A review of the impact of marketing mix in decision making process of consumers when buying food products
Syed Faheem Hasan Bukhari (1), Waqas Mazhar (2), Rabail Waqas (3)
(1) University of Southern Queensland, Australia
(2), (3) SZABIST, Karachi, Pakistan
Abstract
A systematic review was conducted of available literature pertaining specifically to the impact of marketing mix in the decision-making process of consumers when buying food products. A protocol was devised for the search, selection and eligibility criteria of the selected research works. That protocol was applied to a search conducted on the open source internet using Google Search’s ‘Scholarly Articles’ function. Finally, five articles were found this process that were subjected to the systematic review. The review found that there was a surprising dearth of adequate research on the specific topic despite the significant share of food products in the global consumer market. All of the studies explored the subject matter through the prism of a geographic setting and also, it was evident from the research results that no one attribute of the 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) of the marketing mix model could be solely attributed as the determinative or most influential factor in the purchasing decision of the consumer. The result varied depending on the type of customer surveyed, the type of food product that was in questions and possibly even the methodologies used. Moreover, it was clear that only a few of the studies aspired to make concrete recommendations to food retailer and manufacturers on how their research can be used to improve the marketing mix to better target the customer. Recommendations for future research concluded the article, with ideas to close the research gap in this area.