The consumer behaviour definition economics essay

LITERATURE REVIEWConsumer behaviour definitionIn order to determine the factors that influence the consumer behaviour for the purchase and consumption of cigarettes, it is essential to have an understanding on how consumers think generally and how they behave in buying. A significant aspect of international marketing is the study of consumers – what products and services attract them, how they behave in relation to the efforts of companies to offer goods to them, and how they respond to the different media used by mnes. Consumer behaviour is defined in many ways but it can be accepted as ‘the behaviour that customers exhibit in probing for, buying, making use of, assessing and clearing away of goods and services that they are expecting to suit their wishes (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2007). The study of consumer behaviour considers the consumer as an individual, looking at motivation, personality, perception, attitudes and communication, as well as consumers as groups within their social and cultural settings, such as the consumer’s reference groups, family, social class, culture and subculture. A key element of consumer behaviour is the importance of reference groups, i. e. those ‘groups that serve as frames of reference for individuals in their purchase or consumption decisions’ (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2007). There are many reference groups that consumers are influenced by: immediate family, friends, extended family members, neighbours, celebrities such as film and TV stars, sports people, political and business leaders, experts, work/employment groups, shopping groups, brand communities and virtual and social network communities. (Sitkin and Bowen: International Business – Extension material-chapter 12. 1-consumer behavior.)L. Perner (1999) stated that the study of consumers helps firms and organisations to enhance their advertising approaches by understanding matters such as: how consumers feel, react, select on which basis between different choices (e. g., trademark products)how the purchaser is influenced by his or her surroundings (e. g., culture, family, signs, media); How is the conduct of consumers when they do shopping or make any other marketing decisions; How motivation and decision strategies of consumer differs between products that have different level of importance to the consumer(either high level of importance or least level of importance); andHow marketers can adjust and develop better marketing promotion and strategies to more efficiently and effectively get to the consumer. To understand consumer behaviour and to know the real meaning of customers is very difficult. Consumers may opt for one thing but instead choose another. They may react to influences that are caused in their mind at the last minute. Many researchers (Hawkins et al. 2001: 7, Bearden et al. 1997: 49, and Engel et al. 1995: 4) explain behaviour of consumers as the study of people or groups of people and the psychological, emotions and physical ways they use to choose, receive, consume and clear away of goods and services to meet their needs requirements. There are a number of models that could be use to try to explain the behaviour of consumer. These models usually deal with a variety of stimuli such as marketing stimuli or the environmental stimuli. Some models are very indispensable and classify all variable such as the one proposed by Kotler’s (2000: 161) – The stimulus response model. For that of cigarettes, the behaviour of consumers depends on several stimuli. For example there are marketing stimuli like the 4P’s namely product, place, price and promotion. They also depends on other stimuli like the PEST factors that is Political/legal, economical technological or the social factors.

STIMULUS RESPONSE MODEL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR:

MARKETING STIMULI

OTHER STIMULI

PRODUCTPRICEPLACEPROMOTIONECONOMICPOLITICAL/LEGALCULTURALTECHNOLOGICAL

MARKETING STIMULI

Product:

