Consumer Decision Making - Essay Example

Consumer Decision Making Name University Course Tutor Date Consumer Decision Making 1.0 Introduction The process of consumer decision making exhibits significant complexity entailing the involvement of all phases between recognition of the problem and post-purchase activities. Ideally, consumers exhibit personal needs in the day to day life, thus the possibility different decisions by different product consumers. The decisions made by various consumers tend to be complex on grounds of opinions of consumers on particular decisions, selection and purchase of various product types, alongside and comparison between different types of products. This has the implication that understanding and realization of the principal issue of consumer decision making process and the utilization of theories in practice has emerged an essential view point by several individuals and organizations (Perrey & Spillecke, 2011). An immense deal of academics and researchers tend hold the common consensus that the theory of human purchasing has numerous stages. This explains why several models and theories have been developed by academics and researchers, in the recent years, on grounds of different findings and factors. Everyday consumers are faced with decision making processes regarding purchases. They sometimes involve simple purchases that entail extremely little thought or purchases entailing an immense deal of thinking (Perrey & Spillecke, 2011). Therefore, this paper has the objective of exploring commonly discovered influences with the capability of affecting consumers’ decision making. The behavior exhibited by consumers, while making decisions, draws substantial influence from both internal and external factors; however, this paper has specialty in internal factors. For an illustration of internal factors affecting consumers’ decision making process, this paper will make use of mobile applications as those manufactured by Apple Inc. 2.0 Mobile Applications The recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the use of computer tablets and smartphones with mobile applications becoming the most recent issue in the mobile industry. Such mobile application stores as Android Market of Google and Apple’s App Store ave resulted to the revolution of mobile applications’ distribution thus becoming a potentially profitable and extremely visible component in the world of smartphones. This explains why, by the year 2016, the total number of downloads of mobile applications is expected to be more than 21 billion alongside a worldwide market revenue of $32.6 billion. This has the implication that the number of new entrants will join the struggle for sharing the revenue and downloads. The prospected increase in downloads will mainly result from the Apple’s App Store that has been allowing developers to make sales of third-party applications to be used in iPad, iPhone, and iPod. As a result of these applications, users have the capability of making use of iTunes to make direct applications’ downloads onto their PCs or mobile devices. iPod Touch, iPad, and iPhone are termed as the latest players in their field owing to the fact that Apple has made use of iOS devices and iTunes to construct its digital distribution. Ideally, Apple, Inc. has given information to registered iOS and Mac developers that their App Stores (for these two platforms) can be found in 33 more countries. This has the implication that customers in 123 countries around the globe now have access to Mac and iOS App Stores. Apple, via its success in the sale of mobile applications, has significantly influenced other mobile device manufacturers to develop their own stores. An outstanding example of another store is the Android Market owned by Google and is underway to becoming the second most outsized application store. In addition, Nokia has established the Ovi Store with App World being opened by Research in Motion for users of Blackberry. It is thus clear that competition in the mobile Application industry is gaining momentum; indeed, in the midst of globalization, there is every indication that soon or later this will become the most competitive industry in the globe. This has the implication that external factors will make little influence to determine the market share since competition will force all the manufacturers to adopt the latest possible technology. As a result, market researchers and academics have established that internal factors affecting consumer behavior will be of much essence in determining the course of stiff competition in the mobile applications industry. 3.0 Selection of Mobile Applications by Consumers Besides the discovery of mobile applications, manufacturers have a critical issue in finding customers for their products. This is because, when a customer visits the App Store, he/she expects to have no difficulties in finding the desired app. However, a number of factors end up influencing the process of decision making by a consumer as a result of the presence of different apps and means of locating them in the App Stores. This has the implication that manufacturers ought to be aware of some key characteristics of the intended buyer. For instance, it is of much essence that the developer has a hint on the criterion used by the user before he/she arrives at the decision of which app to purchase (Trehan & Trehan, 2011). The developer also ought to have an idea of the most common platforms among customers in order to develop compatible apps. These plus other factors reviewed in the paper form the internal factors that influence the decision making processes of mobile application consumers. Ideally, a number of questions are essential in order for the manufacture to understand the behavior of the consumer when it comes to decision making (Trehan & Trehan, 2011). These entail the reasons that persuade the consumer to choose app A, instead of app B, besides the forces surrounding the manufacturing company and the market. Ideally, it is essential to understand what users often do upon visiting the App Store, where users attempt to search for apps upon visiting the App store, obstacles faced by buyers while about to make a purchase of an app, what visual elements persuade the buyer, and the units preferred by the users while visiting the stores. For better understanding of the internal factors affecting the behavior of consumers in the mobile application industry theoretical explanation has also been employed by various researchers and academics (Trehan & Trehan, 2011). 