Children Buying Behavior and Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Children Buying Behavior and Marketing - Essay Example The adolescent group is the most vulnerable to such type of advertisements as they are seeking a string association to gain a sense of security. Thus advertisers have clearly created a separate domain for segmenting the boys and girls as separate target groups. The girls are made to feel or establish a feeling of anxiety about their health and body by displaying models that symbolizes their product range. The consumer societies have strongly intervened in this issue and have initiated awareness for both the parents and the youth on the health impacts the advertisements could cause on long-term basis. The gender being utilized in the generating higher consumption of goods is a conventional strategy in business. Though the intervention by consumer societies have helped to tone down the gravity of these advertisements the power of market is so enormous that the awareness programmes cannot be expected to gain a comprehensive success in their mission. Thus the case study is undertaken to evaluate the relative effect of the advertisements on the purchase decisions made by youth in United States. The specific objectives addressed in the study are (i) To understand the influence of consumer societies on the influencing the consumer attitude in young children in the United States. (ii) To assess the impact of the advertisements that portrays women differently in the magazines and further influences the shopping decisions of young children especially across young boys and girls. 2. Literature Children represents a very strong market segment and advertisers recognize these aspects and the extend of brand loyalty that could be carried into the adulthood. Though it is established knowledge that as children don't understand the impact of the strong intentions of marketing it is considered unethical to advertise or display any promotional campaign before they attain a age of eight or nine. The consumer unions have expressed the views that as the children have very low ability to understand the reality and advertising content the advertising matter could in most of the situations distort the view about the world in children. Also, they have very low ability to assess the claims being made in the advertising matter. Also, expert academicians in the consumer behavior too have reinforced this claim that by saying the during the young ages the cognitive structures are in the formative stages and hence the children would be highly sensitive to the external influences (Mizerski, 1995 ). This especially true when such matter appears on the walls of the schools or on the book covers or on the anything related to their domains of closer interaction. These situations makes the children to believe that the contents are legitimate and start developing a positive inclination to the advertisement matter without analyzing the matter. The tender age fails to differentiate the commercial component in such displays and fails to understand the manipulative actions hidden in it. Often the advertisements create a sense of reality in the mind of children and they try to relate them with the regular news features in

Imformation based decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Imformation based decision making - Essay Example The importance of decision-making cannot be underestimated. Indeed, the success or failure of any business primarily depends on the quality of decisions made by the management. Most of the successful global cooperation’s are a reflection of good decision-making strategy. A lot of investment both in time and resources is directed towards the decision making process. However, it is important to note that making sound decisions primarily depends on the amount and quality of information at hand. This makes it important to consider information as one of the core requirements in sound decision making both at an individual and corporate level. This paper therefore discusses the different aspects of information-based decision-making. It seeks to discuss this topic within the realms of what has been covered in the course of management. However, extra knowledge on decision-making has also been mined from other sources. Information It is very futile to make any decision without profound background information regarding all the possible outcomes. This makes information the core requirement in making decision. There are different aspects of information that are worth discussing since they affect either directly or indirectly on the decision making process. There is a major difference between data and information. Data refers to facts or figures in their basic or raw form. For instance, 11, 32, 98, 58, 91, and 74 refers to data. Values such as ? 