The Stages of the Consumer Buying Process - Case Study Example

Understanding Consumer Buying Process The consumer buying process is the action taken by your before they buy your goods or services. These actions include social and mental process that precede and follow these actions (Tyagi and Kumar, 2004). There is always a buying decision process behind every visible buying action. It is important for a manager to analyze the buying process of consumers since the reactions of buyers to the marketing strategies of the firm has a great impact on its success, it helps them in predicting the response of consumers to marketing strategies and helps them in the creation of marketing mix. As the manager of Bentley hotel in Bulle, I should make sure that I understand my consumers buying process for effective management of Bentley, to maximize my sales and for effective competition with the competitors. Understanding consumer buying decision process will enable the manager to align the sales strategies of the hotel accordingly (Lantos, 2010). This includes a thorough understanding of the stages of consumer buying process. Stages of consumer buying process 1. Problem recognition Recognizing the consumer needs is one of the important steps in the consumer buying process. A purchase decision cannot take place without the recognition of the need. This is sometimes triggered by internal stimuli like thirst or hunger or external stimuli like advertising (product information). Perceiving the difference between the actual and ideal situation of a customer triggers a buying decision (Reynolds and Olson, 2001). This can be achieved by investigating the needs of the consumer and finding the best solutions to them such that the products available in your premises for sale are the needed ones by your consumers. Marketers should have good knowledge of buying motives, and this means that the marketer of Bently hotel should be able to track down what the consumers want to make my business successful. In order to have effective customer service, the manager must know what your customers want, provide it on a consistent basis and ask them on how you are doing. The manager should also learn the best foods for my customers and the first going foods. For instance if providing poor quality services does not in any way honor the needs of the customers In relation to consumer buying process, the manager should also offer after sales services to my consumers as a way of encouraging my customers to come back again. It is also important to establish and use effective advertising methods which will reach all the company customers for instance the media and internet are good for the success of the hotel (Ford, 2002). 2. Searching for information: Seeking value Information search is the other step in consumer buying process that the manager should understand in order to be able to create marketing strategies that are suitable for reaching different market segments. This stage clarifies all options that are open to the consumers and may include high risk of making wrong purchasing decision, scanning ones memory to recalling previous experiences that one had with brands or products, insufficient past knowledge or experience low cost of gathering information (Reynolds and Olson, 2001). The primary sources of external information include public sources like consumer reports, personal sources like family and friends and marketer dominated sources like advertising and sales people. Information search is very important as it helps customers determine the best solution, and this is why buyers search the external and internal environment as this helps in the identification and evaluation of all sources that are related to the central buying decision. When consumers establish the need for a certain product then the consumer also search for their solutions probably via the printed sources, visual sources such as billboards, online media, word of mouth that is obtaining information from friends and other reliable people, research films, experimental, which includes buying a relevant product to taste if it can satisfy the need. Therefore in order to capture the attention of the consumer, the manager should make use of as many advertising methods as in order to reach the possible maximum number of people (consumers). That is, the manager should employ both internal and external methods to avail all the required information about the hotel and its products and services to the consumers (Williams, 2012). The manager should also have to make sure that he provides quality services for the customers to create good relations with the public. It is important for the manager to ensure that all customers are satisfied, and this will be attained through having a suggestion wall and box for the customers to post their suggestions and complaints and make sure their feedback will be highly valued. 3. Evaluation of alternatives Then next action the consumers will take is the evaluation of alternative solutions, the consumers look for good ranking. For example that if the buyer decides that he/she wants to eat something spicy; he or she will look for the food with the highest rank. Information search clarified the problems for the consumer through suggesting the best criteria for use in purchasing, yielding brand names that might meet their criteria and development of consumer value perception (Reynolds and Olson, 2001). Consumers will always evaluate different brands or products on the basis of different attributes and more so those attributes that have the ability of delivering all the benefits sought by the customer. The reason why consumers may search for other alternatives is because the competitors may be offering other types of services such as different types of foods such as the cultural foods which are liked by many especially the foreigners from other countries, they also may be offering their food at a lower price to entice customers and even giving outside catering which may attract many consumers (Foxall, Goldsmith and Brown, 1998). So in order to avoid the customers from looking for alternative products, the manager should ensure that the hotel will provide fair prices for the customers, offer different products according to the different tastes and preferences, and also offer outside catering for my customers at a relatively lower price to attract more of them. Also, consumer behavior is the other consideration; consumer behavior is how individuals make decisions on spending their available resources (time; money or effort) on consumption related items to satisfy their needs. It is important to know about the reaction of the buyer to the firm’s marketing strategy because this has a great influence on the firm’s success. 