UNIVERSITY OF HALMSTAD

School of Business and Engineering

Dissertation Marketing- Bachelor’s Degree

CONSUMER

BEHAVIOUR

Dissertation in "Consumer Behaviour", 15 Credit point level

2008-05-22

Authors:
Sara Pérez
Bárbara Martínez

Supervisor:
M. Venilton Reinert

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 The table of contents

1- Introduction P 1-9
1.1 Background p 3-5
1.2 Problem p5
1.3 Purpose p 5-6
1.4 Delimitations p6

2-Theoretical Framework P 7-16

2.1 Why companies study the consumer behaviour? p 7-8

2.2 Characteristics that affect the consumer behaviour p 9-12
2.3 The Esencial elements of consumer analysis p 13
2.4 Influencing the consumer behaviour p 14-15

3- Methodology P 17-22
3.1 Research method p 17-18
3.2 Type of research p 18-19
3.3 Population sampling p 19-20
3.4 Data collection p 20-21
3.5 Validity and reliability p 22

4- Empirical Data P 23-34

4.1 History of the product “Aquarius” p 23-25
4.2 Questionaries p 26-34

5- Empirical Analysis P 35-43

6- Conclusion P 44-46

7- Implications P 47

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8- Appendix P 48-51

8.1 Questionnarie P 48-49

8.2 References P 50-51

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1- Introduction
In the first chapter of the paper the research background will be introduced and
followed by the research problem, purpose and demarcation, and will be presented
with reference to the area of the study.

1.1 Background:

Nowadays, there are so many companies that manufacturate goods that can
satisfy a determinate need of the consumer. When someone wants satisfy a primary
necessity, for example hunger or thirst, they have a wide variety of similar products to
choose. This variety made the customers more demanding when they go to buy
something. For this reason, when a company wants to introduce a new product in an
existing market and reach a market share, this company need to offer something
different or to create a product that the clients perceive like different, because the
product makes feel the consumers different when they using it.

Companies are competing to maximize their market share by penetrating existing

markets. Marketing communication is therefore a very crucial and necessary tool that
enables companies to get to their customers, increase brand awareness, strengthen the
brand image, and build up customer loyalty. In consumer marketing, brands often
provide the primary points of differentiation between competitive offerings, and as
such they can be critical success factors for companies.

According to George E. Belch1, before the companies make marketing campaigns, it is

very important for the companies to know some aspects about the part of the population
that they consider is going to be their target market. Some of these characteristics can
be; how these consumers think, what they need, if they are influenced by their
environment, their motivation for buy different products. The whole of this aspects and
characteristics form the consumer behaviour.

1
Advertising and promotion :An integrated marketing comunication perspective. E. Belch (1997) pg. 237

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Consumer behaviour can be defined as “the dynamic interaction of affect and
cognition, behaviour, and environmental events by which human beings conduct the
exchange aspects of their lives”2

According to Klaus G. Gurnet and Jerry C. Olson, there are three important concepts in
this definition:3

The first one is “dynamic”, this means that the consumer behaviour is constantly
changing. For this reason the companies need to study their target audience frequently
because it is common that the profile of their consumers change with the passage of the
time.
The second one is “involve interactions”. There are certain aspects that are necessary
study in the consumer behaviour. Some of these aspects are:
What the consumer think, what the consumer want or what environmental events can
influence in their behaviour.
The last one is “involve exchanges”, between human beings.

For example: consumers will sometimes be persuaded more by logical arguments, or

more by emotional or symbolic appeals. Understanding these issues helps the
companies to adapt their strategies by taking the consumer into consideration.

But in spite of this, often the perspective that a company has of a product can change
due to the behavior of the consumers. There are several reasons that can influence the
consumers so that they decide to use a certain product. One reason is the desire the
product offers (it satisfies the consumer necessities), and another reason is the
fashionable one, that the consumers use to appear in a certain way by the society.

In short, the company should study and create the marketing campaign for their target
group. But during the product life cycle, the image, target audience or function of this
product can change in due to the consumer behaviour.

2
Peter D. Bennett, Dictionary of Marketing Terms ( American Marketing Association, 1989) pg. 40
3
Consumer behaviour and marketing strategy, European Edition 1999. Paul Peter, C. Olson and G.
Grunert.

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Consumer behaviour is complex and can change depending on the type of product that
makes a company. Because is not the same purchasing process when a consumer wants
to buy a car or if they need to buy a soft drink. But in general, there are many factors
that influence these actions, like social and psychological aspects.

1.2 Problem:

The purpuse of this paper is to understand the behavior of each consumer

has to satisfy his own different necesities. So it has to consider that each consumer is
different from the rest consumers and that the companies have to try to know their own
requirements. To succes the companies have to take into account differents aspects, to
be able to make their marketing strategies with they are going to be explained in the
theoretical part. How a company’s producers used their already existent potential to
achieve a success without any advertising and why this company has an incredible
increase in their sales figures.
Therefore the raised question in this essay is:
Which factors can influence the consumer behavior in order to decide to choose a
certain product?
At the begining this product that is going to be study (Aquarius) was created as a drink
for sportsmen but over the time the target audience have change and nowadays more
people (non sportsmen) are buying and consuming this product as a soft drink.

1.3 Purpose:

The aim of this work is to understand the consumer behaviour. The research is
going to be focus on the factors that influence the consumers. The purpose of this paper
is to know the different aspects that the consumers have into account when they decide
to use a certain product.

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 In this chapter we stated our specific research questions and demarcation in
order to focus on our defined research purpose. The following chapter will present the
theory adopted from previous researchers.

1.4 Delimitations:

The topic of the paper is consumer behaviour because nowadays it is a

very important aspect that influence all companies. But consumer behaviour is a general
concept that can have so many different perspectives. In this thesis the factors that
influence this consumer behaviour are the most important part of the main theory. The
study is going to be focus on the consumers’ perspective. The influence factors are
going to be study in order to understand the population. For this reason, it is not
important to know other aspects like advertisement, price or the strategy that the
company used for this product. The study is going to be focused in Coca Cola Spain,
especially in the energetic drink “Aquarius”.

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2- Theoretical Framework
This chapter will present the theories pertaining to our stated research purpose
and research question. This chapter will end with the conceptual framework and the
frame of reference.

2.1 Why companies study the consumer behaviour?

According to Kotler, study the consumer behaviour is a task that every year has
a large influence in the marketing decision process of the companies. Years ago, the
daily experience was enough to understand the buyer behaviour. Nowadays, the market
have grown in size and the companies have lost direct contact with the consumers. For
this reason, it is very important for the companies to study the consumers in order to
understand their behaviour.Depending on the beliefs, needs or characteristics of the
target market, the companies are going to have a different marketing campaign.
Companies need to answer some key questions like; who buys? And why do they buy?.4

Figure 1. Model of buyer behaviour

Inputs Outputs

External stimuli The buyer’s black box The buyer’s buying

decision

Marketing Environmental Buyer Buyer decision The choice of:

stimuli stimulis Characteristics Processes
Product
Product Economic Cultural Recognition of
the problem Brand
Price Social Social
The search for Dealer
Advertising Political Personal information
Quantity
Distribution Tecnological Psychological Evaluation
Purchasing timing
Decision

Post purchase
behaviour

Source: Philip Koltler [1994]: Marketing Management –Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control: Prencice-
Hall Inc. pg.174

4
Principles of marketing. Kotler, Amstrong, Saunders and Wong. [2001]

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In this model the first aspect that the companies need to take into account is the external
stimuli. The external stimuli is divided in two different parts. The first one, marketing
stimuli, consists of the four Ps: Product, price, adevertising and distribution. Those are
the most important features of the product and the companies can influence and change
them in order to rise a large percentage in the market. The second group, environmental
stimuli, are unconnected with the company and also with the consumers. This group
consist of economic, technological, political and cultural aspects. For example, in the
economic field, the increase of the inflation or the development of new technology can
have a large influence in the buying behaviour. But those are events in which the
company does not has an influence like on the first ones.

