar togs fram för att utreda detta ämne: vad i öletikettensvisuella uttryck påverkar konsumentens val av öl i butik, eller finns det andrafaktorer som är avgörande för köpbeslutet? Samt: om det finns, vad ärutmärkande drag hos konsumenter som har en tendens att köpa öl med ett merokonventionellt visuellt uttryck i etiketten? För att svara på våra frågeställningargenomfördes en kartläggning med hjälp av en webbenkät riktad tillkonsumenten samt semistrukturerade intervjuer med sakkunniga inombranschen.Resultatet visar att ölets karaktär påverkar konsumentens köpbeslut mest menäven etikettens design, pris och förpackning är avgörande påverkansfaktorer påköpbeslutet. Illustrationer och andra konstnärliga inslag i etiketten är detvisuella uttryck som påverkar målgruppen mest. Den typiska konsumenten är32 år, bor i stad, har en högre utbildning, är student och/eller heltidsanställd, harmat och dryck som intresse, är nyfiken och spontan och uppfattas somlivsnjutare av andra.Slutsatsen är att det finns ett segment konsumenter som är målgrupp för öl medett mer okonventionellt uttryck i sina etiketter. Vi kan även se att detta segmenthar gemensamma drag i form av intressen och dylikt. Studien pekar även på attdet visuella uttrycket påverkar konsumentens val av öl i butik. / Today, there is a large selection of brands and beers at Systembolaget and it’sbecoming increasingly important to be visible among all competitors on thestore shelf. As competition increases, it is no longer enough just to be able todistribute a good beer, even the packaging needs to be interesting and credible.The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the visual expressioninfluences the consumer's choice of beer in the store. The purpose is also toinvestigate whether there is a segment of consumers of the target group whobuy beer, who are more or less inclined to buy beer with a more unconventionalvisual expression in the label. The study is also expected to demonstratecommon features for the consumer in this segment.The following issues were raised to investigate this topic: what, in the beerlabel's visual expression, affects the consumer's choice of beer in the store, orare there other factors that are crucial to the purchase decision? Also: if thereare, what are the distinctive features of consumers who tend to buy beer with amore unconventional visual expression in the label? To answer our questions, asurvey was conducted using a web survey addressed to the consumer as well assemi-structured interviews with experts in the industry.The result shows that the nature of beer influences the consumer's buyingdecision the most, but the label's design, price and packaging are also decisivefactors in the buying decision. Illustrations and other artistic elements in thelabel are the visual expressions that affect the target audience most. The typicalconsumer is 32 years old, lives in the city, has a higher education, is a studentand / or full-time employee, has food and drink as an interest, is curious andspontaneous and is perceived as enjoying life by others.The conclusion is that there is a segment of consumers who are the target groupfor beer with a more unconventional expression in their labels. We can also seethat this segment has common features in the form of interests and suchlike.The study also indicates that the visual expression affects the consumer's choiceof beer in the store.