Internal Factors and Their Influence on a Consumers Decision Making Process for Clothing Products - Coursework Example

Task: Internal factors and their influence on a consumer’s decision making process for clothing products (clothes). Student’s Name: Student number: Name of the unit: Unit Code: Unit coordinator: Introduction Different buying situations will exhibit differences in the amount of risk and investment involved. This calls for varied decision behaviours by consumers. Research has it that buying decisions that involve lots of money and high risk are not only complex and difficult, but also require that consumers to adjust the decision making process circumspectly in order to arrive at the right decision (Sahaf, 2008). Consumer behaviour is the process of looking at individuals deciding what, when, where, how and from whom to buy goods and services. It is the behaviour of individuals or groups in relation to acquiring, using and disposing of products, services, ideas or experiences (Wright, 2006). Understanding of consumer behaviour is very important for organisations. This because strategies by organisations to stay relevant in the competitive market are guided by beliefs about consumer behaviour. The most common challenge in marketing industry has to do with the understanding of why buyers do what they do or don’t do. Knowing why consumers do what they do or don’t do is very important for marketers as it will enable organisations to meet the needs and expectations of the consumers (Bhasin, 2012). Consumers don’t just buy products or services. The decision to purchase is searched and influenced by several factors (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2009). Clothing is a necessity and people need to clothe. Nevertheless the decision to buy specific clothes or clothes of different designs is dependent on several factors. Such factors are inherent in the consumer otherwise known as internal factors. This essay will look at the internal factors that influence and inform the decision by consumers to buy specific types of clothes. The essay will expound on how these factors inform the decision to purchase. Needs and motivation and consumer behaviour Motivation is the compelling force innate individuals that propel them into action (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007a). A need translates into a motive when it is sufficiently stimulated, thus in other words a motive is a need that is sufficiently compelling to drive people to act. There are needs that emanate from physiological states of tension such as thirst, hunger etc. These needs are grouped as biogenic needs. There are those needs which originate or come out as a result of psychological states of tension, such needs for wanting to be appreciated and recognised and these are termed as psychogenic needs (Chand, 2015). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, arranges the needs of an individual from the basic ones to the highest level of needs; physiological needs that are food, water, shelter, air; safety and security needs, social needs, ego needs and self-actualisation needs (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007a). In an attempt to fulfil a certain category of needs consumer behaviour is shaped and takes that direction. In a situation where there are unfulfilled needs, wants and desires it results in tension and this kind of tension generates the drive. It this drive that builds to a level that compels the consumer to change behaviour and then set his or her eyes on the goal of fulfilling unmet needs and desires and hence end up buying that commodity or service that best satisfies the unmet desires. The purchasing of that commodity or service results in reduction of the tension (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007a). A motive becomes a buying motive when the consumer seeks satisfaction through the buying of something. Hence motivation is the drive that generates goal oriented behaviour as it acts as a compelling force driving one to satisfy his or her needs, thus it becomes one of the internal factors shaping consumer decisions to purchase (Chand, 2015). In making decision to purchase clothes, first there is the physiological need to clothe. It is a basic need for individuals to clothe and cover their bodies and thus in order to fulfil this need consumers make the decision to buy clothes. In attempting to fulfil this basic physiological need consumers are motivated to purchase clothes. Marketers in aiding consumers meet and fulfil this need they target low income consumers with low quality second hand clothes most of them being found in the rural areas (Bhasin, 2012). Another need that is relevant to motivating consumers to purchase a specific set of clothing is the security and safety needs. During cold periods or in cold regions, there is always the need to protect oneself from cold related ailments such as pneumonia. Consumers are thus compelled to buy warm clothing to fulfil this need. Consumers are also driven to buy clothes to fulfil the social and ego needs. This has to do with the fulfilling of the need to be loved and belong to a particular group as well as esteem needs. Consumers belong to classes which are stratified according to income levels and family orientations. Different classes dress differently and buy clothes unique to that group. The need to feel loved and identify with that clique motivates individuals to purchase clothing identifying them to such groups. In this case the market is segmented into classes and marketers take advantage of this and devices modalities of selling their products to different classes of the society. For instance for class A consumers they can position their clothing products in terms of advertising status and class and even quoting eminent persons who also identify with that particular design or use celebrities to advertise such cloth lines. But if the product is targeting the masses then the advertising concentrates on pricing emphasising