58.00, ?1200, ?223.50, and?558 refer to financial data. In both instances, the data does not make any meaning under any context (Black, 2009). However, the data can be processed to give it meaning. It is also important to note that processed data or information can fail to make meaning outside a given context. Information refers to data that has been organized such that it makes meaning within the context of consideration. Information can be either formal or informal. For information to be useful in decision-making, it has to be communicable to the relevant stakeholders, it must be presented in a language that users can understand without misinterpreting, it must be in a form that can be utilized, and finally it must be relevant to the subject of consideration. Information to be used in decision-making can be classified in two major categories. It can be either formal or informal. Formal information is usually presented in a familiar format, has a degree of relevance and accuracy, and uniquely structured. However, the information may be inflexible and may sometimes disregard sociological perspectives. On the other hand, informal information is quite flexible and more detailed though it may be inaccurate. Information and Law It is very imperative for any person using information-based decision making to understand that certain types of information have legal implications. This is more profound in business organizations. The law regulates many processes of handling information and as such, caution should b e exercised to ensure the entire legal infrastructure is respected. For instance, the Data Protection Act of 1998 was enacted to ensure that information is handled with caution to protect its integrity, privacy, and users. The data protection laws ensure that data handlers do not manipulate the data for personal or malicious reasons but instead use the data for the best interest of the subjects. While making business decisions, all legal parameters should be followed and information handled within the realms of the law. It is unethical to use data or information to make business decisions that are not permitted by the law. For example, a business may use information unlawfully to gain unfair advantage over other competitors. Although the decisions made from such information may seem exemplary, legal

Real Estate Law Week 1 Ind wrk Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Real Estate Law Week 1 Ind wrk - Research Paper Example This is because, unlike personal property which is essentially, movable items which are not part of the land, real property refers to land and the things that are permanently affixed to that land. In this regard, notice that even if you should intend to sell the land upon which the house rests, neither will unseat the house from the land, nor can you sell the house minus the land. In another wavelength, it is imperative that you determine the type of real property ownership your house will be under. There is life estate where the right to possess, access and use this house will be limited to the proprietor’s (the Daryl’s) lifetime. In this case, the Darryls may give or sell away the property, later. The family can also resort to free simple which is outright ownership. There is also future interest where the family can seek the right to won the house sometime in future. The Darryls may also consider contingent interest or lienholder where ownership is comes into existence only where specific conditions are fulfilled, or where the Darryls as the holder of a mortgage, judgment lien, deed of trust or mechanic’s lien on real estate take ownership interest in the real property, respectively (Elias,

Competation Law Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Competation Law - Coursework Example According to researcher’s viewpoint, very first thing is that it is a competition and not competitors so that it is to be protected. And also the ultimate aim of every business is to please the customers so that it is very much necessary to avoid the customers harm. â€Å"I like aggressive competition – including by dominant companies – and I don’t care if it may hurt competitors – as long as it ultimately benefits consumers. That is for the reason that the chief and ultimate aim of Article 82 is to protect customers and this does, of course, need the defense of the undistorted competitive practice on the market. There are two main laws in UK that defending competitions that are, the Competition Act in the year of 1998 and the Enterprise Act in the year of 2002. These are laws are, supported by Articles 101 and 102 of the â€Å"TFEU† (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) 1990) that are, previously the Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty of the EC. â€Å"The Competition Act 1998 prohibits anti-competitive agreements between businesses. You must not, for example: †¢ agree to fix prices or terms of trade, eg agreeing price rises with your competitors †¢ agree with your competitors to limit production in order to reduce competition †¢ Share out markets or customers with your competitors - eg agreeing with a competitor that you'll bid for one contract and they'll take another. The law mostly applies to contracts among businesses with an important presence in the marketplace. But even the smallest company requires avoiding anti-competitive contracts like price fixing. In addition to formal contracts, the law also relates to other looser types of cooperation among businesses. The â€Å"Competition Act† (Competition Act 1998) forbids the mistreatment of a dominant position in a marketplace. This can apply to companies that have an extremely big market share. It is also an illegal and illicit offence for persons fraudulently engaged in certain kinds of cartel behavior in the â€Å"Enterprise Act 2002† (Enterprise Act n.d.). Fundamental aim of Article 82, when examining exclusionary conduct is the defense of competition on the marketplace