Discussion
Consumer behaviour, their beliefs, demands, needs, and perspectives have been changing dramatically in this fast-changing world. Every business entity is required to be up-to-date in their operational activities to cope up with this fast-changing consumer behaviour by gaining in-depth consumer insight. Business entities operating across the retail industry are found to show their concern towards changing their marketing and operational activities in accordance with the change in customer behaviour to stabilise market position and brand reputation. Thus, the following section is going to illustrate the aspects of consumer behaviour with the help of theoretical concepts by considering global clothing retail brands H&M. critical evaluation of the consumer’s decision-making process will be illustrated based on which the way selected company utilises to influence the consumer decision-making process will be underlined.
Clothing can be considered as one of the most commonly identifiable products that require effective and attractive marketing in front of the public to influence their purchasing decision. It is identified that while customers purchases their preferred clothing products they try to collect all the information regarding their preferred products and identify if those products will meet their needs (Silva et al. 2019). In this regard, marketers of different clothing brands operating across retail industries are required to adopt a strategic marketing approach to promote and convey information about their products to influence consumer perspective and purchasing behaviour.
As mentioned by Paço et al. (2021), consumer behaviour is found to directly influence the marketing approach of a company. The key reason behind this statement is that consumer behaviour aids brands to determine whether their delivered or offered products are lucrative. In addition to this, conventional behaviour also trailers marketing plans of brands in such a way that enhances their chance to obtain customer loyalty.
The global fashion brand H&M is found to show their concern towards promoting their brands, services, and products based on the consumer demands and their preferences. Purc?rea et al. (2022) mentioned that purchasing clothing products for consumers is found to be a complex process due to the rapid changes in fashion trends and consumers’ impulse buying nature.
In most of the cases, it is identified that due to a lack of focus on consumer habits and their purchasing patterns, companies operating in clothing retail industries fail to stabilise their market growth and brands recognitions. Business success or failure is found to be highly relied upon the consumer’s purchasing decisions and their perspectives towards specific brands or products. Due to the availability of different clothing brands, consumers are found to make their purchasing decisions based on the affordability of their required products.
Identification of Selected Consumer Products
In order to analyse the consumer behaviours, an effective and strong branding or advertising approach is required to be carried out by clothing brands like H&M. It is identified that during the fiscal year 2021, H&M has achieved increased sales value of 22 billion U.S. dollars (Smith, 2022). With the help of transparent business concepts and strong values, the mentioned company is able to meet the demand and execution of its target audiences by introducing customer-centric clothing product ranges. In this regard, it can be mentioned that by analysing the customer’s demands and their purchasing patterns the mentioned company has been changing and improvising its marketing process and operational activities.
Consumer’s decision-making process cannot be determined or analysed accurately as purchasing decisions of consumers are found to vary from person to person depending on their needs and requirements. While a specific brand like H&M tries to gain insight into consumers’ demands, they try to focus on specific or multiple segments such as psychographic, demographic, behavioural, and geographic aspect of consumers purchasing pattern. The decision-making process of the consumer is found to be associated with five specific stages such as information search, recognition, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, as well as post-purchase decision respectively. In this regard, it can be mentioned that business entities are required to consider these factors while marketing or promoting their products or services. Kim et al. (2020) in this regard underlines in this present digital era, consumers are found to purchase their required products based on their needs, however, select specific brands based on the recommendation of information they have received about specific brands from digital media platforms. The justification behind this statement can be interpreted by interlinking the consumer behaviour aspects with the “consumer behaviour theory” concept.
The concept of consumer behaviour theory illustrates the way consumers make decisions while they purchase. This, in turn, helps marketers as well as businesses to identify consumer behaviour based on which they could predict when and how consumers will buy specific products offered by specific brands (Wiederhold and Martinez, 2018). Along with this, considering the concept of mentioned theory, it helps business entities like H&M to determine the aspects or key factors that influence consumer decisions based on which suitable strategic approach can be undertaken to manipulate consumer behaviour.
Another theoretical aspect that can be interlinked to understand consumer behaviour is Maslow’s hierarchical needs.
It is identified that buyer persona plays a significant role for any business entities cooperating across the retail industry to perceive the pain points and internal motivation of consumers to purchase specific products. Instead of solely dependent upon hard information points like home address or income, the buyer persona helps companies to explore intangible consumer desires that influence them to make purchases (Xiang, 2021). It has consideration of this theoretical concept helps marketers to obtain a clear insight into buyer persona that in turn, helps to identify the specific motivation of consumers while they purchase products. For example, in the context of fashion brand H&M, adopting Maslow’s hierarchical needs theory concept, they can obtain an effective and realistic buyer persona in accordance with which they can make optimal decisions about their marketing process.
