Consumer Consumer is a person or entity buying goods and services for final usage.

By final use I mean, purpose for which a commodity is being manufactured. For instance a retailer having RedBull in a shelf is not a consumer rather a teenager coming to his shop, paying the price of the tin and drinking the syrup will be termed as consumer. Consumer may be an individual, a family, and organisation etc. Consumer Behaviour can be defined as the dyna mic interaction of affect and cognition, behaviour, and environmental events by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives (Peter D. Bennett, 1989). It is an admitted fact that behaviour varies from person to person, consumer preferences change from one person to other, and so Peter used the word dynamic in his definition. Interaction between the consumer and producer and exchange are important in consumer behaviour according to this definition. Companies and enterprises adopt various marketing strategies to attract maximum number of consumers and customers in order to maximise their profits. Marketing strategy is a plan designed to influence exchanges to achieve organisational objectives (Paul, Jerry, Klaus, 2008). Segmentation is an important tool used businesses use in their marketing strategy. Businesses classify their consumers in different classes and then concentrate on the needs and demands of these classes. Market segmentation is defined as the identification of individuals or organisations with similar characteristics that have significant implications for the determination of marketing strategy (Jobber, Fany, 2004). Market segmentation is important because it facilitates introduction of suitable marketing mix: Market segmentation enables a producer to understand the needs of consumers, their behaviour and expectations as information is collected segmentwise in an accurate manner. Such information is purposefully usable. Decisions regarding Four Ps based on such information are always effective and beneficial to consumers and the producers (Gaurav Akrani, 2010). Country profile of the United Kingdom The United Kingdom is made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Britain, the worlds first industrialised country, one of the largest worlds economy. Facts y Full name: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland y Population: 61.9 million (UN, 2010) y Capital: London y Area: 242,514 sq km (93,638 sq miles) y Major language: English y Major religion: Christianity y Life expectancy: 78 years (men), 82 years (women) (UN) y Monetary unit: 1 pound sterling = 100 pence y Main exports: Manufactured goods, chemicals, foodstuffs y GNI per capita: US $41,520 (World Bank, 2009) y Internet domain: .uk y International dialling code: +44

(United Kingdom Country Profile, 2011) The UK is ethnically diverse. One can easily find every nation of the world here. Pleasant weather and one of the largest empires in the history of mankind make the United Kingdom a dream land for the rest of the world. Before the current recession
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foreigners from almost all the parts of the world were travelling and trying to settle here in the Great Britain. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO) regular folks become tourists as soon as they travel (by any transportation means) at least 160 km in any direction for a purpose other than working or going home. This means that, distance-wise, your passport to adventure is just a stone-throws away. People living in the United Kingdom have prominent GNI. Here people spend a significant portion of their earnings in travelling, exploring and refreshing themselves by travelling to different corners around the globe (Gilles Saraillon, 2011). Now here Cox and Kings Travel, Atlantic Holidays, Bales World Wide, EuroCamp, Himalyan Dreams, InterHome, Intourist and The Adventure Company are few important companies involved in travelling bu sinesses here in the UK.
Cox and Kings A Short History Cox and kings explains its history on its main website. This history can be summarised as follow, longest travelled company in the world celebrated its 250 th anniversary in 2008. Back into 1758 Rich ard Cox is considered to be the pioneer of the company. Cox proved himself as an excellent agent working for a British regiment. In next few years Cox planted roots of the company by the name of Cox and Co. Cox and Co also started business in banking and s hipping. The word King attached with Cox and co after the world war I, when Kings & co into Cox and Co. The modern history of company starts in 1970 when ownership of Cox and Kings agency was bought by Grindlays Bank as part of a deal with the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, to develop tourism into the country. Today this company covers destinations like Indian Subcontinent, Latin America, Africa, the Midd le East, Europe and Australasia (Centuries of Experience, 2010). Segmentation profile of Cox an d kings Introduction For a profitable business, marketing strategy must have the power to develop customer business relationships. Companys profile must have enough interests for their already customers and it should have attractive incentives for the new ones. After reading profile of the company a c ustomer becomes ready to buy a service and starts getting satisfaction just by making transaction then relations with the customer will be strong. Kottler (1991, p342) explains H ierarchy-of-effects model. This model explains the complete phenomenon that ho w a consumer makes choice? These stages are, y Awareness y Knowledge y Liking y Preference y Conviction y Purchase So keeping in view these stages I would develop the profile of Cox and kings using for given variable. Customers of Cox and kings Cox and kings a big gun of travel and tourism industry, deal with the individuals, families and institutions. cox and kings on its official website used word independent minded traveller for individuals. For individuals Cox and kings have attractions in the locations like Indian summer, Across the Ganges Plain, and Bhutan: Monks and
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Monast i s Indian subcontinent , A ourney t rough uba, Andean ighlights: Per &Boli ia, Antarctic ream E edition Latin America) and many other regions around the globe Pri ate ours). n the other hand ox and ing hel families to discover attractive spots li e he ragon Kingdom, igers and he aj, ropical Kerala in India, Ancient Egypt, the ed sea and ordan adventure Egypt). Attractive opportunities can be discovered in the regions li e Africa, areast, Latin America and Australia etc amily Explorer). at the last but not least ox and ings offer exotic journeys to organisations and institutions. It has served A AS ational Association of ecorative and ine Arts Societies), he oyal Academy and the oyal Ballet private roups). i m i i bl A & G S m Segmentation using variable age and gender is nown as demographic segmentation. ow days many businesses are using these variables because istribution of the British population can be observed in this image,

