External Factors That Determine Consumers Attitude in Buying a Smartphone - Essay Example

Running header: Marketing Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission: External factors that influence the consumer behavior on the purchase of Smartphones Introduction In 2011, it was established that the world Smartphone market was growing at a rate of 6.1% though this was a slowing growth rate. This signals the fact that the market is slowly maturing despite the increased competition in the global market. The Smartphone market has been dominate by Nokia, Samsung, Apple, LG electronics, ZTE and others in that respective order. As the market growth is almost reaching its peak in the Smartphone market, there is need for marketers to identify factors that influence consumers in their decisions to acquire Smartphones. This will go a long way into helping them through the ever increasing competition in the market. As such, this paper aims at exploring the external factors that influence consumers in their decisions to acquire Smartphones including why they buy the specific brands they buy. In so doing, the paper explores a number of consumer decision making models including the process that the consumer undergoes in making a purchase decision. In addition, various consumer attitude models have been examined. The external factors explored in this paper include culture, family, social class, and the role of opinion leaders among others. These factors were deemed as being the most important in influencing the consumer decision making process externally although other factors may play minor roles. In conclusion, the paper argues for marketers to fully understand these external factors that influence the consumer decision making process in a bid to serve the customers needs better and acquire a substantial share of the market. Overview of consumer decision making process: This paper uses the consumer decision making model proposed by Engel, Kollat and Blackwell. The model views the consumer decision making process as involving five steps which include problem recognition, information search, evaluation and selection of alternatives, decision implementation and post purchase evaluation. In all the above steps, external factors play a great role in influencing consumer behavior. This is because needs may be triggered by either internal or external stimuli. External stimuli may for instance be adverts that will make the consumer realize the need for purchase. During information search, the consumer will use sources of information that are either internal or external. External sources of information may for instance include the family, social class, or opinion leaders. In the same vein, the same external sources will be of great help in the consumers’ evaluation of alternatives, making the purchase decision as well as making a post purchase decision. This shows how important external factors are in determining the consumer behavior. Theories that determine consumers’ attitude in buying a Smartphone Consumer’s attitude is of paramount importance in deciding whether or not to buy an item. If during the purchase decision making process the consumer acquires a negative attitude towards the item in question, then it follows that he may not buy it. On the other hand, when a consumer acquires the right attitude concerning the item in question, then he will most likely buy it. It is in this regard that various theories have been developed to explain consumer attitude and hence the reason why they choose to buy certain items and not others, specific brands and not the others. The tricomponent attitude model views consumer attitude as being composed of three components including cognitive, affective and conative component which interrelate to determine the consumer’s attitude towards a product. Cognitive model is internal since it involves making decisions based on what we already know and what already existed in our minds. It is mainly based on experience or prior knowledge from other sources and hence it may also be externally acquired. The affective component refers to the consumers’ feelings towards the product regardless of its quality, features, specifications, utility or its brand name. The feelings may be good or bad and hence will have a role in determining consumer behavior. The conative component on the other hand refers to the consumer’s tendency to take certain action regarding a product. As such, the three products which may or may not be external to the consumer will play a great role in affecting the consumer’s decision of acquiring a Smartphone or any other product including the brand they choose to acquire. The theory of reasoned behavior on the other hand postulates that the consumer’s behavior is determined by their intention to act that way and the intention is determined by his attitude towards the action and his subjective norm. In other words, the intention is determined by specific behavior, subjective norm as well as perceived behavioral control. This tends to suggest that consumer behavior is not just internal but is also affected by factors external to us including our believes and what we are subject to. The figure below illustrates the theory of reasoned action. It has been established that consumer behavior is not just internal but could also be externally influenced. Thus, the next section explains the external factors that may influence the consumer’s decision to acquire Smartphone including the specific brand acquired. External factors that influence the consumer behavior on the purchase of smart phones The influence of reference groups Reference groups exert a big influence on a consumer’s decision to acquire a smart phone including the brand of smart they decide to acquire. Human beings being social in nature belong to certain groups in a bid to satisfy their social needs. They therefore observe and take cues from other group members on how to behave and what to have in a bid to associate with the group. Group norms such as habits and behavior therefore influence individual patterns including what to acquire and consume. For instance, a consumer may decide to buy a specific smart phone in order to belong to a certain influence group (Monroe, 2007). A person in such a group not having a smart phone may feel inadequate. Such membership or influence groups that may influence a consumer behavior on purchasing of a smart phone may include family, friends, co-workers and neighbors among others with which the individual continuously has informal interactions. Other influence groups that are considered secondary