The buyer behaviour theory to show how companies have adapted to customer needs. Consumer behaviour demonstrates the consumer's decision for acquiring, consuming and disposing of goods. It is the decision-making process as well as the physical activity where individual evaluates the goods and services offered. The consumer behaviour is the analysis of individual and the manner in which they elect to the choice of the products they obtain in the market. Companies particularly focus on these particular needs to tap into their organization (Brodie et al. 2013, p. 108). The consumer is an aspect that deals with the consumer in making decision n particular products. It is the study of the human response to services and marketing. It analyses the consumer during the acquisition and its disposition of products, services, time and the time. It is the body of that studies the consumption of products and services. Additionally, it investigates process and activities people engage in while making their choices (Jaakkola and Alxander 2014, p. 248).
Consumer behaviour is affecting perception, cultural forces and the social factors. Consumer behaviour process is involved when people make a decision on choices of product services and the experience to meet their needs. It has two aspects which the final purchase and the decision process which involve the interplay of a number of complex variables. It is argued that purchase behaviour is an end result of consumer decision making. The consumer behaviour has become an integral part of the strategic market planning as firm and companies focus on the marketing activities. The effort is made to make influential effort to attract the consumers towards goods and services. In the current global market customers are more informed educated informed and highly knowledgeable this it behaves marketers to invest more in order to convince them to make a decision on the products. The consumer behaviour enables companies to understand and predict buying behaviour of consumers in the marketplace (Venkatesh et al. 2012, p. 157).
Companies are not only focusing on exploring the change in taste of the customer's preference but most importantly they are trying to decode the influential sources of information of customers. Companies are now focusing on the unsatisfied want to transform the consumer needs. Companies now through their websites run information that has a direct influence on the consumer's perception. The current market relies largely on marketing for the success of the business. Marketing helps business organization design campaign geared towards critical concerns that target the needs of the consumers. These marketing studies ensure there are enough resources that can be used to identify the consumer's behaviour. The theories of consumer handle the issue on how consumers purchase in a group and the role of emotion while making choices in the products, attitude and the role of object utility (Oliver 2014, p. 87).
Created in 1960 by Martic Fishbein and Icek emphasizes the significance of the existing attitudes deciding the choices of product and services. The gravamen of this theory focuses on the consumer acts on conduct based on the aim to create a certain outcome. In this evaluation consumer are selfish being acting in their best interest? The decision-making process is argued as the critical aspect of the choices the consumer make largely depends on the customer's satisfaction and their expectation (Hill and Alexander 2017, p. 118). Consumers occasionally change their mind and may opt for a different choice depending on the presentation of the product. In order for an organization to tap into this aspect, they need to associate a purchaser with a positive result linking its desirability. There is a demand for original intention and ad to ensure that the wheelie the consumer engages in decision making they are able to settle for the goods.
Consumer absorbs most of the material they pick from the adverts and compare the input with past experience and prospect. Consumer move to the decision making stage after having engaged in deep thought through. Decision making is affected by external influences including how consumers envision themselves after making the purchase. The creation of global electronic waste was estimated at 40 million per year and the same is estimated to extend to rise of about 500% by the year 2022. There has been a growing concern about the e-waste ramification caused by the rising e-waste in the UK (Teece 2010, p. 172). The consumer behaviour theories cover the issue of consumer perception and the collective consciousness. The consumer perception suggests that product influence their behaviour. Perception relates to the ability to make some sense of reality from the external environment.
When the consumer exercises their buying behaviour they tend to buy product and services they go through steps before making a purchase and customer decision depending on a number of different factors. The buying behaviour highlight basic procedure a customer would recognize a need to make a purchase and start researching the product pricing. Customer will occasionally evaluate features before finally making the final decision. Some proponent of the cultural theory of buying behaviour links the influence of culture on the buyer's behaviour (Brodie et al. 2013, p 110).
Perception of what companies are doing in relation to recycling of mobile phones
One of the most universal electronic devices in the world is mobile phones. As companies continue with manufacturing new and the latest models of the device. The average lifespan of the majority of the mobile phones still lies at one year. Therefore the pile of unused mobile phones is on the rise, moreover, they present a huge and an emerging problem in regards to electrical waste. In the year 2013, the amount of the electronic waste generated in Europe alone was about 15Kg per capital this being the highest than those produced in any other region of the world. An emerging and increasingly crucial factor in the sector is the shortage of the main metals to specific those types of metals which are found in the mobile phones. Additionally, approximately 70% of the mobile phones consists of materials which can be completely recycled (Tanskanen 2013, p.1005). The valuable metals inside the mobile phones can be continuously recycled into other forms of low carbon supply chain which can be put to use in other electronic goods.
