[Consumer Behaviour in Supermarket Selection]

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Acknowledgement

I would first like to express my gratitude for my research supervisor, colleagues, peers and family whose immense and constant support has been a source of continuous guidance and inspiration.

DECLARATION

I [type your full first names & surname here], declare that the following dissertation/thesis and its entire content has been an individual, unaided effort and has not been submitted or published before. Furthermore, it reflects my opinion and take on the topic and is does not represent the opinion of the University.

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Abstract

Consumer behaviour knowledge is a vital part for an effective development of market strategy that is an essential requirement for any business entity to sustain their position in the market and grow. The existing literature and theories of consumer behaviour has always been concentrating the choice behaviour of consumer, specifically the choice of brand behaviour. Very limited attention has been given to the spending of consumers and their selection criteria for the supermarkets as a distinctive field of research, if empirical and theoretical researches are compared. Although, it has been suggested by the researchers many times, the consumers are now focussing more over the strategies of shopping in comparison to the strategies of brand, for resolving problems of consumption. E.g. a few consumers save energy and time by shopping bulk quantity of different products simultaneously. The process for the choice of store comes first and then the consumers decide which of the brand they should buy. The research is focused on a survey of 100 respondents from Cambridge who are from different ethnic and social backgrounds and also use supermarkets for the grocery or monthly purchase of different items. The results and findings extracted from this survey highlighted very interesting outline of the behaviour of shopping and habits too, which will be extremely beneficial for the marketer to shape their future strategies. Certainly the information and knowledge regarding the consumer behaviour patterns in Cambridge, the motives behind their spending, orientations and perceptions of the customers would enable the retailers to retain their customers and delight them within the resources they have.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION1

Background1

Research Questions4

Research Objectives4

CHAPTER 02: LITERATURE REVIEW6

Consumer Behaviour Models6

External Variables6

Culture6

Subculture7

Social Stratification7

Social Group7

Family8

Personal Factors8

Other Factors9

Individual determinants9

Decision Process11

Multi Attribute Attitude Model13

A Model of Attitude Measurement14

CHAPTER 03: METHODOLOGY16

Literature Search16

Reliability and Validity17

Generalizability17

Ethical Considerations18

CHAPTER 04: DISCUSSION20

Consumer In-store Shopping Behaviour20

Consumer Shopping Habits24

Supermarket Selection Factors28

Good Quality28

Low Prices29

Wider range of products offerings30

CHAPTER 05: CONCLUSIONS32

Retail Marketing32

Research Results33

REFERENCES35

APPENDIX53

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION

Background

An essential component for the development and advancement of a very effective marketing strategy is having the knowledge about the consumer behaviour, which is the need of business for its success and effectiveness. The information from the consumer behaviour studies enables the marketing managers to have increased success chances in the market. A little amount of research has been done in comparison to the growing importance of the behaviour of consumers in the marketing, marketing research is lacking even though its importance has been increasing particularly in the area of Cambridge.

The researches in the past have majorly focused over the behaviour of consumer ...