Marketing Management: IKEA, ASDA

IKEA
1. Consumer’s behaviour is influenced by a number of personal, situational and stable external factors. Among the external factors one can distinguish between social, cultural and geographical ones. Social factors are attributed to a consumer’s family, social role and status, as well as different groups a consumer belongs to or hopes to join. Such aspects as country specific and ethnic traditions, religions, climate conditions belong to cultural and geographical factors. IKEA being one of the biggest furniture retailers in the world recognises the necessity to adapt its products' offerings with regard to consumers’ social and cultural differences. The company’s employees observe that consumers’ purchasing behavioural patterns tend to vary across countries. IKEA came up with fresh ideas which made its newly designed products to match the local tastes. To honour the “Year of the Rooster” in China – the company produced and sold 250.000 themed plastic placemats. Specially for the U.S. market IKEA has adjusted a few of its items. To reflect on the particular observation of the American buyers’ preferences, the cloth's drawers where made substantially deeper, as people there tend to fold cloth and put it away in the drawers unlike the Europeans hanging everything up. It has also been noted that vases were purchased a lot to be used as glasses, for the later were seen too small. IKEA simply offered bigger glasses. Visiting Hispanic households in California encouraged the firm to widen its seating and restaurant areas, as well as to play with colour palette of the decorations.
2. The buying decision process consists of five stages, specifically: 1) problem recognition (need recognition), 2) information search, 3) evaluation of alte...

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...pt to foster such heuristics in peoples’ minds by developing and supporting its own brand called “Chosen by You”.
“Price=quality” shortcut stands for a well-known assumption that the more expensive the good is the higher quality would come with it. ASDA as well as the majority of retailers is trying to beat such association stating that the firm is not undermining the quality despite the lowest prices set.
“Country-of-origin” decision aid advocates the idea of consumers inferring the product's quality from the “made in” label on it. For instance, countries like Germany or the Netherlands bear a positive image in the majority of the customers’ decisions. There are other countries, however, which do not enjoy the customers’ appreciation.

Bibliography
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2012). A Framework for Marketing Management (Fifth ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.