ation master,
th

class with class limits ) is the largest class. It can be deduced that and . ot only this important majority of our population is of the age between result can be derived from this data that majority of our population has the age between15 to 6 . ne cannot deny that with the passage of time preferences of consumers change. ustomers with the age 18 to 5 will have different approach towards life on the other hand consumer after 5 thinks about life in a different way. People with the age 18 to 5 are usually open to risky activities. ance, drinking, driving, sky diving, cinema and today social networking sites have more attraction for this age group as compare to the others. ow arranging trips for this age group these attractions must be presented to the customers. It will bring more satisfaction to them and they will be happy to know that wherever they will be travelling most of their demands will be fulfilled. ustomers usually after the age of 5 become more careful about their lives and choices. ender is another basic variable used in consumer segmentation. Paco nderhill 1999, P98) states that man and women differ in just about every other way,
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so why should not they shop differently, too? Preferences for a man may be beauty of the location he is going to visit; net expenditures for travel and stay, the arrangements during the tour and security measures as well. On the other hand a lady may think along with these things about how much time she will have for shopping? The place she is planning to visit has s hopping attractions or not. A lady may be curious about the physical conditions of a particular are and their effects on her skin. Paco (1999, p102) narrates a very interesting study, he writes, the average shopping time from a study we performed at one branch of national house wares chain:
y y y y

woman shopping with a female companion: 8 minutes, 15 seconds woman with children: 7 minutes, 19 seconds woman alone:5 minutes, 2 seconds woman with man: 4 minutes , 41 seconds

While segmenting the customers on the b asis of sex above factors must be considered. Shopping attractions and beauty treatments can be used as important tools to attract ladies. While explaining destinations to the customers using profile of the company such attractions and opportunities should be explained as well.
Cultural Differences and Su Cultures

Richard, Collins (1997, p159) consider culture as most fundamental of th four influencing forces (cultural, social, personal and psychological). Now these cultural factors include culture, sub culture and social class. Religion, ethnic identity, caste, creed and nationality play an important role in determining consumer preferences. As UK is a multicultural and multi religion country with the nationals from almost all parts of the world, so it will be beneficial for Cox and king to make segments of the population depending upon t he religion. People with similar religion usually have similar cultural trend and preferences. For instance a Muslim feels great pleasure in visiting the holy places located in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and even Syria. Cox and Kings UK can generate lot of r evenue by bringing such packages to its profile. Similarly Pakistan does not have any place in Cox and Kind portfolio. Many holy places for the Sikhs are located in Pakistan, every year Sikhs come to these places so Cox and Kings should provide services in these fields as well.
Income-Social classes

