How Consumer Attitudes & Behaviors Affect Their Purchases Essay

How Consumer Attitudes & Behaviors Affect Their Purchases - Essay Example These savvy marketers understands their consumers’ behavior and thus able to distinguish between attitudes and beliefs. Every year, firms (through their marketing departments) heavily invest in researches to identify consumers’ attitudes which are more likely influence their purchasing behavior. Marketers go ahead to persuade consumers through promotions and advertising in order to win consumer loyalty. Consumer Attitudes In marketing, attitude is defined as â€Å"the general evaluation of a product or service formed over time† (Maxfield, 2012). Attitude greatly affects the purchasing and buying habit of consumers as well as satisfying personal motives of the consumers. As such, consumer attitude is defined as a composite of beliefs, behavioral intention and feelings. On the other hand, behavioral intention of consumers is defined (in marketing content) by consumers’ beliefs and feeling about a given product. Consumer feeling and behavior are treated toget her as they are relatively interdependent, thus collectively representing purchasing force of the consumer. This relationship and interdependency can be represented as below: Attitude is majorly a psychological term that applies in all fields involving human beings. Attitude refers to the inner feelings and understanding of individuals towards certain object or concepts. Attitude may be either negative or positive depending on the existing environmental factors triggering the feeling. Behavior on the other hand, refers to individuals’ reactions or actions towards certain environmental elements in response to the internal or external stimuli. Attitudes and behaviors of customers have almost similar effects on the buying trend of certain product. Attitudes exist in three main components that include cognitive, affective and behavior. Cognitive component of consumer attitude relates to the general consumer’s belief about a certain product. Affective component of the consu mer attitude attributes to feelings and emotional response of customers towards particular objects. Behavior component on the other hand, entails learned tendency by consumer to react in particular manner towards particular activity or objects. In this way, the psychological effects that drive the understanding of consumer/rational choice are clearly understood and noted. Beliefs Belief is a fundamental component of consumer’s purchasing powers and influences. A consumer may either hold a positive or negative belief towards a product or a store. For instance, some consumers may belief that coffee tastes good while those with negative belief towards this product will say that it stains papers and is easily spilled. Though rare, some consumers have a neutral belief on a product (e.g. coffee is black). Other group of consumers may have an indifference belief about a commodity. Notably, the beliefs consumers carry on products have no to be accurate and at times may be very contra dictory. Since consumers hold a number of beliefs towards the range of products, it is quite had to reach the ‘bottom line’ of such variations in beliefs. Brand equity and consumer attitude Brand equity is an important concept in building and developing marketing strategy. Brand equity is an indication of profitability index as perceived by marketers. However, brand equity depends on brand attitude. From consumers’ point of view, brand equity entails positive brand attitude founded on

Mycobacterium Leprae and Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Essay

Mycobacterium Leprae and Mycobacterium Tuberculosis - Essay Example An estimate of 1.7 million deaths were reported by WHO caused by tuberculosis (TB) in the year 2004 (St Georgiev, 2009, p. 103). This highlights the destructive and intensely pathogenic nature of M. tuberculosis and the need to study it thoroughly. M. leprae, discovered in 1874, causes a chronic infectious disease leprosy which is found throughout the world. However, the highest prevalence rates are found in India, China and Africa. In India 3.2 million people are suffering from leprosy (Sehgal, 2004, p.5). The considerably higher estimates in the above mentioned states makes this pathogen quite intriguing and worth research. The devastating nature of the M. tuberculosis and M. leprae and the increasing frequency of the infectious diseases caused by them, necessitates further study and awareness about these pathogens. The paper will discuss general characteristics of mycobacterium and the following features of the specific pathogens in the given sequence- nutritional requirements, gr owth rate, general features of pathogen, transmission of disease, disease progression, skin testing, treatment and immunization. The general characteristics of Mycobacterium are applicable to all the members included in this genus. Mycobacteria are strictly aerobic acid-fast bacilli and are neither gram-negative nor gram positive. The reason for this property is the high lipid content in their cell walls. This unusual characteristic of their cell walls make them resistant to many disinfectants, drying and corrosive chemicals. However, they are not resistant to heat or ultraviolent radiation. They mostly cause diseases that lead to the formation of slowly progressing granulomatous lesions (Harvey et al 2007, p. 185; Levinson 2008, p. 161). The highly resistant nature of mycobacterium explains the easy transmission and difficult prevention of the infectious diseases. Mycobacterium tuberculosis The general features about the M. tuberculosis highlight the growth rate of the pathogen, nu tritional requirements, strains of the bacterium which are helpful in assessing the treatment plans and diagnostic therapies. M. tuberculosis grows at a very slow pace and it takes 18 hours to get doubled. Thus, in comparison to other bacteria it has a slower growth rate. As mentioned earlier, M. tuberculosis is an obligate aerobic, hence it requires oxygen majorly for its growth. The media used for its growth is Lowenstein-Jensen medium that uses complex nutrients to support its growth. These include egg yolk and some dyes like malachite green. The dyes are used to inhibit the growth of other bacteria present in the sputum samples (Levinson 2008, p. 161). Although the M. tuberculosis has a very slow doubling rate, it can be grown quite favorably in the laboratory environment by providing supporting nutrients. The important properties of M. tuberculosis include the appearance and dimensions, the virulent strains and the chemical compositions. M. tuberculosis appears as curved slende r rods that are 2 to 4 um long and 0.2to 0.5 um wide. The bacterium possesses a particular â€Å"cord factor† that causes its virulence. The virulent strains grow in a serpentine fashion while the avirulent strains lack this property. The high lipid content in cell wall constituting of mycolic acids and phosphatides are the factors for causing acid-fact property and caseation necrosis, respectively (Levinson 2008, p. 161; St Georgiev 2009, p.106). M. tuberculosis is