4.0 Consumer Learning and Involvement Consumer learning and involvement constitute a significant part of internal influences on consumers’ decision making process, as regarding purchasing. This category of influencing factors is mainly involved with the ways used in the interaction of information and humans. Thus, in the context of mobile applications, individuals will be influenced by the ease with which they can access information surrounding desired products (Tyagi & Kumar, 2004). 4.1 Information-Foraging Theory Information search is an extremely essential phase in the process of decision making. The development of information foraging theory has the objective of understanding and enhancing the interaction of information and humans. There is an assumption, of the framework, that human’s adaption of the world is subject to information search and use. Consumers’ information-searching behavior has such characteristics as the evaluation of different product alternatives and the advantages associated with decisions resulting from the comparison between different alternatives (Wiedmann, Hennigs, and Siebels, 2007). Currently, most web-based tasks are inclusive of information seeking looking for both graphical and textual information. Adequate knowledge of the functionality of people’s pattern perception and visual attention enable people to develop a graphical structure via which product consumers can make the most outstanding decisions when faced with numerous alternatives of products. Ideally, this theory gives much recognition to visual thinking sense (Wiedmann, Hennigs, and Siebels, 2007). It states that visual thinking is inclusive of several attention acts that always turn people’s pattern-finding circuits and drive their eye movements. It is believed that a good understanding of acts of attention has the capability of enhancing the ability of an individual to make informed decisions (about purchasing) when presented with a number of alternatives) (Wiedmann, Hennigs, and Siebels, 2007). The application of this theory to decision making among consumers of mobile applications entails the ability to enter an App Store and be able to find the desired app via the look of various icon. This thus presents a strong influence on the purchasing behavior of consumers in a mobile application store considering that, in the real sense, new customers only look at the icons borne by the various applications. 4.2 Online Consumer Behavior Online Consumer behavior concept has significant influence on the decision making processes by consumers. Ideally, the study of online behavior of consumers (in the internet context) has focus on two principal aspects of intention which are: purchase intention and to return to a web (Norton, 2012). An immense deal of researchers and academics has made use of traditional behavior of consumers in order to carry out studies on online behavior of customers. These studies have established that several frameworks exist in the behavior of consumers hence the capability of capturing processes of decision making by customers. Ideally, there exist an immense deal of difference between online and offline consumer behavior; in the former, it is a requirement for consumers to interact with modern technology in order for a transaction to take place (Simcock, Sudbury & Wright, 2006). This has the implication that an appropriate information system replaces a physical shop in the case of online purchasing. The relevance of this concept to this paper is the fact that the use of mobile applications mostly entails online transaction. Indeed, most of the customers of the industry purchase mobile applications for use in devices that support online transactions. It is worth noting that that E-commerce is rapidly taking over the business world. As a result the course of making decisions, consumers in the mobile applications industry will have to keep into consideration the number of online business transactions supported by respective mobile applications (Simcock, Sudbury & Wright, 2006). This explains why several multinational companies have established online purchasing platforms considering that an immense deal of customers is now going online. In the course of developing business strategy, Apple, Inc. has to keep into consideration that most of mobile applications customers are actually purchasing the products for the purpose of making online business transactions (Simcock, Sudbury & Wright, 2006). Consequently, the company ought to come up with mobile applications that are dynamic; Apple, inc. ought to develop applications that are user-friendly, yet utilizing the latest technology in the market. On the other hand, the company also ought to cater a group of customers that is always to acquire new skills from the use of mobile applications (Smith, 2011). 5.0 Consumer attitude development and change An array of factors leads to either the creation or change of attitude, by an individual, towards a certain product. It is obvious that the behavior of consumers will draw an immense deal of influence from the attitude a particular buyers has towards a product. For instance, with respect to mobile applications, a consumer who has a positive attitude towards the App Store will definitely shop from Apple, Inc. rather than such close competitors as Nokia and Google. Attitude of an individual towards a certain product is subject to such aspects as personal development (Sorina-Raula, Liviu & Georgeta-Madalina, 2008). 