There is need to recycle mobile phones since it consists of small troves of precious rare materials that can be reused. Approximately about one million phones could produce about 16 tons of copper, 350 kilograms of silver, 34 kilograms of gold and 15 kilograms of palladium (Kasper et al. 2011, p.2540). Hence, recycling old and obsolete mobile phones could drastically reduce the need for mining thus reducing both the strain involved in extraction the precious minerals. The minimization of undesirable effect on the environment due to dead phones. Reduction of the strain on the people working in the mines spread across different parts of the world who are often exploited. Another reason for recycling mobile phones is that they are made up of large concentrations of heavy toxic metals and chemicals such as lead, zinc, arsenic, mercury and cadmium.
Therefore lack of proper disposal of these substances can result in landfill sites which might further leak into waterways and Oil. Moreover when the consumers also sell their phones in the informal electronic waste sector they a taken for precious materials to be retrieved under unregulated and environmentally unfriendly conditions. Some of the chemicals have been associated with various medical conditions which affect both reproductive and develop complications(Ongondo and Williams 2011,p.1308) Thus the challenge remains to develop a proper way to recover those minerals and materials economically in a safe way that minimizes waste and protects the environment.
Mobile phones which are not used are usually left at the drawers at home a condition which is commonly referred to as mobile phone hibernation. Although according to the United Nations Environmental program recycling of mobile phones has the perspective of creating a valuable circular resource. It leads to the generation of jobs, protection of both the health of human and environment. In the UK there exist voluntary phone takeback network that is characterized by three different flows: incentive flow, information flow and product flow. In addition, there are more than 100 voluntary schemes in the UK which provide online mobile phone takeback (Geyer and Blass 2010, p.520).
About 83 percent of the schemes either operate as profit-seeking enterprises or operate to raise funds to support charity. Most of the schemes use the finance prepaid postage services to collect the mobile phones. The consumers who the handsets are collected from comprising of individuals, schools, universities and businesses and the incentives offered to them include monetary compensation, the donation to charities and entry to draws(Petruzzelis 2010,p.629) Majority of the handsets taken back seemed of low quality and information regarding the quantity collected is scarce. The UK takeback systems play a crucial function in ecological administration of waste by averting electronic waste from landfills and inspiring recycling.
Moreover, there is a group of mobile manufacturers, network providers, recycler's and consumer environmental protection groups which is led by Nokia. The group intends to promote the environmental performance of mobile phones and to massively increase the consumer consciousness regarding takeback and recycling. The group agreed on many initiatives with the main issue of concern being an elimination of the use of certain materials of contention, increasing the number of handsets collected via the take-back schemes and recycled lastly providing the consumers more information relating to the products (Juisic and Azevedo 2011, p.356)
The mobile service providers will jointly perform their duties with the manufactures and other stakeholders. The aim is to increase the amount of used, dead or unwanted handsets that are brought back for by the customer for recycling. The group will do a research on the different kind of incentives in various markets around the globe to assist with how the collection rates can be improved. The group also deliberated on the provision of more information and guidance to consumers. They target on the environmental performance of mobile phones thus assist the consumers to make appropriate purchasing decisions.
Use of competitive theory to analyse company's actions in relation to mobile phone market especially in the UK
Competition in an economy is widely studied especially in the mobile industry where there too much attention due to globalization. In the UK there are several mobile markets that have moved dominated the industry to control access to the end customer. Due to the globalization and the dynamism of the world the UK market has to experience stiff competition in the industry on a mobile ecosystem with the operating system and the nature of the industry. There has been a transformation with sophisticated purchasing power. There has been the development of markets with more development in term of technology and the market structure and competition. The companies in the UK are now focusing on utilizing the wide market and distribution channels to reach out to customers. The mobile companies put considerable weight on developing a good supply chain management. Since the mobile phones contain numerous highly specialized features the manufacturer acquires components that meet the demands and preference of the customers (McWilliam and Siegel 2011, p 1480).
The firms conducting business within the telecommunication industry in the UK operate in blustery environments that either has a positive or negative impact on their business. Therefore a company will have a competitive advantage over its challengers by securing customers and adopting appropriate strategies to counter competitive forces. The reaction of a company to competition is based on its capacity to protect itself from business attacks from rivals within the same industry (Tomczak et al.2018, p.5). The firm should, therefore, have a plan that incorporates the goals, policies and actions into a cohesive whole. A good and well-structured plan ensures that resources are allocated to all the relevant departments of the company.
The crucial elements in the companies are customers where the companies are viewed as professional buyers. Consumers present a wide variety of taste preference. They opt for more advanced models and appreciate value-added features and the post-purchase services. Gaining market in the mobile industry requires a perfect competition strategy due to the competitive nature of the industry; the industry needs a media ability to provide customers with reliable information on the market (Porter, 2011).
Mobile phones are one of the major platforms for innovation in the UK. The companies in this industry are working hard to attract customers and gain access to a wider share of the market both locally and internationally. Customer satisfaction is taken into account as one of the crucial factors that enable the company to have a good reputation and be better placed in the market (Persaud and Azhar 2012, p.431). The company should, therefore, undertake measures through offering attractive products and services where detail attention have been paid on the: price range, the clarity of the call, the features of the handset, the appearance of the mobile, the lifetime of the handset and the software. These are the main determinants which can lead to the company having a competitive advantage in the mobile sector.
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