The Differences in Consumer Behaviour between Buying Fine Arts On-Line and Traditional Purchased Method

Introduction

The aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy the target customers’ needs, demands and wants. The field of consumer behaviour examines how the individuals, groups and organizations choose, purchase, use and dispose the products, ideas and services or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants. It is important for companies to understand consumer behaviour and to know their customers, and this has never been an easy task for the companies or the sellers to understand (Kotler 2003, p. 182).
Customers may say one thing, but end up doing something completely opposite. This is because the companies or sellers may not understand and know the customers’ deeper desires and motivations. Customers may also change their minds at the last minute because of certain influences. Some small companies, like the local corner shops, and large corporations, such as American Standard, gain a lot of profits because they understand their customers and the factors that urge those customers to purchase their products (Dibb & Simkin 2001, p. 24).
This study is aiming to examine marketing concepts and theories. It will focus on investigating the differences of consumer behaviour between buying Fine Arts on-line compared with more traditional purchase methods. The study will concentrate on marketing research techniques that would help companies to gain more understanding of consumer behaviour and involvement in buying Fine Arts. The study will examine marketing principles and explain the key principles involved in Fine Arts marketing. It will also analyze the limitations of selling Fine Arts online rather than through traditional channels.

Influencing Consumer Behaviour

The stimulus-response model can provide a good starting point for understanding consumer behaviour. Marketing and environmental stimuli affect the consumer’s consciousness. Consumer’s decision and characteristics lead to specific buying decision. The marketers’ job is to understand what happens in the consumer’s consciousness between the arrival of external stimuli and the formation of buying decisions. Buying behaviour is affected by several factors – culture, social, personal and psychological (Kotler 2003, p. 183).
According to the above concept, it can be assumed that outside influences have an impact on the processes employed during buying decision making. D’Souza and Prentice (2002, p. 417-427) claimed that this concept of marketing on consumer behaviour can be applied to the area of Fine Arts purchasing decision making and behaviour. For example, a woman who losses her child may find herself drawn to the sculpture of a woman holding a baby (personal and psychological factors) whilst a young fashionable woman may find precious stone arts more appealing. Figure 1 features the model of buying behaviour.
It can be assumed that the successful technique to marketing Fine Arts is to find the target group, as Fine Arts marketers cannot go after everyone. For instance, in order to do this successfully, Fine Arts marketers have to be aware of who the major buyers are, as well as the influencing factors they employ to make decisions, and what their evaluation criteria consists of. This information can be gained by using secondary and primary researches. The differences of the two researches are as follows:
Primary Research
Primary research is the method used to gain information directly from first-hand sources using research programs or means of surveys, observation and experiment. The primary research is associated with collecting hereto unknown information and data (Schmidt and Hollensen 2006 p. 89). The major methods of primary research include focus group, individual in-depth interview, questionnaires, protocol analysis, project methods, action research, and Delphi research (Schmidt and Hollensen 2006 p. 89-110).
Secondary Research
Secondary research is the method adopted to collect the information that has been gathered by someone, other than the researcher, and/or for some other purposes than the project at hand (Schmidt and Hollensen 2006 p. 89-110). There are large amounts of secondary data available and researchers have to locate and use the data relevant to their researches. There are various sources of secondary data. These include internal data and external data sources. The internal data sources consist of data such as sales report, market share reports, marketing activities, cost information, sales reps’ reports, customer or end-user feedback, and sales force feedback. In contrast, external data sources comprise of electronic information (i.e. books, newspapers, trade magazine/journals, websites of competitors, and article databases) and printed data (consumer purchase panels, store audits, web-traffic monitoring etc) (Schmidt and Hollensen 2006, p. 15).

The Buying Decision Process

The decision to purchase a personal computer, a golf bag and a new sport car are very different. These complex and extensive purchases are likely to involve more buyer consideration and more participants. According to Henry Assael (1998, p. 201), they are differentiated by four types of consumer buying behaviour, based on the degree of buyer involvement and the degree of the differences among brands. The four types include routine response behaviour, limited decision making, extensive decision making and impulse purchase (Dibb and Simkin 2001, p. 29-30). These are described as follows:

1. Routine response behaviour: this type of buying behaviour occurs when people buying frequently bought, low cost, low risk products. The customers need little research and make less effort in decision making (Dibb and Simkin 2001, p. 29). Examples include decision making in purchasing sugar and newspapers, for instance.
2. Limited decision making: this buying behaviour is for the products that the customers buy occasionally. The customers, howev

er, may need to gather some information (Dibb and Simkin 2001, p. 29).

