Purchasing Decisions of the Consumers - Coursework Example

Surname: Presented to Institution Name, Location Date External Factors Introduction The purchasing decisions of the consumers are usually affected factors that are outside their personal control, these factors also have both direct and indirect impacts on how the consumers consume products and live y. The consumers of any other products are faced with many external factors that affect they include, personal culture, household structure, and the groups that he or she associates with. The marketers and owners of successful businesses cal these external factors since their impact majorly come from the outside rather than the inside. At the moment, with the growing stiff competition in the market, companies face strong competition. This is the reason the managers of these companies need clearly to understand the behavior of consumers in order to ensure that the business is competitive, although, both the internal and external factors work together in unison in assisting the consumer in decision making process. Input variables The input variables is consumer decision making is the stimuli within the environment, these variables take informative cues of the product that include quality, price, distinctiveness and their availability. The informative cue can either be significative social or symbolic stimuli. The information concerning the brand or the product that is provided by the marketer has the components that are significative. They mostly deal with the characteristics of the brand. The symbolic stimuli are basically psychological that the buyer has on the product; it is both figurative and perceptual. Social stimuli are information that comes from the social environment such as groups, societies and families. Output variables Output variables are the actions of the buyer in the response to the stimulus inputs; the output response refers to components such as comprehension, intention, attention, attitude, and purchase. These components can be arranged in a hierarchical manner starting from attention and finally ends with purchase. Consumer attitudes This can also be referred to as development of attitude and change. An approach is known in predisposition to act in either a favorable manner or unfavorable manner depending on a given object (Monahan, 2000). The attitude towards a particular object in known broadly to include the specific consumption of products and the concepts that directly relate to marketing. The attitudes those are relevant to the behavior that reflect and happen within are totally affected by the situation (Nightingale, 2008). The structural approach models consist of tricomponent model of approach, the design that has many attributes, including the trying to consume design and the approach learning the advertising models. Tricomponent models have three imperative components which are the cognitive part, this involves the knowledge and perception that an individual acquires by a combination of the experiences with the attitude object, and it is also directly related to the information that is gathered from many sources (Monahan, 2000). The effective part is another; this involves the emotions that a consumer has towards a particular product or brand. Cognitive component is the last part; this shows the likelihood or the actual tendency that an individual will take a particular action in regard to his or her attitude towards the product (Nightingale, 2008). The model that has many attributes shows the attitude of the consumers towards an attitude object just as a function of the understanding and assessment of the consumer’s important attributes and beliefs that are held about a set n particular attitude object. The four importance model directly relate to the attitude-object-model, the approach that is invested towards the performance model, the theory of the reasoned-action model and finally the theory involving planned characters(Monahan, 2000). The approach reflecting towards the object model shows that the attitude towards the product or the particular brand is just a function of either the absence or the presence of and the evaluation of some particular product and the specific beliefs or characteristics (Batley & Daly, 2006). The attitude towards the behavioral model deals with capturing of the personal approach on acting or behaving towards an object and not the attitude towards the object itself. The theory concerning the reasoned action shows an integration of the attitudes towards the object (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005). The theory concerning the reasoned action shows an integration of the components of attitude into the structure that directs to a batter explanation and directly predicts the performance. The theory of planned behavior shows that the behavior of a particular consumer has a direct impact on the variations of the perceived behavioral controls (Nightingale, 2008). The theory of trying-to-consume model shows that the outcome or an action reflects on the efforts by the consumer to consume the product. Attitude towards the advertising model shows that the consumer has many varied feelings that affect their judgment due to their exposure towards that particular advert (Batley & Daly, 2006). The transfer from having no attitude to having an attitude is as a result of learning. The consumer will make trial attempts of purchase and use the new product or brand and the favorable attitude towards a particular brand that will result in continuous repetition in purchases and total satisfaction. The approach of the consumers is strongly influenced by their personal experience, direct marketing, the mass media and internet marketing, and their social live. Personality of individual consumers play an imperative role in the formation of attitudes, this is evident through the individuals that have the high need for the cognition that forms positive in regard to the rich product-related information (Monahan, 2000). The marketers always have their focus on the change in attitude towards their products, this will enable them continuously to change their strategies basing on their motivational functions that associates the product with the group or events that are greatly admired, this helps in resolving two of the conflicting attitudes that alters the components of the multi-attributed models, this also changes the views and perceptions of the consumer concerning the competition (Batley & Daly, 2006). The process