professional groups, religious groups and trade unions with which the individual usually have less regular interactions that are more formal. Such influence groups usually have either direct or indirect influence on a consumer’s attitude and behavior towards certain products including smart phones. Opinion leaders form part of influence groups and they include the people who exert influence on individuals based on their special skills, personality, knowledge and similar characteristics. They are self indulgent individuals who are fond of trying and exploring new unproven and intriguing products such as smart phones. Many consumers may therefore opt to buy a certain brand of Smartphone simply because they associate it with a certain opinion leader. It worth noting that influence groups may also influence even those individuals that do not belong to them and in this case they are known as inspirational group. For instance, I may buy a specific brand of Smartphone since I wish to belong to a certain group to which am currently not a member. Aspirational groups may include people such as idealized people including sportsmen, successful business people and artists. The family The family unit plays a great role in determining the consumer’s behavior in the decision to acquire a Smartphone. This is because the consumers continuously make close contact with the family and hence family members can exert great pressure on the consumer’s decision to acquire a Smartphone including the specific brand he/she will acquire. For instance, the family unit has the greatest the children socialization process as far as passing down cultural norms and values is concerned. As such, the family has a great influence on the types of tastes and preferences the children eventually acquire as consumers. The children’s behavior as consumers will greatly be determined by the consumption patterns they observe with their parents and siblings and hence their preferences and patterns will be somehow similar in future. The family may impart two types of influences on a consumer including family of orientation and family of procreation (Fredrick, 2010). In terms of orientation, the parents make up orientation towards the consumer behavior of their children such that although the child no longer interacts with them, the tastes and preferences he/she acquired earlier in life influences their buying patterns later in their lives. About the family of procreation, this is the influence on buying behavior that the family has to the buyer by his children and wife. In this regard, research has indicated that the young adult members of the family exert a lot of influence on the decision of the rest of the family to acquire such items as smart phones. In this regard, the person who originates the idea or one who intends to buy a phone is the initiator. The person who suggests to the initiator on the type of phone to acquire and hence influences him to buy a Smartphone is the influencer. The decider will be the person responsible for deciding what, how, where and when to buy that product/ Smartphone. He may be the buyer who eventually buys and uses the Smartphone. Social class The role and status and hence social class to which an individual belongs will play a great role in influencing the individual’s buying of a Smartphone including the specific brand he/she acquires. Kotler etal, (2008) states that all people in the society play different roles and have different status and hence belong to different social status that is dependent on the relation and position they hold in the different groups, clubs or organizations they belong to. For instance, a firm manager may also have other many roles in other groups including being a father and a husband. In other words, he may hold exclusive roles in different organizations which expect him to perform different roles depending on who surround him. Each of the very many roles he plays will exert a certain amount of pressure on the kind of buying behavior he adopts in his decision making process. It is worth noting that the various roles such a person plays for the various groups is a general reflection of the esteem that the society associate it with. In other words, all these roles add to his status which is a factor that many people consider before acquiring such items as smart phones. For instance, it may not be befitting for a corporation chief executive officer to acquire simple phone since it does not befit his status. As such, he would rather acquire a smart phone and not just a smart phone but a specific one that is of his status. In other words, people will always choose to acquire products that show their status in the society. Cultural and sub cultural aspects Cultural and subcultures also have a great role to play in determining the consumer’s behavior in decision to acquire and use Smartphones including the specific brands they acquire. Culture will determine consumers’ wants and behavior through the influence of beliefs, work, art, language and knowledge. Different cultures have specific views of oneself as well as how they relate with one another. As such, Smartphone marketers’ have to attend to cultural values in different settings. On the other hand, subcultures may include such aspects as religion, racial, nationalities and geographical regions. These provide specific identification and socialization of individual members. Where subcultures have grown, there will be opportunities for new and specialized products and services for serving the subcultures. Individual consumers come from particular cultures which act as a guideline for their individual behavior hence affecting their buying behavior. Hofstede (1991) sees culture as the collective mental programming of people in a particular environment. Hence, culture encompasses a number of people conditioned by the same life experience and education. Culture is shaped by other factors including beliefs, attitudes, time, language, values, roles and norms. As such, individuals from different cultures will have different point of views and value orientations which will lead to a diversified precedence of the brands and products they choose to buy. Hofstede (1991) identifies five dimensions of national culture that is helpful in understanding the role of culture in consumer decisions. The cultural aspects include power distance which involves how members of a society deal with power relationships. For instance, in high power distance cultures, people are highly dependent on their parent’s culture and hence their consumer decisions are likely to be highly reliant on