value for money. Targeting class A consumers means selling the cloth lines in urban centres because this is where most of them are located (Chand, 2015). Perception and consumer behaviour Perception is the process by which individuals who in this case are consumers choose order and decipher stimuli into meaningful and coherent illustration of the world (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004b). Perception is the approximation of reality, where the brain attempts to make sense of the stimuli to which people are expose to (Perner, 2010). The brain makes as to what is relevant and what is not. Weber proposed a law relating to how similar stimuli but of different intensities are perceived by individuals that is the greater the intensity of the first stimulus the greater the intensity required for the second stimulus to be perceived to be different (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004b). The way individuals identify, select, organise and interpret information regarding market products and services influences their decision to buy those goods and services to a greater extent. Perception can be influenced by such factors as subjectivity where the individual has already in in him or her an in-build world-view in this case about a particular product or service and this view is unique to the individual. There is also the element of categorisation that influences the way consumers build their perception. And here the consumer pigeonholes information and pre-judges events and products like assuming that a pepsi is always blue and the coke one is always red. In perception the brain also selects from the environment what it perceives relevant. Perception is also influenced by expectation and past experiences (Chand, 2015). Perception is thus important in guiding consumers to select which products to buy since it leads to a response either overt that is inducing actions or covert that is generating motivation, attitudes and feelings or both (Sahaf, 2008). In buying clothes people tend to make decisions to buy based on how they perceive certain types or lines of clothes. Clothing and appearance is important in revealing an individual’s personality. People have formed perception that going to an interview neatly dressed in your suit and tie will increases the chances of landing the job, a marketing executive smartly dressed is more likely to attract the attention of clients. People purposely select different clothes to wear in different social contexts for they have learned to associate varying social contexts to specific type of clothing (Mcdermot and Pettijohn II, 2011). The type of clothing an individual chooses to wear can communicate responsibility, status, power, and the ability to be successful (Turner-Bowker, 2001). For instance when teachers dress formally wore suits and dress shoes they are perceived to be more competent and successful. So people tend to buy suits and formal clothing so to create in the society that impression of being successful and of class. Thus consumers will buy clothes based on the formed perception of categorisation inherent in the society. Designer name or brand clothing also forms the basis on which consumers make decisions to buy from what store because such consumers have formed in them or have interpreted that clothes from such designers or brands are of high quality and will portray them as of higher status in society (Beaudoin and Lachane, 2006). For instance a research carried out on college students where they were asked to rate two models where one was wearing a sweatshirt with the Abercrombie and Fitch (AF) logo and the other was wearing Kmart sweatshirt. The students identified more with the model wearing the AF sweatshirt and rated her higher in socioeconomic status compared to the one donning the Kmart sweatshirt (Mcdermot and Pettijohn II, 2011). This is so because of the already formed perception of the two brands that the AF is more reputable in dealing with casual wear compared to Kmart. The quality of the two sweatshirts was simply judged based on the brand names. Thus brand names or specific clothing lines can order the decisions of consumers to buy. Most consumers of clothing have also for long used the price to tell the quality and hence decide what to buy. The perception of price has been used as an indicator of service or product quality in that the higher the price the higher the perceived quality of the product or service (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004b). Consumers always go for expensive clothes because they perceive them to be of high quality in comparison to those of low prices. Similar clothes in a store and they are similar in that they of the same design, colour, size, and made from the same material but the only difference is that they are carrying different price tags. Consumers will tend to go for the one with higher price tag because they perceive it to be of high quality by virtue of the higher price. This is also the same case with consumers associating specific cloth lines or stores with high quality. Attitudes and consumer behaviour An attitude is a learned predisposition to act in a manner which is consistently favourable or unfavourable towards a given object (Schiffman, Kanuk and Das, 2005). Sahaf (2008) defines attitude as representing beliefs and tendencies that compels individuals to act favourably or unfavourably in a consistent manner towards specific individuals, groups, ideas or objects. It the mental state of readiness to respond which is guided by experience and exerts a directive influence on behaviour. In marketing attitude refers to the feeling of like or dislike of a purchase alternative as ordered by the individual beliefs about product attributes. Attitude consists of three elements; cognitive, affective and behavioural. The cognitive aspect has to do with the consumer’s knowledge, beliefs and opinions about the product. It is what the consumer believes to be good or not good, true or not true about an