5.1 Personal Development Personal development is another internal factor that has significant influence on consumers’ decision making processes (Sorina-Raula, Liviu & Georgeta-Madalina, 2008). Personal development is measured in terms of knowledge and skills. Ideally, the mobile applications industry is characterized by a fast speed technological evolution. This has the implication that the user interfaces and platforms to be used with mobile applications are changing at an extremely high frequency. Indeed, the globe has been experiencing an ever changing computing and mobile environment with applications becoming more complex (Sorina-Raula, Liviu & Georgeta-Madalina, 2008). Normally, it is not likely for a customer to purchase a product which he/she is not familiar with. Marketing research has indicated that a big number of consumers, in the mobile applications industry, draw greater influence from the usability of products than the prices of products. Indeed, it is worth noting that most of the mobile applications are intended for fun making thus a customer will go for the package which is more user friendly. It is more likely for a customer to decide to purchase a user-friendly product than for the same customers to choose to update his knowledge in order to purchase highly complex packages. Personal development is, however, also influenced by the acquisition of new skills (Sorina-Raula, Liviu & Georgeta-Madalina, 2008). This has the implication that there is another group of customers that tend to draw an immense deal of influence from the possibility of learning new skills. Consequently, in the process of making purchasing decisions, this group of customers will significantly be influenced by the applications that will enable them acquire new skills. 5.2 The Concept of HCL and Usability Abbreviated as HCL, Human Computer Interaction refers to a concept that investigates people’s interaction with the technology of computing. Ideally, the field of HCL is a multi-disciplinary field of research drawing its roots from various disciplines such as sociology, computer science, ergonomics, cognitive psychology, anthropology, and design (Sumeet & Hee-Woong, 2010). HCL concept has the objective of understanding ways in which more usable artifices can be designed. The essence of usability in online consumer behavior study is evident in Information systems and HCL. For instance, there are studies that have been carried out (related to HCL) indicating that usability has an immense deal of influence on the use of a website. There is a joint argument by IS and HCL researchers that usability is a principal metric in the assessment of a range of various systems, inclusive of online store websites (Sumeet & Hee-Woong, 2010). This concept of usability and HCL has an immense deal of relevance on the factors affecting the decision making behaviours of consumers in the mobile applications industry. Upon visiting the App Store, it is obvious that the customer will not choose an app he/she is not conversant with or an app having a complex graphic user interface. In stead, most users will choose applications they are conversant with or easy to learn application. Usability can thus be termed as a strong internal factor having an immense deal of influence on the process of decision making among consumers of the global mobile applications industry. 6.0 Consumer Needs and Motivation Motivation is one of the most influential factors on the process of decision making among consumers with respect to purchasing. Ideally, motivation refers to the inner state of arousal that triggers the energy aimed at achieving a certain goal. In the context of this paper, motivators refer to factors that persuade a customer into purchasing a product from one company when more than two alternatives are presented. For instance, a customer would be persuaded to purchase a mobile application from Apple instead of Google (Sumeet & Hee-Woong, 2010). A number of factors have been identified to induce an immense deal of motivation on the consumer. In the case of mobile application, physical appearance tends to influence the buyer in a significant manner. A good number of buyers hold the belief that a product whose physical appearance attracts the aye tends to be more interesting when it comes to real use. This explains why the App Store owned by Apple, Inc. has been able to out do its close competitors as a result of outstanding physical appearances of products. In addition, buyers tend to draw a great deal of influence from the value of their money (Sumeet & Hee-Woong, 2010). One common characteristic of consumers in all industries is the tendency of valuing their money. This has the implication that a consumer will always be interested into products that fully return the value of his/her money. This factor influences the choice of consumers in two ways. Firstly, there are consumers who value their money in such a way that they would not wish to spend a lot; this has the implication that such consumers will opt for products trading at low pieces. In this case, in the mobile applications industry, such consumers will make decisions to purchase from other companies rather than Apple, considering that products from Apple, Inc. are characteristic of high prices (Sorina-Raula, Liviu & Georgeta-Madalina, 2008). On the other hand, another group of customers values its money in such a way that it would spend more but for high quality products. In the context of the mobile applications industry, this group of customers will prefer Apple, Inc. to its close competitors. 