as a way of enhancing wellbeing of the customer and of guaranteeing a well-organized distribution of resources. â€Å"Adopting an economics-based approach to Article 82 will also unify and provide a clearer and more consistent enforcement approach of the Treaty provisions on competition law† (The Reform of Article 82: Recommendations on Key Policy Objectives 2005, p. 4). The concern is to stop exclusionary behavior of the dominant organizations which is expected to limit the remaining competitive constrictions on the dominant organizations, consisting of entry of beginner, so as to avoid that customers are harmed. This denotes that it is competition and not merely competitors as such, that is to be confined and protected. In addition, â€Å"the purpose of the Article 82 is not to be protect competitors from dominant firms genuine competitions based on factors such as higher quality, novel products, opportune innovation or otherwise better performance but to ensure that these competitors are also able to expand in or enter the market and compete therein on the merits, without facing competition conditions which are distorted or impaired by dominant firm† (Jones & Sufrin 2008, p. 327). And also, Anti-competitive activities are injurious not only to customers but also to compan ies that contend moderately or which are themselves consumers of certain goods or services. So that in order to assess this statement, we require to be considered not only the short term harm but also both long and medium harm that may arise from the exclusion of competitors. Failure to obey with UK or EU competition law can have extremely grave consequences. â€Å"

Virtue and Truest Chivalry Essay Example for Free

Virtue and Truest Chivalry Essay Originally Latin, actually spelled â€Å"caballarius and pronounced â€Å"SHiv? lre†, is chivalry. Chivalry is the combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight. Such qualities include honor, courtesy, courage, justice, and willing to assist those in need. If one is chivalrous in character, then one is a gentleman and noble in his good deeds. He would in no manner hesitate to serve others and serve his God. This is evident as Honore de Balzac puts it: â€Å"the motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one. † Chivalry, besides its original usage as â€Å"calvary,† can truly only be delineated in only one way, which is to refer to a virtuous code of conduct. There isn’t any negative connotations to the word either, unless somebody called a fellow thane chivalrous in Old Anglo-Saxon times! Other than that, the only emotional association with the word is generally positive. This noble idea of conduct is constituted of several virtues in spite of the narrow usage of the word. So, how did chivalry come into existence? Journey to the medieval times and you will discover that chivalry was once an existential characteristic of every man sworn into nobility or born into it. These men were knights. Medieval knights battled horseback and practiced outstanding gallantry. Knights were always calvary in battle, and exhibited righteous morals. A group of knights was actually called â€Å"the chivalry† of the militia. They were excelled in sword craft nearly comparable to their high level of graciousness, and could ride a horse well-nigh to the speed of which they are willing to assist a damsel in distress. Chivalry came to be known as the demeanor of an ideal knight, rather than simply a group of knights. As Chaucer puts it in Canterbury Tales, an ideal knight loved chivalry, truth and honor, freedom and courtesy; a very gentle, perfect knight. † Whatever happened to chivalry? Certain writers may say chivalry is dead, or it might just have a bad case of the flu. As long as wrongs are still righted, chivalry will survive. Chivalry cannot and will never die out. It may become exponentially less evident everyday, but underlying all the rudeness and discourtesy, chivalry is there. Chivalry does indeed need to be implemented more and more into society. Every single man’s major desire should be to act magnanimously and reveal a generous and noble state of mind. If every man were to be genuinely chivalrous then hardly would there ever be any cheating, debt, adultery, stealing, or even bad attitudes. Each and every man would be true in their religion, honest, courteous, and would have a burning passion to do what is right. Think of that chivalry based utopian society. A world where people were more worried about humbling themselves rather than raising themselves up would be phenomenal. Modern chivalry should predominate like it did with Sir Lancelot around Queen Guinevere. Contemporary America could learn from John Bowring’s â€Å"Chivalry† poem which reads: â€Å"Now tell me what is chivalry? To battle in the foremost fight For anything—for wrong—for right, For some fair ladys scornful smile, For what is virtuous, what is vile, Come, tell me, is this chivalry? No! in the men for truth who pant, In wretchedness and woe and want, Who bear the worlds contemptuous hate, With patient soul, with heart elate. No! in the woman in whose home No peace is found, no comforts come, Yet bends in silence,—feeling still Tis Gods most kind, most holy will. This—this is truest chivalry! † Chivalry essentially is the essence of all that is good, virtuous, and holy, conglomerated into one admirably cultivated code of conduct to live by.

