Internet Mavens and Family Decision Making - Coursework Example

Internet Mavens and Family Decision Making Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Literature Review 4 Analysis 5 Changes in the marketplace 5 Family Decision Making Process 7 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction The intercommunication among the various members in the society has always plays a big role in the various kinds of social activities and also for creating a certain kind of perception. The major type of intercommunication is mouth to mouth which basically relates to exchange of information regarding various brands and products among the different members in the society. Market mavens are considered to be the experts in the market who have a wide range of knowledge about various range of products available in the market. With the increasing demand and growth in internet and business looking forward towards taking the internet platform the concept of e-commerce has grown up at a huge rate. Internet mavens are the persons who are internet savvy and have a good knowledge with regard to online searching and finding information about various products and platforms available in the market and thus provide that information to others. In today’s generation with the increasing growth of teenagers surfing net, it’s the teenagers who have become the internet mavens. They spend their most of time surfing on net in various websites and searching information’s regarding various things. They do play a big role in making the buying decision of the family as they are more involved with the market. In this report it can be seen how the changes in the market demands has created an impact in the business world by increasing the online purchase and buying process. The impact of the internet mavens who are generally the teenagers in making the family decision making process is also been seen in this concern report using various scholarly sources. Discussion Literature Review According to Greenspan in 2002, the use of internet is max among the teens and the children’s wherein 70% of them regularly use internet for surfing various sites. This is huge percentage of population across the world among the children’s who use internet facility on regular basis. In 1987, Feick and Price did find that the market internet mavens do exist and are also been recognised by others. As per them the market mavens are the ones who have more knowledge about the market place, enjoy more in shopping, have higher level of awareness, they are more aware about the changing market conditions and also have a huge level of interest and they also provide lot of information to the customers especially to their family members (Wright, 2006, pp. 56-64). As per Lenhart in 2001, teenagers use internet on daily basis for various purposes like e-mail, connecting with friends and family members, for searching information’s and also for shopping and making purchases. He also found that more than 73% of the teens use on daily basis while 38% of the teens connect more than once a day with internet. According to Holton in 2000, the parents asking their children’s before making the buying decision is not unusual as the parents believe that the children’s also do have their own way of perception and also they have good information about the market. Belch in 1985 said that the children’s do influence mostly in the stages of problem recognition and searching stages but they are involved very less in making the final decision and also the decision of the amount to be spend (Pride and Ferrell, 2011, pp. 45-53). The parents and the adult members of the family tend to believe that the children’s do help them in a huge way in finding the exact problem and also in searching the exact solution at a quick time, because of which they look to take the helps of their children’s to get the solutions and also to know the problems. But the amount that the family can invest over the particular solution is been decided by the adults only as they have more knowledge regarding the financial stability. As per Kuhn and Eischen in 1997, the children’s do influence in a huge way over the family decision making process and mainly towards the purchase decision made by the family. Children’s and teens do influence the adult members of the family in a huge way in making a particular purchase. The parents do act as primary decision makers but the teens and the children’s are the one who act as the actual moderator for the decision to be made (Kotler and Keller, 2006, pp. 87-95). Walsh, Gwinner, and Swanson in 2004, said that the internet mavens have good amount of knowledge about the market place and also with the changing conditions in the market and they look to share those important information’s with their family members and friends which does influence a lot in making the purchase decisions as a result of which the family members especially the adults are made to purchase particular items. Analysis Changes in the marketplace The amount of usage of internet for various purposes has increased in a huge way. Companies are looking to grow globally expanding their business to every part of the world. To attract and get more and more number of customers companies has looked to integrate the internet and their business by starting the concept of e-commerce. This has provided the customers a lot of benefits as they are able to avail their choice of product by sitting in their home. The buying process for the customers have become very easy and also comfortable as they are able to avail the products easily sand also they can easily make a choice among the huge number of options (Kotler and Lee, 2008, pp. 34-42). Use of internet in selling and buying process has provided the customers to get products of various brands from different parts of the worlds and also of good quality. They are able to compare easily among the various brands of same category of product. Internet has allowed the customers to search from a huge stock of products available across the entire world and also buy the best product at the best suited price (Solomon and Bamossy, 2002, pp. 37-44). The amount of information available in internet is vast and it does help the customers to gain the entire knowledge about the product and also the features of the particular product. Customers do get influenced in a huge way as they get connected to huge number of people through internet from whom they are able to get information regarding the changing market condition and also information about the product their features, its price, quality etc. All these factors do affect in a huge way in the purchase decision made by the customers as they are able to make the right decision for making the purchase (Hawkins, 2007, pp. 23-29). An Australian research company diode forecast that there will be an annual growth of 8.6% every year in online sales in the next coming five years. The use of internet has kept growing at a fast rate as it can be seen in South Africa 51% of people shop and makes their purchases online while in US an annual growth of 11% is seen with an expected value of $248.7 billion sales happening on online by 2014. The use of internet has also helped the companies to market and promote their products in a better way. Thus they are able to reach the customers easily by using various platforms like social media etc. This does enables the customers to get a huge and vast data of information and also get connected with the company directly thus knowing various aspects about the company and also the products (Kattan and Cowen, 2009, pp. 52-59). The customers get information from the reviews that are been given by the earlier users thus providing a huge information to the customers about the particular product and its