6.1 Socio-economic Status The process of making purchasing decisions (by consumers) is significantly influenced by the socio-economic status of individual buyers and the population at large. Notably, consumers seek to satisfy their needs in order of priority which ideally is determined by their income. This factor holds in the mobile applications industry considering that it deals with products that are luxuries rather than necessities. This has the implication that consumers in this industry will go for products whose prices fit their socio-economic classes. Ideally, a buyer ought to acquire the needed applications without straining. Consumers ought to harmonize their needs with their earnings. In many parts of the globe, consumers are motivated by their socio-economic status into buying certain products. For instance, an individual in the upper socio-economic class may draw motivation from his/her good earnings thus making purchases of mobile applications. In other cases, the customer is motivated to buy a certain product by the mere fact that he/she belongs to a certain socio-economic class. Notably, there are certain brands that are associated with certain socio-economic classes (Bass, 1969). This is why individuals belonging to the middle and upper socio-economic classes are motivated to purchase from companies that are associated with high value brand names; Apple, Inc. being one of those corporations. 7.0 Personality and Self-Concept Ideally, customers are influenced in the course of making decisions by personality and self-concept. Self-concept enables an individual to have adequate knowledge regarding the properties (merits and demerits) of intended products (Sumeet & Hee-Woong, 2010). For instance, individuals who have professionalism in electronics will have self-concept on the products that will best serve the purpose. This has the implication that consumers will have professionalism in software will make decisions on the mobile applications to be purchased based on their self-concept. In the same category of factors, personality can also influence the decision making processes of individuals in a dynamic manner. Personality is known to have an immense deal of influence on the behavior of an individual in a significant manner (Bose, 2002). This is because personality of an individual has a lot to do with his/her dislikes. A number of products are associated with behaviours which vary among individuals. Ideally, the personality of an individual determines his/her likelihood to purchase a certain product simply by making judgment of the packaging (Sorina-Raula, Liviu & Georgeta-Madalina, 2008). Notably, packages of products carry various messages implying that certain individuals may be forced by their personality to reject certain products as a result of their personality. In the formation of marketing strategies, business ought to keep into consideration that businesses have focus on individuals of different personality. This will also depend on the particular product being marketed. For the sale of mobile applications ought to have a major target on fun loving individuals. In the course of making decisions, this category of consumers is significantly influenced by the level of fun provided by a certain application. Other personalities are information-oriented having the implication that their purchasing decisions (with respect to mobile applications) will be based on the capability of an application providing information of different fields (Sumeet & Hee-Woong, 2010). 8.0 Perception Decision making process is also influenced by how an individual has perceived a certain product or the provider of that product. In most cases, perception is a post-purchase consequence; this has the implication that after making a purchase, the consumers judges if the utility obtained from the product is worth his/her money (Sorina-Raula, Liviu & Georgeta-Madalina, 2008). Therefore, if a consumer has been satisfied by a certain product he/she will have a perception that the product is worth its vale; on the other had, after consumption, a customer who does not gain satisfactory results from a product will have the perception that the product is not worth its value. A customer can also develop perception of the manufacturer of a product. In this case customers may or may not buy certain products as a result of perceived images of manufacturers (Ivanov, 2009). This perception may draw influence from an array of factors including social corporate responsibility, employee motivation, work environment, the commitment of the company to environmental conservation, and marketing strategies. A single of a combination of these factors could make customers perceive certain manufacturers as being competent or being incompetent. Thus, consumer’s perception can to a great extent influence their decision making processes prior to making purchases. 9.0 Conclusion With the global economy exhibiting a number of constraints, multinational companies have been left with few options to gain an edge past their close competitors. One of these few options is knowledge on the behavior of consumers as this enables companies to make informed choices on market segmentation. Thus, it has become essential for business leaders to understand the internal factors that influence the decision making processes of consumers when it comes to purchasing. An immense deal of academics and researchers tend hold the common consensus that the theory of human purchasing has numerous stages. This explains why several models and theories have been developed by academics and researchers, in the recent years, on grounds of different findings and factors. Everyday consumers are faced with decision making processes regarding purchases. 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