Consumer Behaviour 2011

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Table of Contents

Question.................................................................................................................. 2

Source of Data ........................................................................................................ 3

Introduction ............................................................................................................. 4

History of Information and communication Technology in Mauritius........................ 5

Arrival of tourist from 2004 to 2010 ......................................................................... 7

Customer’s buying Process..................................................................................... 9

How ICT is affecting consumer behaviour............................................................. 11

The impact of the web site .................................................................................... 12

Conclusion and recommendation .......................................................................... 13

References............................................................................................................ 14

Annexe: ................................................................................................................. 15Interview with Sharonne Maulette, the sales Managers at La Palmeraie..................................... 15

Report for the statistic of their website.......................................................................................... 15

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Question

Information and Communication Technology is acquiring a broad and ubiquitous

importance in Mauritius. It is impacting on the diverse range of industries/sectors

with different pace and momentum.

You are to write a discussion paper on how the growing influence of ICT is affecting

consumer behaviour in any industry/sector of your choice. In your preparation

phase, you should use various relevant and credible primary and secondary

sources of data.

Task One:

Using a table, list the various sources of data you used to produce your

discussion paper. You need to write brief notes on the reliability and credibility of

these sources. [15 marks]

Task Two:

Write a discussion paper on the impact and influence of ICT on consumer behaviour

in an industry/sector of your choice. You should also recommend how an

organization within y

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Source of Data

Sources of Data Comments1 Interviewed of the Sharonne Maulette,

the sales Managers of La Palemaraie.She has given information about her company,but she had sure present the set of result of herorganization in an optimistic way.

2Statistics Report from the web Masterof La Palmaraie

It is an external web agency that has donethese statistics via Google analytic, The reportmust be reliable, if the numbers of the statisticdo not reflect on the turnover of the company.Certainly, the hotel will seek for another agencyto do their monthly report for their web site.

3 Website of La Palmeraie Information on the web site must be true,because, the law prohibit company to givemisleading information.

4 Report regarding the aspects of theconsumer buyer behaviour for budgethotels in Ireland.

This report must be reliable since it was anuniversity who has done this report for anothercountry. It was purely academic.

5 Statistic from the central StatisticsOffice

These statistics must reflect what’s happeningin Mauritius, it must reflect the reality.

6 Government report: The ICT Sector inMauritius

Since it is a government report, the author willpresent the information by exaggerating a littleon what the government has done in the ICTsector. The government will never allow topublish information which might be usedagainst them

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Introduction

Information and communication technology (ICT) consist of handling issues regarding

data, ways of communication, audio, and video, transmission and network devices in

order to control and manage changes in the world of technology. ICT has helped us

to improve our lifestyle as well as the way business is done. According to Viviane

Reding, a member of the European Commission responsible for information society

“ICT …. is responsible for around half of productivity growth in modern economies.

It drives improved efficiency and better services and products across the entirety of

the private and the public sectors. » Organisations are implementing (ICT) in order to

facilitate transactions such as commercial, accounting… With ICT, business is more

profitable and is done with more efficiency. Fortunately or unfortunately, in the world

of technology everything keeps changing. Researchers want to provide a more rapid

and smaller device, which shows that there is always innovation.

With this modernisation, consumer’s behaviour keeps innovating and nowadays

marketers have noticed that consumer’s buying behaviour is changing rapidly

compared to years before. That’s why we see the rapid evolution in the way business

is done. ICT has a great impact on businesses, if one provides innovative services

and products, others are compelled to follow the pace in order not to be out of the

game. Managers in all organisations are always trying to identify new opportunities to

satisfy consumer’s behaviour.

With the rapid evolution in the convergence of ICT, Mauritius did not really have

another choice other than to adapt itself to this evolution. Let’s have a look back to

the past to know the history of ICT in our Island.

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History of Information and communication Technology in Mauritius

In 1883, seven years after the telephone was invented; the basic telephony was

introduced for the first time in Mauritius. The initial phone line was installed between

Réduit and Port-Louis, the Government House. After nearly one century, in 1988, the

state owned the department of telecommunication, afterwards it became the

Mauritius telecommunication services, and which finally become the Mauritius

telecom when the National and the International activities merged. In 1996, Emtel Ltd

introduced the mobile telephony, and enjoyed a monopolistic situation for almost

seven before Cellplus (now known as Orange), entered the market. Recently another

competitor, Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Lltd (MTML), joined the other two

leading companies but the main competition for the time being remains between

Emtel and Orange.

Changes and innovations continued to occur in the Information and communication

Technology sector, which encouraged the government to create a Ministry of

Information and Telecommunication in 1997. Its main role is to formulate and

implement policies regarding the development of the ICT sector. In 2000, the

Electronic Transaction Act was introduced in order to promote E-Business and help

establishing uniformity of rules, regulation and measures apropos the authentication

and integrity of electronic records. Then in 2003, the Cybercrime Act was

implemented in Mauritius not only to protect data, computer and other technological

devices but also to prevent electronic Fraud.