Happiness and the Good Life Essay Example for Free

Happiness and the Good Life Essay What is the relation between living a good life and being happy? To many, the good life is a financially prosperous life, and happiness lies in the possession of wealth. Worldly success is what counts, and anyone who is not ‘successful’ in the usual sense is counted a ‘failure.’ Others strive for a life based on honor and public recognition. A good life is made up of hobnobbing with the right people in the right settings, and happiness is a matter of gaining respect. Along with these, there are lives that show by their living a desire for glory or power that inspires great efforts. Others, who are not drawn to wealth, power or glory because of the difficulties involved in attaining them, may choose the pursuit of pleasure. A good and happy life is one in which pleasures outweigh the pains overall. Many questions have been asked about the good life and happiness. People constantly answer those questions with their lives, and we see many different ideas of the good life and happiness playing out in the strivings of human beings to live well and be happy. The ancient Greeks wished their friends to ‘do well’ and ‘fare well’ in this life. These two, they thought, held the keys to human felicity. Doing well concerns ourselves, our own actions and feelings. We have some control over these aspects of our lives. So when we wish someone to ‘do well’ in life, we express the hope that the person will be moral and fair in his or her dealings with others. Beyond securing basic physical survival, someone who does well in life can sleep with a clear conscience, whether blessed with material success or not. From many a philosophical point of view, the good life has an intrinsically moral core that involves compassion for the suffering of others and acting justly in the world. ‘Faring well’ concerns events and occurrences over which we do not have so much control. â€Å"Faring well† means succeeding in life, coming into a prosperous condition, with all the benefits that come with money and social acceptance. Someone who is faring well in life has had a bit of good luck. It is possible to do everything right in order to succeed, but still fail to do so. For example, you can study hard for your degree, get your professional qualifications, work diligently, become competent, but still not succeed. The cards may not fall your way. As Sartre says, â€Å"You are free to try, but not to succeed.† This seems right to me, and so I will come down with Aristotle against Plato on this point, that doing well is not all that is involved in attaining happiness in life. Plato’s Socrates famously says that the good person cannot be harmed, that virtue is knowledge, and that happiness consists entirely of doing well and being just. Aristotle argues that a degree of luck plays into our happiness. He insists that most of our happiness is in our own hands, but that it can be affected by outside circumstances. So while being happy is mostly a matter of ‘doing well’ (and ‘thinking well’), great misfortunes can damage our happiness. It may be that such a person, by ‘doing well,’ will attain a degree of dignity in suffering, but he will not be happy; or, as Aristotle has it, ‘blessed.’ In light of this result, I hazard an intuitive philosophical account of the relation between the good life and happiness. Living a good life is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for happiness. In other words, it is possible to live a good life without being happy, but not happy without living a good life. This a ‘philosophical’ account of the relation because many philosophers have a particular idea of happiness and the good life that is not shared by everyone, with their emphasis on clarity of thought and sound reasoning. In addition, though philosophers recommend the philosophical life as both the happiest and the best, they are not in a position to legislate for everyone what happiness must be. Nevertheless, the traditional philosophical view is not without support. All we have to do is look at the results of many lives that strive for wealth, power, fame, glory or pleasure. So many disasters befall those who pursue a good life with no moral core, or reflective turn of mind, that it makes some sense, as philosophers argue, to pursue the wisdom to recognize the good life, and, within that life, such happiness human beings can attain.

Consumer Motives for Charity Donations

Consumer Motives for Charity Donations 1. Introduction Consumer motives and behaviour into donating to charity in general is a topic that is known to have a lack of research, creating an issue of ambiguity for charitable organisations. Most research existing is based on cause related marketing, the cooperative alliances between charities and corporations to gain charity funding, yet little in depth research exists on the area of personal financing from consumers in the form of donations. With figures from 2001 showing that the top 25 UK companies gave  £102 million to charity, with as much as  £31 million per donation, it is evident that it is most probably the case that the percentage of charity financing does come from corporations, at least for the larger corporations with many strategic alliances in the sector (Smith J. , n.d.). Although this should not mean that other areas of financing should be overlooked; particularly in a society in which social responsibility is growing in importance. Furthermore, neglecting this area of fi nancing could eventually change the entire focus and structure of charities, leaving the individual consumers out of the equation altogether. But of upmost importance is the fact that as stated by Patrick Cox, Chief Executive of the Small Charities Coalition, â€Å"cash donations are usually the primary source of fundraising income for small organisations†, suggesting that a failure to correctly understand consumer behaviour could lead to the diminishment of the small