A Chocolate Delicacy - a Case Study on Ethel's Chocolates

A Chocolate Delicacy

A Case Study On Ethel's Chocolates

Jeremy Bowra

Strayer University

Professor Kennedy

Marketing 100

During the seventeenth-century, the elite would come together to relax, sip hot chocolate and eat chocolate treats in a chocolate house. Ethel Mars who founded the Mars candy company with her husband Frank wishes to breathe new life into chocolate. In April of 2005, she opened Ethel's Chocolate Lounge in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Corporations devote a lot of time and money studying consumer behavior, these behaviors will influence a customer buying decisions (Charles W. Lamb, 2011). The following are the types of consumer buying decisions; routine response behavior, limited decision-making and extensive decision making. They describe the different ways to progress through the steps (Charles W. Lamb, 2011). Routine response behavior is associated with low cost goods and services, consumers spend little time searching for information and low levels of involvement is required when purchasing those types of goods and services. Limited decision-making is when a consumer has experienced the product before but is unfamiliar with similar products. Limited decision-making is also associated with spending little time searching for information and low levels of involvement. Extensive decision-making occurs when consumers practice buying an unfamiliar, expensive product or a product not bought very often. In my opinion, the category that a consumer would use to purchase at Ethel's Chocolate Lounge is between routine response behavior and limited decision making because of the little time spent searching for information or considering other establishments.

Five factors determine the level of consumer involvement when making a purchase, which are previous experience, interest, perceived risk of negative consequences, situation and social visibility. (Charles W. Lamb, 2011). Ethel's advertising states that it is a place for chocolate and chitchat. The reasons that a consumer would decide to stop and enter Ethel's Chocolate Lounge would be to enjoy chocolate at a reasonable price and the social scene. Presentation and packaging of Ethel's products are attractive and intended to entice customers to indulge at her establishment.

The factors that strongly influence the decision-making process to spend money at Ethel's are the underlying cultural, social, individual and psychological factors. "The underlying elements of every culture are the values, language, myths, customs, rituals, and laws that shape the behavior of the people." (Charles W. Lamb, 2011, p. 82) The different dimensions of culture are what people eat, how they dress their thoughts and feeling and the language that they speak.