The explosive growth in the ICT sector made things change more and more rapidly,

now we have the possibilities to settle different types of transactions online; today

Mauritians have the possibility to fill in the income tax form online which was not

possible a few years ago.

A century ago, changes took time to occur, because during that period, the only

means of travelling was the sea travel, which was time consuming to move from one

place to another. Now with internet, media and all the facilities we have, everything is

at our fingerprints. Because the lifestyle is no more the same, like in the past.

Demand has now changed. All sectors, are implementing ICT to their business, in

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order to satisfy consumer’s needs. Managers in Mauritius have realised that there are

many opportunities while adopting the ICT. That is why we can now see, in all

sectors, computers are being used for almost everything. New software is used to

ease tasks, and organisations and companies want to make themselves more

accessible and well known to the rest of the world via ICT. Even in the tourism sector,

they have adapted themselves to this rapid innovative technology. The Tourism

sector is a very promising area, where there is a very good prospect for the future. In

order to meet this growing demand, companies in this sector are continuously

changing their way of working and adjusting themselves to the changing global

environment.

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Arrival of tourist from 2004 to 2010

Fig 1:*Statistics from the website of Central Statistics office

As shown in this graph, the arrival of tourists has constantly increased, from 2008.

There was an external factor which explained the decrease of tourists’ arrival in

Mauritius between 2007 and 2008. It was due to the economic crisis which affected

both local and international economy. Since 2009, the number of tourists has been

constantly increasing. The tourism sector has created many employments with the

various needs as leisure, parties, and comfort of tourists. But the most important

need of all travellers is accommodation (shelter) which is their basic physiological

need. But those who have higher expectations will choose high class hotels, thus

creating a greater demand in this area.

In order to satisfy this demand, hotels have not stopped innovating. Nowadays,

customers are looking for quality and rapid services. As a result, to provide the best

to their customers, hotels are using different types of softwares and hardwares.

Hogatex and Amadeus are softwares that are used in Mauritians Hotels. These, help

them to:

700000

750000

800000

850000

900000

950000

1000000

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

No of tourist

Tourists

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Facilitates daily operations of the hotel such as information of clients and

prices being updated on a regular basis.

Give visibility of each client, this information can be used for loyalty programs

and it allows the hotel to provide a more personalised service. Since data

about the existing clients is recorded, it helps employees to know the

preferences of their customers.

It improved processes; the uniformity needed allow a better standardisation of

all functionality throughout the whole hotel.

Most hotels use this kind of system as with this system you can retrieve all

information in a matter of seconds. In addition, there is more the need of keeping

paper records, all data are kept on the system of all guest files. With the type of

structure, statistics and forecast can easily been done. Since the rates of room are

put into the system while the reservation, the accounting department just need to

print the invoice and send to the client.

In order to provide a sense of security to clients, CCTV cameras are installed

everywhere in hotels. And magnetic keys are used instead of the traditional key.

However, in the Hotel Industry, they segmented themselves using combination of

price, services and facilities. Hotels play with these combinations in order to

differentiation themselves with their competitor. Choosing a hotel is not the most

important purchase for a customer but it is significant one since they are taking

certain risk, bearing in mind that some tourists are coming in Mauritius for the first

time. The hotel room will be their only home for their period of stay. It is important

fulfil their expectation and demand. Booking for a hotel is a high involvement

purchase as there is a financial risk, psychological risk (the quality of the room) and

physiological risk; all these factors increase the involvement of the purchase.

Obviously, the level of involvement for this purchase varies from one individual to

another depending on their social status. Those from a lower social status will be

more highly involved, even if they are choosing a Budget hotel. It is judicious to

analyse the different stages of the buying process since, there are various

alternatives that varies from the price, quality and facilities which have a great

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influence on their decision to choose where to get accommodation with facilities they

are going to pay.

Customer’s buying Process

Fig 1: Buying process

According to a research done in Ireland in 2008 by Ioana Cristina Colbu and Adrian

Liviu Scutariu for the journal of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, the following buying

process occurs when choosing a budget hotel.

Problem awareness is usually quite direct. Those who organised their predefine

journey will either arrange for their accommodation before travelling and those who

are less predictable will arrange for the hotel booking as they arrived destination.

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Information Search will include the internal and external sources.

Internal sources compromise past experiences; customer will be more loyal to a

hotel where they had stayed before. The one who will select the budget hotel will be

more influenced by the physiological, safety and social motives whereas the

customer who will opt for luxury hotel will be motivated by their self-actualisation and

ego. There are other factors such as age, economic situation, family lifecycle and

career status that can influence the decision maker

External sources are composed of marketing stimuli and environmental influence.

