The New Consumer of Lifelong Learning Programmes

1. INTRODUCTIONAt European level, lifelong learning has led to developments within the entire society, but the level of participation in training, as percentage of the entire population, is different from country to country. This article argues about the importance of identifying the real needs of lifelong learning programmes' consumer and the changes caused by different influences. In the last part of the article we are analyzing closely the main obstacles that consumers are facing with in Romania when choosing to participate or not in a training programme.2. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR - GENERAL ASPECTSIt is generally accepted that deep understanding of consumer behavior - the way of taking a buying decision - is of great importance for all companies. The first step of the process is recognition of the need (problem recognition) that stays at the basis of all buying decisions. The next stage is the research done for the selection of the best choice (information search), followed by the evaluation of alternatives, effective buying (purchase) and evaluation of buying action outcomes (postpurchase evaluation). These stages can differ from a situation to another according to the type of product or service that we are buying.Marketers should give attention to all these specific phases in order to use the proper manner of communication for each stage and to detail the strategic marketing plan for not neglecting important elements of the buying decision process. In this way, this concept is an encompassing one, including in its area of interest, besides the specific purchase, consumer's perceptions in terms of emotions, beliefs, behaviors related to the buying act.This approach suggests that research on consumer behavior covers both aspects of actions/attitudes/positions that precede the act of purchase, and also of the post-buying act ones (including satisfaction on usage, loyalty, recycling, reuse etc.). In this way, the consumer behavior research can emphasize a variety of contexts and can approach many perspectives with different situational influences, i.e. the physical surroundings, social surroundings, temporal perspective, task definition, antecedent states (Belk, R.L. 1975,159). However, as this research has as central aim the institutional guiding, focus will be laid on the general dynamics of the customers from the target group, that represents the basis for creating better products/services, for promoting the specific offer in a more effective way and for fostering in a sustainable manner the competitive advantages.In order to achieve success on the market, the general strategy should be based on the idea that the main institutional objective is to meet consumers' expectations, based, indeed, on functional needs, i.e. physiological needs, but also on the need for security, the need for love and belonging, the need for esteem and the need of self-fulfillment - according to Maslow's pyramid of needs and theory of motivation (1943). Each need can be fulfilled by different categories of products/services and the marketers have to correctly identify the proper nature of need that can be addressed through their offer. Based on these findings, not only the communication strategy, but also the entire marketing plan can be properly designed.A critical question is related to the product/ service attributes expected by consumers and what factors decide on the amount of money they are willing to pay for them (Rucker et al. 2011,8). For example, Dhar and Wertenbroch (2000) revealed that the willingness to pay for objects/services depend on whether these are included in the hedonic or utilitarian category. It should be also taken into consideration the facets of the buying process, that can be the result of an extensive problem solving, of an experiential perspective or of a routinized behavior (Mihart 2012,123). All these aspects require different approaches in terms of communication in order to give the proper response to each situation and to each category of customers. …