of changing the motivational function of the consumer is classified as utilitarian function, the ego defensive function, knowledge function and the value expressive function. A possibility exists in the way the consumers towards the producing company are altered by focusing their relationship with a particular group, events and services. The attitude change strategies greatly help in resolving the actual potential conflict between the attributes (Nightingale, 2008). The character can either follow or precede formation of approach, the cognitive dissonance theory shows that discomfort and dissonance comes when a consumer have conflicting thoughts about attitude and belief (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005). The attribution theory highlights that individuals assign events on the basis of either their own performance. The self perception theory has it that attitudes improve as customers and look at the making of judgments concerning their personal behavior. Foot-in-the-door technique shows that individuals look at their prior character. Attributions can also be tested by use of criteria including consistency, distinctiveness and modality (Postmes, Spears, & Changer, 2001). The attitude towards the product or a particular is one of the main external factor that affect the behavior of consumers, this is because personal approach has more impact as it comes within the mind and heart of the consumers unlike other factors that come from outside like influence from friends and relatives (Kuester, 2012). For our product most people have developed divergent attitudes towards the features and the services that windows 8 brings to them, such features make people develop an approach that greatly impact their purchasing behaviors(Gardner & Steinberg, 2005). The social impact on the behavior of consumers The process of information is the basic procedure of sending and receiving of information from the sender to the receiver through a medium. The sender has to start the information by use of either words or symbols. In the same way, the consumer encodes the message and may directly relate to either a formal or informal source ( Postmes, Spears, & Changer, 2001). The receiver then can perceive the information to be objective, honest, or credible depending on their views. This will greatly affect the way communication and information send will be greatly influenced ways in which it is received and accepted. The endorsements from celebrities and testimonials have the great role in ensuring the consumers on the reliability of the message in the communications (Blackhart & Kline, 2005). Individuals who have used well windows 8 that include its perfects graphics, precision, high security levels, and the windows smart screen that helps guard the computer against any virus, spyware and other software that are malicious in a real time. When such information is communicated from a trusted source then it is likely that it will be taken positively by the consumers and they will consume the product (Postmes, Spears, & Changer, 2001). A group refers to a group of two or more people that work together towards achieving mutual or independent goals. The classification process of groups can be done on the basis of membership and the symbolic grouping. This means an individual can belong to a group or aspires to be a member, Primary versus secondary groupings, and the formal versus the informal groups (Daniel Kahneman, 2000). A reference group can either mean an individual or group that serves as a point f reference and comparison for individuals when forming either general or specific values, the attitudes or the particular model on their characters. The groups of reference work as frames of reference and may clearly include the normative groups of reference. These different types of reference groups relate to the contractual, inspirational, membership, behaviors and the values to a specific model of behavior. The factors that affect the reference groups include the experience and information, attractiveness, reliability, and the power of the reference groups. The conspicuousness of the product such as windows 8, the reference groups conformity of the consumer and the selected reference groups that are related to the consumer including celebrities, family and friends(Daniel Kahneman, 2000). There are particular consumer groups such as friends, brand communities, shopping groups, business groups, brand communities, and the virtual groups or communities are some of the prominent groups (Armstrong, 1991). The informal source and the information by word of mouth refer to the opinion of individual leaders. This is a process through which an individual influences the attitudes and actions of the consumers. The strategic application of marketing by word of mouth as a way of information relates to a buzz of agents that reach into an agreement to promote the product by taking them to family and friends gatherings (Blackhart & Kline, 2005). This way they will market the product by talking to the consumers on trying certain types of products. This is a process that encourages individuals to transfer marketing information to other people hence creating the potential for the exponential growth in the message impact and exposure. Windows 8 can be easily marketed well due to its ease in installation and explanation on its features (Postmes, Spears, & Cihangir, 2001). The message in this form can either be either verbal or non-verbal or a combination of both. A verbal message can either be written or unwritten; the non-verbal message is conveyed through the symbolic information (Deaton & Muellbauer, 1980). A good massage will communicate strategies, one need to take into consideration of the importance of both the one-sided and double sided information, the need to consider the relevance of the comparative information and advertising, repletion and effect of the order should also be considered. Massage appeals such as fear, humor and appeals include the factors to be considered (Blackhart & Kline, 2005). The channel of communication is also paramount they impact the perception that people will have on the product; it can either be personal or impersonal. The personal information refers to the opinions of the leaders, the sales individuals and their customers (Drake, 1993). Impersonal information refers to the media such as print, electronic, broadcast and outdoor advertising. A receiver or consumer is most likely to be the targeted prospect. Feedback is