Sunday, January 26, 2020

Study the nature of impulse buying

Study the nature of impulse buying Literature review Many researches have been carried out to study the nature of impulse buying and various factors that affect it. Impulse buying is influenced by a variety of economic, situational, personality, time, location and even cultural factors. Researches have also been conducted to understand the underlying motivational factors behind impulse buying. Similarly researches have been conducted to study factors that moderate impulse buying behavior. Consumers engage in impulse buying to satisfy hedonic desires for fun, novelty and variety; also impulsiveness is correlated with consumers desires to fulfill self-esteem and self-actualization needs. In the early stages research on impulse buying behavior was product-focused, as only products were held responsible for exciting people for unplanned purchases. The researchers directed their efforts and attention only to the type and characteristics of products and other factors associated with the availability display etc. of products in stores. But later on, from the last few decades, the researchers focused on customers rather then products as being the cause of impulse buying. The factors like personality characteristics, income level, need to fulfill self-esteem etc. are typically responsible for impulse buying behavior. The understanding of impulse purchasing was greatly improved through Sterns identification of four distinct classifications of impulse purchasing: planned, pure, reminder and suggestion impulse purchasing. The four categories are as follows: Pure impulse buying is a novelty or escape purchasing which breaks a normal buying pattern; Reminder impulse buying occurs when a shopper sees an item and remembers that the stock at home is exhausted or low or recalls an advertisement or other information about the item and a previous decision to buy; Suggestion impulse buying occurs when a shopper sees a product for the first time and visualizes a need for it, even though he has no previous knowledge of it; and Planned impulse buying occurs when a shopper enters the store with some specific purchases in mind, but with the expectation and intention to make purchases that depend on price specials, coupon offers, and the like. (Francis Piron (1991), â€Å"DEFINING IMPULSE PURCHASING†, in Advances in Consumer Research Volume 18, eds. Rebecca H. Holman and Michael R. Solomon, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 509-514) There are some factors other then product and individual characteristics that also play an important role in generating impulse purchases. Gender Differences in Impulse buying Several previous researches on impulse buying have paid some attention to the role gender plays in determining this behavior. These researches show that men and womens shopping behavior differs on many levels. Kollat and Willet (1967) found that women tend to engage in more impulse buying as compared to men. It is also argued that women because of their propensity to shop more in general, make more impulsive purchases. Tariq Jalees (2009) also found that the level of impulsiveness in reference to buying is stronger in females as compared to males. Transaction Size affecting Impulse Buying Kollat and Willet (1967) used two measures of transaction size: number of different products purchased and the grocery bill. They found out that the increase in size of the grocery bill and number of purchases made resulted in an increase in unplanned impulse purchases. Shopping List and Impulse buying Studies conducted by Kollat and Willet (1967) indicated that one of the factors that affect impulse buying is the presence of a shopping list. This however only holds true if the transaction size is greater than 15. When more than 15 or 20 products are purchased, shoppers having a list make a smaller percentage of unplanned purchases. However, when less than 15 or 20 products are bought, the shopping list does not affect the percentage of unplanned purchases. Pre-decision stage and impulse buying The research study conducted by Muhammad Ali Tirmizi, Kashif-Ur-Rehman M. Iqbal Saif (2009) clearly indicate that there exits a weak association between consumer lifestyle, fashion involvement and post-decision stage of consumers purchasing behavior but Pre-decision stage of consumers purchasing behavior established strong association with the impulse buying behavior of the consumers. The pre-decision stage of the purchasing associate the buyers with unplanned or impulse buying because these days stores are full of variety of products and a buyer can easily get interested in purchasing a product which appeals him or her while shopping the planned list of products. (Muhammad Ali Tirmizi, Kashif-Ur-Rehman M. Iqbal Saif 2009) Group influence on impulse buying Most research in consumer psychology assumes that impulsive purchasing can be best explained by factors at the individual level, in contrast a research study conducted by Xueming Luo (2005), indicates that the presence of others influences this behavior. Presence of peers increases the urge to purchase, and the presence of family members decreases it. Visual merchandising and impulse buying Todays retail stores are almost universal in their reliance on self-service merchandising and a high rate of impulse buying. Self-service