performance. This type of information do affect a lot on the type of purchase decision made by the customer as they tend to buy only those products which have got good reviews from the earlier customers (Glowik and Smyczek, 2011, pp. 123-126). Children’s and teenagers surfing on internet on regular basis do get a lot of knowledge about each and every product and also about the latest innovative products that are launched in the market which can improve the lifestyle of their family. Thus they do share those information’s with the adults of their family and influence them in a huge way in making the choice of buying a particular product. These changes in the way of making the purchase have created a lot of changes in the global market. The amount of competition among the companies has grown by a huge margin and all the companies are trying their best to enter the e-commerce business or provide online buying service to the customers (Weimann, 1994, pp. 45-48). Companies have started to build good online websites and also provide best of the facility to the customers like making their website in various languages helping customers across different location to feel easy while purchasing, providing comparisons of products, providing offers and discounts on internet buying. These factors in turn have influenced and also helped the customers in a huge way. As they are able to get huge discounts and offers and also are able to get the best product sitting in their home (Lantos, 2010, pp. 34-39). Thus the customers across the world nowadays prefer to buy more from online sites than walking into stores and buying. Thus the evolving growth in internet has affected the global market in a huge way band has lead to many changes especially in the way the customers make their purchases. Family Decision Making Process Every family across the globe have their own limits of needs and demands. They tend to purchase various goods with the changing needs and requirements with time. There are basically four stages which are been listed below. 1. Problem recognition. 2. Searching the solutions. 3. Final purchase decision. 4. Making the purchase The first stage being the problem recognition wherein the exact requirement of the family for buying a particular product is been identified. Based on the problem indentified the various solutions are been searched using various mediums in the second stage followed by selecting the right solution. The third stage involves with making the final purchase decision where the final decision for buying the product is been made and then finally the product is been purchased by the family (Christou and Simpson, 2007, pp. 98-104). The internet mavens being basically the teens and the children’s do influence in a huge way the whole decision with respect to buy a particular product is been made. They are very much attached to the internet and do surf a lot using internet for various purpose. The amount of information that they get from internet is huge. In the family decision making process with respect to purchasing a particular product the teens and the children do play a vital role but mainly in the first two stages. In the first stage where the problem or the need is been identified the children’s and the teens are able to get a good amount of information regarding the new and innovative products which can help in making the life of the whole family better (Lambin, 2008, pp. 79-85). They are able to visualise the needs and the requirements of certain product which can help in solving a certain problem in the family and help them in having a more comfortable life. Knowing the problem or identifying the problem helps the entire family as they are able to see different options to get a solution for that concern problem or need. The teens and the children’s are able to get views and ideas from various people in the internet using various platforms to understand the need which can help in betterment of the family conditions. After the problem is been identified the internet mavens that are the teens and the children’s are able to find various solution that can help them in solving the problems. They are able to go through the vast range of information available in the internet and use that information to decide upon which are the concern solutions (Beroggi, 2007, pp. 47-55). The information’s with respect to various products and services that are available across the globe along with their aspects and features are available on internet. These information’s do help the internet mavens to gain a huge level of knowledge regarding the various products and they are able to share those information with the adults and other family members very easily. The internet mavens are very innovative and have a huge knowledge about the latest technologies and innovations which can help the family have a good and better life. For example for buying a new television the internet mavens are able to gather information regarding the various brands in of televisions, the various features, the different types like LED, LCD etc., the price of the products, the various online sites providing the discounts and offers, which is a good brand among others and provide these information’s to the adults to make the final decision and also to purchase the television that suits them the most. Though the teens and the children’s who are the internet mavens are not able to influence any way in the next two stages of making the final purchase decision and also not in making the purchase. This is because the adults in the family are the members who are the one who generate money by earning and thus they are the one who make decision with respect to whether to buy or not and also the decisions related to the amount to be spend in buying a particular product (Capon, 2007, pp. 135-142). Adults do also get help from the teens and the children’s in getting various platforms for making the purchase and also get the information related to the best online site to buy the product from where they can get the product at best offer, the also get information about the brands of the product and which is the best brand among others, which provides best of features and also provides good value added service to the customers along with their products. Conclusion Thus looking at this case it can be seen that the market place has kept changing with the evolving of internet in huge way. Customers have looked to shop more using online websites than going into stores as they are able to get the products sitting in their home and also get good discounts and offers. The competition level has also increased because of the humongous usage of internet in the business process as companies have grown globally and are able to get customers from the entire world. The family decision process has slowly moved from the adults towards the children’s and teen’s decision as they are very much influential in making a particular purchase decision. The teens and the children’s have become internet mavens who have huge knowledge about various products and technologies that are coming up in the market. They also have a huge knowledge about the market and know which brand is better than other in a particular product category. Thus the internet maven’s do influence in a huge way in making the purchase decisions for a family with the usage of huge information they get from internet as they spend a lot of time in internet surfing and gathering knowledge about various stuffs. References Beroggi, G. 2007. Designing and Evaluating E-Management Decision Tools: The Integration of Decision and Negotiation Models into Internet-Multimedia Technologies. Zurich: Springer. Capon, N. 2007. The Marketing Mavens. New York: Random House LLC. 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