Zurati Dalimi: Motivation for decision makers on choosing wedding venues

Motivations for decision makers on choosing wedding venues

Zurati bin Dalimi

Matrix no.: SX112443HFF04

31 May 2015

Introduction

To celebrate the bride with wedding reception and banquet has become a necessity after completion meets the need of religious requirements in many cultures. We focus on consumers’ motivations of selecting the wedding banquet venues. In decision making, consumer motivation addresses the drive to satisfy individual needs. The push-pull theory has been used in describing the consumer motivations and provides industry practitioners the planning and marketing strategies of wedding banquets venue. 

Decision makers profile for wedding banquet venues

To choose a wedding banquet venue is an important decision-making process for a new couple and their families. The wedding banquet is complicated and expensive occasion. The goal is to create an atmosphere of celebration, and to ensure the physical and emotional comfort among guests. Consumers to make choices about the wedding venue are determined from the perspective of cognitive and affective. The main elements should be in the planning including facilities and services, site capacity, location, creative theme for decorating, accessibility and availability. Therefore, there is limited information on the process of choosing a wedding banquet venue.

Consumer motivation and Push-pull Factors

a. Consumer motivation - is to satisfy individual needs that could be understood based on Maslow’s Need Theory (1943). Maslow indicated there are five levels in the pyramid of human needs including physiological needs, safety and security, social needs, self-esteem, and self actualization. When the needs in the lower level are satisfied, then consumers will move to the next higher level. Physiological needs are the most basic to human survival, such as the need for food, water, shelter, clothing, etc. 

              

 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

 

Consumer motivation will affect individual behavior can be assessed from the perspective of extrinsic and intrinsic explained by Push-pull Theory. It provides a framework consisting of push and pull factors, with the purpose of examining the motivations that influence consumer behavior, such as consumer decision-making.

b. Push factors - is related to the concept of motivational needs that arise due to the tension in the motivational system. Five push factor elements to explain the motivation of consumers to choose wedding banquet venue were:-

i.          Seeking relaxation and knowledge

ii.         Fulfilling prestige

iii.        Escaping from daily routine

iv.        Social networking

v.         Service and quality

Seeking relaxation and knowledge, a consumer may want to attend a place to escape from their own home environment to seek physical and psychological rewards. Fulfilling prestige, one of push motives define as an elite lifestyle and increase social status. Escaping from daily routine, the consumer selects a venue that reflects their personalities. It also wants to ensure that the place provides the physical and emotional comfort to the guest. For social networking, consumer may visit a place to meet their friends and that would impress their friends and family. Service and quality comprised of menu variety, food quality, accommodation and comfort environment.

c. Pull factors - is related to the concept of the attractions, features, or attributes of the venue itself. Six pull factor elements to explain the motivation of consumers to choose wedding banquet venue were:-

i.          Budget

ii.         Atmosphere

iii.        Wedding services

iv.        Service and quality

v.         Transportation

vi.        Facilities

Budget includes food and beverage price, and equipment expenses as the most important considerations in the consumers’ selection process. Atmosphere refers to decoration, audio equipment, and availability of the wedding banquet venues. Wedding services includes for equipment such as photographer and a bridal limousine make wedding costs higher than many other events. Service and quality comprised of employee attitude, cleanliness, food quality, menu variety and decorations. Transportation to wedding banquet location should be convenient for guests attending the event. Facilities consist of size of venue, lighting, ambiance, audio equipment, and bridal room, and parking space that influence consumer motivations.

Relationship between Push-pull Factors across primary demographic variables

Three primary demographic variables related to push and pull factors are the age, education, and income. The push-pull motivation theory is based on the Maslow’s needs theory describe intrinsic and extrinsic drives, respectively used to satisfy different levels of human needs. We take an example from Midland Convention Centre (MCC), Section 7 Shah Alam, Selangor as a place which provides for wedding banquet venue, and the relationship between push and pull factors across primary demographic variables.

 

                                  Wedding banquet venue advertising from the internet

 

a. To satisfy the esteem needs of consumers:-

Push elements: Seeking relaxation and knowledge - The consumer may choose Midland Convention Centre (MCC) as their wedding banquet venue with expectation to satisfy the demands for fulfilling prestige, spiritual relaxation and knowledge learning about wedding celebration traditions.

Pull elements:  Atmosphere - MCC provides ambiance with beautiful lighting together with colorful laser show. Consumers’ feel free to choose the hall light colors to match with wedding team color tones, or the pure warm white for a romantic feel. The entire hall has been designed to attain optimal acoustics using high-end soundproofing technology. As a result the wedding guests could enjoy a magnificent live band perfectly.

b. To satisfy the social needs of consumers:-

Push elements: Escaping from daily routine and social networking - selects a venue that reflects their personalities and would impress to meet friends. Being part of a group provides individuals with practical benefits such as informational and instrumental support. Hence, belonging to a group is useful can help consumers feel they belong to a larger group or help them cultivate strong relationships with other individuals.

Pull elements:  Atmosphere - the attractiveness of venue physical image as it is seen by consumers who have a tendency to achieve a goal such as social perceptions and expectation, benefit expectation, and social image.

c. To satisfy the physiological needs of consumers:-

Push elements:  Service and quality - MCC provide features and attributes of menu variety, huge hall can accommodate up to 120 banquet tables, food taste, freshness, temperature, and presentation that sets the mood of the environment.

Pull elements: Wedding services, transportation, facilities, service and quality - MCC wedding packages are fully customizable depending on customer’s requirements, which offer a wide range of well-organized wedding services including dating services, wedding planning, wedding car rentals, dress rentals, video recording services, wedding photography services, wedding banquets, and masters of ceremonies. MCC situated in the heart of Shah Alam city is conveniently reachable without much traffic hassle with its own 300 parking space at the compound of the building. Thus, the RELA helpers manning the traffic ease of access and sufficient parking spaces to satisfy consumers’ needs.

MCC’s huge hall can accommodate up to 120 banquet tables, adequate size to accommodate the number of guests that the wedding hosts wish to invite. Four projector screens are fixed at the four corners of the room to provide an all-round view with full visibility of the event happenings no matter where consumers sit.

For service and quality, MCC allocates ten workers, all ready on the event day. Two cleaners on stand-by to make sure that the whole venue are squeaky-clean, and staffs to handle the technical systems to meet consumers’ expectations. Budget minded involve into the wedding planning process to be more important in comparison. Therefore, MCC provides a variety of banquet menu plans that include low and moderately priced options to meet the needs of each group.

Conclusion

Motivations for decision makers on choosing wedding banquet venue are to satisfy individual needs. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, only when the decision makers meet lower levels of need, they will continue to pursue a higher level of needs. Motivations to do anything come in push factors or pull factors that originate from Maslow theory. A successful marketing strategy will usually have the elements of both pull and push promotional methods. If a product designed around the consumers’ needs and have considered all elements of the marketing mix, the objective of marketing strategy should be achievable.

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References

Ling Guan, Yi Luo Liang, Rebecca Tang. (2015), An exploratory study of decision makers for choosing wedding banquet venues: push and pull motivations. International Journal of Tourism Cities, Vol. 1 Iss 2 pp. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

List of wedding venue and reviews, Midlands Convention Centre, Shah Alam.

http://www.wedresearch.net/2013/03/midlands-convention-centre.html