merchandising is facilitated by store design and careful attention to traffic flow, while impulse buying is enhanced by the use of special displays. Customers typically do not cruise the aisles aimlessly hoping to find something to buy. Most consumers are busy people and have a purpose to their shopping trip. Thus, impulse sales are created not by persuasive reasoning, but by striking an emotion that the customer can act upon quickly. There appear to be three mechanisms by which the impulse buying response can be triggered. First, the special display cues the customer to respond to an external advertising campaign. The display creates impulse sales by reminding customers about the extensive advertising to which they have (hopefully) been exposed. Second, the display can serve to break the consumers conditioned reflex to buy a particular product. If the consumer buys Brand A because it has become a habit, then it will be necessary for them to have a reason to break this conditioned purchase behavior. Special displays provide a way to accomplish this because the consumer is responding emotionally, not through a reasoned process. Finally, special displays create impulse sales for new or novel products by instigating the desire to â€Å"try something new!† The salient feature to remember about impulse sales is that they are a response to an emotional appeal. A successful appeal may take many forms, but those most universal and easiest to communicate are identified by simple phrases such as: â€Å"low price,† â€Å"new,† â€Å"free,† â€Å"extra,† etc. A special display is used to get the customers attention for each of these messages. A research study conducted by W.M.C.B. Wanninayake Pradeep Randiwela (2007), indicates that most of customers have given first and second priority to visual merchandising. Second and third largest amount of customers mentioned price of goods and location of the outlets. According to the literature and pilot study in Sri Lankan supermarkets, researchers recognized that lighting, design layout, product display and cleanliness are the main variables of visual merchandizing. Price discounts and impulse buying This factor is the most talked about when it comes to impulse buying. A lot of people say that they indulged in impulse buying just because something was on a discount. Deals and discounts contribute to impulse buying, and when we see something priced much lower than what we are used, that triggers a desire to get that thing and save money. A large part of all purchases are attributed to impulse buying, this is undoubtedly good for retailers, but its not as good for consumers, because a lot of impulse buys dont end up getting used at all, and one regret spending any money on them. Price promotions come in various forms, such as buy-one-get-one-free offers, coupons, and of course price discounts. Cash reward is a new popular promotional tool used at many famous department stores, apparel retailing chains, and grocery stores. Consumers can obtain a rebate when their purchase passes a threshold set by the company, as in, purchase over $100 to get a $10 cash reward. However, distinguished from other price promotions, cash rewards provide consumers freedom to choose any products within the store rather than a specific product. Cash rewards, like the conditional discount of coupons, give rebates only to consumers achieving the purchasing threshold. Facing free choice and the conditional-discount promotion, consumers may be attracted to buy merchandise in excesses their original shopping budget. Those consumers perceive gains from getting the cash reward if they reach the threshold and perceive losses from not taking advantage of the offer if they do not. Such perception generates an â€Å"artificial buying desire.† Price discounts and cash rewards do increase the possibility of occurrence of unplanned purchases, especially when a consumers shopping expenditure approaches the offers threshold. Hypotheses The hypotheses formulated after review of the literature are given below: H1: Visual merchandising has a strong influence on the impulse buying behavior of the consumers. H2: Price discounts have a strong influence on the impulse buying behavior of the consumers. The testing of the hypotheses is confined to the primary data collected from Karachi. References Kollat, D. T., Willett, R. P. (1967). Is impulse purchasing really a useful concept for marketing decisions? Journal of Marketing Research, 4, 21-31. International Review of Business Research Papers, Vol. 5 No. 6 November 2009, Pp.298-308, An Empirical Analysis Of Impulsive Buying Behavior In Pakistan Tariq Jalees* JOURNAL OF CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY, 15(4), 288-294, Copyright  © 2005, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. How Does Shopping With Others Influence Impulsive Purchasing? Xueming Luo University of Texas at Arlington An Empirical Study of Consumer Impulse Buying Behavior in Local Markets Muhammad Ali Tirmizi, Kashif-Ur-Rehman, M. Iqbal Saif, European Journal of Scientific Research, ISSN 1450-216X Vol.28 No.4 (2009), pp.522-532  © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2009, http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.html W.M.C.B. Wanninayake, Pradeep Randiwela, 7th Global Conference on Business Economics, ISBN: 978-0-9742114-9-4 October 13-14, 2007, Rome, Italy