The external stimuli have influence in the buyer’s black box.5 (see figure 1 page 8) This
box consists of the buyer characteristics and the buyer decision process. The buyer
characteristics can be divided in four parts. Cultural, social, personal and psychological
factors. These aspects are internal of each person so it is very difficult for the company
to have information or to influence them.Those factors are going to be explained in
detail in the second part of this theory. The other part of this black box is the buyer’s
decision process. This part consists out of all factors explained before such as the
external stimuli and the characteristics of the buyer. Depending on those factors, the
consumers are going to have different needs and different steps and preferences in the
decision process. It is also important to take into account that this process also depends
on the product.
For example, if the consumer needs to buy a expensive and durable good this process is
going to be longer and more difficult than if he/she needs to buy just food or clothes.

According to Rik Pieters6, the last part of the process is the buying decision. In this part,
the consumer needs to decide which product satisfies his/her necesities in a better way.
The buyer needs to make a choice in some aspects like the product, brand or dealer. The
companies try to study the external stimuli and the buyer’s black box in order to
influence this last step. With a good information of the consumer’s preferences and a

5
The Theory of Buyer Behaviou, John A. Howard and N. Sheth. [1969]
6
A control view on the behaviour of consumers. European Edition [1993] Rik Pieters.

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good marketing stimuli the companies can achieve their main purpose. Being choosen
by the consumers instead of their competitors.

2.2 Characteristics that Affect the Consumer Behaviour

The second part in the model of the buying behaviour is the buyer’s black box
(Figure 1). This box consists of the buyer’s characteristics and the buyer’s decision
process. Those factors have a large influence in the buyer’s decision process. (P.
Kotler,2001)

According to Arnmstrong, consumer purchases are influenced by cultural, social,

personal and psychological factors or characteristics that can not be controlled by
companies.

Figure 2. Factors influencing behaviour

Cultural
Culture
Sub-culture
Social class

Social
Reference groups
Family
Roles and status

Personal Psychological
Age and life cycle stage Motivation
Occupation Learning
The
Economic cirsumstances Perception buyer
Beliefs and attitudes

Source: Principles of Marketing. P.Kotler, G. Armstrong, J.Saunders and V. Wong [2001]

For some authors, cultural and social factors are defined and explained like only one
group. For this reason the main theory is going to be explained taking into acount this
second definition. So, there are three groups of factors that can influence the consumer
behaviour. This process is categorized by three aspects: environmental influences
(culture, social class, personal influence, family, and situation), individual differences
(consumer resources, motivation and involvement, knowledge, attitudes, personality,

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lifestyle, and demographics) and psychological processes (information processing,
learning, and attitude and behavior change).

Figure 3. Influences on consumer behaviour

Source: Angel, J., Blackwell, R., and Miniard, P. Consumer Behavior-6th Ed. The Dryden Press, 1990.

In each group there are different characteristics that are going to be explained in this
theoretical part. Those different characteristics are: 7

1. Personal or individual factors

Personal factors are unique to a particular person. Some of them can be family situation,
work, marital status, age, demographic, sex or the experiences one your life and all of
them can influence the decision of the purchase. It is also important to know, who in the
family is responsible for the decision making, because sometimes only one member in
the family make the decisions but other times the decisions can be made by consensus.
Young people purchase things for different reasons than older people. (Paul W. Miniard
– 2002)

2. Psychological factors

This group can be divided in different categories like: motive, perception, ability and
knowledge, attitudes (positive or negative feelings) or personality and lifestyle.

1. Motive, it is the internal feeling that make the people buy a certain product in
order to satisfy a necessity. This can be relationated with the Maslow´s hierarchy
of needs. 8

7
K:\articulos aquarius\Chapter 6_ Consumer Buying Behavior Notes.mht
8
Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality [1970] pg. 80

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Figure 4. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Source: Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality, 2nd ed., Harper & Row, 1970

Depending of the phase in which a person it is, they need different products for satisfy
they needs, and the needs can have a different motive. First people need to satisfy the
basic things, like hungry or thirsty and after satisfy this neccesities they are going to try
to reach others like safety needs or self steem.
Sometimes people want to buy something that they do not need, only because they want
to appear in a certain way or because they feel better with this product. For example
there are many people who never practise sports but they usually get dressed in sports
clothes (brands like Nike, Adidas or Puma). The sports clothes can make them have a
younger look, or make them to appear like athletics or make them feel comfortable.

2. Perception, this can be relationed with different concepts like taste, smell or
touch. People have a sensation when they try a centain product, this perception
depending of the experiences that people had with the products and also of the
knowledge.(G. Armstrong. 2001)

3. Ability and knowledge, the knowledge or opinion that people have about a
product can be influenced by the company. With new information or free sample
the companies can manipulated the image of a product. They can use this when
they want to introduce a new product in the market and also if they want to
change the image or the concept of one existing product.

4. Attitudes and feelings, people can have a positive or negative feeling about a
product. This feeling can be consecuence of their personal experiences or

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 because of the interaction with other people. For example; you try a hamburger
and if you have a successful experience (taste good, good price) the next time
you are probably going to buy the same hamburger.( J. Saunders 2001)

5. Personality and lifestyle, in order to decide use or not a certain product, the
personality have a large influence. It is very important for the companies to
know the mind of their target market in order to influence them. It is also
important to know the type of life that they prefer, it is not the same people that
like natural and healthy lifestyle than people that like fast food and the citylife.

3. Social or environmental factors

Consumer wants, values or beliefs are influenced by the opinion of leaders,

person's family, reference groups, social class and culture.

Reference groups and opinion leaders have a large influence in the consumers
behaviour. Sometimes, companies use famous people to attract consumers. For example
in the advertising of makeup they use famous girls (singers, actress) in media, because
famous girls makes the “normal” girls desire them. 9

According to Bearden, some criteria that companies can use to divide the population in
the different social class can be; occupation, education, income, wealth, race, ethnic
groups and possessions. Social class determines to some extent, the types, quality, and
quantity of products that a person buys or uses. Culture refers to the set of values, ideas,
and attitudes that are accepted by a homogenous group of people and transmitted to the
next generation. Culture also determines what is acceptable with the product
advertising. Culture determines what people wear, eat, reside and travel. Occasionally
religious groups will influence consumers’ behaviour, usually because a religion may
set certain standards—e.g., some religions do not allow the consumption of alcohol.

In short, it is very important for the companies to know all of this factors that
influence the consumers behaviour, for example when they want to be able to make

9
“Reference group influence on product and brand purchase decisions”. O. Bearden and J. Etzel. (1992)
pg. 185

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forecasts on how the market responses to certain new products or to evaluate the
positioning or perception of existing products on the market.(Bearden, 1992)

2.3 The Esencial Elements of Consumer Analysis

With the study of this theorical model, compaies going to know that it is neccesary to
understand and analyze the next concepts if they want to develop a successful strategy
and influence in the purchase of the consumers.

