Consumer Buying Behavior on IPOD Touch - Research Proposal Example

Consumer Buying Behavior on IPOD Touch Consumer Buying Behavior on IPOD Touch A consumer signifies the last stage of a product life cycle. He is the person who utilizes the end product. In marketing, Consumer behavior actually is related to the whole buying process a consumer goes through. It finds its relevance in as to how and why the customer purchases the product and what the reasons behind the decisions that they make are. Marketers always have tried to decipher this behavior so that it can help them in making a better product which attracts more customers and consumers and hence will increase brand loyalty and devotion of the consumer towards that company. There are three basic reasons as to why a consumer makes the decision to buy the product. These three are; personal, psychological and social. Personal drive is unique for each and every person; a teenager might be more incline in buying games whereas an elderly will be more prone to buy machines which improve their health. Psychological factors such as motives, desires, needs and perceptions are also based on a person’s mind. The third and last factor is social factor which is due to opinion of family, friends and other influential people. People may buy new technology because everyone around them is buying it and they want to create an impact. If observed from a certain perspective, the choice of a consumer may give an impression of being completely random. But, no matter what the situation there is always a reason behind the buying impulse of the consumer. Consumer behavior is a combination of both physical and mental activity. Consumer behavior depends on three basic theories. Personal theory of consumer behavior is mostly based on personal income. It includes everything related to the buyer, his income, age, gender, education, etc. The fact that whether he is single or married also falls under this category. There are many problems that marketers encountering while trying to understand the consumer behavior. The basic difficulty is that the consumer is a human being and nature of a human being is unpredictable and ever changing (Jain, 2008). The sociological determinants is the social being of the consumer. Peer pressure, the need to impress people, the social class the customer belongs to all of this comes under sociological aspects. Whereas the last and final determinant, is based on psychology. Psychology relates to what the customers know about the product, their knowledge regarding to it. The final decisions are due to certain psychological factors such as learning, beliefs, motivation and perception. In the recent years we have seen that world is progressing dramatically in the world of technology. Such technologies not only shape the future but also help improve life on personal level providing convenience to an extent that no one could have imagine a few years ago. Among many companies in the race, Apple inc. tops it all off by providing consumer electronic products for its consumers. Apple is responsible for making everything helping to ease our life, it can be as minute as the apple headphones to creating a top notch commodity in the form of smart cars, Apple does it all. IPOD Touch is one of the creations from the company’s vast list of products. The IPOD touch is multipurpose object which serves as a music and video player, camera, gaming device and also as PDA (Personal digital assistant). Most people who buy IPOD touch consider it as attractive and innovative but the final decision regarding buying the product is often made after going through many thoughtful processes and after considering the alternatives. While making a decision, customers usually consider different criteria’s. Apple has always attracted customers by thinking out of the box and giving them something that nobody ever has. Apple inc. believes in satisfaction of their customers which is why they have a good brand following. The IPOD touch was one of its kind devices which provided the user everything they needed at the palm of their hand which was then tagged by Apple brand name gave the consumers huge plus. There have been many studies and hypotheses as to why people prefer to buy apple products more than other brands. The basic reason for this is because of Apple’s customer driven strategy. This only explains the unique customer driven marketing strategy of Apple which is based on a design of giving customer something so out of this world that he didn’t even think of. The apple IPod appeared in the market in 2001 and its target market included young adults and professionals. The commercial of the IPod portrayed the message of being handy and stylish at the same time. With the passage of years the device has improved many of its features with better resolution, faster processing and longer battery life (Solomon, 1999). There are various reviews of people who were never Apple users before but then after they bought the Ipod they got addicted to it. According to the user once an image is built then it is easy to buy things related to that brand (Weinschenk, 2013). There are many feature in this little gadget: it can automatically find location, take pictures and can even rent movie. The new Ipod touch has still managed to maintain it top position in sales of media players. Many researched were also conducted to check if Ipod could finds its use in educational sector and whether children could actually benefit from it in literary pint of view. The research concluded that children’s ability to interact had increased due to this device and the students developed new literary skills (Chamberlain, 2010). Some other admired the gadget because of the easiness to operate, fast speed, definitive result, small size as compared to the usual books and they used the word cool and awesome for the Ipod. On an average, the student liked the device very much (Martinovic, McDougall and Karadag, n.d.). There are people who have also tried to help people who find difficulty in communicating (Gray and Silver-Pacuilla, 2011). The aim of our research is to explore the various incentives that makes a consumer want to buy the Ipod touch. The basic areas of investigation will help us to determine as to which of the three consumer behavior types has lead them to buy the Ipod touch i.e. whether it is social, psychological or personal. The research will be conducted in local malls and shops where Ipod is usually sold. The survey can however, also be performed on individuals who are or were previous owners of the Ipod touch. The sample size for this research will consist of 100 participants. The participants can be of any age and gender as long as they own an Ipod touch. The research method will include asking of questions from the owners of Ipod touch and then concluding their purpose to buy the product and then categorizing them in a certain customer behavior category according to their answers. The questions will consist of 5 general open ended questions such as: what made you buy Ipod?, how many of your friends or family members have this product?, are you satisfied with it?, How do you react when you hear about apple launching a new product or new version of product?, What are your comments about the device?, would you recommend it to others?, what is the best feature of the product?, How fast were you to decide on buying the product?, Did you consider any other alternatives?, were you able to easily afford the device?. A voice recorder of any type can be used to record the answers but if there is unavailability of recorders, the researchers can also write down the answer on paper. The data may then be evaluated and then concluded accordingly. The problems that may arise during the research are very few since it won’t require printout of questionnaire; however, many researchers should be available to ask the questions face to face so that a proper conclusion can be reached. Another problem that may occur is that the people might not be honest while giving answers and may not have the patience to answer all the questions properly. The research will help us to decipher the real consumer behavior to buy the product. It should be noted that buying behavior is never straight forward, but comprehending it is the most crucial task of marketing and the person who succeeds at this venture is the one who will eventually thrive. Bibliography Alvarez, C. (n.d.). Lean customer development. Solomon, M. (1999). Consumer behavior. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. Weinschenk, S. (2013). How to get people to do stuff. [Berkeley, CA]: New Riders. Martinovic, D., McDougall, D. and Karadag, Z. (n.d.). Technology in mathematics education. Gray, T. and Silver-Pacuilla, H. (2011). Breakthrough teaching and learning. New York: Springer. Jain, A. (2008). Principles of Marketing. V K Publications. Read More