Cigarette is prepared out of the cured and lightly cut tobacco leaves. During manufacturing, many elements with specific reasons are added to the tobacco mixture. For example food-type elements and flavourings are added to stabilize the normal tobacco flavor. Each brand has a diverse grouping of ingredients which are based on the characteristics of individual flavours or taste. To make the flammable paper which is rolled in specific size, seed flax is assorted with paper tissue. The filters are made of artificial, cotton-like fibers that catch constituent parts as they are drawn through the length of the cigarette.(http://www. madehow. com/Volume-2/Cigarette. html#b#ixzz2JTBITu3r)Cigarettes all over the world are condemned for the fact that when cigarette is burnt, it release smokes that contain more than 4000 toxic and injurious chemicals which are very hazardous for the health of the smoker as well as his/her surroundings. These chemicals are composed with mainly the nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide and epinephrine. This can bring health problems which are mainly heart cancer, throat cancer, respiratory problems, infertility, joint problems, cataract or even tuberculosis. The use of cigarette smoking and other related tobacco smoking have become known to be the second reason of decease globally after hypertension and is currently responsible for killing one in ten adults worldwide. In Mauritius, about 1 000 people die from tobacco-related diseases every year. Previous research done in Mauritius has shown that the percentage of smokers in Mauritius is quite alarming. From the survey done by the Global youth Tobacco survey in the year 2008, the percentage of smokers aging from 13 to 15 years are 20, 3% for boys and 7, 7 % of girls(www. gov. mu).(http://www. gov. mu/portal/site/Mainhomepage/menuitem. a42b24128104d9845dabddd154508a0c/? content_id= 59e527d8bb440310VgnVCM1000000a04a8c0RCRD)To engage in the condemnation against the harmfulness effect of smoking in Mauritius, Government has passed new laws so as to ban advertisement for cigarettes, promotion and sponsorship to tobacco products. Smoking has also been banned in public areas such as coffee bar, saloon, and nightspots, eating places, bus stations and health, educational and sport organisations. The primary mission behind these is to protect the general public from smoke of cigarettes, decrease the flow of contact to tobacco goods and control illegal interchange of tobacco products. The law has also stated that smoking is illegal while organising, helping or selling foodstuffs in places where the public has access to and also is illegal while driving or travelling in either public or private mode of transport that carry people. Laws has also been passed to prevent selling cigarettes to minors that is under 18 years old and there are notices in every shop about not selling cigarette to people under the age of 18.  Furthermore, it is obligatory that on each side of a cigarette and related smoking goods packs that there are health warnings printed on them. (www. gov. mu- (Public Health Act- March 2009)

Price:

Price is the most important aspect concerning the decision for people to smoke. It also finds out the occurrence of smoking especially among adolescents (Reider, 1998). Price elasticity of demand can be defined as awareness or understanding of the amount demanded to price changes. although order for tobacco goods is not as elastic as demand like for other products consumer consumes, study has every time shown that when there is an increase in price of cigarettes and tobacco related products, there is a reasonably high fall in both the percentage in the number of people smoking and the quantity of tobacco that lasting smokers smoke. Increase in price of tobacco product is often because of increase in tobacco taxes. Therefore the effect of having a small consequential decrease in tobacco smoking can be very big across the whole world (World Bank, 1999). Depending on the extent to which of the price increase, reduced consumption of tobacco products in addition to increases in tobacco taxes can be quite significant. In 1999, the review that the World bank has done stated that, all else being equal, price increasing of about 10% would normally decrease the burning up of cigarette and related products by aproximately 4% in industrial countries and about 8% in rising countries. According to the Surgeon General’s Report on reducing tobacco use in the United-States, whatever the data used, the price-elasticity values for the combined demand for cigarettes was found to be between -0. 14 and -1. 12 and most of the time between – 0. 3 and – 0. 5. Therefore, it can be said that for every 1% of increase in the price of cigarettes, there will be approximately between 0. 3-0. 5 percent of decrease in the demand for cigarettes. However, it cannot be said that only price is determinant in the quantity demand for cigarettes. There is also another important variable known as income. The income-elasticity of demand for cigarettes is habitually planned along with the price-elasticity. Some of the first studies on the demand for cigarettes concluded that cigarettes are normal goods because their consumption increases with an increase in income (Jha and Chaloupka, 2000). Ross and Chaloupka (2003) also found that higher cigarette prices decrease the frequency of youth cigarette smoking and that there was also proof of negative price effects on strength of youth smoking. Advertising and Promotion: Advertising can be defined as the use of media to produce helpful product descriptions or positive product associations or to connect the product with desirable personal traits, activities, or outcomes. Promotion, also called marketing, can be defined as the combination of all activities that are planned to enhance sales. From the website of British American Tobacco, it is stated that advertising of cigarettes is not meant to attract non smokers but rather advertisements are done to inform existing smokers of new brands, maintaining their faithfulness towards a brand and also endearing them from competitors (www. bat. com). However numerous academic reviews have identified tobacco advertising as a key influence on youth to initiate smoking. (Lovato et al, 2003). Wellman RJ et al (2006) states that adolescence that is uncovered to the announcement of cigarettes hold positive approach towards tobacco utilisation.) In Mauritius, Regulations made by the Minister under sections 193 and 194 of the Public Health Act states that promotion and advertising of tobacco product is illegal. (Public Health Act 2008, Mauritius” Government has engaged in a war against tobacco. However, the fight against tobacco is one which cannot be carried out in isolation. The magnitude of the problem is such that it requires sustained, comprehensive and concerted efforts from all sectors.” S. Hanoomanjee (Mrs.), Minister of Health and Quality of Life, June 3, 2010 (ITC Mauritius Project Dissemination Workshop)Because of increase regulations on tobacco promotion methods, tobacco manufacturers are now using indirect advertising like sponsorship of sports for example formula cars(Ferrari used the Marlboro brand in 2007), cultural and music events, picture and logo advertising, merchandising, redesigning packs, and product placement in television shows and films(Willemsen et al,). They also used other means of advertising like the use of direct mails, magazines, coupons, etc (www. notobaccoads. org/pdfs_asp/promotion. pdf).