Figure 5. Three Elements of Consumer Analysis

1. Consumer affect and cognition

2. Consumer behaviour
3. Consumer environment

Source: Consumer behaviour and marketing strategy. P. Peter, C. Olson. [1999] pg. 17

1. Consumer affect is related with the feelings about events, people can like or
dislike a products. Can be favourable or unfavourable and include emotions.
Consumer cognition is related with the beliefs about a particular product. Mental
structures, knowledge or beliefs that consumers have developed from their
memories and experiences.(Grunert, 1999)

2. Consumer behaviour is related with the physical actions or consumers that can
be directly observed and measured by others. Can include behaviours like,
shopping at stores, buying a determinate product or using a credit card.

3. Consumer environment is related with everything external to consumers that

influences what they think, feel or do. People can be influence for different
groups like culture, reference group or family. This is very important for all
marketing strategies because it is the medium to stimuli and influence consumer.

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 It is also important to know that these three elements have a strong relationship between
them. If then consumer have a bad experience or feeling in one of this areas it is
possible that this beliefs affect in a negative way in the other areas .This change in the
consumer behaviour can be an advantage for other companies.

2.4 Influencing the Consumer Behaviour

When the types of consumer behaviours are measured and pointed out, it becomes
possible to specify and control strategies to influence these behaviours.

The following steps can be a general model to influence the consumers behaviour:

Figure 6. A General Model of Approaches to Influencing overt consumer

behaviour.

Information about Marketing mix, Influence Influence overt

consumers´ affect, stimulati placed in consumers´ affect consumer
cognitions, the environment and cognitions behaviours
behaviours

Consumer research data

Sales, market share data

Source: Consumer behaviour and marketing strategy. Peter, Olson and Grunert.[1999] Pag 234-235

According to Olson, first the company must obtain information about consumers
affects, believes and behaviour related to the service, product or brand. When the
company knows all this information, it is easy to design a specific marketing mix plan
with the purpose to stimulate the target market. The company can use methods like

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coupons, price tags or packaging to influence the consumer’s affect and cognition in
positive ways. The last part in this model is to measure the changes in the consumers
behaviour in order to know if the strategy of the company was or was not succeful. With
all of this information, the company must create a data base that can be useful when this
company wants to launch a new product or influence futher consumer behaviours.

According to this book; there are four strategies designed to influence the Consumer
Behaviours.10

1. Affective: this strategy is designed to influence in consumer affective responses.

It is focused in the consumers´ emotions, feelings or moods.
2. Cognitive: in this case the strategy is designed to influence in consumers´
cognitive responses. It is focused the consumer knowledge, meaning, and
beliefs.
3. Behavioural: this strategy is designed to influence in the consumer behaviour
directly. The company usually use this strategy in oder to create desire for their
products by the consumers.
4. Combined: In this strategy, the company tries to influence the consumer in all of
the previous concepts.

Each company must choose the strategy that they consider more adecuate for their
products but all of them have the same purpose, influence overt consumer behaviours.

10
Consumer bahaviour and marketing strategy. European Edition. Peter, Olson and Grunert.[1999]

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3- Methodology

In this chapter, the methodology of the study is going to be presented. A

plan for collecting, organizing and integrating the data so that at the end the purpose
can be reached. The research process are illustrated and the methods are presented and
explained before. Thereafter, comes a description of the data collection and analysis.
The research purpose, method of data collection was already discussed in former
chapters.

3.1 Research method:

The research approach consists of the inductive or deductive way of

drawing conclusions, and the qualitative or quantitative method of investigating
information. The different approaches are going to be descibed and choices, made in
this paper, are going to be justified. According to Holme and Solvang (1991), the two
approaches that a researcher can choose between when conducting a study are inductive
and deductive. An inductive approach is oriented towards discovery and is signified by
the researcher constructing theories based on empirical studies and conclusions. A
deductive approach is descriptive and enables the researcher via theory to study and
empirical situation and to determine the theory’s validity.

For this study quantitative method is going to be used, because it can be found the
most suitable mean of the research of this study purpose, which can lead us a better
understanding of the research problem. To understand the main idea, it can be very
helpful to use statistical analysis to determine the facts that it gives to Coca-Cola
Company to make such a big distintion of another companies and the correlations
between facts, that this decision has lead. The quantitative research is also going to be
used in order to provide the fundamental connection between empirical observation
and mathematical expression of collected data.

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According to Yin, Robert K (1989) the process of collecting data is very hard because
the theoretical part is based in this data. This research must be able to answer the main
questions of the thesis with the one the data is obtained. For this work this is a crucial
task because otherwise the collected data does not represent the purpose of the study
that is showed in this paper.
The data information can be collected from two different sources. The sources that are
going to be presented in this part are the primary and secondary data.

Primary data: Consists of material collected by the researcher. The sources

can be direct observations, like each person that could see the new product “Aquarius”
when it was launched to the market, surveys made trough the life of the product,
interviews and questionnaires. Eriksson L. T. & Wiedersheim- Paul F, p 65-66, 1997.

Secondary data: Consists of a previously collected material from the

instituted of statistic of Spain, in which it can be easily to search for information and
statistics that can be used to work on the research problem. Sources can be statistics,
articles, books and economy news in the newspapers and the Internet sources etc.
(Eriksson L.T. & Wiedersheim-Paul F, p65-66, 1997). “The central advantage of
secondary data is savings in cost and time in comparison with primary data.” (Kinnear,
Taylor, p176, 1996).

The used data collection method for this case study is mostly primary data.

3.2 Type of research:

According to Russell K. Schutt, Exploratory research; it is an adequate

method when the research problem it is badly understood. This method may be used to
gain insights, ideas, clarification, it is important to try to obtain as much information as
possible. Exploratory research’s primary objective is to provide insights into and
comprehension of the problem situation confronting the researcher. The type of research
that is more adecuate for this paper is exploratory. The main problem or idea of the
consumer behaviour and the purpose is to comprise there behaviour. With questionaries
and articles on internet and news papers.

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The choice of strategy depends on several factors, for example, the form of the research
question, the need for control over behavioural events and so on. There are different
research strategies that can be used and each strategy has its own advantages and
disadvantages. The different strategies can be: cases studies, experiments, interviews
and analysis of archival by the goverment or the nation.

The aim of this research is to see “What factors can influence the consumer

behaviour in order to decide to choice a product ?”. This is relationated with the
factors that influence the consumers behaviour. Is enough to study the case of only one
country; Spain. Because with this interviews it can see what the people think and want.
Since the company made changes that we can not directly see in the advertisements, but
indirectly the image of the product changed attracted more people.

After deciding on making the choice to do this case study, it had to be thinking what
kind of target group is going to be interview. The most difficult task of the research was
finding the right questions to be asked about the product because it was far away from
the people who were going to be interviewed.
There are two main criteria for making the interviews in our research. Firstly, the
interviews should be held in Spain. And secondly, the interviews should show to
understand the purpuse of this work.

