Consumer Behaviour of the Australian Customers

Question: Discuss about the Consumer Behaviour of the Australian Customers. Answer: Introduction In this study, Consumer Behaviour of the Australian customers has been discussed focusing on the consumers' behaviour for the greeting cards. In addition, Hallmark Cards of Australia has been chosen for conducting the study focusing on the consumers' behaviour. In this study, a clear literature review section has been given with providing facilitators and barriers for the consumer's behaviour. In order to conduct the study, clear target customers of the hallmark greeting cards have been selected and interviews have been conducted with laddering techniques. In the final section, recommendations and conclusion have been given identifying the issues of the consumer behaviour. Overview of Hallmark Cards Australia Hallmark Cards is an organisation that is privately owned by an American company of Kansas City. This company has its history for more than 100 years as it was founded in the year of 1910. In the United States, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greetings cards and this organisation was set up by Joyce Hall. In the year of 1985, Hallmark Cards was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In the case of Australia, this organisation had its licence in 1955. However, this organisation has been delivering the products through retail organisations as well. In the year 1979, this organisation has changed its name with Hallmark Cards Australia (Hallmark Helper, 2016). Product category of Hallmark Cards Moreover, this organisation is served in Australia, United States and New Zealand. In the recent time scenario, Hallmark Cards is delivering personalised e-cards for the customers. Hallmark Cards is famous for the greeting cards, however, they have been delivering gifts, books, ornaments, stationery, Itty-Bitty, sentimental frames etc. Hallmark Cards delivers Shoebox, this is a humour card that the company has introduced in the year 1989. Apart from this, they evolved the studio cards and with the advancement of time, they introduced two characters in the card, they are hoops and yoyo. They have been providing cards for birthday, valentines' cards, fathers' day card, love card etc. In recent time, they have been in the software printed cards and customised e-cards. They have made a partnership with Nova Development and with Microsoft Greetings for delivering customised cards for consumers (Hallmark Helper, 2016). Consumer segmentation Market Segmentation is a strategy of marketing for an organisation that they choose to market their products. In order to market their products, they create a segmentation of the customers. This process is to create a subset of customers who have common needs, priorities or interests. Then, the organisation designs the strategy of marketing and targets them. According to Schiffman et al. (2013), behavioural segmentation is characteristics of purchase occasion, purchase behaviour and perception of beliefs. On the other side, psychographic consumer segmentation is related to the lifestyles and personality. In customer profile basis, an organisation can make segmentation of customers with socio-economic, demographic and geographic (Brunori, Rossi Guidi, 2012). In case of the Hallmark Cards Australia, families that are associated with the kids can be their target customers, especially in seasonal times, like Father's day, Birthdays etc. The organisation sells greeting cards, for this teenage and young generation can be their target customer. Target Consumer The target market is parents of the kids and the young generations. Kids are the future generation of a country. Furthermore, parents of the children aged 4-12 of Australia are the major target market of Hallmark Cards Australia. Kids like to have greeting cards for celebrating New Year's, fathers day etc. parents buy these cards for them. In addition, new generation parents like to have e-cards as well. Geographic Region Australian regions Demographic Age 23+ Sex Male and Female Family size 3-6 Income 20,000+ Australian dollars Occupation Service, business, Education University degree, college degree Psychographic Personality Outgoing, doting father, mother Lifestyles Achievers, believers, socially active, thinkers Behavioural Purchase time Social occasion, birthday, holidays, weddings and much more Benefits Domestic shipping, home delivery, friendly atmosphere, reasonable price Usage rate Dependent on occasion Loyalty Strong-100% Table 1: Target Consumers (Source: Created by Author) Engaging the customers Offline and Online The organisation needs to engage the customers both on online and in offline. In the global scenario of the marketing, consumer behaviour depends on the visibility of the products and services (Funk, Alexandris McDonald, 2016). However, the organisations need to engage the customers in their business all time. Successful consumers association is related to know the use of both online and offline use of customer engagement modes (Jalas Juntunen, 2015). Organisations must know to complement these two effectively. In the case of offline purchase of a product, the customer can pay this with the use of online banking and online payment mode. In the case of an offline purchase, the customers can make up their minds beforehand with the use of the organisation's websites (Sohaib Kang, 2014). In most of the cases, the customers make their mind before visiting the retailers or outlets of the organisations using company's websites. This is the process of successful utilising the use of both offline and online methods. This