Analysis of Consumer Behavior

Question: Explore the selection of holiday destination based on consumer behavior. Answer: Introduction Personality is defined as the relatively enduring features, which helps to differentiate between an individual from another. Personality guides the people to act in a predictable and consistent manner during both over extended periods of time and different situations. In other way, it can also be said that personality is the lasting or enduring patterns of thought and behavior across situation and time. Depending on the personality of various people, it can be explained by six types of theories. These are Freuds Theory, Tripartite Theory of personality, Trait Theory, Eysencks Personality Theory, Cattells 16 PF Trait Theory and Allports Trait Theory (Miller Washington, 2011). In this assignment, the personality and demographic theory will be analyzed based on the responses of three respondents regarding selection of a holiday tour package. Analysis of the Behavior of Respondent 1 using the Theories of Personality According to the survey, it can be said that respondent 1 is more extraverted as the person marked it at highest priority. Secondly, he is equally open to new experiences and also has high need for affiliation, as the respondent provide equal importance to these. Thirdly, the person is moody but sympathetic and kind to others. The person also has high need for uniqueness. Fourthly, the respondent is also careful and efficient and lastly, the respondent puts importance to the high requirement for power. Based on the behavior of the particular person, it can be said that the personality of this respondent falls under the Eysencks Personality Theory. The reason behind this is that as per the Eysencks Personality Theory, there are three dimensions of personality. These are psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion (Solomon, 2011). Later, this theory was modernized and thus the behavior of an individual can be represented in a simpler way that is by two dimensions. These are Extroversi on/ Introversion (E) and Neuroticism / Stability (N). These are known as the second order traits of personality. These dimensions can be divided into unstable and extroverted, stable and extroverted, stable and introverted and unstable and introverted (Saad Aslam, 2011). Depending upon the behavior of the respondent 1, as per the survey, it can be said that the particular respondent is unstable and extroverted as this is characterized by touchy, aggressive, restless, excitable, impulsive, changeable, active and optimistic (Cohen, Prayag, Moital, 2013). Therefore, the characteristic of the respondent 1 is similar to the characteristic of the unstable and extroverted. Thus, it can be said that the characteristic of the respondent 1 can be better understand and explained by the Eysencks Personality Theory. Analysis of the Behavior of Respondent 1 using the Theories of Demographics According to the survey, it can be said that the Respondent 1 is of 19 years age, gender is male and his marital status is single or unmarried. The respondent is studying in the university and works as a shop assistant in a shop. At present the respondent 1 is studying an undergraduate degree. The ethnicity of the particular respondent is Australian. Thus, it can be said that the teenagers fall under the Eysencks Personality Theory. Analysis of the Behavior of Respondent 2 using the Theories of Personality According to the survey, it can be said that respondent 2 is more open to new experiences, is more careful and efficient and in addition to this, the particular respondent highly needs the power. The reason behind this is that as per the survey, the respondent gave most priority to these stated behaviors by marking them with highest number i.e. 5. Secondly, the behaviors that the respondent marked based on the priority are the high requirement for uniqueness (Miller Washington, 2011). Thirdly, the particular respondent marked she is extroverted, sympathetic and also kind to others and lastly she highly needs affiliation on the basis of the priority of her behaviors. Fourthly, the particular respondent marked her behavior as moody and none of the listed behaviors in the questionnaire survey was considered as least important by the particular respondent (Saad Aslam, 2011). All these behaviors, especially based on the priority of the respondent on careful and efficient, it can be said that the personality of the particular respondent can be better understood and analyzed by implementing the Freuds Theory (Labanauskait, Kiyak, Bago it, 2014). According to the Freuds Theory, most of the behavior of an individual occurred due to various parts of personality that are generally identified during the unconsciousness and also during the period when the people remain unaware. As per the Freuds Theory, there are three levels of consciousness, these are the conscious mind, the unconscious mind and the preconscious mind (Ishak Zabil, 2012). The conscious awareness is the smaller part of thinking that is opened or expressed in front of all but the unconscious awareness is the most part of thinking that includes wishes, thoughts, feelings and memories. Therefore, in other words it can be said that conscious indicates the things that are on focus i.e. which are in contact with the outer world, preconscious indicates the things or material that are beneath surface awaren ess and unconscious indicates that are difficult to retrieve material and are below the surface of awareness. Here, the respondent 2 follows the behavior of consciousness as she wants to be in contact with outer world and thus she marked the option open to new experiences at top most priority. Even the particular respondent puts high priority to the option of being careful and efficient (Heinonen, 