Consumer Decision Making Process - Coursework Example

Consumer Decision Making Process: Purchase of a car 3rd December Introduction: Buyer’s behaviour or consumer behaviour is a procedure of identifying and analysing psychology and social behaviour of the customers. The concept idealises that attitudes and perceptions of the customers towards a product and/or service are recognised to influence consumers buying behaviour. The current scenario is acquainted with intensive variedness and competitiveness within the four-wheeler automotive product line, especially in context of a male consumer. Modern day male customers are more conscious regarding such automotive products. The male consumer is identified to possess adequate knowledge about automotive products based on which they make their buying decisions. The consumer is of around 32 years of age. He is a self-employed individual and belongs to a middle class family. The consumer has a large family and accordingly, he is looking for a large vehicle for the comfort of the family. In this respect, consumer behaviour is more important to a company’s business and its selling process. Understanding consumer behaviour is important in the selling process of a company for meeting the preferences of this particular male customer. Subsequently, consumer decision making process plays an important role in making buying decisions (Al-Jeraisy, 2008). Elaborating on the stated issue, the study focuses on consumer behaviour regarding the purchase of a new car. The aim of the paper is to highlight the consumer decision making process and accordingly, evaluate the factors, which influence buyers’ decision. Characteristics that Affect Consumer Behaviour Cultural factor is one of the most important aspects, which influence consumer behaviour largely. Discipline, marketing and culture are identified to have an influence on consumer behaviour and consumption both at national as well as international level. The cultural factors influence consumer behaviour based on perception, value systems, self-concept and information processing among others (Haghshenas & et. al., 2013). The aforementioned factors are identified to affect the attitude and belief of the male consumer towards a product and/or services and its features. The sub-cultural factor is also considered as one of the most important factors, which have substantial influence on the buying behaviour of the customer. The customer is identified to be sharing same values depending on similar types of experiences is another key influence of customer buying behaviour. The sub cultural factor influences the male consumer’s behaviour for purchasing a new car on the basis of influence from the family and society. The cultural trend and the social class are other key influence, which also influences the consumer. The cultural trend visually develops a perception in the consumer concerning the recent demands of cars in the market. The social factors indicate group influences, families, social roles and status in a society. The reference groups are also identified as the key influencers in buyers’ behaviour. In the case of making a purchase of a new car, group influences play a vital role for the male consumer. The initiator refers to the main persons who suggest the consumer to buy a new car. The influence mainly affects the consumer about the several reasons of the buying a new car. The decision makers may refer to a group of person informing about a particular product, which the consumer is going to buy (Mirzaei & Ruzdar, 2009). The other social factor influencing the consumer’s decision is the position of the consumer in a society, his workplace and friends’ group. The concept of consumer buying behaviour is influenced by personal factors of the male customer. At the time of purchasing new products, especially cars, personal factor are working as a key influence in the buying process. Age and the life style of a buyer is an essential element in the case of purchasing a new product. In addition, factors including hobbies, activities and age group always create a variety in the selection of a new product as well as purchasing of a product. For purchasing a new car, the age group is considered as an important factor for influencing decision of the consumer. The purchasing power of the consumer influences customers’ buying behaviour. The income level of the consumer determines his affordability and his preferences towards the purchase of luxurious products. Another sub factor, which is inducing buyers’ behaviour, is the personality of the consumer. The personality factor acts as a salient feature of the buying decision making process (Bikash & et. al., 2010). Psychological factors always considered as an important factor, which has a huge ability to change the customer’ buying decision from positive to negative and negative to positive manner. The motivation can build up consumer behaviour towards developing positive attitudes towards a product and/or service. Motivation works in a related manner to the consumer purchasing behaviour. In this context, perception is organizing and selecting process of making the consumer’s final buying decision. Perception of the consumer varies from one brand loyalty, brand values and brand selection to another. Product promotion has an important impact on the minds and preferences of the male customer towards products and/or services. Respectively, companies use different media technologies that include television, radio, hoarding and social media among others to influence and attract customers (Saylor.org., 2010; Mirzaei & Ruzdar, 2009). At the time of purchasing a new car, some factors that particularly influences the consumer’s buying behaviour include vehicle reliability, model reputation, driving performance and safety rating. These factors are taken into considerations as important factors at the time of taking the buying decision. Most of the people prefer cars, which are advertised extensively in different media technologies. The Types of Consumer Buying Decisions Complex buying behaviour is identified in situations wherein the customer possesses high awareness of the product and the substitution effects in the market, which in turn increases his bargaining power. The same can be witnessed in the car market wherein male members tend to acquire sufficient updated information before intending to consume the product (Kacen, & Lee, 2002). In the present scenario, people are selective as well as unique in their buying behaviour. In this regard, the consumer has diverse needs along with preferences, which build differences in consumption patterns. The factors, which include cultural, personal, social and psychological factors, are identified to influence the consumers behaviour in his decision making process (Bikash & et. al., 2010). The male customer belongs to different social class being a non-native and accordingly, has different tastes and preferences in making purchase decisions about new cars. Different classes of people have different preferences and capacities in purchasing a new car. For instance, a small family prefers small size, compact or hutch bag segment cars, but big joint families prefer the SUV segment cars. The social status reflects a customer’s