On the first page GNI per capita of a British citizen is US $41,520(United Kingdom country profile, 2011). Income is the earning of a human, here income is disposable income. Disposable can be defined as income after paying tax. Usage of disposable income depends upon the owner, he can deposit it into his bank account; can invest in stock exchange or any other profitable business. Usually a part of disposable is saved and the rest of income is consumed in making fun etc by the consumers. People usually think that world tours and luxury journeys ar e for rich class of the
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society. Data (life style Data, 2010) given below shows distribution of population according to their jobs, %of population A B C1 C2 D E Higher managerial, administrative and professional Intermediate managerial, administrative and professional Supervisory, clerical and junior managerial, administrative and professional Skilled manual workers Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers State pensioners, casual and lowest grade workers, unemployed with state benefits only 4 22 29 21 15 8

Each category of populations has following income patterns; this bar chart shows that only 4% of the population (upper class has annual income above 3000 and 8% of the total population (lower class) has income below 10000. Majority of the population has income between 10000 and 30000 so needs and demands for this portion of the population is really important for the company. On the other hand real house hold incomes of the Britain consumers is going down due to inflation and high tax rates (Graeme Leach, 2011). Keeping in view this down turn, company should (life style Data, 2010)

bring the expense of its tour packages down. Cox and kings can attract more customers by taking various measures like.
y y y

By shortening the tour duration By advertising seasonal tours before the season and offering customers to save certain amounts( depending upon the pack) with the company Alternative transportation modes
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The main social classes (upper class, middle class and lower class) have different preferences. It is not necessary to arrange the stay in a five star luxurious hotel when most of the companys customers are form the middle class, if an ordinary hotel assures the quality and satisfaction for the consumer then it should be used to reduce financial burden of the customer.
Perceptions

Perception is actually how a consumer observes and perceives a product. A normal man has been bestowed by God with five senses. These are sense of hearing, taste, see, smell and identify . Man responds to any external stimulus using these five senses. Perception in marketing is actually to overcome these senses of the humans. Due to cut throat competition in all the markets for all the products it is not easy for a company to create perception in the consumers mind. Consumers perceptions for Cox and kings in UK can be made strong by huge advertisements. Today especially youngsters spends more time on face book and other social networking sites, up till now I have not seen and add of Cox and Kings UK on the face book, similarly majority of our population check emails daily ads of the company should be appearing on email sites like yahoo, hotmail and Gmail etc. not only this compa ny should advertise through banks and other financial institutions to send offers to the customers with banks statements and should give broachers of the company to the account holders, company must use other traditional options of advertisements like television and radio. Now days YouTube is one of the most favourite site of the whole population, before playing the main video it plays commercials, Cox and kings commercials should be played there as well. These steps will make the customers well aware about the company. A person who wants to travel can find Cox and Kings the best option but if the above steps will be followed those who even dont want to travel and make tours will at least think to plan something like this.
Attitude

