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Summer
2012
Master
of Business Administration - MBA Semester 3
MK0011
– Consumer Behaviour - 4 Credits
Book
ID: B1221
Assignment
Set-
1 (60 Marks)
Note:
Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions.
1.
Explain the VAL’s theory and describe each type of consumer.
Answer : VALS
Theory & Concept
VALS: A science of using the demographics and
psychology profiles to understand the consumers in a better and in a proper
way. VALS was developed by Arnold Mitchell and his colleagues at Stanford Research
Institute which is a world’s largest research institute in California City. It
was developed in the year 1978 and there have been the use of Abraham Maslow’s
philosophy as well the David Riesman – one of the Harvard sociologists. They
have divided the buyer in different groups on the basis of the traits of
personality which are values and the lifestyles. They have done the research on
the basis of questionnaires in 4 demographic and 35 attitudinal questions. The
VALS have been updated with more than new and innovative data’s and surveys of
more than 85000 surveys per year. Thus VALS is known as:
V: VALUES
A: ATTITUDES
L: LIFE
S: STYLES
Mitchell have used the strategy of statistics,
marketing research, attitudinal and demographic questions, that has become very
much helpful for the consumers of America into nine types of lifestyle and that
are as below with the sustained %age of the consumers.
1. Survivors
(4%)
2. Sustainers
(7%)
3. Bloggers
(35%)
4. Emulators
(9%)
5. Achievers
(22%)
6. I-am-me
(5%)
7. Experiencers
(7%)
8. Societal
Conscious (9%)
9. Integrated
(2%)
The major tendencies of the groups with higher
resources are as follows:
1. Innovators: These are the successful
people who are always active in their activities in all their works. They are
the people who have high self belief, high self confidence and high self
esteem. Their purchases always use to reflect the tastes of cultivation. They
are basically related with up-scale and niche oriented products and services.
They have the great volume and highest amount of income, they have very good
image of creativity and they have finer tastes in their life. They never depend
on others and they follow the strategy of high character.
2. Thinkers:
They are very much mature and satisfied people who have financially strong
resources and they are motivated from their ideals. They are very much
responsible in their duties honestly and whole heartedly and they are very much
professionalized in terms of education. They value their responsibilities,
order, they spent their free times in home with their gamily and give them time
as well they have all the information and ideas about the world and they are
practical in terms of buying and they take decisions optimally.
3. Achievers: They are the people who are
very much goal-oriented and want to become successful in their fields of work.
They are that type of consumers who have a high resource group and they also
get motivated by their achievements. They focus on both their family as well
their career that gets satisfaction from their jobs and families. They are bit
conserved and reserved from their nature and they respect each individuals as
well the authorities in their workplace. They believe in completion of their
work and in satisfying with their needs as well as achievements and
satisfaction.
4. Experiencers: These people are
basically very young, highly energetic from their nature and also from their
activities. These people are very well organized and enthusiastic as well make
the environment also energetic. They have high income and higher amount of
resources where they get motivation from their self-expression, from their
self-abilities and self-activities. They are coming in the age group of 25 –
35. They have lot of energy and they seek fun and excitement with high income
on fashion, entertainment and socialization. They spend most of their money in
friends, hang-outs, foods, music, movies and many more.
The major tendencies of the groups with lower resources
are as follows:
5. Believers: When we talk about
believers, they are the people who have low resources who are very much
conservative sort of nature. They have lot of superstitions and they believe in
Gods and traditions as well as cultures to live their life. Their incomes are
also modest. They have high belief on family, church, community or nation and
they always think about all these.
6. Makers: These people are always down to
earth and never feel superior in terms of achievement, education, profession,
qualification, relationship or any other because these types of people are very
practical and they like to do their own work themselves. They favour mostly the
American made goods or products which have practical as well as functional
benefits and uses.
7. Strivers: These people have low
resources and they are very friendly and fun-loving entertaining people who
always use to make the people laugh by some sort of jokes or funny talks. They
also like to have style in their style and personality so they always appreciate
stylish products and greater material wealth.
8. Survivors: These people have very low
incomes and they are very much old in age. They are most eldest of all the
segments but the positive thing about them is they are brand royal and they
look for change.
Thus VALS have been defined which has been divided on
the basis of lifestyles and attitudes of the consumer.
Three types of consumer
Three different
types of consumers exist in the market today. Each type of consumer has
specific characteristics, tendencies and preferences.
When it comes to
identity theft, credit card numbers and bank account information stolen through
electronic means is becoming more popular than the traditional check fraud
schemes. It seems that there is a new press release every day indicating a
corporation has had customers' financial information stolen. Check forgeries
and alterations, however, are still a problem in the banking world and an issue
that consumers should be aware of.
