The Decision Making Process for Bilabong Wetsuits

EXC 21121

Consumer Behavior

The decision making process for

Bilabong

wetsuits

Table of Contents

Introduction 2

Segmentation 2

Motivation 5

Personality 7

Perception 9

Consumer learning 12

Family 14

Culture and Subcultures 16

Communication 19

Attitudes and Innovation 21

Conclusion 23

Appendix 24

Bibliography 25

Introduction

Billabong was founded on Australia’s Gold Coast in 1973 by a local surfer and surfboard shaper. From the very beginning Billabong incorporated professional surfers within the marketing aspect of the brand, consequently gaining recognition in the wider society as a surfer’s brand. During the 1980’s Billabong was well positioned in Australia and decided to expand into a number of oversea markets. (BillabongBizHistory 2010)

Today Billabong is a global brand represented in most of the worlds’ major markets. It is still recognized as a surfers brand and is very common among members of surfing subculture, the “popular culture which spends billions of dollars each year on surfing equipment” (SurfLibrary 2011).

Billabong is popular worldwide among homogenous groups such as surfers and teens, enabling them to use similar marketing strategies globally. Through our research we will show that Billabongs strategy is cost efficient, recognizable and relatively cheap to implement, all of which contribute to the bottom line.

In our work we are going to examine the decision making process consumers go through when deciding to purchase a Billabong wetsuit. Wetsuits represent an irreplaceable part of modern surfing equipment, for this reason Billabong has dedicated a website exclusively for wetsuits. Although wetsuits can be used for many purposes, Billabong has chosen to advertise them exclusively to surfers, therefore all of our examples and research are based on surfing. In our work we have paid particular attention to how Billabong addresses the consumer decision making process through, amongst other elements,...