Consumer Decision-Making Process
It is identified that fashion retail brands that launched products without determining the buyer persona, might not be able to flourish their business goals and prosperity within the target market. For example, in recent times, consumers are found to show their preferences and intentions towards online shopping. It is identified that convenient shopping experiences and product availability are found to be the key reason behind growing preferences for online shopping. Online shopping practices are also found to influence purchasing decisions of consumers (Jaller and Pahwa, 2020). Thus, it can be mentioned that organisations are required to evaluate the consumer behaviour along with this purchasing decision before offering products or services to the end-users.
In the context of H&M, it is identified that the company has taken a strategic approach to determine perspective and try to build strong relationships with the customers through effective marketing approaches to influence their purchasing decisions. The key reason behind this statement is being underlined in the next adjacent section.
Understanding the needs, expectations, and decision-making process of consumers is found to be an integral function for business entities to perceive marketing opportunities and challenges. Perceiving and analysing the customer decision-making process, an organisation can influence those decisions by introducing attractive and customer-centric marketing approaches. With the growing dependency on technology-based solutions and the internet, consumers are found to become more dependent on collecting information about products and brands to determine which specific brands will meet their needs accurately (Parmar and Chauhan, 2018).
A strategic marketing approach in this regard plays a significant role in promoting brands and products in front of target customers in a more accurate and systematic manner. For example, social media marketing has obtained high popularity among marketers over the past few years. Social media is found to become one of the indispensable tools for the people or customers these days. It is identified that in the context of referrals obtained through special media influence consumers’ buying decisions by 71%. On the other hand, 31% of the consumers are found to access different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and others to purchase their required items (FitzGerald, 2019).
In the context of H&M, it is identified that the company has taken a strategic marketing approach by establishing its presence on social media channels. Social media platforms help the company to interact with their target customers directly without requiring any kind of the third party. Being a fashion brand H&M has established its strong presence on Instagram and obtained about 37.4 million followers followed by Facebook with 39 million likes and on Twitter with 8 million of followers respectively (Agarwal, 2021). Social media platforms help the mentioned company to maximise its clothing productivity by influencing buyers’ perceptions of the brands in a modernised manner. The company constantly uploads the latest clothing styles and the clothing accessories that their brands offer. Along with this, the brands target mostly youth customers who spend mostly on the identified social media platforms. This helps them to identify the demands and perspectives of their target customers based on which they introduce influential marketing strategies to grab customers’ attention.
Aspects the Company Utilise to Influence the Decision-Making Process
Influencer marketing is found to be another key strategic approach that H&M has incorporated in its promotional activities to influence consumer behaviour. This helps the company to obtain a quick response from their target customers based on which they can easily analyse the way their marketing campaign influences upon their target audiences. In this regard, it can be stated that the mentioned company considers both cultural and social aspects to understand customer decision-making and manipulate those decisions through attractive promotional activities.
The initiatives and the approaches that are being carried out by H&M can be interlinked with the concept of Maslow’s hierarchical need theory as highlighted in the earlier section. The key reason behind this statement is that H&M has perceived the rapid changes in consumer’s behaviour along with market trends (Andrews, 2019). Due to this reason, they constantly interact with their target audiences through different identified social media platforms. This enables them to determine the needs of customers in terms of fashion or clothing products in accordance to which they improve or offer service to the target customers.
Conclusion
In the context of the overall discussion, it can be mentioned that perceiving the demands and needs of customers has become one of the most complex activities for marketers in this fast-changing business environment. The growing availability of similar products that consumers are willing to purchase creates complexities for brands like H&M to stabilise their overall market growth. The identified theoretical aspects highlight that there are certain factors or aspects that directly influence consumer buying or purchasing decisions. On the other hand, it is identified that leading fashion brand H&M has been influencing consumer buying decisions through attractive marketing approaches with the help of identified social media platforms. Thus, in order to influence consumer behaviour towards specific products or brands, organisations are required to adopt a strategic marketing approach that positively influences their chance to obtain customer loyalty and business prosperity within the target market.
References
Agarwal, V., 2021. Marketing Strategy of H&M: Selling Passion for Fashion. [Online]. Available at: <https://marqueex.com/marketing-strategy-of-hm-selling-passion-for-fashion/#:~:text=in%20your%20browser.-,Social%20Media%20Marketing,has%20around%2037.4%20million%20followers.> [Accessed on 15 April 2022]
Andrews, S., 2019. Are You Using Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs For Your Marketing?. [Online]. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/10/28/are-you-using-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-for-your-marketing/?sh=5649b1e94f6b> [Accessed on 15 April 2022]
FitzGerald, R., 2019. How Does Social Media Impact Consumer Buying Behavior?. [Online]. Available at: <https://connextdigital.com/how-social-media-impact-consumer-buying-behavior/> [Accessed on 15 April 2022]
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Smith, P., 2022. Sales of the H&M Group worldwide 2007-2021 [Online]. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/252190/gross-sales-of-the-h-und-m-group-worldwide/> [Accessed on 15 April 2022]
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Xiang, X., 2021. Factors That Influence Consumers’ Behaviors in Fashion Market. Open Journal of Business and Management, 9(6), pp.2772-2779.
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