Micro and Macro Aspects of Consumer Behavior (Essay Sample)

Micro and Macro Aspects of Consumer Behavior
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Consumer behavior explains how consumers decide to spend their money based on their budget constraints and individual preferences. In the hospitality industry, consumer behavior helps guests decide on the hotels and restaurants to book. There are two main categories of aspects that influence consumer behavior- the micro and the macro aspects. The microelements influence the behaviors of an individual decision-maker. On the other hand, macro aspects describe the market level or group decision-making processes. On that note, to understand the elements well, there are theories behind micro and macro aspects. The Association for Consumer Research captures the Micro Analytic Simulation of Consumer Behavior – the Economic Behavior Theory Antecedents in understanding micro aspects of consumer behavior (Amberg and Fogarassy, 2019). On another note, macro factors reflect the societal perspective concerning economic and social dimensions. This paper, therefore, addresses the Micro Analytic Simulation Approach as it checks the analytic, simulation, stochastic, latent attitude structure, and quantitative and operational form. Besides, it explains the macro aspect theories of consumer behavior. 
Micro Economic Simulation
The first aspect is analytic, which involves the understanding of the causal structure. The idea explains why different decisions are made instead of simply claiming to forecast results depending on the prevailing environmental conditions. Thus, the aspects bring the need for judgments without studying the possible causal environmental factors.
The second is simulation. From the first standpoint, the economic and behavior theory describes the decision-making process of a consumer. However, in a more profound sense, the simulation generates forecasts and optima to run the model (Paulose and Shakeel., 2021). That makes it different from the analytical aspect, which employs conventional processes to solve models concerning consumer behavior. 
Another aspect is stochastic. The element tells how vital the uncertainty components are in the economic and behavior theory model. First, consumer behavior and decisions for like consumers vary for any set of environmental conditions. More importantly, the ecological conditions challenging a consumer's behavior emanate from stochastic mechanisms (Ren et al., 2018). The model further tells how the consumers' event characteristics are associated with probabilistic processes. 
In addition, the theory describes the latent attitude structure. Here, the decisions of consumers are explained based on observable behavior. The behaviors are primarily relegated to the choice of products or the product brands, or both. Decisions are predetermined by some attitude construct, which breaks down into simpler latent constructs often referred to as characteristics (Kaiser et al., 2021). The aspect presumes that consumers need or prefer different goods due to specific attributes from consumption or purchase. 
Finally is quantitative and operational form. The uniqueness of the model occurs in a computer code form. The codes produce numerical outputs, including forecasts of the number of people consuming or purchasing various brands provided by different conditions. That, therefore, reflects the quantitative and operational dimension of the model.  
The second part
The micro aspects surrounding consumer behavior relates to a case study of Holiday Inn, a hotel in the tourism field. The analysis could now narrow down to the micro-environmental factors that affect consumer behavior concerning the microeconomic simulation. 
To begin with, the number of clients served by the company determines the behavior of the customers. Ideally, the clients are the customers, and so if their number increases, then the demand for the hotel services subsequently shoot. Due to this, the supply of the products and services become short, and the consumers tend to consume less or opt for other hotels. For example, Holiday reported a worldwide target market of the full-time employed population, 22% - the United Kingdom, 27%- China, and 26% - the United States (Anisimov et al., 2019). That means demand for the products and services offered by the hotel grows even as it strives to increase its products.  
The second is the staff. Holiday Inn acknowledges a need to discover and get skilled labor required for the management of staff and the hotel. The renowned IHG Academy allows the local communities to develop their knowledge, raising the advantage of getting jobs in the hotel (Windawaty,2021). The effect on consumer behavior is that they get more attracted due to the associated service provision increase. 
Another aspect is that of suppliers. Holiday Inn operates with suppliers who ceaselessly meet the standards of the company. The suppliers also happen to be the market leaders, and so the company is so much graced. The relationship herewith, built by the company and highly reliable suppliers increases the quality and value of the hotel's products to t consumers. Consumers, therefore, tend to like the products and consume more.
Macro Aspects of Consumer Behavior
Apart from the micro aspects, the macro elements influence consumers' decision-making processes, which mainly contribute to the external environment. The macro elements consist of psychological factors like cultural and social factors. Besides, the macro aspects include technological, political, environmental, legal, and economic factors. Again, understanding the macro aspects better will also need the Holiday Inn case study. The hotel must face external challenges due to its large size, with 209,112 global rooms, 1,149 hotels, and 248 hotels in the pipeline (Kennedy, 2017). That means that the hotel attracts a great cloud of macro factors.
Psychological factors
The first is culture. The cultural characteristics concern learned behaviors, primarily related to relationships of close nature like family, relatives, and friends. From a hospitality standpoint, it would be understood as where one grew and their family's attitudes. For example, those who grow up in families that prefer medium-priced hotels would indeed obey the same pattern even when they have to make decisions for themselves (Conrady, 2020). That means that one would avoid the costly hotels because of the practice of the family. As a result, culture has a strong influence on consumer behavior. 
The second is the social aspect. An individual's social circle, which hosts the people they interact with, influences their decision-making directions and even their ultimate choices. The relevance of this aspect in the hospitality industry is clear when guests tend to follow the word-of-mouth marketing and even opinions of their co-workers, friends, and even associates. Often, hotels register the fact that guests come to the hotels through referrals by others (Baharuddin and Rahman, 2021). As a result, consumers get to consume more as they crave optimal utility. It is therefore notable that psychological factors carry significant weight in the determination of consumers' decision-making process. They make up a crucial part of the macro aspects of consumer behavior. 
The second part
First, economic factors affect the decision-making pattern of the consumers of Holiday Inn. Notably, the economic waves affect the salary and the wealth of the people. The economic influences that affect the Holiday Inn include the prevailing financial condition, the degree of unemployment and the actual work-structure, the local and the international inflation rate, the exchange changes rates. For example, the lowest inflation rate reported in the UK was in February 2015, which stood at zero percent (Chandiok and Sharma, 2017). Consequently, the spending power increases, and so does the consumption rate shoots. 
In addition, technological factors have a significant impact on the decision-making patterns of consumers of Holiday Inn. There are development and improvement in ICT, which largely depend on the level of sophistication of the computerized reservation products, development of global distribution systems. Besides, it entails business use of the internet by the customers in research and booking choices. Technological developments have also seen the hotel upgrade its kitchen equipment (Benda-Prokeinová et al., 2017). That has improved the hotel's food creation and preservation methods, a preference for many guests and tourists. As a result, more consumers get attracted to the company due to improving services and products associated with technology. 
Finally, the environmental factors contribute grossly to the consumer choice determination. For example, travelers have a significant impact on the tourism industry. It is notable that tourism promotes leisure and new hotel developments and effectively uses the available resources. Through the IHG Green Engage, various other activities and specific targets occur at the epicenter of the business operations (Antonides, 2017). As a result, the business macro environment affects the decision-making pattern of consumers, and consequently, their behavior is challenged in the same way.
References
Amberg, N. and Fogarassy, C., 2019. Green consumer behavior in the cosmetics market. Resources, 8(3), p.137.
Anisimov, A.Y.E., Boyko, I.A. and Zakharenko, A.V., 2019. Multisensory branding as an effective tool for the formation of consumer behavior in the field of hospitality and service.&nbs...