Consumer Behavior for Healthy Lifestyle - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theConsumer Behavior for Healthy Lifestyle. Answer: Literature Review and Framework Health and healthy lifestyle are one of the most talked about and at the same time the most neglected topics in a society. On one side, where the people are becoming overtly conscious regarding their health, on another side people are neglecting their health also. Weight gain and obesity is a common problem in the society (Goh et al. 2013, p.88). The people are so busy with their work and social commitments that they ignore their health and consume a lot of fast food. The fast food they consume is extremely unhealthy and causes several health problems. One of the main problems is obesity and weight gain. Lack of exercise and physical activities is also leading to this problem, due to which several ailments and medical conditions are cropping up like diabetes, increased blood pressure, cancer and other chronic ailments (Wang et al. 2012, p.200). Many studies have also taken place where the ill effects of obesity have been discussed. The health care personnel and experts are trying their best to advocate the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and how a maintained body weight can help the people in their work also (Srensen et al. 2010, p.401). The experts are trying hard to motivate people to exercise and engage themselves in physical activities that they can lose weight and do not be obese. In these efforts of the health care professional, the consumer behavior theories can be analyzed. Consumer behavior can be defined as the study of an individual, organization or a group of people while they are purchasing, selecting, using and disposing off a product. This study help the marketers to understand the thought process of consumers while they deal with the goods and services and understand what their needs and wants are (Solomon, 2014). Here also the health care professionals can us the theories of consumer behavior to understand why the consumers are ignorant regarding their health and how can they be motivated to for weight loss and weight maintenance. The first theory that comes into consideration is the Theory of Reasoned Action. As per this theory, the consumers take a specific decision when they are certain about the specific positive outcome of their decision (Montano and Kasprzyk, 2015, p.61). Hence, the health care experts and professionals should know that the c onsumers keep an ability of changing their mind while they take a decision. Hence, the experts should enlighten the people about the positive aspects of maintaining a body weight so that the consumers are aware about the positive aspects of their decisions. This theory also helps the experts to understand that they have a lot of time to converse with their consumers and convince them before the consumers decide and take the final action (Azar et al. 2013, p.584). Hence, the experts have time to explain the people how obesity can be avoided and fitness can be maintained. Another consumer behavior theory which can be analyzed is the motivation and need theory by Abraham Maslow. The theory provides a hierarchy of the needs of a consumer and establishes a relationship between the need and motivation of the people. The health care professionals and experts should understand the various needs of the consumers and how those needs can be addressed so that individuals can be motivated for weight loss and weight maintenance (Haylock, 2010, p.190). The needs that can address are the physiological needs of people. This need reflects how the consumers decision making can be influenced by highlighting positive aspects. The consumers can be influenced by various advertisements and talks about how obesity causes health problems. The safety needs are also attached with this as taking care of health means safety for oneself and family. All the factors mentioned are associated with consumer behavior. The health care professionals and experts have to understand the consumers behavior while they select, purchase, and use and dispose the product so that they can understand their psyche. Only buy understanding the attitude and behavior of the people, will the experts be able to understand how to influence the people and explain the benefits of weight loss and weight maintenance (Wadden et al. 2013, p.1444). Obesity has become a growing problem in the society due to negligence of the people towards their health and the fast moving lifestyle. Hence, the people have to be explained the health benefits and encouraged to live a healthy lifestyle. Marketing Strategies The health care experts should launch a healthcare program in the society where they should try and engage more people to be associated with the program. The program should address the ill effects that obesity carries with itself and how weight loss and weight maintenance helps in paving way for a healthy and successful lifestyle. The healthcare program will be a good initiative because a large number of people will be gaining awareness regarding the positive effects of being healthy and will also be encouraged (Griffiths et al. 2011, p.125). A healthcare program is a social initiative which should be taken by the healthcare experts. The experts should tell the people about the chronic disease which comes with obesity like diabetes, increased blood pressure, cancer and others (Laroche et al. 2013, p.81). They can also provide real life examples where people had have to go through surgeries because obesity could have lead to their death. With positive aspects, the healthcare program a lso has certain disadvantages. It addresses a large crowd at the same time which means that the effectiveness of the program is hampered to some extent. A personal talk is more beneficial than a speech at a large gathering and hence, the effectiveness of the program is not conveyed properly. Apart from being cost and time effective it is also a less effective medium of propagating health care benefits to the people at large. Another market strategy that