Psychographic consumer behaviour and its impact on promotional strategies : a study of the rooibos tea market

Abstract

Existing research has shown that black tea still dominates the consumer market against the steady market growth and demand for rooibos tea. This tea is known for its abundant blend of antioxidants that can help a consumer to live a longer and healthier life. Also, it is important to consume a sufficient amount of tea to fully gain its attributed health and wellness lifestyle benefits. Psychographic segmentation is widely used in market segmentation and provides marketers with comprehensive understanding of lifestyle patterns, personality traits, product attributes of and product benefits for current and prospective consumers. The purpose of the study was to describe and understand the theoretical application of the interlinked relationship between opinion variables, interest variables, and activity variables, which form part of consumer decision-making internal and external influencing variables model. An explanatory research design was employed to explain the correlation between the variables. The study was conducted at a rooibos tea company in Gauteng province targeting a purposive sample using an online questionnaire. The respondents were consultants who buy, sell and consume rooibos teas by the company. The results show that there is a correlation between opinion variables, interest variables and activity variables, and thus, explain a non-linear, interlinked relationship between psychographic variables and consumer decision-making internal (psychological) and external (social and cultural) influencing variables. Also, influencing internal variables affects more strongly the cognitive processes of respondents’ consumer decision-making than external variables do. The results have also show that respondents prefer rooibos herbal tea (tisane) than rooibos green tea, and respondents are more influenced by non-product related attributes (interest variables) than product related attributes (opinion variables). The stimulusresponse relationship of promotional strategies was captured in four past rooibos tea advertisements. Word clouds identified similar patterns of words that were connected to activity variables (product benefits). Results indicated that consumers preferred through-theline communication, followed by above-the-line communication, and then below-the-line communication. The recommended future promotional strategies to improve the communication channel of psychographic consumer behaviour are integrated through-the-line and below-the-line promotions of each rooibos tea segment with follow-up aftersales questionnaire to ensure the continuous improvement of the product.