OTHER STIMULI:

The greatest changes in smoking occurrence have resulted from population wide interventions, economic measures to decrease the access to tobacco and related products, laws and regulations about tobacco restriction for advertisement, promotion and sales to youngsters (Fisher et al., 2004; Task Force on Community Preventive Services, 2005). POLITICAL/LEGAL FACTORSThe political and legal factors have a direct impact on the industry of tobacco due to massive limits imposed on cigarettes. For example in many countries, laws have been passed against smoking in public areas so as to protect those not smoking (Barry, 2006). The author stated that by doing so there will be a number of smokers who will effectively try to quit smoking, decrease the quantity of cigarette consumption of smokers everywhere for fear of having to pay fines or to be imprisoned or to discourage youngsters to ever start smoking. Advertisements for tobacco have also been banned in several countries including Mauritius (Wikipedia. org/wiki/Tobacco). Schwartz et al (2004) stated that legislation against tobacco advertisement is very important because cigarette industry often deceive people since they do not convey the message of health problems linked directly with smoking to people. Law against public smoking is also enforced in Mauritius. Mauritius became a party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on May 17, 2004. Under an allowance of power contained in the Public Health Act 1925, the Minister of Health issued the Public Health (Restrictions on Tobacco Products) Regulations 2008.  These are the principal policies prevailing tobacco control in Mauritius.  The regulations are broad, englobing the most important part of tobacco control such as limitation on smoking in open areas; restrictions on advertisements, promotion and aid, and the requirements on the packaging and labeling of cigarette packs. Furthermore, the rules were adjusted two times in 2009. These two sets of modifications concern duties obligatory upon business owners concerning implementing or enforcing of smoke free policies, health warnings, and release yields on the packaging of cigarettes (http://www. tobaccocontrollaws. org/legislation/country/mauritius/summary). ECONOMIC FACTORS: Smoking results in numerous costs to the financial system. These costs are mainly personal cost that is cost made by the smoker itself, external costs by the society and by the Government. Some of them are physical, such as supply cost, while others are indefinable. For example pain, agony or loss of life/family due to smoking (Collins et al, 1997). For smokers, most of their earnings are spent in the buying of cigarettes (ASH, 2006). Smoking also costs to companies in term of efficiency loss caused by smoking. That is smokers have tendencies to be sicker than those not smoking thus resulting in high rate of absenteeism (ASH, 2006). Smoking does also affect Government. For example the business involving tobacco manufacturing is one of the most gainful businesses in the US, making billions of dollars every year. However the costs of smoking are much greater than the amount of money received from sales of cigarettes. Smoking has cost more than $193 billion each year in medical costs, including health check costs and also the cost of lost efficiency caused by smoking. The costs of smoking-related medicines summed up to more than $96 billion each year between 2000 and 2004. The US economy encountered losses of almost $97 billion yearly (for 2000-2004) due to productivity losses because of smoking. (http://www. cancer. org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/questionsaboutsmokingtobaccoandhealth/questions-about-smoking-tobacco-and-health-tob-and-economy)Government spent large amount of money on health services, for example paying of social security benefits, pensions, damages caused by fire due to careless disposal of cigarettes (ASH, 2006). TECHNOLOGYNowadays the technology plays an essential position into the life of people and in all business industry, starting from the production process till the ending sales. This is so because companies must adapt to the changing needs, buying decisions of consumers more rapidly thus requiring more precision and high quality standards products and services. With the use of technologies, cigarette companies tried to introduce cigarettes with lower tars and nicotine compared to the regular ones so as to decrease smoking related health problems. Furthermore with more advancement in technology, Hon Lik, a Chinese pharmacist, invented the electronic cigarette. This cigarette produces a smoke-like air that is breathed in and thus gives a means for delivering nicotine into the bloodstream through the lungs. The device was first introduced to the Chinese domestic market in May 2004 as an aid for smoking cessation and replacement (www. wikipedia. org). Another modern electronic cigarette featured the ” tankomizer” (or sealed tank system and sealed atomizer technology). This is best use for pharmaceutical and medical campaign businesses. New invention like Fire safe cigarettes were made that is designed to extinguish more rapidly than standard cigarettes if disregarded. This was invented so as to prevent from accidental fires caused by cigarettes when they are dropped (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Fire_safe_cigarette). Besides these, there is another important aspect in technology and it is the capacity for innovation, and how the company is prepared to accept that change. Thus, an innovative company can developed better distribution processes, manufacturing processes, design and creation of new products, reduce costs and be less time consuming. With better expertise and tools and giving consumers high quality products, companies are investing in TQM for ISO 9002 certification (http://www. fao. org/docrep/006/y4997e/y4997e08. htm). The impact of modern technology on processing and developing cigarettes has been to diminish the labor necessity in the tobacco industry; the levels of tars and nicotine have also been reduced through filterisation, thus reducing possible health damage from smoking. The advancement in using latest technologies for cigarette production has reflect in the global tendency of the industry that is in maintaining competitiveness and to meet consumers need and wants (ftp://ftp. fao. org/docrep/fao/006/y4997e/y4997e00. pdf). FACTORS AFFECTING BUYER BEHAVIOUR. 1. Cultural FactorsThe cultural factors that are mainly important in buying behaviour of people are namely: Culture and social class. Culture plays an important role on person’s wants and behaviour. It can be defined as the set of ethics, custom and attitudes that form the human being behaviour, as well as the art crafts, or products, of that behaviour as they are passed on from one age group to the next (Mc Daniel, 1999). Culture” Culture may be defined as the totality of the mental and physical reactions and activities that characterize the behavior of individuals composing a social group collectively and individually in relations to their natural environment, to other groups, to members of the group itself and of each individual to himself. It also includes the products of these activities and their role in the life of the groups. The mere enumerations of these various aspects of life, however, does not constitute culture. It is more, for its elements are not independent, they have a structure (p. 149)” (Boas, 1911)The main advantage of culture is that it has the ability to adapt to any changing situation in the environment. Smoking has an extensive custom and history in all main countries (Ashar, 2006). In addition of being an own practice, it is also an element of customs. Even though many laws have been passed and many combats are opened against, smoking is today a necessary component in the daily lives of people. Ashar (2006) also states that as a cultural characteristic, smoking is well known in text, music and shows. From classic movies to modern ones, cultural descriptions relating to cigarettes are strong (Bonas, 2005). The history of many civilization and countries is partial without pointing out of smoking. In different countries, smoking is use as a way to cure people. For example the Indians in Mexico treatment for ear ache are done with tobacco smoking while the Iroquois in Ontario (Native American tribes) uses smoking as cure for tooth ache. Smoking has also become a style. Some people are attracted to the sensational aspect of smoking. For example accessories used such as personal cigarette cases, cigarette holders, Zippo and so on which are fashionable. Social classSocial class can be defined as ‘ somewhat everlasting and well-organized divisions in a society whose people have similar standards, interests and behaviours’ (Kotler, P., 2005). It is often the class structure that influence peoples’ buying behavior by the class to which they belong. On the whole, social class is not just about income, but also other signs like education, area habitation or occupation. Education: Education is one of the most significant socioeconomic mark because it echoes the thoughtful and abilities of people that are vital for making selection superior than the other indicators, for example those relating to smoking.