Question:
This assignment requires you to conduct research with current Holmes students, and analyze their decision-making processes regarding Holmes’ selection as an institution of study.
Part 1
Define the psychographic and demographic characteristics of the sample students
Analyze the consumer decision-making processes that led to Holmes being chosen over other providers.
How did they make the decision to study at Holmes? What factors influenced their decision?
Examine how students’ motivations, personalities and emotions affect their buying decisions
Part 2
What recommendations can you make for education providers to help them recruit international students based on your findings?
Answer to Question: HK2011 Buyer Beahviour
Introduction
This assignment focuses on defining consumer buying behaviors or the consumer buying process.
There are two parts to this assignment.
This assignment has been assigned to Holmes University, which is located in Australia.
It is one the most well-known business schools in the world.
It was founded in 1963 by the founders of Melbourne’s first business college.
This assignment focuses on the differences in the demographics and psychographic characteristics among the university’s students.
The first part of the assignment will analyze the various consumer decision processes.
The business implementations are directly connected to the consumer decision process.
Part 1
This section will discuss the psychographic and demographic characteristics of students.
To help you get a better picture of the whole scenario, 30 students from different departments at this university have been selected.
Demographic Characteristics
Here are the demographic characteristics of the sample students.
The country’s different sections were represented by 30 students (Mazanov and co., 2013).
Age Structure
Ten of the 40 students belong to the 20-25 age group.
The remaining 10 students are in the age range of 25-30 and the remainder of the students are in the age range of 30-35.
Thirteen of these students are female, while 17 are male.
This means that approximately 43% of students are female and 57% are male.
Race and Ethnicity
Different ethnicities were represented by the selected students.
Five students are native Australians, and there are 30 others.
Six students are from the Chinese Australian ethnic group.
Next, 4 students are from the Lebanese Australians.
Ten students are part of the European Australian group.
The remaining 5 students are from the Irish Australian groups.
Education
The 30 chosen students come from diverse educational backgrounds.
Ten of them completed their high school in Melbourne, five in Adelaide and three in Brisbane. Six of them also studied in Tasmania. The remaining six students have been educated in Sydney.
They all scored over 80% in their respective subjects.
Income
The growth rate of Australia indicates that students come from families with good reputations.
8 students are from working class families.
The remaining 4 students are from middle-class families. 5 of them came from mobile families. 6 were from emerging affluent families. 7 others have come to the university from middle-class families.
These students’ family income is determined by their economic class.
Psychographic Characteristics
The Religious Beliefs
These 30 students are from different faiths.
Six of the six Chinese Australians are members of Buddhist groups.
The four Lebanese Australians adhere to Islam, while the 10 European Australians are Catholic Christians.
The Christian religion is followed by 5 Australians and 5 Irish Australians.
Music Tastes
A thorough psychographic study of the 30 students revealed that 10 like soft rock songs and music.
5 like to listen to pop music, while 8 like old classic English songs.
Rest of the students prefer to listen to hard metal rock music.
Lifestyle Choices
It is evident that students from the emerging affluent and established affluent classes are fond of living lavish lives.
They all enjoy lavish spending and living a luxurious lifestyle.
Others prefer to live a simple life and fulfill their basic needs.
They don’t have a lot of money and came to college to learn and then get a job.
Analyse of Consumer Decision Processes
The consumer decision-making process is complex (Mihart 2012).
There are many steps involved in this process.
These stages range from the recognition of the problem to the activities that follow purchase of that product.
Because the whole process is dependent on the customer’s decision about the product, this product is complex.
The buyer must first learn about the product and then compare it to other products in the marketplace. Finally, he or she should decide whether to purchase the product (Mihart 2012).
The most difficult part of the whole process is understanding the product’s quality, then analyzing the various aspects such as the price, quality, and durability.
The aspect of Holmes University must be emphasized in this assignment.
Students who are interested in learning about business management inside and outside the country have found Holmes University a reliable option.
Holmes University has been operating successfully in the country for many years and has produced many business leaders around the world (“Holmes Institute” 2017).
They offer a variety of educational opportunities, including Vocational Education and Training, Higher Education, and Secondary education (“Holmes Institute” 2017).
They offer high-quality coaching in these areas and have a focus on students from both domestic and foreign countries.
They have created an environment that is very focused on the learning process and where teachers put their best effort to teach children.
Teachers are supportive and kind to their students.
There are 6 schools in various parts of the country.
Out of 6 locations, 5 are located in Australia and one is in Asia.
Hong Kong is the only Asian location.
There are also branches in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Queensland, and Cairns.
These are both beautiful and comfortable locations for students (Holmes Institute, 2017).
They offer a variety of courses to their students.
They offer courses in higher education such as Bachelor degrees in business and professional accounting, fashion management, information systems, diploma in business, MBA, MPA, and other.
You can also take diploma courses in Accounting, Hospitality and Commercial Cookery, as well as Leadership and Management and Accounting.
Students can choose Holmes University to pursue their chosen studies (“Holmes Institute”) 2017, thanks to their wide selection of courses.
Motivation, personality, and emotions of students
This university is chosen by students because it supports their buying decision.
The personality, motivation, and emotions of students are all factors that influence this purchasing decision.