4. Purchase Decision: Buying value Purchase decision is the next important step which depends on the terms of sale, experience from buyer and the pleasantness of the premises. This is the stage where actual purchase takes place. Purchase decision has three possibilities which are from whom to buy, when to buy the products and do not buy (Reynolds and Olson, 2001). From whom to buy depends on considerations such as terms of sale, return policy andexperiences that the buyers had from the seller. When to buy and do not buy can be influenced by time pressure, store atmosphere and pleasant shopping experience. Purchase decision may be interrupted by two factors, which are negative feedback from other customers and the level of customers motivation into accepting the feedbacks. For example, a consumer may purchase local food from the hotel. However, he or she changes their preference because he or she receives a negative feedback from his or her good friend (Paremeswaran, 2003). Purchase decision of consumers depends on their social, personal and economic significance of the purchase and their level of involvement. The hotel should be strategically made attractive through having ventilators, comfortable seats, high class utensils, the workers should have destined uniform, have some entertainment features like free wifi and television screens all through to create a pleasant environment for the buyers. The manager should also ensure that there are effective means of payment to cater for all the customers. 5. Post-Purchase behavior: Value in consumption The other important step is the post purchase behavior, and this will be realized by keenly studying the turn up of the consumers. Post purchasing behavior as whereby the consumer evaluates the products or services offered compared to his/her earlier expectation and get to decide if to come back again or shift to another producer of similar products (Reynolds and Olson, 2001). That is; a consumer compares the product bought and their expectations, which results into either a satisfaction or dissatisfaction. If the consumer is satisfied with the product or the products meet the consumers expectation the consumer will automatically come back, and if it does not meet the customers expectation the consumer will not repurchase your products and spread negative information about your premises (Chernatony, McDonald and Wallace, 2011). To avoid all this, the marketer should consider the customer feedback. Consequently, the manager should consider all customers feedback in order to enhance the brand name of Bentley hotel. This will be done by evaluating the feedback and providing appropriate solutions to the problems (Hoyer, Deborah and Pieters, 2012). The manager should also provide free gifts such as free drinks for all the users of Bentley hotel or else provide t-shirts and initiate a competition on how to win them but should be careful to avoid running on a loss. The manager can also use ads or follow ups calls from sales people to the customers in order to try to convince the buyers that they made the right decision by purchasing their hotel services and products. Dissatisfaction or satisfaction highly affects the consumer communication, consumer value perceptions and repeat purchase behavior. It is important for the manager to work towards the production of positive post purchase communications among their customers and to contribute positively to relationship building between the consumers and the hotel attendants. The hotel manager should be very careful to create a positive post-purchase communication as this helped in engaging customers and in making the purchase process efficient (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2011). Conclusion The above stages are highly critical in retaining customers, and that is why the manager should understand each stage. A satisfied customer always results into brand loyalty, which is good for the success of any organization (Chernatony, McDonald and Wallace, 2011). From the above information, it is evident that if the manager advertises the hotel well as well as considering all the customer’s needs, providing them with after sales services, making sure all customers are satisfied, providing them with quality services and making good relations with them, the hotel will be a success. The manager should also ensure the workers are well groomed and courteous to provide good services to the customers. The workers should also work together towards making the business succeed and have respect for one another. References Lamb C, Hair J and McDaniel C, (2011). Essentials of Marketing. Cengage Learning Tyagi C.L and Kumar A, (2004). Consumer Behaviour. Atlantic Publishers & Dist Hoyer W.D, Deborah J.M and Pieters R, (2012). Consumer Behavior. Cengage Learning Sokolowski O, (2013). Influences and Attitudes Within Consumer Behaviour Process. GRIN Verlag Lantos G.P, (2010). Consumer Behavior in Action: Real-Life Applications for Marketing Managers. M.E. Sharpe Reynolds T.J and Olson J.C, (2001). Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-end Approach To Marketing and Advertising Strategy. Taylor & Francis Ford D, (2002). Understanding Business Marketing and Purchasing: An Interaction Approach. Cengage Learning EMEA Williams A, (2012). Understanding the Hospitality Consumer. Routledge Foxall G.R, Goldsmith R.E and Brown S, (1998). Consumer Psychology for Marketing, Volume 1. Cengage Learning EMEA, 1998 Paremeswaran, (2003). Understanding Consumers: Building Powerful Brands Using Consumer Research. Tata McGraw-Hill Education Chernatony L, McDonald M and Wallace E, (2011). Creating Powerful Brands. Routledge Read More