is a process customer's engagement and utilising this method, an organisation can ensure the customer engagement (Kahle Chiagouris, 2014). Visibility of a product before the customers is important in recent time as the customers are now comparing various products in order to buy a simple product. In a recent study conducted by Australian survey organisation, it is revealed that 30% of the customers aged between 20 and 40 preferred online view of the products before they buy a product (Solomon, Russell-Bennett Previte, 2013). In the case of greeting cards, the customers like to see the range of greeting cards that the organisation have with them. In recent time, the organisation's like to manage the websites and apps for customised the cards for the customers. The organisations are using various kinds of software for making customised e-cards for the customers (Klazmer, 2012). The physical location of the organisation needs to mention clearly by the organisation's website. Online process assists an organisation to communicate the customers easily through social networking emails marketing (Jack Ronan, 1997). The communication and visibility both increase in this process and these motivates consumer purchase. Fostering the card-givers Giving gifts and cards is a tradition in all countries and this process is related to several factors. These can be economic cards giver and symbolic card givers. This is related to the make the other person feel better. The first thing that a card can do is to make the other people happy and this card giving procedure is related to the religious activities, spending money and gifts, helping cards, receiving cards and time and family (Virvalaite, Saladiene Bagdonaite, 2015). The genuine card givers are the people that enjoy giving the cards to people in order to make the people happy and rejoice. The genuine card givers think that it is a pleasure for them to send the cards to the love ones. They send the cards in several occasions like wedding time, seasonal time, birthday time etc. on the other side, some of the people are status hound as they do not send the cards for pleasure purposes. As stated by Sharma (2014), they send the cards for self-enhancement of their status. This process is a technique to show the money power or the status power of the people. In this case, cards are nothing to do with the recipient's good and value. This is typically for business purposes only. Greeting cards are the show of someone's love, concerns and happiness to others and the organisations have started to utilise the both type of card givers who send for the purpose of love and who send for professional purposes. Parents are the type of card givers who buy the gifts for the specific purpose of the children and the children like to make happy others. On the other side, youngsters like to buy cards for giving their near ones for traditional purposes or professional utilisation (Singelis, 1994). Organisations of the greeting cards manufacturers are trying to grab both types of cards givers for their business purposes. Fostering their card giving tendency through offline and online can enhance their market. Barriers Free software to make greeting cards Greeting cards are the ways of expressing one's feelings to the other in a traditional way. However, business cards are getting famous in recent time for making the cards in a purposeful way. Organisations that make the traditional greeting cards has been facing issues with online software that help to make e-cards for near and dear ones in wishing and celebrate their birthdays, weddings and many more occasions. In this scenario, the manufacturers have made their own online pages for providing customised cards for the customers. However, this policy incurred million for the organisation in order to partnership technological organisation to lend their software and technology. In this case, Hallmark Cards took the help of Microsoft software in designing latest cards for them. This licensing policies and collaborating techniques need to spend a huge amount for the manufacturer organisation. On the other side, Horner Swarbrooke (2016) opined that in recent time, customers can find easy access to the designing software on the internet. A single search on the internet can give free access to the customised cards. In order to access such software designed by the organisation, customers just need to log in their pages. Some of the time, a trial version of the costly card-designing software can be accessed. In this scenario, customers do not need to spend a single dollar on this process. This free access to the software and technology decreases the market of greeting cards in this age of digitalisation (Gossling et al. 2012). Greeting card manufacturer organisations fail to make a market of their printable e-cards, however, this has made loss of market and money for the organisation. Customers can use these free cards for sending e-mails for business purposes and for their near ones in social media. These kinds of cards are printable (East et al. 2013). Consumer motivation The consumer is the sole factor for an organisation to run and consumers make a purchase with their senses like sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Consumer buying behaviour defines the process of consumer purchases a goods or products for using for families or themselves (Seegebarth et al. 2015). Before a buying a product, a consumer is influenced by several factors, like economic needs, psychological variables, social influence and purchase situation (Hugstad, Taylor Bruce, 2013). The consumer must have the motivation to buy a