As a human live in this world, everyone has needs, some needs are innate, like people need water and food to maintain their life, others are acquired, for example the needs of power and self-esteem, in addition, some consumers are looking for the practical aspects of products, such as the amount of nutrition in food, fuel economy in a car, these needs were called utilitarian needs, hedonic needs are consumer might pursue something can meet their needs for pleasure and self-confidence, and so on( Solomon et al, 2006). According to the traditional views, hedonic needs are the opposite of utilitarian needs, people who want the practical products may ignore pleasure element, but with the increasingly competitive environment for products, more and more products were produced by company which can provided both types of benefits (utilitarian and hedonic needs). UGG® Australia boots is a excellent example, they provide a pair of boots can satisfy both practical and hedonic needs of consumers.
UGG® Australia boots are well-known as very fashionable and comfortable shoes, look back to its history, these boots were invented with the purpose of keeping warm in cold weather. Why consumers purchase UGG® Australia boots? The answer is obviously, they want to find a pair of shoes can keep warm in winter, also can make their feet breathe in boots, UGG® Australia boots have everything the customers need-comfort and warmth, because it made by 100% finest sheepskin .
Nowadays, with the help of successful celebrity placement campaign, UGG® Australia boots has already become an essential item in the fashion world, you are out if still no UGG® Australia boots in your shoe cabinet, the general public obsession with this kind of boot, even celebrities wear them appeal on magazine and show. In public eyes, UGG® Australia boots stand for chic and stylish, people can increase self-confidence through wearing this boots, moreover, it provide fantasy for consumers, make them have an opportunity for dressing as a celebrity.
Based on the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, people who purchase UGG® Australia boots desire to meet their ego needs and belongingness, for example the main purpose of young people wearing UGG® boots is they want to be acceptable by their peer group, they try to behaviour and dress like their friend, from ego aspects, based on the luxury brand imagine of UGG® Australia boots, their social status can be showed through wearing these boots.
3. 2 Expectancy theory and Approach-approach conflicts
Victor Vroom (1964) indicated that individuals make decision among various alternatives with the purpose of having more positive consequences (Wright, 2006). Consumers choose one product over another because they expect to get the maximum benefits and minimum drawback, that is the reason why marketers always emphasize products’ benefits in order to stay ahead of the competition. Approach-approach conflicts can be combines with expectancy theory to analyze consumer behaviour, this conflicts happens when people have to choose between two or more desirable alternatives (Blythe, 2008). The best way to resolve this conflict is bundling several products benefits together, in order to attract consumers from competing products (Solomon et al, 2006).
There is a fierce competition in boots market, UGG® Australia face with many strong competitors, such as Koolaburra, JUMBO UGG, these company also produce sheepskin boots, in order to avoid consumer having to choose between UGG® Australia and other brand of sheepskin boots, UGG® Australia emphasize that maybe sheepskin boots look so similar and make you feel difficult to choose, but UGG® Australia are made from the finest Merino sheepskin, which provides extremely soft and comfortable feeling when you wear it, this kind of boots keep feet snuggle warm in the winter, and make your feet breathe in them, even in the summer, moreover, it is a stylish and chic item in fashion area, even pop stars are adore this boots, you will not be satisfied until you own UGG® Boots (UGG® Australia, 2009). In summary, UGG® boots strongly emphasizes its unique products features to give the consumers a positive brand imagine, and for customers aspect, it has a great effect on avoid them choose between “ Keeping warm” and “ High fashion”.
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3. 3 Evaluation on the decision of UGG® Australia’s marketing activity
UGG® Australia has successfully provides two types of need for their target consumers, warm-keeping and fashion can be obtained from this boot at the same time, through add hedonic feature “ fashion” to their products, UGG® Australia easily to attract customers attention from competing brand and offer strong incentives to purchase their products.
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