position or rank in a society. Social status also reflects a buying behaviour in case of luxurious products. For instance, buying Ferrari cars indicates customers’ high class belongings and their success. The quality of a product also influences customer buying behaviour, as it helps a society to understand the buyers’ level of ability or the purchasing power. It is in this context that consumer behaviour is regarded a complex concept to understand. The buying decision is the final stage of the consumer’s behaviour, which involves several levels of the decision making process. There are five levels of consumer decision making process, which are discussed hereunder (New Age International, n.d.). The Components of the Decision-Making Process The decision making process is identified to comprise certain steps, which are discussed hereunder. Identification of the Needs: The identification of the needs is the initial step of the buyer’s decision making process. The customer should identify his needs at the initial phase. The needs of reorganization are important for selecting the products. The consumer requires to understand the needs or the desires of particular products in his life. At the time of purchasing a new car, the customer needed to identify, which types of needs the car will satisfy in his life. The first needs refer to the functional needs of the customer’s lives. For instance, the customer’s need to identify that the car will meet up his functional needs or will meet up its social needs (Shende, 2014). Information Search: The second step is the information gathering process of the customers. Generally, there are two types of information gathering process. At the time of purchasing a new car, the customer is using the two types of information, which include internal information and external information. Internal information refers to the information, which the consumer already possesses in his memory. In this respect, the consumer is having knowledge about a particular car and its brand for making his purchase decision effectively. External information is collecting information about all the attributes regarding the model of a new car through sources that include car companies’ website and advertisement among others (Shende, 2014). Alternative Evaluation: The consumer is needed to have adequate information relating to a new car and its brand along with features to make his purchase decision appropriately. After evaluating the features of the cars, the consumer started to narrow all the alternative selection. The alternative is mainly based on price. In addition, promotional strategy of the company of vehicle is identified to increase the popularity of the brand in the minds of the consumer (Monga & et. al., 2012). Decisions Implementing: This process mainly explains the consumer’s real intention towards the purchase behaviour. Initially, the consumer select a specific brand and a specific outlet where they intend to purchase a new car. Correspondingly, the customer identifies the price of the car on the basis of his purchasing power. There are many other aspects, which also influence the consumer’s decision. In this context, geographical location plays a major role in determining the consumer’s behaviour. For instance, in hilly areas, people prefer the SUV segment cars for safety and comfort. On the other hand, in the plain areas, people prefer luxurious cars, classic cars and small size cars (Monga & et. al, 2012). Post Purchase Evaluation: Post purchase evaluation refers to the experienced customers who have already gained experience regarding the same product, which a customer tends to buy. With the assistance of the post purchase evaluation, the customer is able to have better confidence about his decision for making purchases of a new car. This process refers to buyers’ behaviour towards a company. After gaining experience through the post purchasing evaluation, the customer focus on few prospects of the car relating to the performance of a new car (Patel & Schlepped, 1999). Marketing Recommendations for Auto Manufacturer The customer is concerned about performance relating to mileage or fuel consumption, and safety of a new car. The customer mainly travel in hilly areas is looking for cars having good mileage, powerful engine quality and safety measures. In addition, the model and the colour of a car have the power of influencing buyers’ decision. In this regard, the customer is identified to have preference over a particular model of a car for features and other aspects. On the other hand, some people want to buy a car of a particular colour. As the customer visited belongs to a hilly region is identified to have the need of mileage, fuel efficiency and power. In this regard, the customer would have preferences for SUV cars. Subsequently, the marketers are required to have adequate knowledge as well as understanding capabilities about the preferences of customers. Marketers are also needed to possess the ability of studying the perceptions as well as attitudes of the customer on his approach. Marketers in order to be successful in marketing operations should have effective communication and interpretation skills for providing products and/or services on the basis of the male consumer’s preferences (Federal Trade Commission, 2006) Conclusion The customer in making a purchase of a new car is identified to focus on different factors for making his buying decision. It has become apparent that there are few factors, which have an influence on the buyers’ decision. The consumer in order to make the purchase a new car mainly looks at his capacity of purchasing a new car. In addition, buying behaviour is identified to be dependent on price and fuel consumption of the cars. The performance of the car is also a vital factor, based on which the customer is identified to make his purchase decisions. As per the observation, purchasing behaviour of the consumer is based on different factors that include culture, social, psychological and personal factors. These factors are majorly accountable for building the attitudes of the customer towards a new car to be purchased. In addition, based on these factors, the consumer is recognised to develop his beliefs for making his purchase decision. The decision making process of the consumer includes need identification, searching for information, evaluation, alternative implementation and post purchase evaluation. In this respect, the customer is making purchase decisions on the basis of the above mentioned procedures is able to make the purchase of a new car in accordance with his needs and preferences. References Al-Jeraisy, K. I., 2008. Consumer Behaviour. An Analytical Study of The Saudi Family’s Purchase Decisions, pp. 1-333. Bikash, R. D. & et. al., 2010. Factors Influencing Purchase Of ‘NANO’ the Innovative Car from India-An Empirical Study. Asian Journal of Business Management, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp.48-56. Federal Trade Commission., 2006. Buying a New Car. FTC FACTS for Consumers, pp. 1-4. 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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 1-8. Saylor.org., 2010. Consumer Behaviour: How People Make Buying Decisions. Chapter 3. pp. 1- 40. Read More