Marketing: Risk and Laundry Product Essay

Consumer Behaviour Analysis
The laundry product market in Brazil comprises two segments: High income in the South East (SE) and low income North East (NE). In order for Unilever to increase its 75 per cent market share in the detergent powder market it needs to understand the requirements of the low income segment in the NE by looking into their differences. It would be biased to interpret the consumer behaviour in these segments by focusing solely on their income levels. Indeed, their buying decision is not exclusively defined by the price. Low – middle class income households own basic appliances such as refrigerators, televisions and radios although it might seem surprising considering their financial capabilities (D’Andrea et al., 2004, p.3). In reality the main deciding factors are the social influences and the buying situation.
Firstly the factors of social influences can be categorised into four parts, culture, social class, geodemographics and reference groups (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2013, p.137). We shall be focusing on reference groups, “a group of people influences an individual’s attitude or behaviour” (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2013, p.137). There are two types of reference groups: membership and aspirant. Here we will focus on the aspirant group ‘to which the individual would like to belong’ as defined by Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick (2013, pp.139-140). It is important to realise that low-income NE’s aspirant group is the high income SE itself. NE consumers tend to pay more for premium brand laundry products as a symbol of superiority that is the value expressive desire to associate with higher income level segments and also to be detached from extremely poor people whose affordability is not enough for these products (Barki and Parente, 2010, p.14). The first indicator of being a premium brand product is to have cardboard boxes packaging since other forms of packaging are seen as second-rate products. Furthermore, according to Aguiar et al. (2008) the messages attached to premium brands whose first aim is to target the upper classes for exclusivity also catches the low income segment by creating a sense of belonging to their aspirant group.

Secondly, the buying situation can be determined by three types: Extended problem solving, limited problem solving and habitual problem solving. From extended to habitual problem solving the level of information search and evaluation, which also determines the degree of consumer involvement, decreases before the product purchase. According to Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick (2013, p.129) involvement is defined as ‘how personally relevant and important the choice is to the decision maker’ and varies from person to person. There are four factors that influence the degree of involvement determined by Laurent and Kapferer’s research (1985, pp.41-53): Self-image, perceived risk, social factors and hedonistic influences. Correspondingly within the laundry product market women in the NE show a high involvement in the decision process of purchasing that translates into extended problem solving while women in SE show low involvement on purchasing those products which became habitual to them.

The reason why such a simple laundry product has a highly involved decision process is because the product feature “cleanliness” has a symbolic, intangible value for the women in NE as “the level of dedication of the women to their families”. In other words they associate themselves with the image of the brand that they choose. An illustration of that can be found in Barki and Parente’s research: ‘I buy Omo; I take good care of my family’ (Barki and Parente, 2010, p.12). Moreover, the perceived risk of mistake is high in laundry product markets because of the NE’s limited level of income. They are willing to pay more for quality than risk a product failure where the economic damage would be greater (D’Andrea et al., 2004,

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