3. Extensive decision making: the extensive decision making is for unfamiliar, high price, risky and infrequent purchases. Customers will take time, gather a lot of information and compare and contrast before making the decision to buy the products involve with this type of decision making. Examples include houses and automobiles (Dibb and Simkin 2001, p. 30).
4. Impulse purchase: This type of purchasing behaviour involves with little conscious planning. Impulse purchase is influenced by the effective and powerful forces that urge the customers to purchase the products (Dibb and Simkin 2001, p. 30). For example, Paul may not plan to buy coffee, but when he passes Starbucks and he sees a big poster at the front of the outlet featuring the new coffee for the winter season – he then decides to buy Starbucks coffee.

In the case of Fine Arts marketing, these concepts can also be applied. For instance, an abstract painting costing over £200 may influence limited decision making for Sarah as she has a passion for abstract paintings. Sarah does not see that as an expensive item as the painting appeals to her. However, the same painting may take Paul a week before he decides to buy one as he is looking for a good painting to decorate his house, but he has no knowledge of abstract arts. As a result, Paul takes a week in order to gather information and ask his friends and family about abstract paintings (Bruce & Daly 2006, p. 329-344).
Kotler (2003, p. 202-206) explained that customers normally go through the six-stage buying decision making process in any purchase they made. However, in more routine purchases, customers often skip or reverse some of the stages. The six stages of the buying decision process will be examined as follows:
Need Recognition & Problem Awareness
In other words, this stage relates to the awareness of the needs of customers. It is the difference between the desired state and the actual condition. Having a deficiency in assortment of products can lead to the need to make a purchase (Kotler 2003, p. 202). For instance, a man is feeling thirsty. The state of being thirsty stimulates him and he feels the need to drink. The marketer can use the product information to stimulate people who do not know that they are deficient in or looking for. For example, Paul sees the commercial of the new Nokia mobile phone. It stimulates his recognition that he needs a new mobile phone.
In the case of Fine Arts marketing, this concept can also be applied. Customers of crystal arts works are aware that they need to get the beautiful and charming crystal arts works as the decoration item to decorate their living rooms, because they want to show off their tastes. For instance, the item that they currently have is an unknown crystal art brands and the quality of the art is lower than the crystal masterpieces from Swarovski. It is important for the Fine Arts marketers to know and understand the influences of their target customers in order to produce the effective and powerful marketing program that will encourage and urge these customers into buying the Fine Arts items (Joergens 2006, p. 360-371).
Information search
There are two types of information search. These include internal and external searches. Internal search is memory (Halbesleben et al 2007, p. 65-83). For example, the customer has memorised the brands of the crystal arts works from high street shops and from hotels. Then, they decide to carry out the external search to obtain more information. They ask their friends who are knowledgeable about crystal arts works. These people may also be the members of the customers’ social life group. These people may suggest to them to concern themselves about the crystal works of Swarovski, Tiara and the United Crystal because they are internationally well-known (Halbesleben et al 2007, p. 65-83). After gathering information about the crystal art works of different brands, the customers then decide that Swarovski crystal arts in carved the shape of angel appeal to them the most.
This customer may then start by looking up the available options in the Argos catalogue to see. The choices of crystal arts works from Argos may be limited. Next, the customer decides to visit shops such as H.S Samuel, which have different types of crystal masterpieces. At H.S Samuel, the customers may compare the prices of crystals that are carved in the shape of angels, which are in the interest of this particular customer. A crystal angel-shaped piece of art work was priced at £319 whilst another in the shape of a cupid was £280. However, Paul’s budget was only £300. There are also other brands of crystal works in H.S Samuel as well. A successful information search should leave a buyer with possible alternatives, which are called the evoked set (Kotler 2003, p. 205). The evoked set can be some other unknown brands of crystal arts works which were priced lower than £300.
Evaluation of Alternatives
At this stage, there is the need to establish the criteria for evaluation. Rank and weigh alternatives or resume the search. A person may decide to drink a hot or cold drink. If they are not satisfied with the choices then they will return to the search information stage. For example, should I get a Vodka and Red Bull, or something else? Looking for information from different sources may be treated differently. Marketers try to influences customers by framing alternatives (Keiningham & Vavra 2001, p. 219).
At this stage customers have to comprehend what it is that they want and what they do not want. According to Figure 1, Paul has decided that he does not necessarily need an angel-shaped crystal works as he already has a lot of angel decoration items at home. He wants the crystal arts works that cost less than £300.
Purchase Decision
Choose buying alternatives, including products, package, stores, method of purchase (Dibb & Simkin, p. 30). As an angel-shaped crystal piece created by Swarovski is priced at over £300 whilst another brand with a similar shape is less than £300, but only comes with a one year guarantee, Paul has decided to buy the crystal arts work in the cupid shape from Swarovski as he believes that the quality is better than the other brands and the item is guaranteed for three years.
Purchase
Customers may buy different products and brands from their initial decision because of time lapses between the purchase decision and the actual purchase and product availability (Kotler 2003, p. 207). Paul demonstrated in the previous stage that he decided to buy the crystal arts work from Swarovski. However, when he puts in an order to purchase the crystal art work, the item was out of stock. The seller told Paul that he has to wait for at least three weeks to get the item.
If this situation occurs, the customers will go back to the previous stage by looking at the alternatives (Kotler 2003, p. 207). For example, Paul may decide to ask the seller if there is any other way for him to get the item immediately as he wants to decorate his new house with that piece of art before his wife’s birthday. The seller tells Paul that he can order the item from Swarovski via the internet and the item will be delivered within a few days, depending on the type of delivery. As Paul has already seen the item that he wants at the shop, he can now visualise the item and he considers that it is better for him to buy the item online so that he does not have to wait for three weeks.
Post-Purchase Evaluation
This stage involves the outcome of the purchased items. Does this produce satisfaction or dissatisfaction? Have you made the right decision? This can be reduced by warranties after sales combination (Dibb & Simkin 2001, p. 30). For example, after drinking a cup of tea, people may think that they really wanted a Malibu with pineapple juice instead.
In the case of Fine Arts marketing, Paul is now happy with his decision of buying the cupid-shaped crystal item from Swarovski. Paul now has a good, beautiful, charming and quality crystal decoration item that can tell people that he has good taste in crystal arts works. Also, the Swarovski gives Paul a three years warranty card that makes him feel secure.

