Carnival

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Consumer Behavior during the Brazilian Carnival
Introduction
During the festive seasons, consumers tend to change their buying habits regarding tastes, quantity, and preferences. The business people have to, therefore, develop strategic schemes as to utilize the seasons and subsequently maximize their marginal profits. In Brazil, the changing consumer habits are not an exception, particularly during the annual Carnival festival. The Carnival festival is the most popularly Brazilian event that is held forty-seven days before Easter and marks the beginning of Lent. The event attracts millions of the local people and thousands of foreigners who match in the streets for almost a week. In 2011, the event attracted a total of 4.9 million people including the foreigners in Rio de Janeiro (Sainte). As a result of a large number of participants, the Brazilian Carnival festival has become a significant event for businesses including manufacturing and service industries as well as retail establishments such as malls.
This research paper attempts to examine consumer behavior during the Brazilian Carnival. The research considers consumer behavior as the physical, emotional, behavioral, and psychological responses of an individual, a group, or an organization about the buying, use, and disposal of tangible goods as well as services. The study of consumer behavior during the Brazilian Carnival is thus important to marketers as it enables them to strategize on how to increase the sales of their products and consequently increase the profits made by the business.

Significance of the study
Consumer behavior is an important factor that influences the performance and growth of an organization in the modern market scenario. Although the Brazilian economy has been facing numerous challenges, some businesses have maintained a continuous growth rate. The consumers have furthermore changed their preferences, and consequently, the demand of most of the products has changed. The subject of consumer behavior, therefore, becomes an important issue for marketers not only in the retention of customers but also in attracting new customers and also maintaining brand awareness. Through this study, the attitude of the customers during the Brazilian Carnival will be assessed and analyzed.Objectives of the research
The primary objective of the study was to determine the consumer behavior during the Brazilian Carnival. Other objectives include
To analyze consumer behavior during the Brazilian Carnival Festival
To analyze the strategies employed by marketers to boost their sales during the Brazilian festival
To assess the factors influencing the consumption of goods and services during the Brazilian festival