3.3 Population sampling

The population are young and adult Spanish consumers. And the sample is
200 people from 16 to 40 years old, in Spain (Navarra and Zaragoza). But, they are
going to be divide in differents target groups: people from 16 years old, young people
between 16 and 26, another group between 26 and 30 and the last group until 40. Spain
is one of the countries where most of the people practice or play some sports, especially
young people. The choice of this groups was because they use our good for several
reasons. One of the advantages of choosing this different groups is that the ability is
created to use, and find, a lot of different evidence and motivations to find the answer

19
for our main problem. However, there is also critique to be given to several case studies.
First, the case studies have been criticized for being easily maniupulated by the
researcher to meet the goals and purposes for the study better. To avoid this, the
researcher has always to be focused on the problem and purpose of the study. The
researchers wanted to know the average amount of consumers who use the Aquarius or
similar kind of products. Also, the factors that make their behaviour change when they
percived a new product in the market. Like the new kind of drink that Coca-Cola
Company launched to the market called Aquarius. For some sort of reason they were
attracted, because the demand of the product increased significant.

People in general they want to look good, and be in the meaddle of the fashion,
wearing nice and expensive close to look always good that is why they always try to
eat, drink or wear the last product launghed to the market. But to be more focus young
people always try to be ‘up to date’ of the latest fashion and trends.

3.4 Data collection:

In this part of the paper the evidence comes from four different sources:
documents, archival records from the INE (National Institud of Stadistics in Spain),
interviews and direct observation. It is important for this research to use multiple
sources of data to get a most possible wide view about this specific case.

It had get 200 surveys in order to have information. The contact with them was by e-
mail and our family members collect the information that they give them, and send to
the researchers.
“The process of collecting data enables you to use the data you collect to improve all
segments of you communications program. If you data does not do that, you are
collecting the wrong data” (Daniel S. Janal, p 180, 2000).
There are two general forms of data, as explained before. “Secondary data have the
advantages of being relatively cheap and quick to obtain, and can also be reliable and
accurate. This data will often tell you how many customers buy each competitors
offering but will not tell you why. Secondary data vary dramatically in quality, from

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country to country. Primary data research, is undertaken where the secondary sources
can not provide the detail of information required to solve a particular problem or to aid
sufficiently the decision making. Primary research involves the collection of new data,
often directly from customers, or distribution intermediaries” (Graham J. Hooley,
1998).

The most common way of collecting primary data is through interviews it

can be speaking, by internet or different kinds of questions. Primary data also
guarantees that the information is relevant from a certain time.
The data that is going to be use to describe the case of Aquarius is primary
data collected mainly from the mentioned target groups before. The questions from the
survey are base on some aspects that on consumer afect too much. That is why their
behaviour can change very rapid fron choosing one product or another. That is the more
important reason to make this survey. The questions will be to know which aspects like
personal, physhicological or social influence more in the consumer behaviour.
Additional information and opinions are gathered by our own observations from
magazines, articles and etc.

3.5 Validity and reliability:

Regardless of data of our collection method, the information has to be

carefully examined in order to determine its validity and reliability of our work.
Validity can be made by establishing a correct operational measures for the concepts
that are going to be studied. A questionnaire can be the source to be able to get
required data. The questions are often difficult done and studies are made, in order to
minimize the misunderstanding of the target group and problems to the respondents.
Furthermore, statistical testing can be used to analyze the answers of the questions,
also called empirical data. Which can help the researcher to analyze the outcomes of
the research, and can resulte in a higher the validity of the study.

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In this chapter the methodology of the study has been presented. The research process
was illustrated and also the choice that was chosen for the method was presented and
explained in the pages before. The method of this thesis consists of: research method,
type of research, data collection, population sampling and the validity and reliability
of the results. The next chapter that is going to be presented in this work, will be the
presentation of the empirical study.

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4- Empirical Data

4.1 History of the product “Aquarius”

Coca Cola Spain (services’ and fresh drinks’producer) with a headquater in

Madrid, subsidiary of Coca Cola Company, has been established in Spain since 1953.
This company has a large range of products in the Spanish market, some of those
products are soft drinks, tea, energetic drinks, juices and water. Coca Cola is one of the
most international well known brands in Spain. Beside that, according to some studies,
it is also one of the most favourite brands used by young people. In 2006 Coca Cola was
chosen as the most reliable global company. Studies have shown that it is also one of
the most prefered companies to work at.
During the last years, Coca Cola Spain has been making a diversification process in
order to adapt its products to a changing and competitive market. In 1953, this
company produced only Coca-Cola.But nowadays, it offers 42 different products.
Since 2000 the company has been launching over 25 products but the most relevant
product for this dissertation is Aquarius.

In 1992, Aquarius was produced for the first time by Coca Cola Company as a
energetic drink (drink provided especially for people who practice sports regularly).In
this year, Aquarius became also the official drink for the Olympic Games held in
Barcelona. Although Aquarius was presented in various European markets, but this
drink has only a significant presence in Spain, Belgium and The Netherlands.11

In 2003 Coca Cola decided not to advertise Aquarius on television but despite this, the
sales of this product grew. The commercial success opened the debate of the
effectiveness of marketing communication. Aquarius had shown that advertising is not
always necessary and that changes in marketing can be very unpredictable.

The most important event in the life cycle of Aquarius, is the study that the “Sra.
Rushmore” realised in 2003.12 With this study, they discovered that the target audience

11
http://www2.conocecocacola.com/conoce.cfm?id_seccion=474
12
http://www.tupatrocinio.com/noticia.cfm?noticia=50

23
of their product had changed. The drink was designed for sportsmen, but nowadays a
large percentage of non practising sport consumers use Aquarius as a soft drink.

In 2005, when the demand of Aqurius like a soft drink increased, Coca Cola Spain
decided to reform the image of the product. In order to transform the image of Aquarius,
the company developed new sizes to satisfy the new consumers´ necesities.
Until this time, Aquarius was only manufacturaded in cans, but the company decided to
make glass bottles. The new format was really successful for the hotel and catering
sector where Aquarius had roughly 25% of the total sales. Spain has a 70% of the brand
profits in all Europe.

An average of 114 millions of liters of isotonic drinks are consumed every year by the
Spanish population. According to some studies, 75% of those consumed drinks have the
same name, Aquarius. In the last year, 2007, the sales of the company have grown 38%
in relation to a 32% in 2006. Comparing with years ago the increase is much bigger, for
example in 2002 the growth was only 10%. With this figures, it is clear that Aquarius is
not only an energetic drink and nowadays competes with the soft drinks.13

4.2- Summary of the life cycle of this product

- 1992; Aqurius was produced for the first time as a drink for sportmen
- 1997; a new flavor was created, Aquarius orange.
- 2003-2005; the sales of the product grew in a large percentage and is
consumed for different types of the population as a soda.
- 2005 Aquarius renewed its image and developed new formats to enable

13
K:\articulos aquarius\Aquarius gana cuota de mercado gracias al boca a boca - CincoDias_com.mht

24
 consumers to enjoy aquarius both in the food and catering channel.
- 2006; a new flavor was created; Aquarius V3 (cola).
Nowadays; Aquarius is still in the stage of growth.

The following chapter will present empirical study that has been collected by using a
questionnaire. All numerical data has been calculated basing on 120 interviews. There
are (68) 56,67% male, blue color in the graphs and (52) 43,33% female, red color in
the graphs. A separation between genders/sexes has been made because men tend to
be more interested in practising sports than women.