charity (Critchly, 2009). However, also considered within this research is the issue of consumer confidence in donating, whether consumer beliefs of misallocating financing, bureaucracy, and red tape is a significant factor in charity size preferences. Therefore this report serves the purpose of researching consumer motives in personal individual charitable contributions, examining whether these motives differ by the size of the organisation; in this research size is defined by the focus of the charity, being local based, national based or international based, therefore focusing on where the funds are placed as opposed to the actual numerical size of the organisation. The hypothesis to be tested is that consumer behaviour indicators change according to the size of the organisation. However, this research will only be based on the donative non-profit unit of the charities, meaning that it will only investigate the significance upon individual consumer contributions, and not any other areas of financing such as corporation or other organisational or governmental funding. Additionally, this research will not take into account the contributions made in the form of legacies. The study itself is based upon a model of charitable giving behaviour, which has been formed in consideration of other models of consumer behaviour, but also taking into account the information available in the field of charitable consumer behaviour. The model considers the areas of organisational inputs, psychological attachment, consumer confidence and experience alongside a selection of extrinsic determinants, namely consumer demographic factors. Quantitative research methods in the form of an online survey are adopted to test this model, in which 196 respondents are questioned. It becomes apparent that this research project has a large scale in terms of aims and objectives and what it is trying to prove. This study can be considered to be a smaller version of the big picture, in the sense that in reality the study would be much larger scale, with many researchers on board to investigate the topic. A UK wide study is generally a large project in terms of the amount of research needed to be conducted, however given the resource limitations of this study, the results found will merely provide an insight into differences and trends, for researchers to base further studies upon. Regardless, this study is considered to be of upmost importance in adding valuable consumer behavioural research to the field, a field in which studies are in general very sparse. 2. Literature Review A non-profit organisation is typically defined as one which has a â€Å"non-distribution constraint† (Hansmann, 1987, p. 28) , allowing firms to make surplus profits, however not to distribute financial resources to controllers of the organisation in the form of dividends and such, but to retain profits for other allocations. This idea is vital to the understanding of economic, financial and consumer dynamics of the sector. As Powell and Steinberg (2006) elucidate, the theories and models surrounding the economics of the non-profit sector create a great deal of confusion, since the basic ideas of profit maximisation do not apply, and it is assumed that any deviation from this ideal is considered market failure. It is difficult to believe that consumers, with their normally selfish economic motives, can have in reality such altruistic motives. However it is the case that these motives can be linked to fulfilling a consumer emotive need. Whilst the non-distribution constraint serves as a definition, it is not necessarily true to reality, since in the non-profit sector operational costs amount and the issue of rising administrative and fundraising costs becomes apparent in todays media. Administrative costs, whilst unavoidable, are certainly thought to be excessive in the industry, perhaps causing mistrust amongst consumers. It is thought that consumers expect the administration to charitable expenditure to be 20:80 (Kahler Sargeant, 2002); however research by Harvey and McCrohan (1998, cited in Kahler Sargeant, 2002) found that consumers are satisfied with a minimum of 60% of revenues reaching the final end cause, begging the question that if this is indeed the case, is consumer confidence in charity financing such an issue?  Ã‚   Either way, it is certainly the case that consumers are kept in the dark on the optimum level of relevant cost and efficiency margins. Escalating matters further, the body for regulatin g the UK charity sector, the Charity Commission, as â€Å"the sanctions for inefficient behaviour are not automatic† (Levaggi, 1995, p. 285).   Administrative costs compared to total expenditure appear to have a negative correlation to the size of the charity, meaning that the administrative costs are higher as a percentage when expenditures are less as can be seen in the figure below. This is perhaps not the common belief of consumers, with smaller charities being seen as less wasteful by consumers, proven by a survey initiated by Third Sector (Wiggins, 2010). Regardless of attempting to isolate consumers actual beliefs, attitudes and assumptions, research by NFP Synergy has confirmed that most individuals within the UK public do not have confidence in charitable organisations, with confidence dropping by 9% to only 41% (Hummerston, 2008). The involvement of ‘for profit companies with ‘non-profit organisations is normally in the form of cause related marketing, which according to Varadarajan and Menon is â€Å"the process of formulating and implementing marketing activities that are characterised by an offer from the firm to contribute a specific amount to a designated cause when customers engage in revenue providing exchanges that satisfy organisational and individual objectives† (Varadarajan Menon, 1988, p. 60). This form of voluntary contribution is more likely to occur with the larger charities as opposed to the smaller ones; furthermore it must be considered