5 trillion of goods and services, almost $10,000 worth for every man, woman, and child. Each year this market grows by several million persons and by more than $100 billion, making it one of the most attractive consumer markets in the world. .
Consumers vary tremendously in age, income, education level, and tastes, and they buy an incredible variety of goods and services. We now look at how consumers make their choices among their choices of products. .
Consumer behaviour model .
Today's marketplace has become very competitive. During the last thirty years, hundreds of multiunit restaurant and hotel companies have been formed, resulting in the development of thousands of hotels and restaurants. In addition, during recent years the hospitality and travel industries have undergone globalization. Hotel companies headquartered in nations as diverse as Germany, the U.S.A, and Hong Kong compete aggressively in markets such as Singapore and Japan. The result is a fiercely competitive international market with companies fighting for their share of consumers. To win this battle, they invest in research that will reveal what consumers want to buy, which locations they prefer, which amenities are important to them, how they buy, and why they buy. .
The central question is: how do consumers respond to the various marketing stimuli that a company might use? Researchers from companies and universities have intensively studied the relationship between marketing stimuli and consumer response. Their starting point is the model of buyer behaviour. As we have learnt the model shows that marketing and other stimuli enter the consumers" black box and produce certain responses. Marketers must determine what is in the buyer's black box. .
Marketers must understand how the stimuli are changed into responses inside the consumers" black box. The black box has two parts. First, a buyer's characteristics influence how he or she perceive and react to the stimuli.