25
4.3- Aquarius Questionnaire

In the survey that it has been done the answers are of 120, because the other ones were
sports people, so that ones it can not be acount in here.
The first question of the survey it was if the people know Aquarius. The options that
they have to chose were, if Yes (a), or No (b).

Know ledge Know ledge by gender

120
114
80

70 67
100

60
80 50
50
a
60 Ser ie1 40
b
30
40

20
20
10
6 1 2
0
0
a b 1 2

Know ledge % Know ledge % by gender

100% 95% 60,00% 55,83%

90%

50,00%
80%

41,67%
70%
40,00%
60%
a
50% Ser ie1 30,00%
b
40%
20,00%
30%

20% 10,00%
10% 5% 0,83% 1,67%
0,00%
0%
a b 1 2

26
On question the main point is to know how they know this product, from an
Advertisement in television is the (a option), The Olympic Games (b), from a Mouth-to-
mouth recomendation (c), or the last option (d)In the supermarket or bars.

Know ledge by gender

Know ledge

45 42 40 37
40
40 38 35

35 30 28
30 25
21
19 Serie1
25
20
Ser ie1 Serie2
20
15
15
10
10
10
5
5
5
0 0
0 0
0 a b c d
a b c d

Know ledge % Know ledge % by gender

40%
35,00%
35% 30,83%
35% 33,33%
31,66% 30,00%

30%
25,00% 23,33%
25%
20,00%
17,50%15,83% Serie1
20% Ser ie1
Serie2
15,00%
15%

10,00% 8,33%
10%
4,20%
5,00%
5%
0% 0%
0% 0,00%
0%
a b c d a b c d

27
The people link Aquarius with, a drink for sports people (a), a soft drink (like Coca-
Cola, Fanta...) is the second (b)option, or a refreshing drink (c).

Linking Linking by gender

70
65 40

35
60 35

50
30

25
25 23
40
20 Serie1
30 Ser i e1
20
Serie2
30
25
15

20 10
10
7
10
5

0
0
a b c
a b c

Linking % Linking % by gender

50%
45,83
35,00%
%
45%

30,00%
29,16%
40%

35% 29,16 25,00%

%
30%
20,00%
19,16% 19,16%
25% 16,60% Serie1
25% Ser i e1
Serie2
15,00%
20%

10%
15%
10,00%

10%
5,83%
5,00%
5%

0,00%
0%

a b c
a b c

28
The fourth question is to know how often they drink Aquarius. The options that they
have to chose was, if they like to drink always (a), normally (b), often (c) or if they do
not use to drink this product never (d).

Frequency Frequency by gender

100
50
89 46
90
45
43
80 40

70 35

60 30
Serie1
50 Ser ie1 25
20 Serie2
40
20

30
15
23
10
20 6
7 5 3
10 10 1
1 0
0
a b c d
a b c d

Frequency % Frequency % by gender

74,16
80,00% 45,00%
% 38,33
40,00% %
70,00%
35,83
35,00% %
60,00%

30,00%

50,00%

25,00%
Ser ie1
40,00% Ser ie1 16,67 Ser ie2
20,00%
%
30,00%
19,17 15,00%

%
20,00%
10,00%

5,83
5%
10,00% 0,84 % 5,00%
2,50%
% 0,83% 0,83%
0,00%
0,00%
a
0% b c d
a b c d

29
In this question the respondents have the oportunity to say what kind of taste they like
more. There are three tastes, original, orange or coke. So, they can chose with one they
prefer more. The options were (a) for the original, (b) for the orange and (c) for coke.

Taste Taste by gender

120 45

40
101 40

100 36
35

80 30

25
Ser ie1
60 Ser ie1
Ser ie2
20
17
15
40 15

10
9
20
14
5 5 3
0 0
a b c a b c

Taste %
Taste % by gender

90,00%
84,16% 35%
33,33%

80,00%

30% 30%
70,00%

25%
60,00%

50,00% 20%

Ser ie1 Ser ie1

Ser ie2
40,00%
15%
14,17%
12,50%
30,00%

10%

20,00%
7,50%
11,67%
5%
10,00%
4,14% 2,50%

0,00%
0%
a b c
a b c

30
There are different aspects that it can be taking into account when you buy a drink
product. The respondents have to punctuate from 1 (worst) until 4 (best) the aspects that
are more important for them. The first aspect is “Easy product to find” if when they go
to a supermarket or a bar is easy to get it. The second aspect is the “ Side of the drink
easily adaptable” this depends because if you are a sports people may be you need a
bottle more small to carry on with you or to grave it. The third option is “Accessible
price” if is not to costly get one drink of this brand or yes. The fourth is if the drink is
has a “Good quality”, and the last option is if they think that the bottle or can is
“Adequate full”.

Puntuation Puntuation by gender

35
60
32
52
50
30 28

25

40
20
20
Serie1
30 28 27 Ser ie1 Serie2
15
1413

20
10

9 5
10 5 3 4
4 1
0
0
0
a b c d e
a b c d e

Puntuation % Puntuation % by gender

50,00% 30,00%
43,30
26,70%
45,00%
%
25,00% 23,33%
40,00%

35,00%
20,00%

30,00% 16,70%
23,33 22,54 Serie1
25,00%
% % Ser ie1 15,00%
Serie2
11,70%
20,00%

10,00%
15,00%
10,74%
10,00% 7,50% 5,00%
2,50% 4,17%

5,00%3,33% 3,33%
31 0,83% 0%
0,00%
0,00%
a b c d e
a b c d e
When the respondents buy this product it can be for a lot of reason, and in this question
the point is to know why they consume Aquarius. They have three options. Because
they like the taste of the drink (a), Because they think that is a refreshing drink (b) or
just Because they think is healthy and benefical for their bodies (c).

Preference Preference by gender

70 50

45 43
60
58
40

50
35

30
40
35 Ser ie1
Ser ie1 25
Ser ie2

30 27 19 19
20
16 15
15
20

10 8
10

0 0
a b c a b c

Preference % Preference % by gender

60%
40,00% 35,83
%
50%
48% 35,00%

30,00%

40%

25,00%

29%
30%
22,50 Ser ie1
20,00% 15,83 15,83 Ser ie1
Ser ie2

% 13,34 % 12,50 %
20%
15,00%% %
10,00%

6,67%
10%

5,00%

0%
0,00%
a b c
a b c

32
For this survey is also very important to know the age of the respondenst. People can be
from 16 years old (a), another group is from 16 to 26 (b), the third group is from 26 to
30 (c), and the last group from 30 until 40 (d).

Ages Ages by gender

100 60

88
90
49
50
80

70 39
40

60

Ser ie1
50 Serie1 30
Ser ie2

40
20
30 25 15
20
10
10

10
2 5 2 0 2 3
0 0
a b c d a b c d

Ages % Ages % by gender

80,00% 45,00%
73,30% 40,80%
70,00%
40,00%

60,00%
35,00%
32,50%
30,00%
50,00%

25,00%
Ser ie1
40,00% Ser ie1
Ser ie2
20,00%

30,00%

20,80% 15,00% 12,50%

20,00%
10,00% 8,30%
10,00%
4,23% 5,00% 2,56%
1,67% 1,67% 1,67%
0%
0,00% 0,00%
a b c d a b c d

33
The last question from the survey is sex gender. They have (a) for man, and (b) for
woman.

Sex Sex %

80 60,00% 56,67%

70
68
50,00%

60
43,33%
52 40,00%
50

a
a 30,00%
40 b
b

30
20,00%

20
10,00%
10

0,00%
0
a b
a b

In this chapter, our empirical data has been presented by graphics put as the same
order as questions stated in the questionnaire. In the next chapter, we will continue
with empirical analysis basing on the numerical data information that a\has been
collected.