that the willingness to contribute and the motivations backing the decision is very much different to that of a general consumer, since although consumers are led to believe that companies engage in Corporate Social Responsibility for good causes, of course the bottom line concern is profit maximisation. According to Hansmann (1980), the non-profit sector can be separated into two different forms of organisations according to their dynamics; donative and commercial non-profits, and it is the non-distribution constraint which creates confidence that the money is being resourcefully and properly allocated. However since the service is not visually seen to be conducted by the consumer who donates, there could be issues with contract failure, or at least perceived contract failure; this is thought to be less of an issue with larger organisations as the sheer governance structure secures confidence (Wiliamson, 1979). Yet in any case there exists a corporation charter and legal framework to provide assurance. Although it must be questioned that due to the non-distribution constraint in larger companies whilst profits are not dispersed among management, there would be a much broader structure of employees, and hence remuneration and bureaucratic structure. Additionally, this ambiguity of th e constitute of financing appears to be a common cause for concern amongst consumers, with research showing that 51% of the UK public would give more if they knew where the money is spent (Wiggins, 2009). Existing research into the consumer behaviour of charity linked products tends to be research based on the field of cause related marketing, rather than the individual end consumers behavioural characteristics into products that are not linked with ‘for profit companies, such as donations and organisation branded purchases. Present research solely into non-profit organisations tends to be based on commercial non-profits such as nursing, hospital care and education institutions, where results and service can clearly be seen and evidently proved. Thus far, in the case of non-profits as a whole, research into the effects of product type and donation magnitude on willingness to contribute by Strahilevitz (1999) found that the effect of product type, hedonistic or utilitarian, is affected mainly by large donations rather than small donations; Illustrating the idea that consumers are more willing to by a hedonistic product if it is linked to a large donation rather than a smaller one . Furthermore research by Bearden and Etzel (1982) shows that charity linked purchases can be considered to meet the need to belong to an ‘aspiration group. Notable also is the peer pressure relating to the group to remain a member by exerting the appropriate philanthropic behaviours. There also appears to be a difference in contributions by age group as found by Kotler and Andreasen (1996), Foster and Meinhard (1997) add to this with results showing a difference in the preferred medium of contribution methods by age group. In addition, charitable donations could be seen as a result of guilt for a lack of ethical actions in ones life (Burnett and Lunsford, 1994, cited in Bonsu, Main, Wilner, 2008). Information of where the money is going is a important decisive factor in repurchasing according to recent research by Proenca and Pereira (2008), showing that perhaps the commercial advertising sector of non-profit organisations is of high importance for maintaining an effective c ommunications mix, as a channel of information for the consumer, increasing transparency of resource allocation and achievements. Understanding and guidance can be found from basic ideologies of consumer behaviour as a starting point. However one must remember that the purchase is for someone elses benefit rather than the consumer of the product. Buying decisions can be considered to relate to Maslows hierarchy of needs, since the consumer decision psychologically involves a need recognition, which would be related to one of the tiers of the hierarchy, namely physiological, safety, belongingness, self esteem, and self actualisation. In Maslows model we can relate charitable contributions as self actualisation, â€Å"the desire to become all that one is capable of†, although according to the theory the need is the highest of the hierarchy and can only be achieved once all others have been fulfilled. (Koontz Weihrich, 2008, p. 291). Scramms model of communication (1955, cited in Smith, 2002) shows how consumer behaviour can be related to the marketing communications, since attitudes and perceptions are ba sed on the message received by the consumer from the brand. Therefore we can question the extent of communication messages occurring in smaller non-profit firms, since it is evident that larger organisations participate in much more marketing activities. Moreover, general motives of consumer behaviour are thought to be linked to the personality of the consumer and how it directs actions. â€Å"Self-monitoring relates to self-presentation and reflects the degree to which one adjusts ones behaviour according to social cues† (Snyder, 1974, cited in Grace Griffin, 2006, p. 4). Consumers rating high in the self monitoring scale tend to be more aware and respondent to what others do within a social circle; as such they are more likely to donate if it is the social norm, creating circles of influence. Consumer behaviour is a field of study that has only been in existence since the 1960s, and as such there are many elements that have not yet been theorised. Most models are in reference to the process of decision making, rather than the behavioural characteristics that resolve the decision process to buy a certain product. However, we must consider the extent that one could ever understand the mind of the buyer; research trends would of course only show a generalisation of the sample, and of course the mindset will change by product, making studying behavioural characteristics increasingly