Effects of Internal Factors on Consumer Decision-Making Process - Coursework Example

Effects of Internal factors on consumer decision-making process Name Institution Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Effect of internal factors on decision-making process 5 Motivation 5 Personality and self-concept 6 Perception and Consumer imagery 7 Learning 9 Attitudes 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction Consumers are always involved in making purchase decisions. Sometimes they are required to make very easy decisions when involving in purchases, while sometimes they are forced to engage in a great deal of thinking before they purchase certain products or services (Chambers, 2012). Consumer purchase decisions involve identifying which products and services they need to buy and which ones they need to ignore (Diecidue, Rudi, & Wejie, 2012). Thus consumer behaviour involves the overall behaviour displayed by consumers from the time they search for the product or services to purchase until they dispose off these products or services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the consumer decision making process and how different internal factors influence consumers’ decision to make a purchase. The product that will be used to accomplish this assignment is Pepsi Cola. This is a soft drink product which is categorised under soft drink Industry in Australia. Thus, the analysis will include how internal factors influence consumers to purchase this product. Consumer decision making process First, it is important to start by reflecting on the process of consumer decision-making which involves five main steps including recognition, search for information, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post-purchase. This process occurs systematically (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2002). The first step is recognition where a consumer perceives a problem through loss of consumer’s actual state. For instance, a consumer may feel like refreshing him or her self which may be categorised as a need. After recognizing a particular need, the consumer begins a search for information that can help meet the need. The consumer seeks to gain knowledge about possible solutions options to the problem and particular attributes to these options. Before making a purchase, consumers evaluate the problem solving options for their suitability to be able to solve the existing problem (Adapa, 2014). At this level, attitude and evaluative criteria are formed. Upon getting the right alternative amongst the many alternatives, consumers may decide to purchase or ignore a product or service. Consumer may them decide to re-purchase or ignore depending on their experience with the product or service. This is referred to as post-purchase behaviour. Marketing strategy Pepsi is a product that falls under low involvement. This is because there is no significant amount of decision making concerned when buying the soft drink compared to for instance, when buying a new mobile phone (Richarme, 2001). Consumers often purchase this product due to affordable price and the perceived quality they derive from it. This product serves a large segment of market geographically as its consumers come from all regions in Australia, both in urban and rural areas. Demographically, the product meets the needs of both male and female with different ages. It is also used by many families as refreshment. The product is affordable to both low and high income earners in the market. However, the target segment for this product is students and young adults because they like taking refreshing regularly. Students and young adults can get extra income to spend on the product. The targeting process for the product involves use of undifferentiated strategy as the company communicates its benefits by using the same promotional message to all consumers (Kolb, 2006). Also, the product is readily available at affordable prices and provides similar benefits to all consumers making it appropriate to use undifferentiated strategy in the targeting process. The positioning statement for the product is “The way to stay fresh is taking Pepsi, a product with unique test”. This will serve as a core message to deliver to consumers through different promotional methods (Lynch & Zauberman, 2007). The perceptual map for the product in respect to its market share appears as follows. Figure 1: Perceptual map for Pepsi Effect of internal factors on decision-making process Motivation Consumption of Pepsi Cola is induced by consumers’ level of motivation. Motivation is the driving force within consumers that impels them to purchase the product so as to satisfy their needs. Thus, the motive to purchase Pepsi may be aroused by physiological, emotional, cognitive and environmental aspects (Adapa, 2014). The consumers’ decision to buy the product can be explained in respect to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and trio needs. According to Maslow’s hierarchy on needs, individuals desire for another a higher need arises after fulfillment of a lower need. This depends of individual perception of how far a lower need has been achieved (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2002). Consumers may be motivated to purchase Pepsi Cola due to the need to be associated with the product. In many cases, the soft drink is taken in social groups and this can highly influence the decision to purchase the product so the consumer can feel part of the group. This is common among the segment market for the product. Therefore, the decision to purchase this brand can be triggered by need for affiliation and achievement (Adapa, 2014). The degree of satisfaction varies among individuals as different needs are associated with different fulfillment. A lower need to one person may be a higher need to another depending on various factors. This applies to Pepsi Cola. Personality and self-concept Consumers’ personality explains their decision to purchase Pepsi Cola product. The physical and psychological characteristics which influence consumer behaviour are either fully unique to specific consumers or shared among the target group (Pickett-Baker & Ozaki, 2008). The Big 5 personality traits that relate to consumers’ decision to purchase this product include Neuroticism, Extroversion and Openness to experience (Adapa, 2014). Some consumers may demonstrate neuroticism by buying the product as a trial to experience perceived negative effects it brings about. An extrovert consumer will be interested in purchasing Pepsi Cola product to be part of the Pepsi community. A consumer with this type of personality trait feels some level of satisfaction when associated with the brand (Adapa, 2014). Another important personality trait is openness to experience. Some consumers purchase Pepsi Cola because they want to want to have a new experience. This could not be their best brand but the desire to discover more drives them to purchase the product. The significant strategic marketing applications related to this product are brand personality, fixated consumption behaviour and exploratory purchase behaviour (Adapa, 2014). Consumers for Pepsi Cola are influenced by the brand name and price and to some