The study of consumer behaviour is a dynamic and longstanding challenge to continuously understand the factors which influence consumers’ buying behaviour. Though internal (for example attitude, motivation and learning) and external factors (marketing stimuli) are equally important, the focus of this study is on external influences and market trends. Consumer markets around the world have recently seen the increase of ethical products. Those products that are differentiated by their moral or sustainable values and attributes, for example environmentally friendly products or body lotions not tested on animals. The provision of these products is a result of organisations’ realisation that in order to increase their customer base, their values must be centred on doing good for the community as well as the environment and should be visible to consumers. For a number of organisations this means marketing the ethical values and attributes of the products they provide so that consumers will ultimately choose their products. However, in order to understand consumers’ willingness to pay for these products, marketers need to understand the price perceptions consumers have towards these products. The purpose of this study relates to this and aims to determine the influence that the marketing of ethically framed personal care products, as an external influence, has on consumers’ willingness to pay for these products. More specifically, this study aims to determine whether South African females are willing to pay more for ethically framed personal care products than for ordinary personal care products. This will be done by specifically assessing their reference, fair and reservation price perceptions. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Marketing Management / unrestricted

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (D Com (Econometrics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Economics / unrestricted

The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of shopping mall developments on consumer behaviour in township areas. Local and international research indicated that shopping mall developments in low-income communities result in several benefits for consumers, such as convenient location; a larger variety of goods offered, lower prices than small retailers in the area and better quality of goods, amongst others. Studies also indicated that the choice of the preferred supermarket/shopping mall is not a rational decision based only on pricing, but on a compromise of satisfying economic, social and psychological needs. A two part mixed methodology, which employed both qualitative and quantitative methods, was adopted. This included semi-structured interviews with retail experts and interview-administered questionnaires with the primary retail shopper in the household. The sample population was Alexandra Township in Gauteng, South Africa. Findings revealed that low-income consumers prefer to shop from the closest shopping mall instead of small retailers/Spaza Shops because of the lower prices and a larger variety of goods offered. However, evidence suggested that consumers prefer to shop at a shopping mall that represents their desired lifestyle, therefore shopping mall developments in township areas, do not fulfil the social and aspirational needs of low-income consumers. For this reason, low-income consumers continue to purchase from malls in urban areas.</pCopyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / unrestricted

This research explores the online purchase decision-making behaviour of consumers by introducing a comprehensive approach that covers two different viewpoints: a) individual-level behaviour and b) market-level behaviour. Individual-level behaviour enhances our understanding of how purchase decision-making processes unfold and whether they differ for different individuals. Drawing from decision analysis and consumer behaviour literature, four segments of online consumers are introduced based on two individual factors: decision making style and knowledge of the product. Archetypal behaviour of each segment is identified addressing variations in the process and process outcome for different groups. In addition, market-level behaviour investigates the actual behaviour of consumers in relation with different retailers in the market; it is based on the aggregated behaviour of 60,000 individuals. Not only behaviour in a particular website but also cross-visiting behaviour of consumers comparing multiple retailers is examined. For this purpose, a multi-level mixed-method approach is designed. Video recording sessions, think-aloud method, interviews and questionnaires are used to capture the dynamic decision-making process, segment consumers and measure the outcome of the process at individual level. Business process modeling approach and an adaptation of path configuration method are selected for modelling the process. Data from an Internet panel data provider, comScore, is analyzed to explore the market-behaviour of consumers visiting multiple retailers. A set of measurement frameworks, that have been developed to fully exploit the research potential of Internet panel data, are designed for this research. Two sectors of banking and mobile network providers are selected; this research methodology enables a much more detailed evaluation of online behaviour and can be applied in other consumer markets.A conceptual model of online purchase decision making is proposed synthesizing theory from three disciplines: consumer behaviour, decision analysis and Information Systems. This model is able to explain the complexities and dynamic nature of real-life decision-making processes. The results of individual-level analysis show that the synthesized model has an enhanced descriptive power. Purchase decision-making processes in the two sectors appear to be highly complex with a large number of iterations, being more unstructured in banking sector. The process is found to be influenced by the both individual characteristics and each segment exhibits a certain typology of behaviour. Behaviour in terms of the way stages are performed is identical across the two sectors; whereas it differs in relation to intensity of decision-making cycles, duration of the process and the process outcome, being a function of product/ market characteristics.The findings of market-level analysis revealed that banking websites are preliminary visited for using online banking services; despite the high portion of visitors, the intensity of research in these websites is low. On the contrary, mobile network providers attract a higher portion of consumers with purchase intentions and enjoy more intensive research. Consumers have a small consideration set in both sectors; and consider certain banks/providers rather than using the accessibility of all alterative on the Internet. It is evident that comparison sites play an important role in both markets affecting the behaviour of online consumers. Finally, the research stresses the use of the Internet as a complementary channel offering specific benefits in each sector.