(Mirowsky J, Ross CE, 1998) There have been lots of researches showing that there is a positive relationship between education and quit smoking. Social scientists said that the more educated a person is, the more it is for him not to smoke (Wald 1988). According to the US Surgeon General’s Report, education is known to be the most important variable in respect to smoking. People with low education level are more widely to be smokers than those having a much higher education (Schrivjers et al, (1999). Moreover Taylor (1999) stated that the potential dominant factors linking education and smoking may be depressive warning sign, tension and so on. (Taylor & Seeman, 1999)Other studies demonstrate that the frequency and occurrence of depressive warning signs are more with people with lower education (Kaplan, Roberts, Camacho, & Coyne, 1988). OccupationOccupational position is the knowable measure of people’s condition in the socioeconomic ladder, and it is more directly connected with working conditions than other socioeconomic sign. Occupational status is closely related to one’s educational level (Mirowsky J, Ross, 1998). It has also been proved that the position of someone working has a very high positive relationship to that of the educational level since it is the level of education that is going to determine the position of the occupation a person will have. It has also been seen that smoking is closely related to unemployment (Waldron, 1989; Liira J, 1999; Hammarstrom A, 1994, 2001; Osler T, 1990). Psychosocial theory states that smoking cigarettes is mostly influenced due to stress feelings, low control and feeling alone in the society. These indicators affect most those with low occupational levels for example having monetary problems, shame, etc… Thomas and his colleagues demonstrated that unemployment is related to cerebral sufferings due to change in individual financial circumstances (Thomas C, Benzeval M, Stansfeld S, 2005). A study conducted by Metcalfe and colleagues (2003) found that people who are highly stress are those people who smoke big numbers of cigarettes. INCOMEAccording to Gajalakshmi CK et al, (2000) stated that about 82% of the world are smokers who lives in low income earning countries and/or middle income earning countries. Studies have shown an indirect relationship between the level of income of a person and the frequency of smoking. That is the more the person earn, the less is the frequency he is going to smoke. This have been proved in America whereby occurrence of people smoking in low income areas is approximately 50% more than that in higher income level persons. Results received from qualitative studies concluded that cigarette smoking is related to poverty. This could be related with stress, anxiety, fear, etc. that smokers of low level income have to face in their daily life. They feel alone. This is also because low income earners do not have every chance in their life (Wiltshire S et al, 2003; Stead M et al, 2001; Stewart MJ, Gillis A, Brosky G, et al. 1996). But it can also be that in place of poverty being the variable that leads to smoking, its smoking that causes poverty since smoking can cause economic problems. This is because since smoking is very addictive and can’t be stop like that, there would be a tendency for people to buy them thus instead of using these money for others beneficial things like foods for family, this can unbalanced the daily life of people by a reduction in on hand income and thus lead to financial struggle. In fact, according to Siaspush et al (2003) the probability of having major monetary tension is two times as big for smoking family than for no smoking family. Income is also very important for adolescence smoking in the way that youth do not have a big income thus when price of cigarette is high; there is a tendency for them to give up smoking (ASH, 2006). However, for working adolescents and those who have a much better income, the impact of price does not change their behaviour towards giving up smoking. This have been shown in a study whereby among students who are in employment, the frequency of smoking is estimated to be increasing while those students who do not work, their occurrence of smoking is about 1-2 % ( Wu et al, 2003). 2. Psychological factorsAttitudeAllport (1935) defined an attitude as ” a metal and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related”. That is he meant that the perception of customers about a manufactured goods concludes the consumers’ willingness to agree and to adopt the product. Moreover according to Hawkins et al (2001) attitude is said to be an organisation of interest, sensation, perceptual and cognitive expansion with respect to diverse features of our surroundings. That is attitude are acquired from environmental incentive such as the product being given to consumers and the way they are being conversed. Boone and Kurtz (2004) describe attitudes as a person’s enduring positive or negative assessment, feelings or action predisposition toward various object or information. Opinions about smoking are different for every people. There may be some who agree and other not. But attitudes towards smoking are more different between smokers and non smokers (Samskillz, 2004). This can be seen when their opinions are asked whether or not it’s right to smoke in public