extend the advertising style. Some consumers are also obsessed with the product due to the quality it offers. Some consumers purchase the product in the process of trying to experience new and better options. The extent to which individuals value themselves depends on the relationship between how they see themselves and what they would like to be. Individuals’ ideal self may not match with what takes place in life and their experiences (McLeod, 2008). In order for consumers to achieve self-actualization from consumption of the product, their ideal self should be consistent to the experience with the product. Therefore, the decision for consumers to purchase the product may be linked to their self-image. Individuals want to interact with the product because of the value they expect to get from the product in terms of how they would like be and felt no others (Argyle, 2008). Ideal self affects the consumers’ decision to purchase Pepsi Cola. Perception and Consumer imagery The consumers’ decision to purchase Pepsi Cola depends on their perception towards the brand. This is a systematic process that comprises of three elements including selective perception, perceptual organization and perception interpretation (Adapa, 2014). The first stage is selective perception where consumers perceive what they need to meet their satisfaction in this case Pepsi Cola. The choice to purchase this product depends on its potential to meet consumers’ refreshment needs. In selective perception, consumers are interested in hearing information that is appealing to them as far as quality of the product concerns (Simcock, Sudbury & Wright, 2006). What follows selective perception is perception organization where the consumers link their perception about Pepsi Cola with the company (Adapa, 2014). In this case, consumers closely associate the product with Pepsi Company. Whenever the name of the company is mentioned, what comes in the mind of consumers is Pepsi Cola. Perceptual interpretation comes in when consumers start to interpret the motivation towards having the product. This is usually guided by their past experiences, interests and motives at the time (Adapa, 2014). At this level, consumers try to seek convincing reasons to purchase the product and depending on their interpretation they will either buy the product of ignore. Usually, consumers evaluate the product according to how they picture themselves. Thus, positioning strategies applied to the product influence consumer imagery (Harradine & Ross, 2007). The positioning strategies relevant to Pepsi Cola include competitor-based positioning, umbrella positioning and value-based positioning (Adapa, 2014). Given that there are various competitors in the soft drink industry, Pepsi Cola is positioned in the market in a manner that creates value to consumers. Consumers of the product know and freely associate with it despite many competitors. The product is also differentiated from competitors and can easily be identified by consumers (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2002). Pepsi Cola is included in entire line of products the company produces. Therefore, in umbrella positioning, the brand is advertised by use of similar visual elements and one brand message that makes it easy for consumers to recognize the product (Harradine & Ross, 2007). Value-based positioning involves identifying consumers’ unique needs so as to create value for them. Through proven sales processes and customer experiences with the brand, the company continues to increase customer value (Harradine & Ross, 2007). Learning Behavioural and cognitive learning theories can also be used to explain consumer behaviour, especially in the decision making. According to behavioural learning theory, consumers assume certain behaviour through repetitive actions that define their conduct in the marketplace (Adapa, 2014). Most consumers who use Pepsi Cola have been used to it and therefore always feel like purchasing the same product again and again. Also, the consumers’ decision to buy the product is influenced by the manipulation from the environment and the past experience with the product. Alternatively, through cognitive learning, consumers can decide to purchase the product (Wheeler & Arunachalam, 2009). This is the ability of consumers to use the information about the product to make the decision to purchase. The decision to buy is processed in the mind of the consumer after considering other factors. Attitudes Attitude determines the behaviour of individuals towards a given object. The behaviour could either be favourable or unfavuorable depending on the attitude (Adapa, 2014). This also applies to the behaviour of consumers towards products and services. The decision for consumers to purchase Pepsi can be explained in terms of their attitude towards the product. In respect to the Attitude-towards-object Model, consumers’ attitudes can be measured towards this product. Attitudes are learned predisposition and this means that consumers tendency to buy the product is base on their learning experiences from probably other people who have used the product before (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2002). According to this model, consumers’ attitude towards Pepsi Cola is based on personal evaluation of product attributes like taste, as well as particular beliefs concerning the product (Adapa, 2014). Consumer attitudes towards the product determine their purchase pattern. Conclusion Consumer behaviour incorporates various concepts and theories that explain consumer decision-making process. The consumer decision-making process include recognition, search for information, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post-purchase. Pepsi Cola’s marketing strategy identified in the paper are Segmentation, Targeting process, Positioning. The motivational theories related to the product include Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Trio needs. The paper also discussed the product in relation to Big 5 Personality trait theory and the ideal self, an element of self-concept. Perception, Consumer imagery, Learning, Attitude also formed part of the discussion with focus on respective concepts and theories. All these concepts and theories are useful in helping employ strategies that will satisfy the needs and expectations on their customers and remain competitive in the industry. References Adapa, S. (2014). MM311: Consumer Behaviour, Topic 1 notes. [Power Point slides]. Adapa, S. (2014). MM311: Consumer Behaviour, Topic 2 notes. [Power Point slides]. Adapa, S. (2014). MM311: Consumer Behaviour, Topic 3 notes. [Power Point slides]. Adapa, S. (2014). MM311: Consumer Behaviour, Topic 4 notes. [Power Point slides]. Adapa, S. (2014). MM311: Consumer Behaviour, Topic 5 notes. [Power Point slides]. Adapa, S. (2014). MM311: Consumer Behaviour, Topic 6 notes. [Power Point slides]. Argyle, M. (2008). Social Encounters: Contributions to Social Interaction. Aldine Transaction Armstrong, G., & Cunningham, M. H. (2002). Principles of marketing. Scarborough, Ont.: Prentice Hall. Chambers, K. (2012). Internal Influences affecting the consumer purchase decision making process. 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