2011). Thus, it can be said that the characteristic of the respondent 2 can be better understand and explained by the Freuds Theory. Analysis of the Behavior of Respondent 2 using the Theories of Demographics According to the survey, it can be said that the Respondent 2 is of 43 years age, gender is female and she is married. By occupation, she is management consultant and her highest education level is PhD. She does not make the holiday decisions on her own and her husband plays a vital role in making such holiday decisions. The respondent is Canadian by ethnicity. Therefore, it can be said that the middle agers and the individuals who belong to the high income group fall under the Freuds Theory. Analysis of the Behavior of Respondent 3 using the Theories of Personality According to the survey, it can be said that respondent 3 puts highest priority on the behavior of being careful and efficient as he marked the option with highest number that is 5. Secondly, the participant puts importance to his sympathetic nature and his nature of being kind to others and in addition to this he also have a high demand for affiliation (Gssling, Scott, Hall, Ceron, Dubois, 2012). Thirdly, the respondents put importance to the higher need for power. Fourthly, the respondents marked three options that indicate the priority of the respondent towards his nature of extraverted, open to new experiences and highly needs the uniqueness (Cohen, Prayag, Moital, 2013). And lastly, the particular respondent marked himself as moody. All the priorities of the behaviors of the respondent indicate that he follows the Freuds Theory. However, among all the three parts of the theory, the particular participant follow the consciousness as his top most priority is to be efficient and careful. Thus, it can be said that the characteristic of the respondent 3 can be better understand and explained by the Freuds Theory. Analysis of the Behavior of Respondent 3 using the Theories of Demographics According to the survey, it can be said that the Respondent 3 is of 51 years age, gender is male and he is married. By occupation he is a pharmacist and has the degree of Bachelor as the highest education level (Brunt, 2011). He also does not take decision regarding making holiday trips and takes decisions of his wife and sometimes kids. The particular respondent is Chinese in ethnicity. Therefore, here also it can be said that the middle agers and the individuals who belong to the high income group fall under the Freuds Theory (Blasco, Guia, Prats, 2013). Recommendations Therefore, it can be recommended to the marketers regarding the holiday option number 4 that is holiday trip to Hong Kong based on the questionnaire survey to the respondent number 4 that the people or individuals of the country China prefer much to visit Hong Kong, especially the middle agers or the late middle agers and the family men mostly prefer to visit this place along with his family. It can also be said that the people having the behaviors as that of the Freuds Theory mainly prefer to visit Hong Kong. By close analysis, it can also be said that people of the medieval status and who earns not too high and not too low that is who earns at a medium range generally prefer to visit Hong Kong. On the other hand, the people of China prefer to visit Hong Kong as the place is located within the country itself and thus relatively lesser expense is conducted here. For the people who are categorized under the Freuds Theory generally put importance to cost and then to the activities, fol lowed by the duration of the holiday tour. To this type of people who are categorized under the Freuds Theory, put lesser importance to food, transportation and accommodation. Therefore, a marketer should put importance on the theories of personality in order to prepare accurate tourism plan and to gain more customers. Conclusion The three different individuals have responded differently to the external situations. The selection of the holiday packages is dependent on the different views and perceptions carried by the three different individuals .The behavior of respondent 1 is based on the Eysencks Personality Theory. The person is more extrovert and responds positively to situations he faces in the external environment. As per the Freuds theory, the behavior of respondent 2 is more careful and analytical. The person takes more time to adjust to the external surroundings. As per the recommendations, the people of China like to visit Hongkong due to its convenient location as well as less costs. This is consistent with Freuds Theory, which states that expenses are a primary factor affecting the consumer behavior. References Cohen, S., Prayag, G., Moital, M. (2013). Consumer behaviour in tourism: Concepts, influences and opportunities.Current Issues In Tourism,17(10), 872-909. Eysenck, H. J. (Ed.). (2012). A model for personality. Springer Science Business Media. Gssling, S., Scott, D., Hall, C., Ceron, J., Dubois, G. (2012). Consumer behaviour and demand response of tourists to climate change. Heinonen, K. (2011). Consumer activity in social media: Managerial approaches to consumers' social media behavior.Journal Of Consumer Behaviour,10(6), 356-364. Ishak, S. M. Zabil, N. (2012). Impact of Consumer Awareness and Knowledge to Consumer Effective Behavior.Asian Social Science,8(13). Poropat, A. E., Corr, P. J. (2015). Thinking bigger: The Cronbachian paradigm personality theory integration. Journal of Research in Personality, 56, 59-69. Solomon, M. R. (2014). Consumer behavior: buying, having, and being. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Spielberger, C. D. (Ed.). (2013). Anxiety and behavior. Academic Press. Xiao, J., Ford, M., Kim, J. (2011). Consumer Financial Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Review of Selected Theories and Research.