Literature review
The study of consumer behavior has been of major interest particularly for social science scholars. The topic has been a center of attention due to its diversity and the extensive changes in social, economic, and technological setting. The changes in the field are unpredictable and occur continuously. For instance, Tynan, and McKechnie (511) suggests that the behavior and preference portrayed by the consumer during a festive season is determined by the sensory, emotional, relational, and social aspects of the consumer. They also suggest that businesses should exploit the business atmosphere that prevails during the festive seasons. Other scholars have explored the behavior of food customers during the festive seasons and provided a conceptual relationship between the spending patterns and consumption trains in the food industries.
Consumer buying behaviors are categorized into four major classes which include complex buying behavior, dissonance producing buying behaviors, variety seeking buying behavior, and habitual buying behavior. In the complex buying behavior, consumers are involved in a complex process when they are purchasing a product they are also aware of the risks involved in the purchase of each commodity. However, the consumer involved in this buying behavior is less knowledgeable about the product category and therefore have to learn. Therefore, learning is the most critical element in the complex buying behavior. In the dissonance producing buying behavior, the consumer experiences some psychological tension and uncertainties when purchasing the product. For instance, a customer can spend days worrying why he purchased a certain brand of a vehicle while there was an alternative to it. He, therefore, starts justifying his choice as he learns about the product he purchased.
In habitual buying, most of the purchases are based on an involvement behavior that arises from the frequent purchase of the same product. For instance, during the Brazilian Carnival, the Picanha, Pastel de queijo, and Brazilian chicken coxinha are some of the most frequently purchased foods. Thus, in such cases, the consumers do not thoroughly search for the information regarding the brands as to make a decision on which ones to buy. Furthermore, advertising such commodities does not familiarize the customers with the brand but rather convinces them to purchase it. On the other hand, the variety seeking buying behavior arises when the consumers change their preferences without much evaluation and a concrete reason. The consumer may change the taste to experiment with an alternative brand or due to boredom rather than dissatisfaction. Thus, a marketer has to ensure that his products dominate the market by practicing frequent reminder advertisements, offering low prices, coupons, and free samples.
Research methodology
The research method used implemented in this study was descriptive as its objectives were preplanned and concrete. Mainly, there are two types of descriptive research which include the cross-sectional and the longitudinal research. In the cross-sectional type, the research is conducted within a sample picked from the total population, and it is performed once for each sample. The longitudinal study, on the other hand, is done several times within each sample. The method used in this was the cross-sectional as the respondents were not contacted again after they submitted their survey results. The primary concerns were to collect and analyze data from primary and secondary sources. The primary data was collected from online surveys while the secondary data was collected from past Carnival festive records.
Primary data for the research was acquired through the administration of questionnaires. Thus, the design of the questionnaire was a critical step as it influenced the overall results of the study. Malhotra (336) suggests that only a well-designed questionnaire can provide the data required to achieve the objectives of the research. While designing the questionnaires, the steps outlined by Maholtra were followed accordingly. For instance, all the information required for the research such the most favorite food to take during the Carnival festive were specified. After the preparation, the questionnaires were sent to the participants through email. The participants received a link to the questionnaire through the email and were asked to fill it. Since all the questionnaires were made using Google forms, the results were collected automatically to a Google spreadsheet. The sample of the population which received questionnaire was mainly college and university students as it was easier accessing their email address. Furthermore, the students represented the population perfectly since the young people attend festivals more frequently.
Results and Analysis
The data acquired from the questionnaires and secondary sources was analyzed and presented according to the informants’ respondents discourses. From the analysis of the questionnaires, the behavior of Brazilians during the Carnival emerged as discussed in this section.
Decision making
Before making a purchase, consumers have to undergo through a problem-solving process whose complexity depends on the nature of goods they are willing to purchase. To complete the decision process, consumers use cue utilization theory, value, emotional, and information processing perspective. From the survey, it was evident that during the Brazilian Carnival, the method used by the consumers to make the purchase decision was determined by nature of the commodity being purchased.
Food and beverages
The table below shows the factors that motivate Brazilian Carnival participants to purchase some foods and beverages
Perspective Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage
Value perspective 53 75.71% 75.71%
Cue utilization theory 10 1.,29% 90%
Information processing 7 10% 100%
Total 70 100%
From the results, it is evident that consumers mainly use a value perspective when determining which food to purchase. The value perspective mainly involves the trade-off between price and quality also known as the value-for-money perspective. From the results, the customer’s perceived value can be considered to be a reaction to the overall evaluation of the food being consumed based on what is given and what is received. The value, on the other hand, results partly from the consumer’s perception on what they are receiving and partly from the perception of what they are receiving.
The result also shows that 10% of the respondents use the cue utilization theory to decide on which foods to purchase during the carnival festival. In the cue utilization theory, the customers are allowed to judge the multiplicity and quality of the different food staff when deciding what to buy and the quantity to purchase. The survey indicates that when judging, the consumer employs cues such as the composition, name, price, country of origin, and the store name supplying the food.
During the carnival festival, only 7% of the participants employ information processing perspective when deciding on which food to purchase. In processing perspective, consumers act as a problem solver. They, therefore, utilize cognitive resources to create beliefs about the characteristics of a product. The consumer can, therefore, like or dislike the product. In such instances, the consumer’s attitudes and emotions play a significant role in influencing the choice made by the customer.
Clothing
The table below shows the perspectives that Brazilian Carnival participants employ when purchasing clothing and beauty products
Perspective Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage
Value perspective 19 27% 27%
Cue utilization theory 36 52% 79%
Information processing 15 21% 100%
Total 70 100% The table depicts that the perspectives employed by the consumer when purchasing foods differ from the perspectives employed when purchasing clothes. 52% of the consumers utilize the cue utilization theory while only 21% use the information processing perspective.
Conclusion
Consumer behavior is the physical, emotional, behavioral, and psychological responses of an individual, a group, or an organization about the buying, use, and disposal of tangible goods as well as services. During the Brazilian Carnival festival, consumers change their preferences based on tastes, attitudes, and value. From this study, it was evident that the behavior of consumer during the Carnival festival was influenced by the type of product being purchased. For foods and beverages, most of the consumers use the value perspective to determine what food to purchase while for clothing, most of the consumers use the cue utilization perspective to determine which clothes to purchase. Ideally, the carnival festival has a significant influence on the buying habits of the consumers.

Work Cited
Sainte Croix. “Rio’s 2012 Carnival in Numbers: Daily.” The Rio Times, February 28, 2012. Accessed (February 26, 2018) http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/carnival-2012-in-numbers-daily/Tynan, C., & McKechnie, S. (2009). Experience marketing:a review and reassessment. Journal of Marketing Mnagement, 25,6 , 2009: 501-517.