places. Few years from now, people became more conscious about the effect of smoking on both the smokers and the passive smokers’ health. Thus people especially the non smoking one was more satisfied with laws against smoking in public places (Samskillz, 2004). It has also been seen that children below the age of 10-12, these people tends to exhibit negative mind-set towards smoking but when they reach the age of adolescence, their mind set towards smoking gradually changes from negative to that of positive due to the result of peer pressure just to show that they are big now. They can do what they want (American Psychological Association). However the tendency for long time smokers, the attitude towards smoking tends to be negative. Joe Spitzer (2003) stated in his article that cigarette is not important to a ‘ veteran smoker’. This is because at the very first time, a person smokes a cigarette, he/she has a relaxing excitement in taking cigarette but then after becoming a regular smoker, the effect of having pleasure diminishes. They will just smoke to not suffer from the withdrawal symptoms or just because it has become a habit to smoke for example to smoke after each meal. Jarvis (2004) stated that at about 80% of heavy smokers regret the day they started to smoke, but they can’t stop smoking for the fact that they are addicted to nicotine. PerceptionThe marketing guru, P. Kotler (2005) defines the term perception as a procedure by which people decide, categorise and understand the information to profile an understandable view for them. Every incentive in the environment cannot be easily being differentiated thus people uses selective perception to decide on which stimulus to focus on and on which they won’t pay attention. Marketing is one of many factors that perceived people to smoke. This strategy was well plan so as to hide the negative effect of cigarettes and thus consumers on seeing or hearing these plans, they were comforted about not having a big risk when smoking cigarettes. The main component of this plan was to encourage the perception of people that some cigarettes are less dangerous than others (Pollay RW, 2001). The perception of people varies from one another. For example, cigarettes that are advertised as light cigarettes are perceived by some people to be less risky than normal cigarettes (National centre for Tobacco free kids, 2001). There have been a large number of people saying that light cigarettes brands have minimum tar or nicotine and is therefore less risky for the health. They also stated that light cigarettes are less addictive than that of the normal one (Shiffman S, Pillitteri JL, Burton SL, et al, 2001). These perception of less harmfulness is because of the marketing plans organisation makes so as to divert the attention of health problems related to smoking. They put more emphasis on how to convince people that their cigarette is not harmful to health (Kozlowski LT, O’Connor RJ, 2002). Research has shown that smoking adolescents view risks related to cigarettes to be poorer to those adolescents that do not smoke (Halpern-Felsher BL, Ramos ME, Cornell JL., 2007; Jamieson P, Romer D, 2001; Romer D, Jamieson P., 2001). However Porcello et al, (2002) revealed that children perceived smoking as being an action done by only adults. The form of the box or colour, like the package of cigarette, for example, can influence perception. Even though there has been warning on the packaging of cigarettes stating that cigarette is bad for health, smokers tend to ignore these information simply just because they don’t want to see the warning as reality. Kotler (2005) defines this perception as selective deformation and choosy withholding, for example people who smoke cigarette will alter the knowledge linking cigarette smoking with cancer and other health problems. MotivationTo know why people are stimulated by a particular requirement at a specific time, famous hypothesis of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is used to explain this effect. This theory has discussed 5 needs that are from physiological needs (which is the most important one according to Abraham Maslow) to that of the self actualisation. The rest are namely the safety needs, the social needs and the self-esteem needs. MASLOW’S HIERACHY OF NEEDSPhysiological Needs: When a person do well in fulfilling an important need, that need will stop being a current motivator, and the person will try to satisfy the next-most important need. For example, once a smoker becomes obsessed to nicotine, cigarette becomes an indispensable for the person as it is for fundamental provisions. When the level of nicotine in the person’s blood is reduced to the lowest limit, there will be an acute need for smoking since there is a lack of nicotine in the person blood. Thus the need for smoking will overcome all other fundamental needs (Spitzer, 2003).