David, Abert (1993. p423) gives two points while explaining the term attitude, 1. Persons beliefs about various aspects of the object 2. Evaluation a consumer gives to each belief as it relates to the object This definition shows that attitude of a person is for an obj ect; here ethical behaviour and tangible items both are being considered as object. Solomon ( 2002, p198) says it is important for a marketer to know why an attitude is held before attempting it to change. He explains four functions of attitude given by Kat z, 1. Utilitarian function: consumer thinks the product he is using provides him pleasure or pain. For a group of consumer travelling would be an happy and they feel themselves happy even after facing problems during tours, on the other hand lot of people th ink travelling a dangerous and pain full activity, Cox
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and kings in its ads and advertisements tell the customers that travelling under the guidance of Cox and kings will be free from any hardship and danger. Company should advertise all the measures to sa feguard such needs of the consumers. This will bring those customers towards the company who even never thought to travel. 2. Value Expressive Function: This function how attitude develops due to life style of a consumer. Cox and kings should facilitate the expression of the persons centrally held values. Consumers select certain options to express their values practically for example a Muslim resident of UK may want to go to the holy places located in Syria, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia to express his love to the holy places and personalities practically, Cox and kings should bring these destinations to its profile. 3. Ego defensive function: this behaviour becomes part of human mentality to protect man from external threats (emotional) or internal feelings. Such customers usually do transactions to prove themselves rich and with high standards of livings. To attract such customers, luxurious options should be offered in advertisements and profiles of the company. These customers should realise that they are so mewhat better than their fellows after the trips. 4. Knowledge Function: attitude of the consumers developed due to their love to the knowledge and learning. Now all the locations in the Cox and kings profile have lot of learning opportunities. For example a major portion of our population has huge interest in discovering Egyptian secrets, strange constructions of Ludakh and Tibet etc. Complete population of UK can be distributed using these four characteristics, now marketing strategy should be for all these sectors, such commercials should be designed which talk to the above all categories.
Motivation

Motivation refers to the processes that leads to behave as they do. It occurs when a need is aroused, which leads to the state of tension that derives the consumer to attempt to reduce or eliminate it (Solomon, 2009). Motivation is another psychological factor effecting consumers preferences. It is the hidden force that enables a person to do something. A customer can enjoy a tour using Cox and king on the other hand there may be a lot of travel and tour companies, then it is t he motivation, the attracting force for the customers towards the business. As every business wants more and more customers so they have to motivate more and more customers. People usually make tours in the summer season or during holidays. Cox and Kings should motivate more and more customers especially in holiday seasons by advertising fascinating place , using mottos like say good bye to your dull life and
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enjoy the natural beauties etc. not only this I would suggest that company should reduce its profit margin to bring the cost beard by the customers down. Company should work for marginal profit techniques instead of total profits. These messages should also be delivered to the customers.

References

 David Jobber, John Fahy., 2004. Foundations of Marketing. 2 nd Ed. McGraw Hill Education  David L. Loudon & Albert J. Della Bitta., 1993. Consumer Behaviour. 4 th Ed. McGraw-Hill, INC.
 FamilyExplorer[online]Availableat:< http://www.coxandkings .co.uk/familyexplorer.aspx > [Accessed on 24 th June 2011]  Gaurav Akrani,2010.kalyan City Life, sharing wisdom and vivid memories of

life[online]Availableat:< http://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2010/07/market segmentation-importance-in.html> [Accessed on 20 th June 2011]  Graeme Leach, 2011. UK economic outlook Five dragging anchors the UKeconomyin2011[pdf]Availableat: <http://www.iod.com/mainwebsite/resource s/document/iod_pulse_1103.pdf > [Accessed on 26th June 2011]
 J.Paul Peter, Jerry C. Olson and Klaus G. Grunert., 2008. Consumer Behaviour and Marketing strategy. European edition. McGraw -Hill Publishing Company  Kotler Philip., 1991.Marketing Management.7 th Ed. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice -Hall International, Inc  Michael R. Solomon., 2002.Consumer Behaviour. 5 th Ed. Prentice-Hall International, Inc  Nation Master, 2003.[online] Available at:< http://www.nationmaster.com/country/uk united-kingdom/Age-_distribution> [Accessed on 25 th June 2011]  Paco Underhill., (1999). Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. New York: Simon & Schuster  Peter D. Bennet., 1989. Dictionary of Marketing Terms. Chicago, IL: Marketing Association  Private Tours[online]Available at:< http://www.coxandkings.co.uk/private -tours> [Accessed on 22 nd June 2011]  Private Groups[online]Available at:< http://www.coxandkings.co.uk/privategroup.aspx> [Accessed on 22 nd June 2011]  http://gillessaraillon.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/segmentation_analysis.pdf  http://www.coxandkings.co.uk/aboutus -history.aspx

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