those of parents (Kotler, 2009). On the other hand, cultures of low power distance that stress heavily on opportunities and rights, parents teach children to be highly independent since their young age and hence they tend to make independent consumption decisions. Another aspect of national culture is individualism/collectivism which entails how independence a person is in a group. People would prefer to be different in comparison to others in individualistic cultures while vice versa is true in a collectivistic culture. Thus, consumer behavior in a collectivistic culture will be shaped by those of others while individualistic cultural behavior would be independent. Hofstede (1991) also indentifies uncertainity avoidance as an aspect of culture dealing with anxiety created by uncertainty and is defined as the ambiguity’s level among the group members. While some may not mind, others will have rules and behavior for avoiding ambiguity. In such a case, the consumer behavior is likely to be influenced by cultural beliefs and norms. Masculinity/ femininity of culture will also affect consumer behavior and hence the products and brands they choose to acquire. Thus, what people consume in a certain culture will to some extent depend on whether they are in a feminine or masculine culture. Long-term orientation /Short-term orientation will also affect the decision to acquire or not to acquire Smartphone including the specific brand to be acquired. People in long-term orientation would be comfortable in changing and perseverance while short term orientation individuals will opt to spend in the present as opposed to saving for the future. This would have an effect on their decisions of what to or not to acquire. Cross cultural consumer behavior The fact that consumers come from differing cultures has a great impact on the products they choose to buy including their brands. It should however be noted that although consumers have different cultures, there are similarities between the cultures in relation to specific consumer behaviors which marketers should take advantage of. It should also be noted that at times, consumers will prefer certain brands of Smartphones based on where it has been manufactured owing to either reputation or personal bias. Marketers therefore have to choose the correct strategy for marketing their products across cultures (Lawrence, 2012). Marketers may opt to adopt a global strategy where the product is standardized as well as its brand communication systems across the global. A local strategy will entail customizing the product and its brand communication programs based on culture or country. The marketers may also opt to adopt a mixed strategy that combines the elements of a global strategy as well as those of local strategies. When marketing Smartphones across cultures, it is important to decide whether to do product standardization this is because Smartphones have been found to be accepted globally and hence a global strategy might favor them. However, different cultures may require different communication programs in a bid to influence consumer behavior in those cultures and hence boost their acceptance. Relevance of opinion leaders Generally, opinion leaders may refer to those individuals a consumer may turn to for advice when they intend to buy a product or for product related information. This implies that opinion leaders may exchange their information in a setting such as a group setting or exchange their information actively through such forums as the mass media. However, such opinion leaders tend to possess such qualities as credibility, information exchange and advice relating to one and two way information flow (Margaret, 2007). They may be generalized opinion leaders possessing knowledge in several product categories, general market trends, surrogate buyers or those experts that are hired to make product related advice while purchasing on the consumer’s behalf or purchase pals. As such, opinion leaders may play a big role in influencing the consumer to make a decision regarding the purchase of smart phones as well as the specific brand to buy. This is because the consumer views opinion leaders as highly knowledgeable and hence able to make the right purchase decision when it comes to purchasing certain brands of products such as the Smartphones. It should also be noted that opinion leaders could also be prominent people in the society who are likely to influence consumer behavior. For instance, companies use prominent sportsmen to market their Smartphones. This is because they know that consumers will want to be associated with Smartphone brands used by such and such sportsmen. As such, such prominent people also play a great deal in influencing consumer behavior in making decisions to buy Smartphones. Opinion leaders generally use the word of mouth in affecting the buying attitude of other people. They also use online channels where research shows that they influence four times more people via the internet than through the word of mouth. In a survey in seven European countries involving 7000 consumers, it was found that 60% of users of new brands were influenced by family, friends and opinion leaders. Diffusion of innovations This is a theory explaining the probability that a new innovation such as the various types of Smartphone’s will be adopted by consumers in a particular cultural setting. Five factors determine whether such innovations will be accepted and hence be purchased by consumers. They include persuasion, decision, and knowledge among other factors (Lawrence, 2012). Persuasion is about those factors which influence the consumer to adopt and hence acquire the new innovative products. Such factors will include the new product’s perceived innovative characteristics. These will include the product’s relative advantage, compatibility, trial ability, its complexity, and compatibility among other characteristics. If the consumers feel that the new product wills posses a relative advantage in comparison to the products they already have for instance quicker access to internet, record keeping and so on, then they are most likely to adopt the new product promptly. As such, the product’s perceived innovative characteristics will greatly determine the customer’s purchase intention and hence his/her willingness to purchase the new innovative product. This is followed by the customer’s ability to purchase the product which together with the willingness to purchase will act to create the new product’s say Smartphone’s demand. As stated above, there are five characteristics of innovations that