The South African wine market is undergoing changes at both the producer and retail levels, such as the influx of the new brands and new consumer demands with respect to health, biodiversity concerns and ethical issues. Although South Africa has no dominant wine culture and South Africans are predominantly beer and brandy drinkers, the industry has to develop the local market, especially the black consumer market. The most powerful marketing trend in the South African economy in the last 10 years has been the emergence and growth of the black middle class, increasingly referred to as Black Diamonds, which have emerged as the strongest buying influence in the economy. This has seen the propagation of a westernized culture in local communities. There is an overwhelming desire among the latter group to have access to a lifestyle they believe is their right. Making inroads in understanding this market presents a good opportunity since this is an important economic group. Black wine drinkers have to overcome individual families' attitudes to wine drinking. It is high on the industry’s agenda to swing the emerging black middle class market from high-end whiskies, cognac and beer, to wine while at the same time promoting the wine culture because this market is still hugely untapped. They also seek to vanquish the illusion of wines as a drink for white people by focusing on young upcoming black professionals as a target market. The data in this study was collected from an integration of a consumer behaviour survey (through a choice based conjoint analysis undertaken at the Soweto wine festival in Johannesburg); as well as personal interviews with industry stakeholders and reference group discussions. The study found that although there is limited consumer knowledge about wines and low levels of brand awareness, black consumers are willing and yearning to learn more about wines as they view them as an aspirational lifestyle beverage. The study also asserts that women are significantly more adventurous than their male counterparts in terms of experimenting with wines although the latter exhibit a higher willingness to pay for what they consider to be premium wine brands. Black consumers are still unsure about what wine attributes are important in choosing a wine. The industry needs to increase its efforts in educating and understanding this diverse market as the cultural attitudes towards wine are indeed changing. The study identified four wine consumer market segments among the Black Diamonds. The industry’s target market should be focused on women and the “Start me up” age group as they show the highest willingness to learn about wines and pay for brands that they consider to be premium brands as has been the case in all new wine markets. While still focusing on the 4 P’s of marketing, various new brand communication platforms can be explored to reach this market. These include co-opetition, extended service offerings, wine tourism and e-marketing. The success of the domestic market will be determined by new innovative insights into this market and complimentary market strategies. / Dissertation (MSc(Agric))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

The aim of the master thesis is analysis of customer´s consumer behavior in a Second hand shops in Czech Republic. My assistments is processed like a research´s replication of second hand´s life style. This was compared between American and Chinese youth, which its results were recently published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies. Firstly the research is aimed on discovering reasons, why people buy stuffs there. Secondly which concerns or limits affecting buying the used goods and if social groups have influence on a choice of goods. In the end the main result is discovering common features of consumer´s behavior and subsequent customer profiling.

This Master's Thesis is focusing on the typology of consumers in the apparel industry. The thesis is comparing two different typologies. The first one is based on the data of the project Fashion 2012, the second one on the analysis of data MML-TGI. The thesis is also including a detailed description of the segments and evaluation of the positive and negative aspects of these projects, possible recommendations and proposals for new typologies. Next sections are focusing on the theoretical aspects and characteristics of the Czech market. It is fully possible to use the results in practice. Thanks to them, the companies can obtain a comprehensive overview of the current trends and customers of this market.

Recently, brands are getting more and more dominant, not only in the market, but also customers have started to feel different about them. The aim of the thesis is to find out, who is interested in brands and then to learn as much as possible about those. At first, there has been segmenting in software program Data Analyzer using the MML-TGI data. Several relating parameters have been chosen to that process: customer behaviour, brand preferences, respondents' attitudes to corporate behaviour or the fact, that describes customers' interests in good information. The second important part of the thesis is my own research focused on consumers behaviour as well as on preferences, attitudes, and opinions according to the clothing brands. The last part of the thesis includes semantic differential which describes the respondents' perception of three selected clothing brands - Kenvelo, Adidas a Lacoste.

Tea consumption has been increased, especially in Germany, as consumers are more concerned about health taking care for the people at different ages. Consumers are more careful of what they are consuming, and increasingly consuming the products which are originally come from nature. Herbal tea industry became more attractive and shows opportunities to the firms as well as consumers. A study about factors that can persuade or motivate consumer's intention to buy herbal tea from Thailand can help the entrepreneurial herbal firm or marketers in Thailand, or tea importer in Germany to realized the importance of factors influences consumer purchasing intention of Thai herbal tea in Germany, and it affect to consumer's decision making. Descriptive research was employed in the research methodology of this study as it helps answering research questions related to consumer attitude towards herbal tea, and relationship between each studying factors in this study. This research provides result from studying and analyzing the problems based on research objectives in order to investigate factors that influences consumer intention to purchase herbal tea, especially herbal tea from Thailand, which is the country that consume many different kinds of herbs in each day. The research had been done through questionnaire survey from 115 respondents from the range of age 21to 60 years old German consumers, who are living in the area of Mainz, Frankfurt, and Wiesbaden. The quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) to measure the relationship between variables and how it affects to purchasing intention of a consumer; the analysis of linear regression, correlation, and one-way ANOVA had been applied. Based upon the results of this study, several suggestions can be made to increase consumer perception and purchase intention of herbal tea from Thailand. First, the producers should pay attention on product quality as it is the factor that impacts their decision the most compared to other factors. Second, the word herbal tea from "Thailand" should be promoted on the package as well as its attribute because consumers trust that the quality of Thai herbal tea is good, and healthy.

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