The marketing stimuli are composed industry and brand knowledge, attitudes

absorbed or learned by a person through the media. When the customer begins to

look for information, these factors will consciously or subconsciously influence him. At

this moment, some people will even respond to advertisement for accommodation.

As for the environment influence, it consists of not personal source such as family,

colleagues and friend. But also travel agent and recognised opinion leader. Whereas

for customers who are going to book on the spot, they will most probably ask for

information from local people, tourist office.

Evaluation of alternatives is one of the most significant steps in the buying process,

it is essential for marketers to understand how a buyer is going to evaluate and

choose to purchase a good or a service. For customers that are evaluating

alternative, the dominant component for booking a hotel would probably be the price

for the one who is choosing a Budget Hotel. The local of the Hotel and the

cleanliness of the room are also important factors. But if previously an individual went

in a specific hotel and had enjoyed their stay, this will possibly be a more dominant

motivator that a cheaper hotel since past experience tends to reassure the customer.

Purchase will more likely be influence by their personal source. It is mainly because

they trust these people. Yet the price remains the more important factor that

influences the booking of a hotel. They will not be able to pay for a particular hotel if

they do not have the purchase power.

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Post purchase evaluation is the last step of the buying process and it is at this

stage that the customer will say whether they satisfy with the accommodation or not.

It is the final chance that the marketers have to influence the customer so that they

do not hold conflicting ideas of the hotel.

How ICT is affecting consumer behaviour

In order to discuss the influence of ICT on consumer behaviour, let’s take for

example, the hotel La Palmeraie. This hotel which was inaugurated in 2005 offers

accommodation and other services like spa and restaurant. They have 60 rooms and

propose to their customers three different categories of rooms; Superior Room,

Deluxe Beachfront Room and Junior Suites. As most hotels in Mauritius, they

implemented software and hardware in order to answer to queries of all their

customers more rapidly. Since their customers are foreigner, they wanted to be

present on the web so that potential client can have information on their hotel while

choosing among the alternatives. That is why the management created a web site in

2009. On the website, they give all information about the hotel:

Geographical situation

Type of room with photos.

The different services they proposed in the hotel:

Restaurant

Bar

Spa

Sport and leisure activities

Small Shop

Photo Gallery

Contact details

The client has even the possibility to do a virtual tour of the hotel, get quotation for

their stay and they can do their reservation and payment online.

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The impact of the web site

Fig 1: number of visitors browsing the website1

Fig 2: number of foreign visitors browsing the website2

These graphs demonstrate that people does look for information online, the number

of visitors has been increasing from March 2010 to January 2011. According to

Sharonne Maulette, the sales Manager of La Palmeraie, since last year, 500 clients

have done their reservation online. And since the creation of the website, more and

more people are calling the hotel directly to do their reservation on the phone.

1&2 From the webmaster report

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Conclusion and recommendation

More and more companies are implementing ICT to their business in order to

response more rapidly to consumer queries. In Mauritius as well as abroad,

customers are buying online. EBay is an example of the success of ICT. Nowadays,

people are no more afraid of doing online payment since there is a high level of

security online to prevent hacking. The success of the website of La Palmeraie

shows that consumers are reacting positively to these changes. In fact, it is

consumers that are pushing company to implement ICT to their business. Lifestyle

has changed over these few decades and the consumer does not want to waste

time. ICT helps business to deliver goods and services more rapidly

In order, to increase the number of customers, La Palmeraie can give to client who

advises the hotel special discount. Therefore, people will recommend more and more

the hotel. La Palmeraie can collect more information (preferences) about the client

via their website in order to propose a more personalised service tourists coming in

their Hotels.

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References

Mauritius telecom [Online]Available: http://www.mauritiustelecom.com/about_us/milestones.htm [10 April 2011]

The ICT Sector in Mauritius [Online]Available: http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/ncb/file/ictview.pdf [12 April 2011]

The electronic transactions act 2000 [Online]Available: http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/ncb/file/eta.pdf [12 April 2011]

The computer misuse and Cybercrime Act 2003 [Online]Available: http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/telecomit/files/cyber.pdf [12 April 2011]

Arrival of Tourist in Mauritius [Online]Available: www.gov.mu/portal/sites/ncb/cso/service.htm [12 April 2011]

Ioana Cristina COLBU and Adrian Liviu SCUTARIU, Aspects regarding theConsumer buyer Behaviour for budget hotels in Ireland [Online]Available: anale.feaa.uaic.ro/anale/resurse/020_M05_Colbu_Scutariu.pdf [20 April

2011]

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Annexed:

Interview with Sharonne Maulette, the sales Managers at La Palmeraie

Report for the statistic of their website