The consumer buying process describes the steps customers go through while purchasing a product or service from a target company. Organizations better understand their consumer processes for the respective salespeople, and align the sales strategy accordingly. The consumer buying process includes understanding the problem at hand, gathering relevant information, evaluating viable options, and purchasing decisions. Java Bean Café intends to expand its operations to other areas; this prompts consumer analysis to establish credible information and select a good location for its flagship. Incorporating marketing collateral for the expansion process is fundamentally twofold; attracting more customers and maintaining customer loyalty for the already existing customers. The flagship of Java Café Bean ought to take place in Los Angeles, California.
Target Consumer Analysis
Target consumer analysis will focus on two major customer segments including;
Daytime customers (remote and self-employed workers).
Daytime customers have a unique purchasing behavior compared to evening customers. Identifying needs for daytime customers helps company staff members establish better techniques to appease the customers and maintain their loyalty. Daytime customers tend to swell substantially during the day depending on the area's culture; regions that experience increased traffic during daytime imply that many people commute from nearby areas to work in the city ( “ United States Census Bureau”, 2021 ). The chosen flagship region, Los Angeles, considerably experiences high traffic of customers during the day; this Is caused by regular movements of people in and out of the city.
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Evening customers (student study groups and artists)
Unlike the daytime customers, evening customers are reduced in number, implying a low population of people is present in the city. For example, artists who come in for night performances are never consistent since performances happen occasionally ( Estay, 2020 ). Besides, student study groups are not consistent as they often happen repeatedly in the same region. Nevertheless, Los Angeles has several schooling institutions located around the city, which increases the chances for the student study groups to happen. Student study groups' attitudes cannot be determined since it’s a group of people, thus making it hard to predict their interests. However, student study groups are certainly likely interested in taking away products like burgers and pizza products.
Links between steps and marketing collateral acts.
Java Bean Café will focus on assuming an existing gap by providing fast-food services to consumers promptly and at the right place. Java café ought to match each marketing activity to a specific stage of the consumer decision-making process:
Identifying inadequate fast-food joints offering 24/7 services in Los Angeles to satisfy the need recognition step.
An information search needs to be carried out to identify both daytime and evening customers' preferences and tastes. This step is vital as it determines the options to choose from in the next step.
The café should evaluate the available alternatives depending on production cost factors.
When making the final decisions, they are to consider the interests of artists and students, expected frequent visitors ( Middlebrook, 2020 ). To impact the purchasing decision of consumers, quality customer service and products are essential. Java Café Bean will offer high-quality products, accompanied by good customer service delivery to satisfy new customers. Follow-ups on post-purchase behavior are crucial when introducing new products in the market. As such, Java Bean Café will introduce new products and services to Los Angeles and consider this vital process of the consumers' decision-making process.
Java Bean Café location and Cultural considerations
Los Angeles was the best-preferred location for the establishment of Java Bean Café due to several reasons. LA is equipped with a 24-hour operating economy, which favors both daytime and evening business operations for Java Bean Café. The joint will be situated in the Hollywood area to serve locals of the West Hollywood area and Hollywood Hills. The cafe's corporate social responsibility positively impacts the community by providing quality products and cool music for inspiration. The company's vision is to improve the quality of products and services delivered to the nearby community. As a result, customer-centered products will conform to the customer's preferences and promote its vision.
The two customer segments, daytime and evening customers, are structured to ensure maximum interaction with the products, services, and the overall atmosphere of Java Bean Café. The schedule of the Bean Café intends to ensure efficient service delivery to customers through worker shifts, daytime workers, and evening workers. Daytime Bean Cafe workers will undergo skillful training, which includes understanding specific requirements for the daytime customers. Besides, they will be required to familiarize themselves with the working environment and daytime customers' requirements, thus promoting successful interaction with their customers. According to Tanner & Raymond (2012), most evening customers are accustomed to purchasing fast-foods and beverages as they listen to the cool music. The evening customers' approach has to be different from daytime customers because it shows an explicable difference between daytime and evening customers.
Persuasion techniques
Each customer segment has a unique persuasion technique that increases the efficiency of services and products delivered to clients. The theories, “ Social Judgement Theory ” and “ Cognitive Dissonance Theory ," relatedly explain how to deal with evening and daytime customer segments, respectively (“ Explaining Theories of Persuasion ,” 2004 ). According to the article, the Social Judgement Theory suggests that understanding a person's attitude helps make a persuasive and appealing approach. Java Bean Café should follow the directive as mentioned earlier in approaching the evening customer segment. It includes approaching customers with the best services, including good music, as most are artists or young students. On the other hand, the Cognitive Dissonance theory argues that the persuasion process does not only aim at injecting new or redefined beliefs into people; it also entails a holistic approach of effecting change whereby the new solution is the best way forward ( Gardikiotis & Crano, 2015 ). This theory applies to daytime customers since the introduction of new, high-quality, and customer-centered products predicts a good outcome, including a good response from customers.
Recommendation
This section helps decision-makers prepare good paperwork on back-up plans or plans. For the daytime customer segment, event-based marketing is a good solution. Events are done during the daytime and reach a wide range of people; therefore, Java Bean Café should opt for this strategy as it is more influential despite being costly. A recommendation for the evening customer segment is the use of social media posts, done via a website, and brochures containing the same information availed at every Bean joint. The world has become digitized and extensively promoted social media platforms, thus showing how crucial the strategy will be for Java Bean Café.
In conclusion, Java Bean Café should embrace the most effective persuasion techniques to make a purposeful approach for both the daytime customer segment, and evening customer segment. Customers are an important part of the supply chain. In food and beverages industry, customers preferences and taste are the major concern that brings a competitive advantage for a company. Java Bean ought to put into practice all the aforementioned persuasion techniques, cultural considerations, and target consumer analysis specifications to attain its vision of creating a constructive space for customers.
References
Estay, B. (2020). How to Identify and Analyze Your Target Market in 2020 [Blog]. Retrieved 28 January 2021, from https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/target-market-analysis/#undefined .
Explaining Theories of Persuasion . (2004). [Ebook] (pp. 115-120). Retrieved 28 January 2021, from https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/4985_Dainton_Chapter_5.pdf .
Gardikiotis, A., & Crano, W. (2015). Persuasion Theories, 941-943. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.24080-4
International Data Base . United States Census Bureau. (2021). Retrieved 28 January 2021, from https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/idb/#/country?YR_ANIM=2021 .
Middlebrook, S., (2020). Stages of the Consumer Buying Process. [online]. n.p. Available at: <https://toughnickel.com/starting-business/Stages-of-the-Consumer-Buying-Process> [Accessed 8 February 2021].
Tanner, J., & Raymond, M. (2012). Principles of Marketing (2nd ed., pp. 72-148).