Especially in
difficult economic times, the loss or theft and cashing of a single check can
cause enormous financial difficulties for a family. Even if the money is
eventually reaccredited back to the banking customers, the time period in which
it takes to file a dispute can ensure that the consumers fall behind on other
bills or monthly obligations. This is why homeowners facing foreclosure should
be aware of the different types of check fraud, in case they become a victim.
The first type is
when a thief forgers a consumer's signature on a check and then cashes is. In
these cases, it is the bank that will be forced to take the loss. The general
theory is that, because the bank making the payment has the customer's
signature on file on a signature card, pointing out a forgery should not be
difficult. Of course, in practice banks never scrutinize signatures.
A forged signature
is considered ineffective and cannot bind the banking customer. Banks are
allowed to withdraw funds from a consumer's account only if the check is
properly payable, and a check with a forged signature does not count as
properly payable. And the bank is in the position of being able to examine the
consumer's signature card to be able to spot potential forgeries.
Thieves that forge endorsements
of checks are also a problem in the banking industry. This may happen in cases
where the check is lost or stolen after the customer has signed it. As with a
forged signature, however, a check with a forged endorsement is not properly
payable. If the bank debits the checking account, it should later be reaccredited
for the amount of the check.
A final type of
check fraud is when a check is altered after it has been written. The most
frequent alternation, not surprisingly, is when the amount is changed. For
example, $5.00 becomes $500, and "five dollars" is changed to
"five hundred dollars" written on the check. In cases where the
alternation is made fraudulently, the consumers may have no obligation at all.
However, in other cases, the banking customer may be debited for the original
intended amount of the check. Of course, this makes it worthwhile for
wrongdoers to alter checks, in the hopes of getting away with the larger
amount.
Forged signatures,
forged endorsements, and alterations of checks are the three prominent types of
check fraud that consumers should be aware of. If there is any suspicion that
any of these actions have occurred, the first action should be to begin
disputing the account debits with the bank. Many of these issues can be
resolved by working with the bank, but there are also strict statutes of
limitations in which to begin the process.
Q2.
Discuss Freudian theory of personality. Give practical examples wherever
possible.
Q3.
Describe cognitive learning theory and cognitive response model.
Q4.
Describe diffusion process and adoption process.
Q5.
Explain briefly about communication process and barriers to communication.
Q6.
Discuss cross cultural influences & Explain cultural differences in
Non-verbal communications.
Summer
2012
Master
of Business Administration - MBA Semester 3
MK0011
– Consumer Behaviour - 4 Credits
Assignment
Set- 2 (60 Marks)
Book
ID: B1221
Note:
Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions.
1.
Explain characteristics of culture and classification of cultural values.
Answer
: The characteristics of culture
are shared; group products; symbolic; learned; patterned; integrated; adaptive;
compulsory; cumulative; dynamic and diverse.
1. It is shared.
The culture is shared by the social
interaction may take in many forms to transmit the beliefs, values and
expectation of the human society. The exchange of social ideas may provide
understanding and learning the human culture and tradition.
The culture works by social dynamism using
language, communication technologies and commercial trade.
a) The use of language as a form of social
communications such as group communication, informal communications, discussion
and public speaking. The sharing of information is done through the transmittal
of knowledge .The use of language or dialect may transmit information to the
group of people that may later on learn and understand the culture, tradition,
beliefs and expectations of a given society. The common human activities are
the grapevine information, social occasions, and public debates.
b) The use of communication technologies
through powerful media tools such as computers, televisions, DVD and cell
phones. The modern technologies have gradually exposed universal culture that
can easily transmit with mass media. The ethnic traditions and cultures are
documentarily televised by cable programs such as national geographic or
discovery channels. The modern fashion and fads of the western culture becomes
the basis of global design in clothing for different occasions.
c) The commercial trade and global
enterprises provide the better social exchange through the manufactured goods
and services provide in the public and private enterprise. These technological
change given the opportunity to sell products that are now fuse in the modern
living of the human society.
The traditional concept of shared culture
emphasizes the ethnic traditions, beliefs, norms and other social activities
that may be transmitted by the elders and parents in the family and the tribe.
However, the modern life has changed so many things in the sharing of the
universal culture for all.
2. It is a group product.
The group product is the by-product of
culture is shared by the social activities of the society. The group products
provide important knowledge and experiences about the racial and ethnic
activities.
It is the result of lifelong social
experience made by those living in certain communities that governed by the
family of elders. They formed tribe with their own cultures and traditions that have been dependent in hunting,
fishing, and agriculture. The culture and tradition are passed on to the
succeeding generation by educating the children from all the social life
activities of the tribe.