product and they must have needs, wants and drives for this particular product. Consumers want these kinds of products that meet their seek benefits of their match. As stated by Cohen, Prayag, Moital (2014), the motivation of the customers is mainly driving force for buy a product. The motivation of a customer can be extrinsic and intrinsic as well. In greeting cards industry, the factors of motivation can be both. Motivation to buy a product comes from the reference group, culture and opinion leaders. In case of parents of a child and family members, they get their motivation from the husband, children, wife and that can be mutual factors as well (Boztepe, 2016). In greeting cards industry, family members buy cards for seasonal purposes and their motivation is related to the attitude, belief and feelings for others (Gssling et al. 2012). Manufacturers of the greeting cards relate the key issues of the buying behaviour of the customers are building trust, meeting expectations, ethical issues etc. The motivation that comes from within of the consumers for buying a product needs an approval of decision-making process of the customers that are associated with recognition, alternative evaluation and information search (Greco, 2013). Consumer Interviews This interview procedure has been conducted over four respondents. These interviews provided help in understanding the viewpoints of the encouragement and barriers of the customers in buying of the greeting cards. In this study, interviews have been conducted with parents of the kids who buy greeting cards from Hallmark Cards. Interview procedure was conducted with 2 mothers and 2 fathers of kids of Australia from different regions. In these interviews, consumer segment is parents of the kids in Australian and they would be asked about the greeting card ranges of Hallmark cards, Australia. Comparing table of respondents Respondent 1 Respondent 2 Respondent 3 Respondent 4 Father (Male 1) Father (Male 2) Mother (Female 1) Mother (Female 2) Age 30-35 25-30 25-30 30-35 Family size 6 4 5 4 Occupation Businessman Professor House maker Manager of multinational company Income $50,000 approx $40,000 approx - $20,000 approx Education Undergraduate Post-graduate Post graduate + diploma Undergraduate Table 2: Respondents of Interviews (Source: Created by author) General Perceptions of greeting cards In order to conduct the interviews of the respondents, general interviews have been conducted to the friends and families. During these general interviews, most of the individuals averred the potential value of the greeting cards on their lives. Greeting cards play an important role to convey one's desire. On the other side, each of the people likes to receive greeting cards as well. Respondents of the general interviews mentioned that in this technological faster world, the true essence of handmade greeting cards has been obsolete. People are now giving preference to the e-greeting cards and animated cards that are built through using of software. The days of hand writing cards have gone and instead of this, the days of software led printable cards have come to the place. Telling someone of the words of the heart, expressing emotion gets easy with the greeting cards. Emotion gets to mix with the technology in this era and this mixed up shapes to the new age of greeting cards. On the other side, business persons need the business cards that can tell for their business purposes. They design their cards on that purpose only. It can be deduced that the mixing of technology and tradition of the recent generation, the greeting card takes a new shape. The creating of double needs of business and emotion, the manufacturers have created demands of cards for them. Interview techniques In order to conduct the research, laddering interview technique has been selected for understanding people's buying of the products. The laddering technique is used to take for qualitative research method. According to Yu Lee, (2016), laddering questions of an interview is related to the product attributes, consequences of the products that can create personal meaning for the users of the products. In this case, the product is greeting cards and consumers are the parents of the kids in Australia. Which feature of the greeting cards do you like best of Hallmark Cards? Respondent 1 (Male 1): I do not buy greeting cards much; however, I like the e-cards that Hallmark provides for business purposes. This type of card conveys love for fashion and class. Respondent 2 (Male 2): I like the characters of Hoop and Yoyo in the cards of Hallmark. Respondent 3 (Female 1): I like those cards that featuring a woman with silhouette with accessories sensing a high style because it conveys a portrayal of feminism. Moreover, handmade cards of Hallmark attract me. Respondent 4 (Female 2): I like mainly the holiday cards of Hallmark and I usually buy this for no reason. Moreover, the printing quality of nature attracts me. What does the feature of the greeting cards do to your life? Respondent 1 (Male 1): I am a businessman and I use my greeting cards for business purposes largely. Not only that, I buy greeting cards for other reasons like birthday, wedding seasons as well. My children plead me to buy the cards in New Year time." Respondent 2 (Male 2): I am fond of greeting cards and I do buy cards frequently for no reason. Hoop and Yoyo cards amaze me with fantastic quotes print on them. I buy this each month and whenever a new edition comes on the market. I visit retail market and find for Hoop and Yoyo. I like their chemistry and sense of humour very well." Respondent 3 (Female 1): I always prefer