will determine their adoption and hence demand in the market. They include the product’s relative advantage or how the potential consumer will view the new innovation (smart phone) when compared to its predecessor. When the new innovation is deemed to be more advantageous relative to its predecessor, it will be adopted in the market at a faster rate. Such factors that determine relative advantage include social prestige, economics, satisfaction and convenience. For instance, many Smartphone’s have been successful in meeting the relative advantage in social prestige (Eero, 2012) .The product’s compatibility is another factor determining the innovative product’s adoption and hence consumer behavior towards acquiring it. Compatibility refers to the new product’s consistence with prevailing values, potential adopters’ needs and past experiences. An innovative product such as Smartphone if compatible will easily be adopted in the market. Smartphones have therefore been found to be more compatible compared to previous mobile phones for offering better solutions to consumers existing needs. The innovative product’s complexity refers to the degree to which the consumer will perceive it as difficult to use. When potential adopters deem the innovative as being hard to grasp, its adoption rate will be low. However, Smartphone’s adoption has been fast owing to their perceived ease of grasping owing to its new attributes such as touch screens which make use easier. The product’s trial ability will refer to the innovative product’s ease of experimentation with on limited basis. A trialable innovation such as Smartphone’s with limited functionality offered free to potential users would heighten their adoption rate. Finally, the innovative product’s observability or the degree to which the results of the new innovative product are observable to others will also determine consumer behavior in adoption, acquiring and use of smart phones. This is because it will stimulate word of mouth hence helping boost the rate of adoption. Smartphone’s have been widely advertised which has eased their initial presentation to the public. The word of mouth on the other hand will help potential adopters to make their decisions based on what their friends and associates say regarding the innovative products (Arum, 2014). Although word of mouth has not been the most important factor in the adoption of Smartphone’s, it has in no doubt played a great role in influencing consumer behavior and hence adoption. If a product will fulfill all the five characteristics of adoption described above, then it is likely to have a very high adoption rate especially as far as the product’s relative advantage is concerned. . Public policy and consumer protection aspect Every country has a public policy and consumer protection rules in place aimed at ensuring that consumer’s rights and rules of fair trade competition as well as free flow of information that is truthful is attained in the marketplace. Such are the rules that regulate and prohibit deceptive advertising as well as sales practices, rules on product quality as well as related aspects of consumer transactions. These policies are also aimed at equipping the consumer with as much information as possible regarding their rights. In some countries, some products may not be sold in the market while certain products are only left to the government. As such, the kind of public policy and consumer protection rules may greatly affect the country’s consumer behavior. This is especially so if the policies equip the consumers with as much information as possible (Jabez, 2013). However, this factor may not have much influence on consumer behaviors on purchase of Smartphones since they are accepted across the board. However, companies have to adhere with consumer protection policies in marketing their products. In addition, the kind of trade partners the country trades with will also influence the brands of Smartphones to be found in such a country and hence influence the kind of brands that such consumers acquire. To some extent therefore, public policy and consumer protection aspects play a significant role in influencing the consumer behavior on the purchase of Smartphones including the brands they chose to acquire. Conclusion This paper has looked at various theories that explain consumer behavior in their decision making process with special regard to establishing attitudes that eventually determine whether or not they acquire the items in question. In addition, the paper has considered the role of certain external factors in influencing consumers to acquire specific brands of Smartphones and not others. The role of the family, social class and that of influence groups and opinion leaders has been found to be of paramount importance in determining consumer behavior. wanting to conform to behavioral norms adopted by the family, a certain social class or a group in which we belong may go along way in determining whether we acquire certain brands of Smartphones or not. In addition, opinion leaders have been found to be of paramount importance in influencing consumer behavior. For instance, we may want to acquire certain brands of Smartphones just because certain opinion leaders use them or just to associate with them. Finally, the role of consumer protection, culture, subculture and intercultural relations has been deemed important in determining consumer behavior. For instance, a person may fail to acquire a certain brand of Smartphone just because it does not originate from a certain nation. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that marketer’s acquaint themselves with these external factors in their bid to meet consumer expectation for Smartphones if they are to remain relevant in the market. A mixed marketing strategy that favors most of the above factors would be ideal for Smartphone marketer. References: Eero, E2012, Adoption of Smartphone’s, International Marketing Journal, vol. 102, no. 2, pp. 15-25. Hutchinson, W2005, Dimensions of consumer expertise, Journal of consumer research, vol.52, no. 4, pp.411. Monroe, S2007, The study of consumer behaviors of Smartphone-based on business people, Rutledge, London. Fredrick, N2010, The interplay of design and marketing: A general model, Irish journal of management, pp.1-17 Kotler, P2009, Marketing management, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson, Prentice Hall. Margaret, B2007, Design and marketing connections: Creating added value, Journal of marketing management, vol. 23, no. 9-10, pp. 929-53. 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