34
5- Empirical Analysis

This chapter will present our empirical analysis which we done by our structured
questionnaires. The analysis follows the order of questions listed in the questionnaire
with a general description of the findings and also with a separate description based
on the gender groups.

The sample has been divided into two groups which are male and female.
Male constitute 56,67% of our respondents whereas 43,33% of our respondents are
female. We also took into consideration answers from those people who do not play
sports at all. This is becasue the real goal is to understand why and how the behaviour
of the people drinking this product has changed. The respondents are mostly 16-26
years old.

The first question was if the respondents know the product and then how
they got to know it or, more precisely, when did they start to know it. In general, 95%
of our respondents know this product. By contrast, only 5% of the respondents
revealed that they do not know the product.
According to most people’s choice of this question, it can be draw a
conclusion that people know this product.

The 35% of our respondents said that they know this product from
advertisements that they saw on television when the campaign of launching this
product to the market started. Another 31,6%, finding is that people also start to know
the product by “mouth to mouth” recomendation - someone tasted this product at the
beggining and he or she recommended it to his/her friends and then almost everyone
at least tried it. Also, 33,3% got to know Aquarius product in the supermarkets or in
the bars. When they went to do shopping and they saw this new product next to the
common ones, they just wanted to try it because it was something new and maybe
because they hoped to find an alternatively different taste or have different qualities
than of those they used to drink. It could also have been just a matter or curiosity. The
relevant in this question, that we are surprised of is that almost none of interviewees

35
choose the second answer (The Olimpic Games); noone knew this product becasue of
the Olimpic Games that were in Barcelona in 1992. Generally speaking, there are no
obvious differences between the male and the female group.
However, the collected data shows that the study group knows the
product mostly from the TV advertisement that Coca Cola Company maded. But it is
also very important the position that this product have been in the supermarkets and
the recomendation of the other people (including doctors). The differences of
percentages in this three options are really small, so peplo knew Aquarius in a
different way and it is very difficult draw a clear conclusion.

In general, 45,83% of our respondents related Aquarius with the

refreshing drinks. They do not think that Aquarius it is a drink for consume only if
they practise sport, they use it when they are thirsty or hot. The ones that have not
used before of the answers are divided between sportman and soft drink. 25% of the
respondents reveled that aquarius is a drink specially for people who practise sports
and 29,16% revealed that they also think that it can be treated as a soft drink without
gas. Most of the respondents, however, think that the drink can be related more with
refreshing drinks. This thinking may exist because the taste it is very fresh and perfect
for drink in everymoment. It is also very important to remember that is a drink
without gas, this can be also other characteristic that made Aquarius a perfect drink
for all population.
The most important part of this question is that only 25% of the population relate
Aquarius with a sportman drink. It is a small percentage because it is an energetic
drink adecuate to consume after the sports and also because in the logo of this product
you can see a man running.

According to the findings, 74,16% of our respondents like to drink

Aquarius very often. This was the result within expectation. Because they are not used
to tribe sports everyday or just practice, they think that this product is appropriate to
drink when they are tired after doing anything that requires a lot of energy, like work,
sports, or when the atmosphere is really hot. Besides, 19,17% of those respondents
like to drink it normally like a normal drink, instead of coke or Fanta they just
consume this one, because of the taste and also because it is similar to other ones and

36
helps to bring you more energy. 5,83% of the respondents never used to drink this
product. They know it but they prefer another kinds that they used to drink for a long
period of time. Those respondents do not want to try different or new products and
prefer to stay with the ones that they know and like. Therefore, we noticed that
favourite drinks of the respondents convey certain feeling to them as consumers.
On the other hand, rarely people chose to always drink Aquarius – only
0,84% of our respondents said that they always drink this product. This can be
because this product replace all the energy that people loose while you are execising
and if these people do not practice sports at all they do not need it then.
Therefore, the reason why our respondents rarely do not choose to always
consume this drink or that they have never tried it before is simply because the
attributes do not match with them. However, most of our respondents drink this
product very often because of the value that the drink transmits to the consumers.

Different kinds of taste and colours that the drink has is an important
element used to attract consumers. Different tastes along with different colours have
different functions when it is designed on a drink product. Different colour fit
different products, therefore we would like to see which appropriate taste along with
the different colour fits to drink products.
Generally speaking, 84,16% our respondents prefer to stay with their original taste
regardless of another different taste, which proves that the original taste loyalty does
have an influence on their loyal customer to ignore other tastes. 19 answers of our
respondents, whose percentages are show next, show that they usually do not take
much time to choose a different taste of the product and this group of people may
either stay with their original taste or often emotionally pick up a different taste, like
orange (11,67%) and coke (4,17%). The respondents tell that they would like to check
out another different kind with unique taste if it says that the product is described as
“New” or “Improved”, which can tell us that this group of people expects the
functional benefit from product tasting. Therefore, it is conclude that the taste does
have an influence on people’s emotions and tasting to induce them to approach the
unique tasted products.
The male group shows us that 26,67% of the male respondents usually do not take
time to choose one taste or another, this is because there is not differences in their

37
choose of orange or coke, in a way; it also proves the typical young male’s
characteristic - “laziness and unconcerned”. 30% of them would like to stick to their
original taste. Meanwhile the female group surprised us by showing that 33,33% of
them are stick to their original taste regardless of another different tastes. But 10% of
them show (7,5% orange – 2,5% coke) that the willingness to check out another taste
with a “New” or “Improved” recepture.
Therefore, the main difference between the male and the female group
regarding this question is that tasting is more effective to attract female once it
conveys that they will have better tastility benefits. The common characteristic for
these two groups is that they both have high taste loyalty.

The purpuse of this question is to know which aspects of the product are
more taking into account for the consumer when they decided to buy the drink.
According to our findings, the two highest average scores for importance of the
drink’s attributes is the good quality that the drink has (you can feel the real taste if it
is original, orange or coke) and the amount of sugar and another ingredients that the
product contains. This is considered as important issue to gain and retain consumer
trust and loyalty. Also, it is because people expect to be served as promised. Follow
with adequate full the bottle or the can. Those two are considered as important
features when people differentiate between drinking products. Another important
feature is that the drink should have a good and accesible price, just the right price as
stated. This is becasue too many companies at the begining start with very low prices
and then, when they attract people, they increase the amount of money that the
product costs. Followed by those three features stated above, our respondents, more
male than female because the female group they do not car about the side at all, also
consider the side of the drink is easily adaptable to the bottle or can are important
features. This links to the facility of the product to be easy to find in the supermarket,
or in different market places. Economic use and convenience to consumers are also
considered as important features.
Taking a look at the different gender groups, this study found out that the
female group had more needs of the good quality and adequately full of the drink than
the male group, and this can be easily understood due to their physical difference.
They take into account more requirements when they want something. By contrast,

38
males act more because of their instint and to safisty their needs more easily and
quickly. Need on adaptable and right full of the drink are also more important to
males than to females. In addition, the female group takes more into account the
amount of money that the drink costs than the male group.
To sum up the analysis of this question, it is conclude that females have
more ergonomic needs for drink products than males due to their physique and
behavior when they are drinkning these products.