handmade cards and this type of cards provide me pleasure as well. Whenever a marriage ceremony comes I present them with handmade cards of Hallmark. This is costly, but I like them." Respondent 4 (Female 2): The painting of nature on the cards sensitises me and I use these cards in my room. However, I do not feel that plunge of buying cards." What do the functional benefits of the greeting cards do to your life? First respondent (Male 1) mentioned that greeting cards do one of the best parts of his life as he does his business communication using cards. However, he does not buy the cards. His office secretary uses various types of free software for making business cards. Second respondent (Male 2) said that as he is professor, he needs to buy some cards for giving the colleague on farewell occasions. He mentioned that he likes to buy cards for himself also for his own purposes and his children. On the other side, the third respondent (Female 1) mentioned that he bought several time cards for her children and husband. She does send gifts for the relatives with cards. Fourth respondent (Female 2) told that making other people happy makes her happy mostly. In order to the happy person, she sends cards to her friends and makes new bonding of friendship. Her children do send cards to their friends and this enhances friendship, however, it incurs money. Do you find any emotional benefits from greeting cards of Hallmark Cards? On asking this question, First respondent (Male 1) mentioned that doing his business is one of the most important things. Moreover, cards do the same things for him and it provides emotional satisfaction for him by making communication. Second respondent (Male 2) believed that making his colleague happy makes him happy as well and his hobby of collecting cards of Hoop and Yoyo makes him fulfil. At the same time, buying cards for children give him the motivation to buy a card for birthday and family occasions. Third respondent (Female 1) told that she searched for e-cards online and bought them through this. This process of buying makes her happy as she needs not to go outside. Lastly, the respondent (Female 2) mentioned that she becomes happy to give cards to others on weddings or some other occasions. However, she commented that she saw delivery late of the cards and sometimes she failed to find the match of the same products what she has seen earlier on websites to the physical out lets. Analysis of findings Modern card designing of the organisation attracts most of the customers and consumers like to have the cards for family and business purposes too. Conveying the feelings of one can be done through cards and it can increase the level of bonding between two individuals. On the other side, consumers believe that cards must be low-priced for it is available some of the websites for free of cost. The cards of Hallmark provide emotional benefits to the customers and they sometimes do not have the urge to buy the card when no specific needs occur. The merging of online and offline helps for the organisation to lure the customers. The range of the Hallmark is exclusive; however, the matching of the products what they show online must be available on offline as well. Illustration of Hierarchy map for Respondent 1 (Male 1) Illustration of Hierarchy map for Respondent 2 (Male 2) Illustration of Hierarchy map for Respondent 3 (Female 1) Illustration of Hierarchy map For Respondent 4 (Female 2) Recommendations Matching of online products to the outlets Justification: Most of the Australian customers first searched the desired products online or websites of the company and they either buy the products from online or visit the outlets or retails for purchasing. If they do not find the same cards, they would be disappointed. The quality of the cards what is shown on the website must be matched. Hallmark can use the particular code for each product for recognising it separately. Action Plan Activities Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Identification of the cards Development of plan Determination of action with giving codes to products Implementing some staffs for doing this Evaluation Implementation on online and offline Table 3: Action plan Price must be decreased and equal for online and offline various range of cards Justification The customers can find the e-cards and customised cards for free of cost on the internet and they are not having the urge for buying it from paying the money for themselves and their children. It is needed to decrease the price of the cards and delivery charges of the cards need to be free to allure the customers. The price of the same products must be equal on offline and online of Hallmark Cards. Action Plan Activity 1st week 2nd and 3rd weeks 4th and 5th weeks 6th weeks Market research to understand the price of cards for other manufacturers Making plans Hiring experts Decrease the price Observing changes in product quality and making the same price for online and offline products Table 4: Action Plan Conclusion In this study, it is focused on the mainly second project task of the assignment, future generations that are kids of Australia. Although, the focus has been on the parents as they are the target customers of the Hallmark cards. Overall the various ranges of cards have appeal on the Australian customers, especially occasions with friends and family are the best time for selling of the cards. Various facets of the consumers behaviour related to greeting cards have been identified that cause the consumer's buying decisions. Reference List Boztepe, A. (2016). 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