the health care professionals and experts can use is social media. With the advent of technology, the consumers have become highly dependent on interne and other social media platforms to gain information regarding any field. People are very active on social media websites and platforms where they can post their reviews and can also read the reviews of others. Therefore, the social media will be a good platform to spread awareness regarding the health benefits of weight maintenance. The health care professionals and experts can post reviews on the social media websites and help the consumers to gain knowledge (Cantallops and Salvi, 2014, p.42). However, this platform would not help the experts and the professionals to reach out to a large crowd and especially to those people who do not have access to the internet. This would leave a significant part of the society unaddressed and still negligent regarding the problems that obesity caries and positive outc ome of weight loss and weight maintenance. Making exercises and physical activities fun can also be a method or a strategy of encouraging people to maintain a particular body weight. Exercising is an important part of being fit and so if the exercises are made fun then the consumers will be interested in taking part of it. The health care professionals and experts should promote exercises and physical activities in school, colleges, interactive clubs and organizations. Promotion at these places will help the experts to reach to a large crowd and especially to those people who are most prone to being obese and ignoring side and ill effects of living an unhealthy lifestyle (Donnelly and MacEntee, 2012, p.30). The exercises and physical activities can be made fun by doing it in the form of dance or other means which the individual finds interesting. Various forms of exercising are dancing, jogging, walking, aerobics, by going to a gym and others. Hence, all these forms should be promoted so that people take up to it (Ogde et al. 2010, p.242). However, with the increasing pressure on the people due to hectic schedule, consumers do not have time to indulge themselves in physical activities and hence, ignore their health (Neve et al. 2013, p.308). They always cite mismanagement of time as an excuse to not exercise and so it will be a big task for the health care experts and professionals to convince the people to make time and indulge themselves in physical activities. Recommendations and Conclusion The most suitable marketing strategy for the health care professionals and experts would be to take the help of social media to influence the customers regarding weight loss and weight maintenance. The social media influences the consumer behavior because of the indulgence of people on internet and social media platforms. The views, posts and information posted and available in the social media platforms are influential as they influence the people to change their viewpoints and thoughts. The consumer behavior has a huge role to play in the way a consumer decided to take upon an activity and participate in it. Hence, social media will be a widespread and broad arena through which maximum people can be influenced to maintain a healthy lifestyle by losing weight and maintaining a particular body weight. Reference List Books: Solomon, M.R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Journals: Azar, K.M., Lesser, L.I., Laing, B.Y., Stephens, J., Aurora, M.S., Burke, L.E. and Palaniappan, L.P., 2013. Mobile applications for weight management: theory-based content analysis. American journal of preventive medicine, 45(5), pp.583-589. Cantallops, A.S. and Salvi, F., 2014. New consumer behavior: A review of research on eWOM and hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, pp.41-51. Donnelly, L.R. and MacEntee, M.I., 2012. Social interactions, body image and oral health among institutionalised frail elders: an unexplored relationship. Gerodontology, 29(2), pp.e28-e33. Goh, K.Y., Heng, C.S. and Lin, Z., 2013. Social media brand community and consumer behavior: Quantifying the relative impact of user-and marketer-generated content. Information Systems Research, 24(1), pp.88-107. Griffiths, L.J., Dezateux, C. and Hill, A., 2011. Is obesity associated with emotional and behavioural problems in children? Findings from the Millennium Cohort Study. Pediatric Obesity, 6(2Part2). Pp.. 120-140 Haylock, P.J., 2010, August. Advanced cancer: a mind-body-spirit approach to life and living. In Seminars in oncology nursing (Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 183-194). WB Saunders. Laroche, M., Habibi, M.R. and Richard, M.O., 2013. To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media?. International Journal of Information Management, 33(1), pp.76-82. Montano, D.E. and Kasprzyk, D., 2015. Theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior, and the integrated behavioral model. Health behavior: Theory, research and practice, pp.50-80. Neve, M., Morgan, P.J., Jones, P.R. and Collins, C.E., 2010. Effectiveness of web?based interventions in achieving weight loss and weight loss maintenance in overweight and obese adults: a systematic review with meta?analysis. Obesity reviews, 11(4), pp.306-321. Ogden, C., Carroll, M.D., Curtin, L.R., Lamb, M.M. and Flegal, K.M., 2010. About childhood obesity. JAMA, 303(3), pp.242-249. Srensen, T.I., Virtue, S. and Vidal-Puig, A., 2010. Obesity as a clinical and public health problem: is there a need for a new definition based on lipotoxicity effects?. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids, 1801(3), pp.400-404. Wadden, T.A., Hollander, P., Klein, S., Niswender, K., Woo, V., Hale, P.M. and Aronne, L., 2013. Weight maintenance and additional weight loss with liraglutide after low-calorie-diet-induced weight loss: the SCALE Maintenance randomized study. International journal of obesity, 37(11), pp.1443-1451. Wang, X., Yu, C. and Wei, Y., 2012. Social media peer communication and impacts on purchase intentions: A consumer socialization framework. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(4), pp.198-208.