Consumer buying behaviour and marketing psychology

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Table of Contents
Purpose............................................................................................................................................3

Survey instrument............................................................................................................................3

Administration process....................................................................................................................4

Data analysis....................................................................................................................................4

Key findings.....................................................................................................................................6

References........................................................................................................................................8

Appendix..........................................................................................................................................9

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Purpose
Consumer behaviour is the most important factor to be considered while marketing for a product.
It is very important for a brand to do extensive market research on the consumer behaviour
regarding the respective product they are launching in the market before developing marketing
strategies in the business (Petersen et al. 2018). Thus, this research project has been conducted
for understanding consumer behaviour so that an effective marketing strategy can be developed
for selling the Pantene shampoo in the market. A survey is conducted in the research project for
collecting information about consumer behaviour. The data collected in the survey is then
analyzed for producing useful outcomes of the research study for understanding the consumer
behaviour towards Pantene and the product category in a whole.

Survey instrument
Questions
Q1. When was the last time you used this
product category?
Q2. When you think of this product category,
what brands come to mind?
Q3. Which of the following brands have you
not heard of before? (Please select all that
apply.)
Q4. When did you first hear about Pantene?
Q5. In the past three months, where do you
remember seeing or hearing about Pantene?
(Please select all that apply.)
Q6. How familiar are you with Pantene?
Q7. How would you describe your overall
opinion of Pantene?
Q8. How far do you agree that Pantene
shampoo is appropriate buying choice for
you?
Q9. How likely is that your decision of
buying Pantene shampoo is based on celebrity
endorsements?
Q10. How likely is that pricing of Pantene
shampoo has a high influence on your buying
decision?
Objectives
To understand the frequency of usage of
consumer usage of the product category.
To identify the most familiar brands of this
product category to the consumers.
To identify the brands that the consumers are
not familiar with.
To assess the period of familiarity of the
customers to Pantene.
To assess the frequency of consumers seeing
Pantene advertisements or hearing about the
brand from other resources.
To evaluate the familiarity of the consumers
to Pantene.
To understand the consumer perception about
Pantene.
To understand the preference of the
consumers of Pantene as the shampoo brand
for them.
To understand the level of influence of
celebrity endorsement in the marketing
process of the shampoo.
To understand the influence of the price of the
shampoo on the buying decision of the
consumers.

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Administration process
In the research study at first, a set of 10 questions are developed for surveying 16 respondents.
The survey is conducted on these respondents who have the experience of using the Pantene
shampoo for collecting information about consumer behaviour towards the brand and towards
using shampoo in general. The survey link was created and sent to the respondents to their e-
mails and after completing respondents revert with the same mail chain. The respondents were
selected from the friends, family members and colleagues for a better co-operation in the
process. The respondents were directed to answer the questions and submit them to the link
provided in the respective platform. They were provided with the option of skipping any
question if they don’t want to answer it and also researcher promised to keep the data privately.

Data analysis
Following is the analysis results of the data that were collected through the project survey.

Q1. 31% of respondents have said that they have never used the respective product category.
While 19% said that they have last used it less than a month ago. 12% of respondents said that
they have used it 1 to 3 months ago and another 19% said that they have last used it 4 to 6
months ago. 12% said that the last time they used the product category was 7 to 12 months ago.
Whereas 6% have used it more than a year ago.

Q2. Most of the respondents have said that when they think about this product category, the first
brand that comes to their mind is Pantene. Other respondents have mentioned other high
reputation shampoo brands such as Dove, Wella, Tresemme and Garnier.

Q3. 9% of respondents said that they have never heard about Head and Shoulder before.
Whereas 13% each said that they have not heard about Clinic Plus before. 27% of respondents
said that they have not heard about Pantene before among the given brand names. While 48%
said that none of the given brand names is unfamiliar to them.

Q4. 53% of respondents have said that they have heard about Pantene first time more than three
years ago. 20% of respondents said they have first heard about Pantene in the last 12 months.
While 7% said that they have heard about the brand for the first time in the last 6 months.
Another 20% said that they have first heard about Pantene in the last month.

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Q5. The greatest number of the respondents, that is, 64% of the respondents said that in the past
3 months, they have seen or heard about Pantene on social media. 42% said that they have heard
about it in the TV advertisements. 43% said that it was their friends or family members that they
heard about Pantene in the past 3 months. 21% each have seen it on online videos and online
news or magazines. 7% said that they have seen Pantene advertisements in printed news or
magazine articles. Whereas 7% each have seen or heard about it in radio advertisements and
mailed advertisements. 14% of respondents said that they have heard or seen advertisements of
the brand on public transports in the past 3 months. 7% each have seen it on billboards and
coupons. 14% each have seen it on the company website and at the store. Another 14% said that
they do not remember seeing any advertisement for Pantene in the past 3 months.

Q6. Most of the respondents, that is, 36% said that they are somewhat familiar with Pantene.
While 21% said that they are extremely familiar with Pantene and another 21% also said that
they are very familiar with the brand. Whereas 14% of respondents said that they are not so
familiar with Pantene and 7% said that they were not at all familiar with the brand.