a very essential component of both the personal and impersonal modes of information, it is the ultimate test of the of the marketing communications. The provision of feedback totally changes the entire process of information for the general one way to two way communications (Blackhart & Kline, 2005). It is critical to comprehend the impact all other external factors that affect the decision making by the consumers. Those that are directly affected include attitude, culture and the behavior of the consumers. With windows 8 having varied opinions from different people that attempt to send information to the consumers, it has been difficult to understand clearly how many consumers perceive the information. A lot has to be put in place in order to eliminate some of the negative information that some of the consumers send to their associates (Daniel Kahneman, 2000). Morality and ethics Ethics as part of the consumer behavior is a very important component, normative system of ethics is divided into three important categories that include deontological, ethics, and teleological. Deontology and ethics are moral systems characterized by the focus on the adherence to the independent moral values and duties that a consumer is obliged to possess. These values help the consumer in making the right decisions while buying the products. Teleology and ethics is the system that is mainly characterized by the focus on the consequences that an action might have, for this specific reasons they are often known as consequential moral systems. In order for a consumer to make the right decisions on the choices, they need to understand the consequences of their actions, or purchasing a particular brand of the products. When a consumer make correct choices that lead to good consequences, then they are acting morally right and otherwise totally immoral. Public policy and consumer protection This is also another prominent factor although it does not affect the windows 8 as a product since it is a high quality product from Microsoft and is totally licensed and legal. The theoretical perspective of ethics in the marketing has the teleological theory and the deontological theory. The perceptions of peril targeting the broadcasting model and the narrowcasting, Most of the consumers are usually manipulated by the exposure of forced advertising. This way they tinker the perception of the consumers. This will create socially undesirable presentations (Blackhart & Kline, 2005). The responsibility of the marketers socially is the art of drawing the attention of the corporate environment and their philosophy that form the critical determinants of the moral behavior and more increasingly companies incorporate the specific goals that are social into their mission statements. These particular goals show that the founder’s personal philosophy and the responsibility socially as the owner and the moral environment show a strong code of morality that encourages the ethical practices by the employees(Daniel Kahneman, 2000). The ethical strategies that relate to doing the right thing, the standards of the consumers involve the dishonest behaviors by the consumers within the market place. The plans that are set in place to bring down the demand for the consumerism by improving the product quality, lowering the prices and expanding the rate of services within the consumerism movement and cooperating with the government agencies, the nonprofit organization and the groups of consumers. Within the public policy and the consumer protection the process of protecting, a number of means by which the government can intervene which include consumer education, incentives, complaints handling, and industry self-regulation(Deaton & Muellbauer, 1980). The relationship that has existed between advertising and the policies of the public that directly relate to the deception in the advertising sector. The standards of advertising and the codes followed sexism in advertising, cigarettes and alcohol advertising, the green marketing, and the corrective advising and research on the consumer. Hence, the consumer requires the information and education to enable them make wise decisions (Learner & Simmons, 2007). The regulations from governments and other authorities that give licenses to companies to produce product and sell have the responsibility of ensuring that both safety and quality of the product t. Windows 8 as the product has passed all the test and consumers can individually purchase the product online(Laermer & Simmons, 2007). The social class and the behavior of the consumers Social classes are division of the members of the society into groups hierarchically with distinct impact and social classes. Members of each and every other social class have almost the same status (Hall, 2011). The social status of individual are usually arranged from high to low basing on power, wealth and prestige (Daniel Kahneman, 2000). The social class can also be measured by use of the subjective measures that tend to create an overabundance of people, reputational measures that need to be selected by demographic and the social variables that need good community informants to make credible judgments that concern the social class membership of many others, and the objective measures that mainly consist of some selected socio-economic and demographic variable concerning the persons. The social class mobility has in store the upward mobility and the generally affordable education and high chances to develop oneself and also the downward mobility (Triantaphyllou, 2007). The culture of the people could be taken as the sum of total beliefs that are learned, values, and the customs that directly serve as a directive to the consumer’s behavior of the particular society. The views of people refer to a bigger number of both mental and verbal statements that show our particular knowledge and the assessments of something (Hall, 2011). The values of people are relatively hard to overcome, few serve as a guide and they are not tied to a particular objects or situations that are generally accepted by the society members. The customs that are related to specific modes of behavior that constitute of culturally accepted manners of behavior when dealing with specific situations (Triantaphyllou, 2007). An invisible hand of culture that also denotes an ingrained impact that culture has on behavior, the different perceptions of the levels of culture, and the exposure to different values and traditions (Hall, 2011). Culture has