Purchase Behavior of the Consumers - Essay Example

? Answers The purchase behavior of the consumers is influenced by several factors. On the basis of the purchaser’s knowledge and experience quick or slow decisions for purchase are made and for the purpose of making the correct decision, gathering the right information becomes extremely necessary. The involvement level reveals the extent to which the customer is attached with or interested in the product or service and how much time he/she wishes to spend before making the final decision related to the purchase. The decision is important, less important or not so important is determined by the high, low or medium level of involvement of the consumer in the pre purchase decision (2012books.lardbucket, n.d.). Thus from the discussion we can arrive at the definitions of the three types of purchases. The low involvement purchase implies the buying process where the purchasers do not perceive the product to be crucial enough and do not relate with it strongly (staff.uny.ac., n.d.). In this type of purchase decision the customer puts the least effort in browsing, comparing and selecting activities. Example of low involvement purchase could be purchasing casual daily wear t-shirts. The medium involvement purchase implies the purchase of products like the grocery items like toothpaste and newspaper etc. that requires medium level of information gathering endeavor and the buyer attaches themselves with the product to a medium level. For a medium level product the buyer puts a moderate level of effort towards the browsing, comparing and selecting procedure. The high involvement purchase deals with high level of involvement of the customer with the product or service they are planning to purchase. These types of products or services are way more expensive than the medium and low involvement products. The time spent on the decision making process is the longest for the high involvement products. In this case the customer puts the maximum effort towards browsing, comparing and choosing activities. 2. The chosen brand for the present study is Nestle. This brand has been chosen since Nestle has got a diverse product portfolio that will easily help us to identify the low involvement, medium involvement and high involvement purchases. The brand has products ranging from bottled waters, chocolates, cereals, dairy, coffee, drinks, food, ice-creams, Purina pet care etc. Among these categories chocolates, dairy products and ice-creams will be categorized as the high-involvement products, while the Purina pet care will be considered as the medium involvement purchase and the bottled water will be the low involvement purchase. Marketing strategies undertaken by the makers of Nestle would encourage the consumer to search for all the information regarding low involvement purchases, medium involvement purchases and high involvement purchases since the operations and activities of Nestle are quite transparent and all the information are available online. The consumers have the option to make the purchase online through the Nestle nutrition store. For a high involvement purchase the marketer must present some information regarding the product or service which the help the creation of an encouraging attitude for the brand that will consequently result in a purchase. The advertisements in this case should be focused on the factual significance. The problem recognition state in this case reflects the doubt in the mind of the consumer regarding the purchase decision which can only be answered by the availability of detailed information related to price, quality and material of the product. The problem in the case of medium involvement purchase requires an adequate amount of information and a good amount of time for comparing the similar products. In this case the marketer must come up with effective promotional campaigns to influence the decision of the purchasers. The low involvement purchase decision gives rise to the issue of lack of loyalty. In this case the marketer requires creating and maintaining brand reliability among the customers. The promotional tactics should put stress on the formation of brand attachment. The ad should be focused on both the factual information and entertainment (Sahney, n.d.). 3. Nestle chocolates Purina pet care Bottled Waters 4. For the high involvement purchase category, the dairy products, chocolates and ice-creams manufactured by Nestle can be considered since these products are mostly consumed by the children and therefore while purchasing these products the parents get extremely concerned about the quality, taste, manufacturing date and health facts of the product. In this case price becomes a secondary factor while information gathering becomes the primary focus of the customer. The medium involvement purchase category includes the Purina pet care which is related to the pets and the general consumers will pay moderate attention towards the purchase decision of these products. In this case price will act as an essential factor to be considered by the consumer. Bottled water is the ideal example of low involvement product since all the companies selling bottled water claims that the water is 100% pure and when people buy bottled water to meet their immediate requirement of quenching their thirst they never look for different brands and gather information before making the purchase. Here the priority is quenching the thirst and the need of the customer becomes much more important in this case than the price or other product factors. 5. While making a purchase decision the consumer keeps considering all the factors related to the purchase and all the brands offering the similar kind of products. According to the researchers the brands are organized in the consumer’s mind in the following manner- The first set is known as the awareness set that includes majority of the brands which are known to the customer. In the subsequent phase of decision making process merely a subset of the known brands remains in the consumer’s mind. This subset is referred to as an evoked set. The brands that are forgotten by the consumers during the decision making process are referred to as the inert set. Within the evoked set all the products doesn’t fit the requirements of the consumer and these products forms the inept set. Thus in our discussion the products like chocolate, dairy products, bottled water, and the products for the pet can be categorized as- Awareness set Evoked set Inert set Inept set Chocolates, dairy products Kit Kat, Mars, Musketeers, Milky way bar, Cadbury and Toblerone Kit Kat, Mars, Cadbury and Musketeers Galaxy and Guylian Milky way bar and Toblerone Product for pets Del Monte Foods, Purina pet care and Pedigree Purina pet care and Pedigree Diamond pet foods Del Monte Foods Bottled water Evian Natural Spring Water, Gerolsteiner Mineral Water and the bottled water by Nestle Evian and Nestle Aquafina Gerolsteiner Mineral Water 6. High (Prestigious to own) Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi and BMW Jaguar, Ford and Toyota Low High (Financial Effectiveness) Audi and Proton Volvo and Hyundai Low In the above diagram we can find a perceptual map that reflects the position of ten high involvement products. All the included brands belong to the automobile sector. The x axis and y axis represents the parameters financial effectiveness and prestigious to own respectively. For the highly prestigious and extremely financially effective brands like Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi and BMW the evaluation criteria should be luxury and comfort. For the highly prestigious and low financially effective products the evaluation factors should be price and status symbol. For the extremely financially effective and less prestigious to own products the evaluation criteria should be the longevity, exterior and interior look, engine, popularity and brand value of the product. For the low financially effective products and less prestigious to own products the evaluation factors must be price, resale value and design. Reference 2012books.lardbucket. (n.d.) Low-Involvement Versus High-Involvement Buying Decisions and the Consumer’s Decision-Making Process Retrieved from http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/marketing-principles-v2.0/s06-02-low-involvement-versus-high-in.html staff.uny.ac. (n.d.) Low-Involvement Consumer Decision Making. Retrieved from http://staff.uny.ac.id/sites/default/files/pendidikan/Arum%20Darmawati,%20SE.,MM./Materi%20P.Kons%203.pdf Sahney, S. (n.d.) CONSUMER BEHAVIOR. India : IIT-Kharagpur. Retrieved from http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses/110105029/pdf%20sahany/Module.6-17.pdf Read More