Generally, the group product usually done
by cultural diffusion, innovation and amalgamation of cultures.
a) The group product is made through the
social interaction among the members of the group to form a unique life in a
given geographical location. The social life has always imbibed the unique
contribution of individual life. This is adjusted by the geographical
conditions to ensure a better life.
b) The group product is multi-dimension
activities that provide the understanding and learning the elements of culture
such as values, beliefs, norms, language, folkways, mores, laws, material
culture and technology. The complexities of culture have been integrated to
form part the universal human society
c) The group products primarily use
language and education of the offspring to ensure the survival of the culture
and tradition of the tribe. The transmission of culture is done by giving
informal and formal education.
3. It is learned.
The cultural transmission or enculturation
is the best way to describe culture is learned. The people acquire information
about the culture by many ways. This is done by learning the language and other
form of educational information of the society.
a) The members of the group learn to
understand and apply certain ideals, values, expectations, beliefs and
traditions to the society.
b) The younger generations readily accept
the norms of the society as a part of their education to sustain the societal
system within their family or tribe.
c) The culture is also learned by the
language, literature, arts, music and local history that are passed across generation.
Usually, it is through formal and informal
education that the culture is transmitted across generation. The parents
provide the early education of their children from the way they live in the
family and society. The social influence taken from their friends and relatives
including their actual experiences provides the actual learning on a given
societal culture. Modern society learns the culture by the formal education
from varied levels such as the basic education and tertiary education. However,
the advent of modern technology the culture is easily learned through mass
media and internet.
4. It is Symbolic.
The communication process uses symbols to
identify the given actions, attitudes and behaviours of the people.
a) The use of language has varied types of
symbols depending on its natural environment, exposure and education to groups
or tribes, the social experience and influence.
b) The social experiences as a whole
provides specific communicative symbols along arts, music, literature, history
and other forms of societal actions.
c) The abstract knowledge is reinforce in
the way they understand and learn the feelings, ideas and behaviours of certain
group of people in the society.
5. It is patterned and integrated
The culture is patterned by specific
dimension of social life such as the economic and political activities. These
are the norms of conformity for the human beings to follow in order to meet the
psychological and social needs. The social activities
a)The economic activities are patterned by
the innovation and inventions of cultural groups that need to be integrated by
the social life of the members of the society.
b) There are activities that we always do
such as going to toilet, washing the hands, cleaning the house, driving the
car, going to bedroom and etc. We tend to follow certain habits that are
patterned by specific culture of a given society. Remember that the American
way of life maybe totally different to the Africans and Asian way of life.
c) There are cultural values that are
patterned to be followed to live on specific group of people with unique
cultures that individual must also follow to integrated similar social life.
6. Culture is adaptive
The cultural adaptation is the evolutionary
process that modifies the social life of the people in the given natural
environment.
1. The social evolutionary process is
created by the condition of the natural environment that human being constantly
adapting on any changes.
2. The biological modifications and
adjustments are always flexible to adapt even in the harsh conditions of the
environment.
3. The human adaptations uses innovative
way to create new cultural dimension on its way of life from the cultural
transformation of clothing, food shelter, music, arts including the beliefs,
traditions and history.
7. Culture is compulsory.
The human beings always consider the
harmonious relationship with any of group cultures being grown for a period of
time.
1. The group members of the conformed with
the ways of living within the bounds of beliefs, expectation, and norms.
2. The behavioural conformity is expected
to follow any violations within the norms have specific sanctions as to the
provisions of law or even a given set of norms in the social context.
3. The social interaction of man follows
the collective activities with common goals including specific norms,
traditions, and beliefs which is followed as a blue print of its distinct
cultural existence in the society.
8. Culture is cumulative.
The cumulative culture may be passed from
one generation to the next generation. Those pertinent knowledge and culture
are gradually built as it is useful to the society. However, those information
that no longer useful to the society may gradually phased out.
9. Culture is dynamic.
There is continuous change of culture as
new ways of life evolved by the changing conditions of the societal life. There
are cultural practices that no longer useful today.
10. Culture is diverse.
The culture is different from each other as
we must consider the social experiences, traditions, norms, mores and other
cultural ways in the community.
Q2.
Explain the types of Reference group and its influences.
Q3.
Discuss the types of Decision making.
Q4.
Explain first two process of consumer decision Process.
Q5.
Explain the factors influencing organisational buyer behaviour.
Q6.
What is cognitive dissonance? Briefly explain Leon Fastener’s Theory.
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