Consumer Behaviour: The Needs And Motivation Of Degital Camera

Term of reference

Back ground

People always want to keep the prefect moments in their lives. So they invented cameras that the earliest invention which can help people to do that. Nowadays cameras have become a part of peopleЎЇs lives. Most of families own at least one camera. Wherever there is a party, a picnic, a wedding or something else, we use a camera to save the memories. With the development of technology, there is a new kind of camera which becomes a fashion all over the word. It named digital camera which is short for DC. Digital cameras are different form the traditional cameras. The biggest differentiation between the two cameras are digital cameras do not need films whilst tradition camera need. Compare with tradition camera, digital camera has more advantages for ordinary consumer than disadvantages. But people use the tradition cameras for more than 150 years, will they easily to accept the new camera? How to motivate consumer to buy digital cameras? Can the marketers create such a need to them? For this article, I would discuss the need and motivation of consumers, and show the answer about the questions above.

Needs & Motivation

+Marking a test with lots of questions about digital camera to show that what consumersЎЇ need is, what they want and what motivation cause they to own a digital camera.

+Analysing outcomes of the test and summarize it with some theories of need and motivation.

+Understanding peopleЎЇs behaviours and combine them with digital cameras.

+Analysing the digital camerasЎЇ market and find out some strategies of motivation.

+pointing out some shortages of digital cameras when compare with traditional ones and gives some advices.

Executive Summary of Main Points and Recommendations

Every company wants to understand why people decide to buy its products or others. Firstly, we have to understand why people buy certain kind of product. People buy products because they need them. A need is activated and felt when there is a sufficient discrepancy between a desired or preferred state of being and the actual state. (EngleЈ¬Blackwell and Miniard. 1995. p407 ) For example, when you feel hungry, what you needs is some food. It is very important for marketer to understand the needs of consumers. All the consumers may have the same needs, but the ways which they satisfy what they need are different. Here is a example, Chinese people would choose rice when they feel hungry, whilst British people may choose bread to satisfy their needs. The specific way a need is satisfied on the individualЎЇs unique history, learning experience, and culture environment. The particular form of consumption used to satisfy a need is termed a want. (Solomon, 1999. p106)

Needs and motivation can not be considered separate. Motivation is activation, an incentive or reason to start or to maintain behavior, motivation determines the strength and direction of behavior. (Antonides and Raaij, 1998. p164) But for businessman, it is about realizing why your consumer do what they do and what they are willing to reach the goal. And then marketers have to satisfy what consumer need put all irons in the fire. Motivation links needs and behaviors (goal). Motivates occur when there is a need, then motivates direct behavior through specific types of activities and reach the goals at last. Motives have been classified, for example, as learned or unlearned, rational or emotional, conscious or unconscious, physical (biogenic) or psychological (psychogenic) and so on (Chisnall, 1994. p51). For instance, a cosmetic may be bought for a lot of reasons: we may choose the cosmetic for some ÐŽ®rationalЎЇ motivation, such as reliability and usefulness. After we use the cosmetic, we become more beautiful and confident. Or we may choose the cosmetic for ÐŽ®emotionЎЇ motivation because its brand image fits us.

Consumers sometimes have the same behaviors while they do not have the same motivations. Consumers expend the different efforts to attain goals for different motivation. Here is an example; two consumers have their meals in a restaurant. OneЎЇs motivation may be hungry and the otherЎЇs motivation may be social intercourse. The hungry one may wishfully need food whilst the other may not pay much attention to the food. This kind of situation is about involvement. Involvement refers to Ўothe level of perceived personal importance and/or interest evoked by a stimulus (or stimuli) within a specific situation. Involvement is about the aspects of the person, the product, and the situation all combines to determine the consumerЎЇs motivation to process product related information at a given point in time. (Solomon, 1999. pp111-112) for example, a consumer who is going to buy a computer will pay more attention to the information about it.

Main report

More than 170 years ago, the first camera was invented by a Frenchman named John Niepce. Since that people are far away from the date that people just can keep their memory in mind and are able to use the camera to keep their especial moment in a photograph. As the times go by, the technologies develop at a tremendous pace. In 1981, the Japanese company Sony sale the new camera which is different from the tradition one. It is digital camera. (http://www.gmw.cn/content/2004-06/30/content_50547.htm)

Why people need a camera? The answer is quite simple. It is because what we mention above that they want to keep the prefect moment not only in mind. In order to satisfying this need, different people have their own ways. For example, they may draw a picture, take photograph, and use digital vidio and so on. (What this article focuses on is camera, so we just consider the camera). Needs can be divided into 3 categories: biological needs, psychological needs and sociological needs. According to the questionnaire, 82% of people believe that owning a digital camera could make them more fashionable and only 18% of people do not think so. So to some extent, a need of camera belongs to psychological need. Psychological needs are defined that if psychological needs are satisfied, protect and enhance the personality. (McNeal, 1973. p39) Digital cameras are the high-tech product and change with each passing day. So most of the people consider the digital cameras represent fashionable. If a person sees himself as a fashionable man, he will buy digital cameras to indicate that he is fashionable.

Now we know what people need is