The Limitation of Buying Fine Arts Online

According to the above concepts and marketing theories, it can be assumed that there are several limitations of selling arts works online compared to the traditional methods. The limitations of selling Fine Arts online are as follows:
Sensational feeling
The study focusing on the auction strategy and pricing of art times carried out by D’Souzo and Prentice (2002, p. 417-427) revealed that there are several limitations of selling Fine Arts online rather than via the traditional ways such as auctions and specialist shops. According to this study, it can be assumed that when people are buying an arts item, they prefer to have their visual and sensational senses catered to (Doherty 2006, p. 137-153). Doherty stated that sometimes people cannot see the texture of the arts item if they purchase it online.
Emotional Feeling
As most of the arts works carry emotional benefits, customers of Fine Arts want to admire the real arts works before making purchasing decisions, especially if the item is expensive (Doherty 2006, p. 137-153). Some people may want to get closer to the item and some of the customers cannot get accurately visualise the dimensions or proportions of the item. However, Fine Arts that are being sold online cannot offer these benefits and the artistic value to the target customers (Doherty 2006, p. 137-153).
Artistic Value
D’Souzo and Prentice (2002, p. 417-427) also stated that selling art online cannot offer the customers the sensational and artistically feeling toward the arts item. This is because pieces of art have to be perceived in all visual senses in order to be able to be appreciated and to feel the artistic value, which will affect the buying decision (Tiemann & Barbour 2006, p. 342-352). However, the online method cannot offer such feelings. This is the reason why people that see the sculpture of Jesus in the Vatican have an emotional feeling or response, whilst those seeing the same art work on the television are less likely to experience such feelings (Doherty 2006, p. 137-153).

Conclusion

It is important to understand the target customers’ motivations, needs and preferences as it can improve the ability of companies in earning and gaining profits. Studying and understanding the customers can provide the basis for companies to be able to develop and improve new products, product features, prices, distribution and other elements of the marketing mix, so that the companies can then increase the volume of their sales and profits (Kotler 2003, p. 183).