Saturday, January 18, 2020

World War One Home Front

There were any war plans made such as the Schlemiels Plan; a plan devised to avoid war on two fronts, Germans to defeat France and turn back to Russia with a hammer swing, and plan 17; was the French manipulation plan. Modifications were made to the plans and lead to their eventual failure. There were a number of battles including the Battle of the Manner; where German troops attempted to move towards Paris but were attack as the RE flank was exposed. There was a gap between the troops and the British troops were able to move into the gap. Leading to Germany having to fight a war on two fronts.There was also the Race to the sea which was the Germans attempt to gain as many ports as possible to allow for the continue of trade. It resulted In the creation of the Western front. The Nature of Trench warfare and Life in Trenches (1 86 Words) Trenches played a huge role in WWW. Features of trenches included, sandbags, ammunition, dugouts, parapet, duckboards, fire steps and barbed wire. Tr enches were a complex network and extended across many kilometers with the front line positioned to launch at the enemy. They were constructed In a gig gag structure Communication trenches unconnected each line.They were expected to be temporary at the beginning of the war. The area between allies and Germans was called no man's land. There was not set distance between the lines. No man's land had deep craters, mud, heavy rain, artillery bombardment. Weaponry changed throughout the war, machine guns, rifles, grenades, flamethrowers, mortars and gas were used. The battle tactics began as offensive and later changed to defensive. The life In trenches was horrible, there were many rats, mud and diseases that were evident within the trenches.This lead to battle fatigue and shell shock. Many soldiers experiences unhygienic living conditions, Illnesses such as dysentery, trench foot and PITS. 80% of the time solders were bored stuff, 19% of the time frozen stiff and only 1% of the time sc ared stiff. Attempts to Break the Stalemate (241 Words) There were numerous attempts to break the stalemate. The Battle of Verdure was In Feb. – Novel 1916. â€Å"They shall not pass† Is the saying aligned with It. It Involved generals, Falkland for Germany and Petting for France.It was Germany's aim to bleed the French white† through a war of attrition. Using heavy artillery bombardment and diphthongs gas. It resulted in an early German advance later re won by France. The failures of Verdure lead to Falkland replaced by Hindering and Ultrasound. Another battle was the Battle of the Some. This was from July – Novo General Hag was involved. The aim being to break through and relieve France at Verdure. They used artillery assaults and creeping barrage tanks. Another battle was the Battle of Packsaddle. This was between July's – Novo 1917.It is known for the mud. It was also with General Hag. The aim was to gain control of the seaports and draw pressur e off France. The use of heavy artillery bombardment. The result was only a small territorial gain and the opportunity to send reserves after a breakthrough at Cambric. There were also attempts made beyond the Western Front, these included places like Galileo. There was the naval blockade, which saw Germany launch its unrestricted submarine warfare and peace movements such as Papal peace note to reduce arms and the women's peace party.Changing attitudes of German and Allied soldiers to the war (174 Words) Britain at the beginning of the war has overwhelming support and enthusiasm. There was a glorified look on war; excitement of the duty and adventure. Britain had no tradition of conscription and men responded to propaganda such as the Kitcheners army posters well. There was â€Å"fear† that war would only last a short period and be over by Christmas. Britain often demons Germany. However, by 1916, the excitement had disappeared and reality of trenches and the futility of war have a major effect on roofs.The Battle of the Some was a turning point where reality sunk in. Recruitment figures have dropped by the end of 1916 and conscription was introduced. War weariness became a factor. Germany also had a massive and widespread enthusiasm. The German men shared the same motivation as British men. Patriotism, honor, duty, peer pressure, impressing girls and a steady income. However, food shortages lead to havoc and German soldiers developed the same feelings of the disillusionment and war weariness as British men especially with Germany facing starvation in 1917.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Integrated Logistics for DEP/GARD Case Study Essay