Students’ consumer behavior is strongly influenced by their motivation (Oyserman 2015).
Consumer buying decisions are affected by the lifestyle, social class, and social class.
So that buyers can expect to receive something from organizations, they must be motivated by the organization according to their class.
Holmes University has helped students be more motivated to study at their school by providing a wide variety of products.
Personality is an important marketing parameter that determines the buyer’s internal likings for a brand’s product (Erdo??mu?
This is a measure of the personality and reactions to marketing environments.
This indicates the person’s preference for particular product variants.
These personality traits can be affected by many life events, such as marriage, birth, or death.
Marketers can determine his marketing strategies to expand his market areas.
Holmes University has a deep understanding of the needs and desires of international and domestic students, which has helped them succeed.
Consumer behavior is influenced by emotions (Hwang and Kandampully 2012).
It reveals the human desires for what kind of organization they would like to invest in.
Anger, anxiety, sadness and depression can have a negative effect on the mind of the consumer.
Students have researched Holmes University online and have been satisfied to be admitted to this university, as they know that all their needs will be met.
Part 2
This part of the assignment will provide guidelines on how Holmes University can recruit more international students.
Although they have a large number of domestic students, they must adopt positive strategies to attract international students to improve their work areas and be more successful in the global arena (Stromquist & Monkman 2014).
They will be able to increase their international reputation and stay ahead of their competitors by having more international students in their student database.
International students should be attracted to social media by creating eye-catching ads on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms (Tuten & Solomon 2014).
It is important to evaluate the cultural and educational factors and present a mix of cultures that maintain harmony.
This would make marketing more effective.
The university should acquire the global prospect lists and should address them to the appropriate university.
International students should be the brand ambassadors for this university (Stromquist & Monkman 2014).
International students should be encouraged to join the university by inspirational messages.
Australia should also cooperate for the university’s global outreach (Barber and al., 2013).
Literature Review on Consumer Behavior
This part of the assignment requires that a literature review be done on consumer behavior (Solomon 2014).
Marketing is complex and consumer behavior is an important concept. A lot depends on it (Baker 2014).
It is obvious that consumer behavior can be affected by the customer’s past experiences and their habits.
Customers’ purchasing decisions are influenced by the image of the product.
Customers will choose to purchase products that are attractive and more appealing than others.
Organizations should strive to enhance the brand image so customers are loyal (Romaniuk & Nenycz–Thiel, 2013).
The Five Stages Model, which was developed to better understand and evaluate the concept of consumer behavior, is one of the most important aspects.
These five stages determine the consumer behavior and the purchase decision of customers. They are: a) Recognizing the problem or need, (b) doing thorough research about the solution, (c) evaluating alternative products, (d) buying the product, and (e) evaluating its effectiveness after it has been purchased.
This concept of consumer behavior is affected by many factors.
These factors include personal, cultural, social, and situational (Bian & Forsythe 2012).
Location, weather, timing, and environment are all factors that can influence consumer behavior (Gunter & Furnham 2014).
Marketers try to attract customers to their location by creating a positive environment and other factors that will encourage them to make purchases.
Cultural factors are cross-cultural differences between marketers and consumers (Bian & Forsythe 2012).
These differences may be both local or global.
Social factors are interactions between potential customers or prospective customers in a variety of circumstances.
Targeting members of society are viewed as the opinion makers. This helps to develop effective strategies to convince customers (Moshrefjavadi and al., 2012).
Personal factors are the customer’s taste preferences, financial situation, and other factors (Hoyer & Stokburger Sauer, 2012).
Personal factors are more effective when targeting the right market segments, market positioning, and the 4P’s of marketing (Singh 2012).
Theories of Consumer Behavior
This segment explains some theories and models of consumer behavior (Kardes Cronley & Cline 2014).
Theory of Reasoned Action
This theory focuses on analysing the existing attitudes that are involved in decision-making (Montano & Kasprzyk 2015).
Consumers are seen as rational actors that act according to their own choices.
Because the consumer expects a certain outcome, marketers should be able to tailor their approach.
EKB Model
Engel, Kollet, and Blackwell developed the EKB model.
This model explains that consumers make a purchase decision after a long-term reflection and applying rational insight to the matter (Solomon Russell-Bennett & Previte 2012).
Marketers try to influence consumers through a variety of products or external influences.
Marketers should give enough information to consumers about the product so that consumers will take the products into consideration.
Other theories, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior and Black box model, are also relevant in the context of consumer purchasing behavior (Montano & Kasprzyk 2015).
These theories can be correlated with the current topic of discussion, Holmes University in Australia.
The theory of reasoned behavior and the theory of planned behaviour have a direct relationship to attracting students to their university.
Students would be attracted to the university by the many courses and facilities offered.
These factors would be considered by students and they would make a decision to apply for admission to this university and recommend to their friends to do the same.
Conclusion
After much discussion about Holmes University, it is clear that many courses have been offered to students.
They will be delighted to be there.
An extensive analysis of the samples students was done to assess the university’s cross-cultural management.
It was very useful to learn about the demographic and psychographic characteristics.
It has also been possible to gain a deeper understanding of the topic through various theories and models.
The literature review has highlighted many aspects and strategies for attracting more international students were also discussed.
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