three levels which are subjective they are supranational, national, and organization. For windows 8, most of its consumers come from diverse cultural status as long as they are using a computer either as a group an organization or individual. The matrix of lifestyle for youth has many groups that include the in-crowd, pop mavericks, networked and the intelligentsia (Daniel Kahneman, 2000). Culture has the power of satisfying the needs of individuals; culture can be learned, shared. Its dynamism makes it critical for the marketer. Is has to be taped in order to maximize its potential power of marketing of products. It can be measured using methods including analysis of content, field work of the consumer. The culture of shopping shows parallel perspectives to the culture of the consumers (Triantaphyllou, 2007). Shopping is what we do in order to create some value in our personal lives; this has turned out to be totally acceptable and general way of passing time. Some shopping product like windows 8 is highly affected by this culture, most of the people who are used to windows 7 and other operating systems are hard to transform and damp them(Belch, 2007). Using windows 8 is quite technical for some new users and may need a few lessons before they start out. Many people in the world are materialistic, this has reference to the criticality that so attached to the art of owning possession, this is a crucial dimension of the behavior of consumers that marketers use to understand the culture of the consumers (Triantaphyllou, 2007). A subculture can be defined only as a distinct social group existing as a simple section of a larger group (Daniel Kahneman, 2000). A complex multicultural society, which has unique values, customs, and beliefs are subscribed to by members of the particular subcultures within a larger society. The subculture has core social themes that are shared with a larger population, without any regard on the language use and membership. The age cohorts that include generation Y, baby boomers, generation X, and the elders are among the different categories of consumers depending on generations (Triantaphyllou, 2007). The generation Y group is those that were born between 1980 and 1994, these groups are those who accepted changing easily, confident and totally optimistic, sophisticated, loyal and ambitious (Hall, 2011). The generation X is the group of people born between 1965 and 1979, they are mostly the educated generation, they spend a lot in recreation, to them hob satisfaction is more important than money, they purchased goods that were branded with good names and not the designer labels (Howard, 1968). The baby boomers are the single and the largest group alive at the moment. The frequently make paramount decisions on the purchase of the product. These groups look for the best needed product at the best presentation. Windows 8 has come to be at the time of generation Y and this is the targeted group, their love for technology is what drives them to change from the older operating system to the new windows (Daniel Kahneman, 2000). The consumer power and diffusion of innovations The main elements that affect diffusion are mainly the innovation, channels used in communication, time, and the social system. The process of innovation is usually the company oriented, product oriented, business oriented and consumer oriented (Hall, 2011). The product oriented innovations refers to the continuous innovations, it is the process of redesigning the products by modifying the initial one. Windows 8 production follows the product oriented innovations that allow it to remain valid within the business. Changes on the systems are being made on daily basis and updates are downloaded by the consumers (Daniel Kahneman, 2000). There are features of the products within the market that impact their innovations, these include, their relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trial ability and the observability. Windows 8 as a product has all the above features that totally make it easily redesigned and innovated (Hall, 2011). The channels that information have included that which happens between the marketer and the consumer, communication between consumers, the intrapersonal and interpersonal sources. Some of the features of the modern social system include the positive attitude to change, skilled labor, advanced technology, respect towards education and science and the emphasis put on the rational and ordered social relationships (Triantaphyllou, 2007). There are three different methods used to show how time directly relates to the purchase time, identification of the adopter categories, and mainly the rate of adoption. The categories of adoptions can include innovations, the early majority, the early adopters, the late majority and many others (Triantaphyllou, 2007). The innovations by the consumer are a minuscule group who are the earliest in the purchasers of the new product. These groups usually have much interest in the product category. An innovator can be referred to as an opinion oriented leader, they poses characteristic such as open-mindedness, seek purchase related data, and have inner directed personalities. Most of the consumers of windows 8 have been able to give feedback on innovative ideas that transform the innovations of the product. It is an interesting product and those passionate about it have found ways of getting a chance to give their opinions on the innovation (Daniel Kahneman, 2000). Reference groups Reference groups always has many degrees of influence, some of the reference groups that are relevant to windows 8 operating system include the primary reference groups, and the secondary groups. The secondary reference groups usually tend to have a little influence as compared to the primary influence groups. Another typology has the tendency of dividing the reference groups into informative the influence of this is mainly based entirely on what is perceived to be either right or wrong. Conclusion External factors are a imperative part of the consumer decision making process and, therefore, it is as important for marketers to understand all the details before venturing into business. All consumers have their influential factors with varied intensity and this makes it hard for the marketers to comprehend. Identifying the targeted group of consumers before doing an analysis of their purchasing habits is critical. References Armstrong, J. S. (1991). 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