Tom Lippet, sales representative for DEP, feels the challenge when the successor of Mike O’Leary, Richard Binish, becomes the new purchasing agent at GARD who plans to trim the product line in the next three years. His plan to narrow the service window for suppliers from the original 5 days to 3 days in the next three years to the eventually 1 day window forces Tom to consider ways that can increase the performance and service of their company to win the contracts in the future. Solutions for DEP 1) Diagram on the Left shows the DEP/GARD supply chain. Value adding stages are: – The inbound transportation from compound suppliers – The manufacturing and packaging process – The outbound transportation to GARD Non-value adding stages are: – The compound inventory sitting in DEP (7-day supply) – The order transmission time wasted by receiving and handling orders manually – The finished product staying in the warehouse The minimum performance cycle for the supply chain is 9 days, whereas the maximum performance cycle is 20 days. 2) The performance cycle can be improved through the use of the 25 percent and 15 percent suppliers. But because DEP used a bidding system that emphasized on price, by giving out more proportions of the raw materials to the 25% and 15% suppliers, the average variable cost per unit will be higher for each compound. However, choosing 25% and 15% suppliers who has a relatively higher fill rate can increase the reliability of inventory availability and reduce the possibility of shortages. Which in turn means that DEP can lower the 7-day supply of each compound to a 6-day or even 5-day supply depending on the reliability of the supplier. By doing so, the inventory carrying cost will decrease and in the end if not saving more for the company, at least balances the extra costs used by purchasing from 15% and 25% suppliers. A Performance Statistics of Compound Suppliers copied from the Integrated Logistics for DEP/GARD Case Study is shown in the next page. For instance, we can see that the f ill rate for company 1 is relatively low comparing to other suppliers. And in the case of compound E and F, we have to reason to procure these two compounds from company 1 since it not only has the lowest fill rate but also costs the most. All or portion of the compound A and B can be purchased from company 2 or 3 depending on their capacity and performance consistency. 3) Things to do if I were Tom Lippet: Change the bidding system in a way that DEP is able to purchase more compounds from suppliers with a higher fill rate and lower performance cycle uncertainty, in order to reduce the days of inventory storage. (People  challenge: Employee’s reluctance and unwillingness to change in the manufacturing department.) Communicate with compound suppliers before the next bid and inform them the changes that are going on. Tell them the importance to reduce their performance cycle uncertainty and increase their fill rate. And that these two criteria are also going to be considered as well on the next bid. (Challenge: a) Disturbed relationship between buyer and supplier. b) Ethics issues. ) To facilitate the order transmission process in order to reduce the performance cycle, a more reliable internet-based information technology should be used, such as EDI and ERP systems. However, the installation and implementation of an ERP system can be costly and time consuming. The order transport ation performance cycle uncertainty is too high (3-6 days). Automated inventory management is highly recommended to ensure exact day delivery, and cost savings will incur from less labor force required in the warehouses. (People challenge: Possible resentment and intentional sabotage or strikes from warehouse personnel. To mitigate the process, appropriate procedures should be taken to help the workers to find alternative jobs. ) 4) It’s important to let Richard Binish to realize how the company is consistently improving according to his expectations. Maintaining a competitive price and quality while enhancing and exceeding their competitors in terms of performance cycle and service would be order-winning criteria for DEP. The implementation of the EDI system will provide real time information between the companies and solidify collaboration. Of course, the criteria will be continuously changing when supply chain management becomes more sophisticated and evolved over time. There will eventually be a day when the fill rates required become 100% and the service window will not be exact day delivery but exact time delivery for DEP. With the industry’s average standard constantly increasing, continuous improvement on supply chain management is necessary in order to survive in today’s competitive environment.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Reflection On My Life Experiences - 959 Words

Woods. Session1. Journal Reflection Lesson HEART/HAND/HEAD Everything in life happens for a reason and nothing happens by happenstance, chance or luck. I believe our life experiences can bring us many different learning opportunities if taken. Which can bring about a great wisdom and knowledge to help oneself or others in life. The Heart, Hand, Head are all very vital parts of the body both Naturally Spiritually and without these organs or parts we would not be able to survive. Starting with the â€Å"Heart† spiritually it brings about love, trust, forgiveness, honesty, and conviction (Example) John 3:16 â€Å"For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son, for whom so ever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life†. Naturally without a heart one cannot breathe or function at all and would be an empty shell for one cannot operate or function without it. My transformation began about 12 years ago. Now isn’t that interesting a preacher’s daughter who was born and raised into ministry wasn’t truly transformed until my late twenties â€Å"Odd†? Maybe (or) maybe not! Because of my own stubbornness and pride I went through about 8-9 years of trials and tribulations brought upon myself. Now, don’t get me wrong I was exceling in life at work, business ownership and socially. I thought I had it all and that I was responsible for it all as I soon realized â€Å"NOT SO†. Once things became tough in life and the feeling of emptiness and the void became so intense too intenseShow MoreRelatedMy Reflection On Life And My Experiences In My Life1515 Words   |  7 Pageswere always curious about my past experience and my outlook on life. With everything in life going fast paced, I never had that chance to fulfill that curiosity. 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