â€ÅConsumer behaviour is the s... free essay sample

Consumer behaviour is the study of the process involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires (Consumer behaviour, Solomon/Russel-Bennet/Previte). Gaining an understanding of consumers behaviour can help to understand how to market to certain groups of people or segments such as gender, age and ethnicity. There has been a recent increase in the use of ethnic consumer behaviour which targets certain cultures and identities to sell to. The rise in the targeting of this segment in terms of consumer behaviour is due to many factors but the increase in globalisation would be the main factor as the world becomes more interconnected. However, this type of consumer behaviour has issues relating to it such as racist implications and the growth of the global culture. This essay will discuss the motivations for the uptake and the issues regarding ethnic consumer behaviour within the 21st century. There are many reasons as to why there has been an increase in Ethnic consumer behaviour. The increase in globalisation, which is the free movement of goods, services and people across the world in a seamless and integrated manner. (https://www. managementstudyguide.com), is one huge reason as to why there has been an increase. Globalisation has led to more multiculturalism within western and European societies also known as acculturation which has 4 types: integration, assimilation, separation and marginalisation. The groups of people that migrate (Puntoni, 2015) away from their home country do often adapt to the new cultures present but still like to stay rooted to their original culture. This is one thing that helped lead to the rise in ethnic consumer behaviour as businesses would need to adapt their business model in order to accommodate to the cultural roots being presented in the markets. For example, Proctor and Gamble tried to DE-commoditize the toilet paper market to sell towards Hispanics which led to them selling the scents line which appealed to Hispanic women who liked their homes to smell nice and seem more inviting as they will often have a large flow of visiting family and friends. This lead to an increased share in the Hispanic market for Charmin Scents (Journal of business research). This shows that understanding ethnic consumer behaviour to target certain points that will appeal to a certain group of people can lead to an increase in sales and shows the benefits of ethnic consumer behaviour and why it has increased. This would be the case with the majority of the acculturation types apart from assimilation which sees individuals preference for adopting the host cultures values and traditions over a period of time while gradually losing interest in maintaining ones heritage and culture (Journal of business research). It is therefore important to ensure that the communication and the product is of cultural relevance as this will help to build trust. Another reason for the increase in Ethnic consumer behaviour is because by targeting ethnic cultures it can increase communication and gain approval and trust for the product. By understanding certain ethnic cultures it is possible to create products or advertisements, such as the Scents, that appeal to ethnic minorit y groups in particular. By doing this the communication between business and consumer will be stronger and an approval for the product, service etc will develop and create a new returning customer if done correctly this can help to build a trusted brand amongst a community and gain a whole new set of customers which will likely increase sales and creating customer loyalty. According to recent study conducted by Digital marketing magazine found that the first generation groups reacted more positively to advertisement featuring a same-heritage spokesperson and, as a result, developed more positive attitudes towards the institution or company responsible for the advertisement (http://digitalmarketingmagazine. co.uk/digital-marketing-features/ethnic-marketing-one-size-does-not-fit-all), proving that when targeting a group it is important to take a marketing approach that identifies their ethnic identity. Within the UK in 2001 the largest developed ethnic market in the UK was cosmetics and toiletries. The main way these products reached to their target audience was through magazines which were targeted at these groups such as Black Beauty Hair, Black Hair and Pride. The guardian claimed this growth was spurred on due to globalisation in that there was an expanding customer base and an expanding range of products brought on by US imports across the Atlantic. This shows that both the increase in migration to the UK as well as the movements of products from abroad is a reason for the increase in ethnic consumer behaviour. Another large influence on ethnic consumer behaviour is the concept of Social identity which refers to social categories such as ethnicity and gender which are self-defined . So, a person, often with in the first generation to have moved to the new country is likely to keep the identity of that ethnicity and culture wanting to eat the foods and wear the clothes of that culture. It was said that food is defined as a display of ones ethnic heritage and origins (Morra, 1998, Verbeke and Lopez, 2005) and so is considered a part of ones ethnic identity However overtime some ethnic groups do begin to include other cultures food and include it as their own such as the popularity with an Indian curry in the UK among most ethnic groups. So, targeting the Indian market with culturally Indian food can result in reaching the majority of people due to the mixture of cultures within western societies. Lastly a large reason for the increase in ethnic consumer behaviour is due to differences between the ethnicities in terms of how they respond to promotions. It was found that within ethnic minority groups they are more likely to respond to media related to their ethnici ty such as the magazines discussed earlier. This may be due to differences in communication preferences such as high context and low context. Asian cultures tend to prefer high context communication which means they rely heavily on context such as visuals and can be culture specific. Whereas more western societies a low context form of communication is more common where what is said or written is what is meant and taken. These differences in Communication can mean that it is necessary to tailor promotions and in some cases the product or service