Q7. 43% of respondents have a somewhat favourable opinion about Pantene. 28% said that they
have a very favourable opinion about the brand. 14% said that their overall opinion about
Pantene is extremely favourable. While 14% said that they did not even hear of Pantene before.

Q8. Most of the respondents have indicated that Pantene is the appropriate buying choice for
them. While few respondents did not consider the brand as the appropriate buying choice for
them.

Q9. Some of the respondents have admitted that their buying decision of the Pantene shampoo is
endorsed by the celebrities advertising the product. Some respondents did not agree with the
concept and said that the buying decision of the shampoo is mainly driven by the quality of the
product.

Q10. Most of the respondents have said that price is not the main factor that influences their
buying decision of the Pantene shampoo. Although few did agree that the price of the product
does influence their buying decisions.

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Key findings
The results suggest that the respondents use the product category much frequently which
indicates that it is a high priority product for the consumers. According to the information,
Pantene is the most relatable brand for most of the respondents. Although there were other highly
popular brand names such as Dove, Wella, Tresemme and so on that were mentioned by some of
the respondents. Therefore, it can be said that consumer behaviour regarding the brand
preferences for a product is not static and changes with time (Eisingerich et al. 2016). A
company reputation is a very strong influential factor that drives consumer behaviour. Few
respondents have said that they have never heard the shampoo brand name Pantene. This
indicates that there is a marketing gap for the brand that is stopping them from connecting with
the consumers. Without an effective marketing strategy, it is impossible for a company to
develop a popular reputation of their brand (Echchakoui 2016). Whereas most of the respondents
have said that they have heard about the brand for the first time more than 3 years ago. This
indicates that the marketing strategy of the brand is not quite consistent which causes the new
advertisements of the product in recent times. In order to influence consumer behaviour in a
positive manner and to remain familiar to the consumers, a company needs to do consistent
promotion of their brand (Shah & Dastidar 2019). The majority of the respondents said that they
have seen advertisements for Pantene on social media in the last 3 months. It indicates that social
media is a very useful medium to get in touch with consumers. Effective social media advertising
can gain the attention of potential customers in the market. There is a huge number of people
using the internet for searching for their required products. In addition to that, online shopping
has increased significantly in the past years with a rapid increase in e-commerce usage in
business operation. Therefore, social media platforms are a very efficient medium for promoting
a product. Other effective offline advertisement mediums are television, billboard and coupons
and so on which are quite effective as well for marketing the product (Bassano et al. 2017).
These mediums help the company to reach a large number of potential customers in a short
amount of time and much easier. The majority of the respondents have said that they are
somewhat favourable with Pantene as the shampoo brand they would use. This indicates that the
company needs to improve these levels and reach the point when it will become the most
favourable brand for the consumers in the market. In order to reach the highest favourable level
in the market and for the consumers, a brand needs to promote their brand image and brand value

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to a high position in the market (Chou et al. 2020). Most of the respondents have said that
celebrity endorsement is not the main influencing factor in their buying decision of the shampoo.
The consumers value the quality of the product much more than the marketing process. Price is
another important factor that influences the buying decision of the customers. Although the study
suggests that price is not the main influencer of buying decision (Marchand et al. 2016). There
are other factors such as brand value, product quality and many more which play an important
factor in consumer behaviour while buying a product. Therefore, these are the main factors that
greatly influence consumer behaviour towards a particular product in the market.

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References
Bassano, C., Gaeta, M., Piciocchi, P. & Spohrer, J.C. 2017, ‘Learning the models of customer
behavior: from television advertising to online marketing’, International Journal of Electronic
Commerce, vol. 21, no. 4, pp.572-604.

Chou, S.F., Horng, J.S., Liu, C.H.S. & Lin, J.Y. 2020, ‘Identifying the critical factors of
customer behavior: An integration perspective of marketing strategy and components of
attitudes,’,Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, vol. 55, p.102113.

Echchakoui, S. 2016, ‘Relationship between sales force reputation and customer behavior: Role
of experiential value added by sales force’, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, vol. 28,
pp.54-66.

Eisingerich, A., Merlo, O., Heide, J. & Tracey, P. 2016, ‘Customer satisfaction and purchase
behavior: The role of customer input’, In Looking forward, looking back: Drawing on the past to
shape the future of marketing (pp. 220-220). Springer, Cham.

Petersen, J.A., Kumar, V., Polo, Y. & Sese, F.J. 2018, ‘Unlocking the power of marketing:
understanding the links between customer mindset metrics, behavior, and profitability’, Journal
of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 46, no. 5, pp.813-836.

Shah, D. & Dastidar, A.G. 2019, Customer-centric marketing: what, how, and why do customer
habits matter?. In Handbook on Customer Centricity. Edward Elgar Publishing.

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Appendix
Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

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Question 4

Question 5

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Question 6

Question 7

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