CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Cultural Factors and their Effects on Consumer Behaviour



Cultural Factors and their Effects on Consumer Behaviour

Introduction

The paper will have a detailed discussion on the role cultural factors play on the behaviour of consumers in the mobile market. Mobile phones have now reached almost everyone around the globe, regardless of their demographic and geographic differences. However, the way users interact with these mobile devices vary widely from country to country. The paper will compare the consumer preferences in the culture of UK and India. Later on, the paper will also discuss the marketing mix based on the markets of the both the countries.

Discussion

In most developed countries, the penetration of smartphones has reached to a very high level, and this is done hand in hand with the improvement of network infrastructure. For example, in UK, US and South Korea, the owners of smartphones now account for the majority of mobile consumers. At the same time, in countries with developing and emerging economies such as India and Turkey, the focus is still on the phones of the previous generation, which are more affordable and accessible to most of the population (Amin 2008, 493).

Hence, it can be said that understanding the differences between the behaviours of mobile consumers in different countries of the world is essential for the mobile phone brands who wish to implement strategies in different markets. However, the use of mobile phones is increasing day by day in the world in almost every country of the world. Around eighty percent of people never leave home without carrying a mobile phone. From the perspective of the mobile phone manufacturers, they should always remember that most of their potential customers for make online purchases by using mobile phones instead of computers, and that number is growing in the developed and developing countries.

As far as the smartphones are concerned, most of the people are now using smartphones instead of computers. Now, almost every mobile phone company is switching to the smartphones. Over 25 percent of smartphone users make purchases over the Internet; most of them are residents of the United States and Japan. Of these, about 50 percent are young people.

According to a study by Google, around 20 percent of smartphone users make purchases over the Internet every day. Around 60 percent of smartphone owners in the United States and United Kingdom buy goods and services via the mobile internet at least once in a month. In fact, this trend is observed in all six countries surveyed, which are UK, US, France, Germany, Japan and Spain (Bauer 2005, 181).

Around 15 percent of smartphone owners use mobile discount coupons, and most of them are women (18 percent women compared to 12 percent men). According to this study, the most effective way to promote the sale of this notification is through email. The fact that consumer has a message about the discount on a smartphone does not mean that he immediately made ??the purchase (Choi 2008, ...