Consumer behaviour in marketing research: customer satisfaction and consumer decision process.

Abstract

When evaluating consumer behaviour, marketers analyse certain aspects in certain ways and apply marketing strategies to maximise profit, develop successful products, maintain a competitive market position, construct desired brands, maximise customer satisfaction, and anticipate consumer behaviour and decision process. This study draws on the socially constructed roles of buyers and sellers from a marketing perspective by focusing on the aspects stated above. In the existent literature, consumer behaviour is mostly viewed through either an economic or a psychological perspective. Identifying how consumer behaviour is constructed and managed is an area that needs further development. Therefore, this research examines different stakeholders’ perspectives on the buying experience, consumer decision process, customer satisfaction and brand construction, to create an overall profile of how these aspects of consumer behaviour research are understood by consumers and managers. This analysis demonstrates the clear gap that exists between the two sets of opinions and paves the way for further research to be conducted for this gap to be filled. A critical and systematic review and analysis of marketing theory are found to be a useful lens through which light is shed on the main research hypotheses. Quantitative analysis provides the opportunity to compare statistical results and measure variables and illustrate the ground on which our hypothesis has been set. Findings highlight the dynamic nature and the complexity of the socially constructed consumer behaviour, taking into account participants responses to questionnaire surveys and telephone structured interview surveys. This Master’s dissertation extracts that in a multi-stakeholder competitive marketing environment, it all voices need to be heard. By collecting, comparing and circulating different perspectives, meaningful contributions -both theoretical and practical- can be achieved.