The Behavior of the Marketer Both Before and After the Purchase - Research Paper Example

Introduction Purchasing was not a big task around two three decades before. Only thing the consumers thought before purchasing a product earlier was about the necessity of the product and the financial abilities of the consumer. But at present, the consumer needs and the behaviours have changed a lot. The life standards and the levels are changed a lot and based on that the consumer behaviours also changed. Moreover, the competition is so stiff nowadays that even for a particular product, dozens of options are available for the consumers. Because of this increased availability of different brands of products, consumers are more selective nowadays. They compare the features of a product with the competing products before taking their purchasing decisions. Marketers found it extremely difficult to convince the current consumers. Current Consumers consider so many factors before taking purchasing decision. Two of my neighbours recently purchased two cars from different suppliers. I have interviewed them to learn more about the current trends in the consumer behaviours before the purchasing. I have asked same questions to both of them their responses taken as the base for writing this paper. For convenience I call them consumer A and consumer B in this paper. Consumer A was richer and more educated than Consumer B. Moreover, consumer A was working in the city as a system analyst in a multinational company whereas consumer B was a teacher in a rural school. For convenience, I have used the responses of both the consumers to each question alternatively to get a good comparison about the different purchasing behaviours of people. Consumer A has purchased a Bens S class whereas consumer B has purchased a Honda Civic. Consumer behaviour in purchasing vehicles Learning My first question to both the consumers was about how they have taken their decision to purchase these products. Consumer A has told me that his budget for the vehicle was around $ 100000 and based on that he has tried to collect as much as information about the price, and features of the luxury cars available in that range. He has visited many dealers of different brands and collected all the possible information about the vehicles on the offer. Moreover he has searched the internet also for knowing more about the vehicles of his choice. He also read articles in the news papers and magazines about the various vehicles available in the market. He has shortlisted some of the vehicles during the initial phase of his learning of the vehicles. Consumer B on the other hand, also did almost the same thing, but he was more interested in cheaper vehicles compared to consumer A because of his limited financial abilities. He told me that his budget was around $ 30000 and he searched vehicles in that price segment only. He mainly collected details form the dealers and the vehicle owners. He never tried to surf the net for getting more details about the vehicles. He told me that the vehicle leader may publish colourful stories about the vehicle in the internet and in the news papers in order to make the consumers fools. In his opinion, learning of the vehicle must be done from the vehicle users itself rather than relying on the false claims published in various medias. Beliefs and attitudes My second question was about the role beliefs and attitudes in taking their purchasing decisions. Consumer A has told me that brand value definitely might have influenced his purchasing decisions. He told me that he has shortlisted four brands after the initial screening based on the price, features, and brand value. He told me that it was difficult for him to select a particular brand from the shortlisted ones since all of them had certain unique features compared to other. Some of them had superior fuel efficiency whereas some others were better environment friendly compared to others. Consumer A opted for Benz because of the superior brand value it has got compared to all the other shortlisted ones. Consumer B on the other hand was not much particular about the brand value. He has compared the fuel efficiency, price and resale value mainly before opting for the Honda. He told me that the car industry is undergoing immense changes because of the fear of shortage of petroleum fuels in the near future itself. So, mostly the petroleum prices will go up in near future itself and hence it is better to opt for a fuel efficient car. Moreover he has also told me that the threats of recession is still on cards and it is not wise to spent much money on vehicles at present. Purchase decisions Both the consumers have told me that the purchase decision was taken after a long evaluation and analysis. Consumer A has told me that he has taken around one moth for taking his decision whereas consumer A seems to be more careful and took around 2 months before finalizing the Honda Civic. Both of them told me that many others influenced them in taking their purchasing decisions. Consumer A has told me that he has consulted with his wife before finalizing the Benz whereas consumer B has told me that he has consulted with many of his friends before finalizing the civic. Post purchase behaviour Post purchase behaviour of the supplier was another factor which was considered by both consumer A and consumer B. Service warrantee is essential for expensive goods in general and for cars in particular. Both the consumers were so particular about the post purchase service quality of the dealer before they executed their purchasing. Consumer A has told me that even a good product with poor after sales service is not advisable in the present world. Consumer B also underlined the words of consumer A. He has told me that even an average product may move better in the market if the dealer was able to provide good customer support even after the sales. Relationship building is accepted as the core of every business activity at present and after sales service is one way of building the relationships with the customer. Cognitive dissonance My fourth question was about the cognitive dissonance happen to many of the consumers after the purchase. Consumer A has told me that he has taken his decision to purchase the Benz because of the better brand value associated wit it. But he told me that he was very much impressed by a BMW vehicle of the same calibre which was more beautiful in design compared to the Benz he purchased. He told me that it was a difficult task for him to avoid the BMW for purchasing the Benz. He told me that even after purchasing Benz, at times he asks the question himself; does my decision was a wise one?. He told me that so far many times he has asked this question whenever his Benz meets some problems or whenever he happens to see others driving the BMW vehicle. Consumer B also got similar feelings after the purchasing of his Honda Civic. He told me that whenever he comes across with the news of better fuel efficient cars than his car, he often fell in disgust. He told me that the first two three months after the purchasing was very good for him as far his satisfaction with the vehicle was concerned. But there after he started to develop cognitive dissonance whenever he met new cars owed by others. Conclusions Consumer behaviours are changing drastically over the last two decades. People are more conscious about the quality, reliability and utility of the products they purchased and most of the purchasing decisions are taken only after a careful analysis of the data available about the vehicle. It is difficult for the marketers to satisfy the consumers with features rather than quality. The behaviour of the marketer both before and after the purchase is so important in ensuring the better movement of the product in the market. Read More