difficult. Well acclaimed theorist Nicosia (1966, cited in Baker et al, 1988), was among the first to present a model in this field, flowcharting the process of decision making, with the steps from a consumer being exposed to a communication message, to purchasing and having a recognised post purchase experience. Andreasens Model (1965, cited in Argyris, 1988) added to this, introducing the realms of attitude factors to the process, revolving around attitude formation and change occurring to changing external stimulus. A common issue of theorists and psychology in general is the issue that one will never know what is inside the consumers ‘black box, their psychological mindset in decision making, one can only allude to it. The Engel, Kollat and Blackwell (1968, cited in Baker et al, 1988) model refers to the ‘black box as a central control unit, which consists of motives and response traits,   including many factors such as perceptions, values, and past experience behavioural characteristics. Present teachings of consumer behaviour tend to refer to a uniform model depicting and grouping the elements that influence behaviour; these are namely cultural, social, personal and psychological factors (Kotler, Wong, Saunders, Armstrong, 2005). Baker (Baker et al, 1988) has produced the most thorough model of buyer behaviour, a composition of all of the above theorists, in which the decision making characteristics can be clearly defined. The equation is as follows: P=f(SPPC, EC, IS, PF, CBBR) In which a purchase (P) can be defined as a function of selective perception (SP) and the behavioural response (BR) of enabling conditions (EB), information search (IS), precipitating circumstances (PC) and cost-benefit analysis (CB) factors combined. So whilst it is relatively unknown what is involved in the consumer decision making process, there are a number of key areas that can be alluded to for investigation, that appear in most models. In reference to charitable giving behaviours, treating the non-profit sector as anything other than one general research topic is uncommon, with researchers rarely distinguishing any sub categorisation of organisations, however some current findings are valid for the basis of understanding the differentials in motives and behaviours. It is known and studied that charities may take on a certain pseudo-human personality and hence certain personality traits can aid marketing efforts (Sargeant, Hudson, West, Conceptualizing brand values in the charity sector:the relationship between sector, cause and organization, 2008), based on the generalised theories of corporate personalities by McEnally de Chernatony (1999) and Palmer (1996); It was found that the traits held trends based upon the cause, sector and corporate cultural distinctions of the charity, which of course may differ by the various charity focuses and size. Sargeant (1999) , based on all existing knowledge in the field, crea ted a model of donating behaviour, shown below, in which an idea to factors influencing the decision process are elucidated. The issues that have particular relevance to examining the difference by charity size are namely the extrinsic determinants and perceptual reaction factors. However it must be noted that whilst the intrinsic determinants could apply to any charitable cause, the inputs in the form of marketing and communications can greatly affect the feelings of the consumer. Yet it must be noted that this model has yet to be tested, and is merely a portrayal of previous literature in the field. So whilst information and research is readily available and vast on the non-profit sector as a whole, research tends to be focused on either the cooperation of non-profit and for-profit firms using cause related marketing. That which differs from that area s mainly rooted in the service industry in the form of commercial non-profits and most other existing research on the consumer behaviour of non-profit companies is very shallow, not delving into the motivations and issues of consumer behaviour. There is as of yet, no existing published research that compares the size of the non-profit organisation with the behavioural constraints and patterns, in particular with regards to solely donative non-profits. 3. Industry Analysis 3.1. Revenue Analysis: The Importance of Individual Contributions in the Non-Profit Industry The structural makeup of the non-profit industry is much like any other, whilst we regularly hear about and are bombarded with advertising communications from the corporate giants in the trade, the reality is that in terms of numbers, these large firms are a tiny percentage of the industry, yet account for the majority of the total revenues, which can be seen in the charts below. According to the Charities Aid Foundation, the total amount donated by individuals in the year between 2009 and 2010 was  £10.6 billion excluding income in the form of legacies, which constitutes around one fifth of revenues in the sector, which was  £52 billion in the same year (Charities Aid Foundation, 2010; Philanthrophy UK, 2010). There forth, the importance of individual giving is high.   