Problem recognition and situational influences in consumer shopping behavior

Marketing context, problem recognition is having an awareness of need. The marketer needs to understand the difference between the desired state and the actual condition. This is the first stage of the consumer buying process (No author, 2012). Consumer needs are determined by a variety of influences. The situational influences include time and place in which the consumer is. Consumer influences include the consumer's preferences, available money and the level of need or desire at a given moment in time. The marketing influences are the awareness that the consumer has of different product/service options, and the feeling that the consumer has about those products/services.

Hunter (2012) outlines five types of shoppers. Loyal customers are the biggest customer group for most businesses. They do not need to be attracted to the product, but can be induced to purchase more, or more frequently. Discount customers tend to purchase the product/service only when it is offered at a discount. They will delay purchase otherwise, and have a high level of price sensitivity. Impulse customers will by something on a whim, and can be enticed at the source of purchase. Need-based customers have a specific intention to buy a particular item. Wandering customers have no specific product or service in mind -- they are shopping for the sake of shopping. They may or may not purchase.

3. There are a number of factors that influence brand loyalty. In addition to satisfaction, brand loyalty is influenced by the physical attributes of packaging, the lifestyle connotations of certain products (what those products say about who you are), pricing, distribution. These fall into the categories of brand characteristics, company characteristics and consumer-brand characteristics (Lau & Lee, 1999). For example, a consumer's level of loyalty might be high if a product has an image with which the consumer wants to be associated, but if the image changes then the loyalty would change. The same would occur with distribution -- a customer might be loyal to purchase locally, but not loyal enough to go out of his or her way to make a purchase.

4. I would recommend linking the balanced scorecard to manager's compensation. The BSI (2011) outlines the different factors measured in the balanced scorecard, and that the factors should work together to produce a broad set of positive outcomes for the organization. In theory, this should make the organization more effective than if the managers simply focused on financial outcomes. The costs of linking the balanced scorecard to compensation (presumably just bonuses) is that if the scorecard is not designed effectively, the manager's actions may not deliver the best results for the organization.