In general the opinion of the people when they have to say why they
consume this product, most of them said because is a refreshing drink or because they
like the taste. The 29,16% of the respondents consume Aquarius because they like the
taste of the product (specially the original taste like was studied in the question 5)
while 48,33% of the respondents drink it is a refreshing drink. For all of those
consumers this is a type of drink that they can drink in everymoment (specially in
summer when they are more thirsty and need a refreshing drink), without practise
sports.
22,5% of the sample population drink it because they thing that it is a healthy product,
sometimes also recomended by doctors if people have some stomach problems. [Coca-
cola Company and Berbés Asociados are working together in a campaign in order to
“give advises about the use and the recomendation of Aquarius in the moisturizing
process and the recovery of the body” according with the director of Berbes Asociados.
Berbes Asociados it is a company that work with scientific societies, pharmacies or
Hospitals, all directly related to the medicine field.]14
Therefore, it can say that people decide to drink Aquarius specially because it
is a refreshing drink and also because they like the taste.

In this chapter the empirical data has been analyzed. It has been taking the data from
the surveys that have been collected. In order to find the similarities and differences
between our responders on how they have described the change in the focus that Coca
Cola Company has made on their target group. This empirical analysis will lead to
draw our conclusions for this research study; those will be outlined in the next
chapter.

14
http://www.prnoticias.es/content/view/10006599/

39
General anaysis of the questionary

The differences between man and woman answers are not very important, for this
reason the general anaysis is going to be described for people among 16 and 26 years
(wihout specifying if they are male or female).

The most relevant answers are going to be compared with the three different groups of
factors that can have an influence in the consumer behaviour and were explained in the
theoretical framework of this dissertation.

Personal factors Psychological Social factors

factors
Age of the
consumers X
How they knew it
X
The image of the
product X
Taste of the
product X
Characteristics of
the product X
Accesibility to buy
it X

− Looking at the first group of the three different factors (PERSONAL

FACTORS) it is clear that the age of the consumers have a large influence.
Because there are a large percentage of people that consume Aquarius and are
between 16 and 26 years. An other personal factor it is the sex, but in this case
the difference between man and woman is not relevant for this study.

40
 − The second group (PYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS) have a large influence on the
consumers who drink Aquarius. In this group are different factors which are
described in the theoretical part. The image, taste and characteristics of the
product are important features for people in order to decide to consume one, or
to take an other drink.

1. According to question number 3, if they relation aquarius with a refreshing,

sport or soft drink. The answer depends on the feeling and knowledge that this
people have about the product. The knowledge about the opinion or image that
people have about a product can change in the different phases of the product
life cycle and can also be manipulated by the company. All companies can
change the opinion that people have about their products, but they need to invest
an important quantity of money and time. The feeling is something more
personal and can not be changed or manipulated by the company. The feeling is
the sensation that consumers have when they use one product, this feeling can be
positive or negative. For example, in this case, the people who relationed
aquarius with a refreshing drink have this opinion because of the positive feeling
that they had when they drenk it. The feelings can also change during the pass of
time. Consequences of new products can make existing products less attractive,
or consumers can have negative experiences with the product which can change
their opinion about the product.
In short, the image that consumers have about a certain product is made up of
two concepts. The knowledge that this consumers have because of the
information that the company offer to them, and the feelings that they have after
use the product.

2. According to the question number 7, that give the reason for which they decide
to consume Aquarius, some of the respondents afirm that they do it because only
because they like the taste. There are some aspects that can influence in the
consumers specially when they going to buy a drink or food. Some of those
aspects that create the perception that consumers have about a product are taste,
smell, or hearing. In this case the aspect that have a large influence is the taste.
And according to the question number 5, the consumers have a clear opinion
about it because almost 85% prefer the same flavour.

41
 3. According to the question number 6, in which the consumers had to evaluate
some characteristics of the product,there different aspects which have a large
influence in the consumers and can create positive feeling or a good perception
about the product.
The first one is the adaptability of the product, in the case of Aquarius the
consumers have a possitive feeling about it. This can be consecuence of the
different packaging that they can find in the market. This variety make Aquarius
a product to drink while you practise sport (plastic bottle), in a bar or restaurant
(cans) and there are also big bottle that can be use at home when more than one
member of the family decide to use it like a soft or refreshing drink. This facility
can create a possitive feeling on the people among the product.
The second one is the quality, Aquarius is not a cheap product so if the company
want to have a loyalty consumers they need to offer good quality to them. The
quality of the product can be based in some different characteristics that have a
different importance depending of the people. Some of those aspects that make a
product have a good quality are taste, benefits that aport, if it is adecuate full or
if it is easy to find.In general the respondents have a positive image about the
quality of Aquarius because they gave a high puntuation for this concept.

4. According to question number 7, there are some respondents that decide to

consume Aquarius because they think that it is a healthy product. This can be
related with another psychological factor, lifestyle. In this case people decide to
use it because they think that it is healthier to drink Aquarius instead of other
soft drinks. They give more importance to this feature and not to others like taste
or price.

− The third group is composed for SOCIAL FACTORS. Those factors can be
related with the questions number 2 and 6.

1. In question number 2 respondents explain how they knew the product. In this
case the mouth to mouth (opinion that other people have about the product) and
the position of Aquarius in supermarkets and bars have a large influence. The
first one it is depending of the family influences and also the reference groups

42
 that people have. If one member of the family drink Aquarius is more easy that
other members start to consume it because they have the opportunity to try it and
also a positive information about it. The social class is also important because
Aquarius is a product that can be find in some supermarkets ( not low cost).For
this reason people that have a low salary and go normally to low cost
supermarkets have a less percentage of know or see this product and decide to
consume it.

2. In question number 6 one of the features that people needed to evaluate was the
price of the product. In this case the consumers gave a low puntuation, this mean
that the product have a high price in comparison with other drinks. For this
reason the social class have again a large importance in order to decide buy
Aquarius. People that have problems or need to save some money are going to
choose other drinks that have a more accesible price.

In short, there are some interntal factors which influence the people in order to decide if
they are going to consume or not Aquarius. The most important factors in this case are:
Knowledge and feelings about the product, the perception that consumers have after
taste or smell it, the lyfestyle that they have or want to have, the social class and the
influence of the family and referent groups.

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6- Conclusion

In this chapter, we will draw our conclusions based on theory and our empirical data;
meanwhile, our research questions will be answered according to our research
findings and conclusions.

The main research question of this dissertation is:

Which factors can influence the consumer behavior in order to decide to choose a
certain product?
It is not common that a energetic drink, create to use after the physical exercise, be
using like a soft or refreshing drink. For this reason, the case of “Aquarius” was study,
in order to know why people decided to consume this product.
The companies study the population and create products in order to satisfy their needs.
All products were created with a purpose and the companies try to transmit this image
to the target market. But sometimes it is very difficult to change or influence the
consumers mind, because this depend not only of the campaigns, there are beliefs that
people have and are difficult to influence. This case “Aquarius” is a clear example
which shows how factors that are independents to the company have a large influence in
the consumers.

According with the theory, there are three factors that can influence the
consumer behaviour (personal, psychological and social factors). After analysed the
data and according to our empirical analysis it can be confirmed the influence of those
factors, specially psychological and social factors. For those consumers, there are some
aspects very important in order to decide to buy Aquarius. For example, the taste,
feeling or benefits that the product give to them, accesibility and adaptability or quality.
All of this aspects form the image that people have about one product and this image
can be different to the concept that the company want to create. In this case, all of those
factors or emotions make people use a energetic drink like a soft drink.