Safety needs:

This refers to physical protection, order, steadiness, regular, awareness as well as control over one’s life (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2004). Even though research stated that smoking is hazardous to health, it can be also said that even without smoking is still harmful for smokers. A smoker who has not smokes for a long period of time will face symptoms such as headache, loss of concentration and so on (Jarvis, 2004). But once he smokes, all these signs will go and thus he will feel much better. For many people, smoking is necessary in their daily life for example: most smokers will smoke after having taken breakfast or any meals they take or some take it when they go to the toilet and they smoke the last one before going to bed. It facilitates to control the smokers’ schedule (Dichter, 1947)

Social needs:

Social needs include feeling of love, affection and a sense of belonging to a group (Gabriel, 1987). Smoking a cigarette has a similar feature as drinking for it allows moving down barriers and making new friends (Dichter, 1947). Smoking also helps to improve relationship, make group communication possible and sustain individual ties (Mill et al, 1998).

Self-esteem needs:

The term self-esteem is used to explain a person’s on the whole sense of confidence. Self-esteem is frequently seen as an individuality attribute, which means that it tends to be sure and durable. Self-esteem engrosses a large mixture of conviction about one self such as evaluating one’s look, conviction, feelings and manners. These play a vital role in the ladder of Abraham Maslow theory about needs. Maslow stated that self esteem is one of the fundamental human variables to motivate. Cigarettes and self images are positively related, many people smoke for the only reason of increasing or building their self image and self esteem. They want to be ‘’cool’’ and have an amazing and attractive image to the opposite sex. Smoking a cigarette make people see a way to increase or improve their self esteem when they are in company of other people. When they are alone, they feel insecure when nothing is being done. Thus by lighting up a cigarette make them feel more secure or at peace (Rayuso, 2008). According to Dichter (1947), most individuals aim at getting prize. The prize for smokers is to light up a cigarette as soon as a work is completed. Likewise, the last cigarette before going to sleep is as a sort of reward for smoker for getting through the day and by smoking cause them to relax after being tired all the day. Moreover Wakefield et al, 2002, stated that smokers show their status in the society with the type of cigarette packs they possess. They use the packs as ‘’badge products’’ to show that they have a lot of money or prestige. Devlin et al (2003) stated that brand chosen should be fit to the type of personality of the people. Self-actualisation needs: Self-actualisation is a word created by the psychologist Abraham Maslow (1987) to explain the continuous process of entirely developing your individual prospective. It is to be noted that self actualisation is not an objective but is a process that is it is something that you do not aspire for but instead doing it. For example when a person does not have a cigarette, may use substitute to cater for the problem of smoking like using gum, patch and so on (Schiffman &Kanuk, 2004)