Consumer Behavior on the Example of Pizza Perception

Introduction

Consumer behaviour can simply be conceptualized as the study of individuals, groups, and organizations with relations to all activities associated with the buying, use, and disposal of goods and services. In all fairness, consumer behaviour encapsulates the emotions, attitudes, and preferences that affect the buying behaviour of consumers. Beyond that, the paper below will highlight personal, and cultural factors that have influenced both my negative and positive behaviour towards the product I have selected, that being pizza. These personal variables indeed explain the reasons why an individual would or would not purchase particular products and services. The personal variables connecting this paper to the pizza are occupation, age, economic condition, lifestyle, and personality. Cultural variables are a bundle of values and ideologies of a particular community or group of individuals. It is arguably noted that an individual’s culture which is mainly influenced by both internal and external environment invariably determines the way a consumer behaves or perceives a particular product such as pizza. Hence culture encapsulates factors like religion, societal status (education, wealth among many others), and gender.

Cultural Factors

Culture has a significant effect on the consumer’s buying decision. Every consumer has a different set of beliefs, principles, and habits, which he/she grows, from his or her family background. What one sees and experiences from his/her childhood becomes our culture.

Religion

Religion can be loosely defined as an interrelated system of worship and faith that influences the ontological and epistemic conceptualization of a person’s world view. Religion contains a set of beliefs and value systems that shape and influence human behaviour and perceptions. Arguably, religion is a core determinant that influences or informs consumer choice and behaviour towards various goods and services. For instance, Islam as being part of the many religions globally, greatly influences the consumer patterns of its subscribers or believers with regards to the consumption of pork and its related by-products. Thus, the consumption of pork and its related by-products is proscribed, inadmissible, and indeed unacceptable.

Subsequently, products such as pizza have registered both positive and negative sentiments within the Islamic community. In most instances, some pizza producing fast food outlets do not provide much information about what variety of pizza flavours contain either on their overhead advertising placards or menu books. As an Islamic believer, I've had an encounter of consuming a Hawaiian pizza which was a deluxe of beef, chicken, and bacon with an assorted mixture of vegetables. It was only to my realization that I had consumed a pork product after the waiter had the courtesy to ask for the feedback on how the deluxe of beef, bacon and chicken tasted. Thus, despite pizza being an amazing product, some shops have made the pizza experience on Muslims undesirable due to their insensitiveness towards having a strict Halal approach to making pizza. Marketers are therefore recommended to advertise this product giving full details on ingredients to accommodate other religions that do not consume some of the ingredients in their products.

Status

Consumers in the upper-class category generally tend to spend money on luxurious products such as pizzas. Thus, income levels certainly determine consumer behaviour and have a net effect on one’s purchasing power. Thus, consumers with low purchasing power tend to buy pizza less often as the need for basic commodities takes precedent over luxurious goods and services. Consumers from the middle-class category generally are highly interested in buying products that would make their future secure. As one who belongs to the middle-class category, I feel that spending money on pizza is many a time too luxurious in relation to other basic items. This influenced why it took a while before I tasted this specific pizza. After having tasted the pizzas with a variety of toppings with my family, the pizza then became a partial necessity as the family members, particularly children, now need to consume the product every week. The marketers are usually biased towards marketing to the upper class, they are therefore recommended to cascade down to the middle and lower class as it can be turned by some clients from being a luxury to be a necessity.

Gender

People generally make fun of females buying pizzas for themselves as in our culture males are expected to buy this kind of product for their families or spouses. This therefore makes females, mainly teenagers and children push their male counterparts to buy pizzas for them on special occasion, as it is portrayed as the right way it should be done. This made me hesitate to purchase this product frequently for myself.

Personal Factors Affecting Consumer Behaviour

Occupation

Occupation has a significant impact on consumer behaviour on a luxury product such as pizza. For some people who work in jobs that require more manual labour that requires them to move around to different locations, they may choose to opt for easily accessible food products. For other people who have occupations that are mainly in an office, similarly to me, it is easier to purchase a pizza for lunch. This is due to offices being located amongst areas with a variety of restaurants, thus making access to pizza easier.

Age

Age also influences the buying behaviour of consumers. Teenagers would be highly interested in buying food such as pizza as compared to middle-aged or elderly consumers who would prefer basic and healthy products. Additionally, teenagers are more likely to purchase pizza when they're out with their friends shopping, going out to eat, or having a movie/game night. An individual who has a family would be highly interested in buying something, which would benefit his/her family, thus pizza would be seen as a casual and easy meal that families would have on a Friday.

Economic Condition

The buying behaviour of consumers is directly related to their income/earnings per month. The consumer’s salary or wage determines how much to be spent on which products. Consumers with high-income levels would buy expensive and luxury products such as pizza as compared to consumers from middle and lower-income categories who would spend mostly on basic items. However, whether or not pizza is a luxury is concerned with the income elasticity of demand with regards to the consumer. One would hardly find a consumer from a low-income class spending money on pizza. My pizza purchasing behaviour is hugely determined by my income. When my income tumbles, I do not purchase pizza and only buy the basics. During economic recessions, marketers are recommended to cut prices for pizza to maintain their sales trends.

Conclusion

The discussion above has explained the cultural and personal factors, which influence my buying behaviour of the product I have mixed feelings with, which is pizza. Recommendations were given to marketers, which include to fully advertising a product outlining all the ingredients of the product, as some religions do not consume some of the ingredients