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According with the questionaries, almost all sample population know the product (it is
very important to remember that they are non sport people). And the percentage of
consumers it is high in comparison with other energetic drinks like Powerade or Isostar.
With the obtained results, can be affirmed that it is true the information
that the company gave. Many people do not practise sports and consume Aquarius. The
profile of those consumers can be defined like:
They are mostly young people between 16 and 26 years (without distinguish man and
woman). This sample affirms that they consume Aquarius often and the favourite taste
is the original one (lemon). The product was knew in three different ways which have
the same importance because the percentages where very similar among them. This
ways are advertising in television, “mouth-to-mouth” and in the supermarket or bars.
After study the results, it is clear that they do not related Aquarius with sports. Most of
them consume it because it is a refreshing or soft drink and because they like the taste.

There are some internal factors that make the people drink Aquarius. The
companies can study the target market in order to create a strategy but there are several
aspects that influence the consumer decision and there are impossible to measure.
Feelings, lifestyle, taste and smell or the family influences are some of them.

In short, companies can invest a lot of time and study the target market in
order to create the best strategy for their product. But there are feelings and beliefs that
people have and are very difficult to change or measure. For this reason, it is true that
the campaigns of the products are important and can influence the consumer behaviour.
But the internal beliefs and feelings are more important and the consumer is who decide
how and when use a certain product.

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7- Implications
This dissertation has been brought to the end after the conclusions drawn above. Here
the implications will be outlined based on what it has been found during the research
study. Hopefully our advices will be helpful for the related industry and companies as
well as further research regarding to packaging.

According to the research it has not been found many differences

between male and female respondents about their behaviour, this might because of the
product category that it had been choosen, but more differences between genders’
perception on tasting could be discovered by further research. Besides, it might be the
truth that the high education of the people the more they are expecting the social
benefits delivered by the product, this could be show by further research.
Further research could be carried on by researching the different aging
groups. Due to the fact that the age group that is studying was 200 people from 16 to
40, not only young. They can have more pursuing functional and emotional benefits
rather than social benefits from their behaviour. Also, older people may have a
different expectation about the benefits from this drink.
Another implication it can be drawn from this research is that, different
kind of products should delivery different benefits to the consumer behaviour. In this
paper the example it was the Aquarius drink as the study product, but it would
probably come out different results if for instance it chose another different products,
alcohol product for instance, which probably links associated with more social
benefits to the consumer behaviour. Therefore, it is difficult to standardize how
consumers perceive a product.

Finally, it has to be mention that culture difference does have an impact

on companies’ initiatives to design the design of the product, for instance, during our
research; the choices of advertising and design are quite different between the North
and South of Europe. It is important for international companies to take a
consideration of the culture differences that it can be when you launch another product
in another country or they design the product.

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In this last chapter, it has been draw the conclusions which were based on the theory
and empirical data. Simultaneously, the research questions have been solved with the
research findings and conclusion. Finally, there are some implications with our views.

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8- Appendix

8.1 Questionnaire

The questionnaire’s information is only for university studies. All data will be used
only for statistics studies and will be saved and threated with professionalism. It
means that the data will not be made available to anybody else. The questionnaire is
anonymous.

1. Do you practise sports often?

a) Yes
b) No

2. Do you know Aquarius?

a) Yes
b) No

3. How did you know it?

a) Advertisement in television
b) The Olympic Games
c) Mouth-to-mouth
d) In the supermarket or bars

4. You link Aquarius with:

a) A drink for sports people

b) A soft drink (like Coca-Cola, Fanta...)
c) A refreshing drink

5. How often do you drink Aquarius?

a) Always
b) Normally
c) Often
d) Never

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6. What taste do you like more?

a) Original
b) Orange
c) Coke

7. Please, punctuate from 1 (worst) until 4 (best) the following aspects:

a) Easy product to find 1 2 3 4

b) Side of the drink easily adaptable 1 2 3 4
a) Accessible price 1 2 3 4
b) Good quality 1 2 3 4
c) Adequate full 1 2 3 4

8. Why do you consume Aquarius?

a) Because I like the taste

b) Because it is a refreshing drink
c) Because it is healthy and beneficial

9. My age is ?

a) From 16
b) 16-26
c) 26-30
d) Until 40

10. Sex
a) man
b) woman

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8.2 References

Books

• Kotler Philip, Wong Veronica, Saunders John, Armstrong Gary; Principles of

Marketing; 4th edition, 2005; ISBN: 0-273-68456-6
• Direccion comercial (book of the spanish university)
• Peter Doyle and Phillip Stern, Marketing Management and Strategy, 4ª Edition,
2006, F9878
• “Reference group influence on product and brand purchase decisions”. O.
Bearden and J. Etzel. (1992)
• D.Peppers and Martha Rogers, Managing Customer Relationship, 2004, E7098
• Graham J.Hooley, Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning
• Graham J.Hooley , Qantitative methods in marketing, 2sd Edition, ISBN; 86152
• Daniel S.Janal, Getting people to visit, buy, and become customers for life,
Wiley, 2000, 50745
• Russell K. Schutt, Investigating the Social World, 5th edition.
• Holme, I.M. and Solvang, B.K, Forskningsmetodik: om kvalitativa och
kvantitativa metoder, 1991
• Yin, Robert K, Case study research: design and methods, 1989
• Kinnear T. & Taylor J, Marketing research – an applied approach, New York,
1996.
• Eriksson L.T. & Wiedersheim-Paul F, Att utreda, forska och Rapportera, 1997
• Advertising and promotion :An integrated marketing comunication perspective.
E. Belch (1997)
• Consumer behaviour and marketing strategy, European Edition 1999. Paul Peter,
C. Olson and G. Grunert.
• Peter D. Bennett, Dictionary of Marketing Terms ( American Marketing
Association, 1989)
• Philip Koltler [1994]: Marketing Management –Analysis, Planning,
Implementation and Control: Prencice-Hall Inc.
• Angel, J., Blackwell, R., and Miniard, P. Consumer Behavior-6th Ed. The
Dryden Press, 1990.

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 • Principles of marketing. Kotler, Amstrong, Saunders and Wong. [2001]
• The Theory of Buyer Behaviou, John A. Howard and N. Sheth. [1969]
• A control view on the behaviour of consumers. European Edition [1993] Rik
Pieters.
• Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality [1970] pg. 80
• Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality, 2nd ed., Harper & Row, 1970
• Consumer behaviour and marketing strategy. Peter, Olson and Grunert.[1999]

Website Sources

• www.businessplans.org
• www.netmba.com/marketing/market/segmentation
• www.wikipedia.org
• www.cocacola.com
• www.conocecocacola.com
• www.infoline5@eur.ko.com
• www.google.com
• www.cocacolaconsumidor/ES/EUR/TCCC@TCCC).
• www.articulos aquarius\Chapter 6_ Consumer Buying Behavior Notes.mht
• www.emeraldinsight.com
• http://www.tupatrocinio.com/noticia.cfm?noticia=50
• www.articulos aquarius\Aquarius gana cuota de mercado gracias al boca a boca
- CincoDias_com.mht
• http://www.prnoticias.es/content/view/10006599/

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