Looking towards giving patterns in the United Kingdom, we can see the importance of certain donor groups with the statistics that 54% of the population donated in a typical month in the years 2008 and 2009, with the median amount given being  £10; However the importance of the larger donations can be seen with 7% contributing more than  £100 per month, which equates to just less than 50% of charitable donations from the public (Booth, 2010). Interestingly, looking at the amount of money donated as a percentage of total income, â€Å"the top fifth of households give less than 1% of t heir income, while the poorest give 3%† (National Council for Voluntary Organisations, 2010). Regardless, the United Kingdom in relation to the rest of the world is one of the most generous countries, ranking 8th in the World Giving Index of 2010, which is measured upon the proportion of the public who had given to charity, helped a stranger and given time to those in need (Charities Aid Foundation, 2010). Interesting to discover in terms of the relevance of the research conducted within this report, is the importance of individual giving from the general public to the various size and focus groups of charities. Whilst the statistics show that overall it is of great importance, it may be that other areas of financing are of more importance for different sized charities; it would be thought that corporate donations and corporate social responsibility partnerships would be more important to the large international focused organisation than the small localised one. The above table shows research into the financial revenues of charitable organisations, attempting to decipher if there are differences in where the finance comes from between the three different types of charities, those with an international, national or local focus. This research study is not concerned with the numerical size of the organisation, but size in terms of the geographical spread of the benefits. In order to ensure validity of results, all of the charities included are of the same concern; all work in the child poverty sector and are focused on the enhancement of childrens lives. Since it may be the case that financing trends vary according to the type of charity, for example a medically focused charity would received a great deal more revenues from governmental organisations than most. Noticeable in researching this topic was that most charitable organisations do not release enough information to the public in the annual reports about where the revenue comes from, with only a handful of organisations providing enough information to be included in this study. This is even more apparent in the case of finding data for local charities. The results are fairly inconclusive in finding a strong trend in the revenue breakdown yet we can make some conclusions based on the findings. What can be seen is that the international organisations tend to receive a larger percentage in individual general public donations than the other forms of organisations. Regarding corporate and governmental contributions, what is evident is that international and even national organisations, which tend to be larger and better known, receive a great deal more in corporate donations. Whilst local charities receive a great deal of income from other sources, a particular observation is that they are mostly funded through other charitable organisations and non-governmental grants such as the national lottery funding. It could very well be that the local and even the smaller national charities do not have a strong enough presence in the world of media through advertising to gain sufficient individual contributions from the public. The averages can be seen depicted in the charts below. 3.2. An Outside Glance of Consumer Trust and Confidence The purchase decision to donate to charity, much like any ‘for profit industry, involves a great deal of trust and confidence elements on the consumers part to work through the stages of decision making to finally decide to make a purchase. We can even go as far to say that the element of trust in donating is even more prominent than in other industries, since when consumers make a purchase decision, they are not receiving a ‘physical product that they can feel post purchase satisfaction with, they are simply expected to believe the benefits of their purchase and that their money is being used well. It is often the case with most charities that a donation does not merit the information as to what activity or campaign it is being used for, limiting the knowledge even further, and thus possibly affecting trust. A consumer study survey conducted by Read Data Asset Management Group in 2010 showed that 42% of consumers would trust charities with their personal data â€Å"which is in stark contrast to government who were least trusted by 36%† (Read Data Asset Management Group Plc, 2010, pg 3). This is an interesting find in terms of confidence since the security of personal data is such a hot topic these days, with the public being incredibly cautious. The same study also examined reasons consumers would stop supporting a charity, finding that the highest rated responses were wasting money on marketing efforts, over contacting consumers and overly emotional marketing communications. These results are quite contradictory to reality since these tend to be the actions taken by the well known large charities, which are also the charities that are most popular amongst donors. We can also consider consumer trust and confidence levels not to be standardised across the industry; it may be that d istrust stems from certain charity types or causes. There are a great number of ‘pop up charities, created for crisis appeals, which are not well known or established as an entity and as such may not be as trusted. There is also the concern that such charities are started purely to merit the trustees a high wage. Consumer confidence can be greatly positively influenced by the presence of governmental regulatory bodies, rules and standards within industries. The past decade has seen a dramatic incline in the efforts to regulate and increase transparency, since the likes of the Enron scandal and other highly publicised fraudulent business operations, resulting in the development of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 to secure the business environment for consumers, and many UK equivalent legal regulations to the same context. Charities, akin to all organisations are required by law to abide to certain legal provisions. The United Kingdom adopted the EU Transparency Directive in 2007, which serves to promote appropriate disclosure of information, with the main areas of focus being â€Å"periodic financial reporting and disclosure of major shareholdings† (Ashurst, 2007). Supplementary to the above menti