idea, event, person activity or object. The affective aspect deals with the consumer’s feelings, emotions or sentiments associated with a particular product or brand. The behavioural aspect is also known as the conative deals with the action tendencies towards the object (Solomon 2009; Sahaf, 2008). Marketers need to recognise the importance of consumer attitudes as these same attitudes will always guide the consumer behaviour in purchases. Attitudes play very important roles in consumers some which include Utilitarian function which is achieving the desired goals or avoiding undesirable consequences. There is also the Ego-defensive role which aids the consumer to defend his or her self-image against threats both internally and externally and finally there is the role of knowledge which offers standards of reference which consumers use to order and give meaning to beliefs (Sahaf, 2008). A consumer’s attitude in behaving in a certain way is as a result of how strongly the consumer believes that the action will lead to a specific outcome which is either pleasant or unpleasant. There is a high tendency that consumers will blame others or products for unpleasant outcome and accept credit for pleasant consequences. Consumers have certain beliefs about certain products and these preformed beliefs inform their decisions to buy specific commodities and ignore others. Thus for marketers the challenge is internalising the attitudes of consumers and positioning their products to fulfil beliefs of consumers. They can achieve this by associating their products with a special group or event, appeal to motivational functions of attitudes, deal with conflicting attitudes among consumers, deal with consumer attributions, change the components of attitudes, change the consumers’ beliefs on brands of competitors (Schiffman, Kanuk and Das, 2005). In consumer behaviour when it comes to buying of clothes is to some extent informed by their beliefs. For instance some people believe that wearing jeans and baggy ones for that matter does not indicate sophistication and class and because of that belief consumers will shun away from jeans when it comes to purchasing of clothes. Consumers have pre-formed minds about specific brands of clothes. There are also those who prefer Calvin Klein, Tommy Hillfiger, Gucci, among others. This informs the decision of their purchasing behaviours selecting specific brands simply because of favourable attitudes formed towards such brands. Some consumers buy suits and elegant clothing in order to defend their self-image. That is they are being ego-defensive. They want to look elegant in public and society in general. That is to achieve desired outcomes; the utilitarian aspect of attitude. Personality and consumer behaviour Personality includes all of an individual’s internal psychological traits that make the individual unique (Bhasin, 2012). It is the inner psychological traits that both determine and reflect how and individual reacts to his or her environment (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007a; Batra and Kazmi, 2008). Personality deals with individual differences and is consistent and enduring and personality can also change although being consistent and enduring. Marketers have utilised four theories in trying to understand personality characteristics and thereby position their products well and have the right products for the right target. These theories include self-concept (self-image) theory, psychoanalytic theory, social/cultural theory also known as Neo-Freudian theory and trait theory (Batra and Kazmi, 2008). Self-concept theory also known as self-image theory is concerned with the totality of the individual’s thoughts and feelings. Each individual possess a self-concept and sees himself or herself as possessing certain characteristics and qualities and values those qualities. There are four specific types of self-images, the first one is the actual self which represents what individuals buy or own as a reflection of who they really are. The second one is the ideal self which represents what these individuals would like to be. The third one is the social self which represents how they perceive others see them. The fourth one is the ideal social-self which represents how they would like others to perceive them (Batra and Kazmi, 2008). Research in this area has unearthed another form of self-image which is expected self and represents how the consumers expect to see themselves in the future. From the marketers’ point of view expected self of consumers offers them the opportunity to generate products and promotions that are attractive to consumers and in line with their future demands. This also presents an opportunity for the marketers to position their products in a way appealing to the consumers (Batra and Kazmi, 2008). Psychoanalytic theory has it that every individual has his or her personality originating from their childhood conflicts. These conflicts have their origin in three constituents of personality; Id (libido), Ego and Superego. Id is concerned with the individual’s basic urges and drives including sex, hunger, aggression and self-preservation. This utilises the ‘pleasure principle’ where individuals seek immediate pleasure and avoid pain. This lacks consciousness. The ego is the consumer’s conscious control. It operates on the reality principle where it tries to control the and limit the urges of id where individuals develop qualities and abilities of realistic thinking enabling one to respond to the environment appropriately. Here the consumer is capable of postponing pleasure gratification until such a time when it is suitable and socially acceptable. The superego consists of the morality of the consumer’s personality where it defines what is right and good and compels one to strive for perfection. All these shapes the personality of an individual and so is the purchasing behaviour (Batra and Kazmi, 2008). The social/cultural theory postulates that social and cultural events shape the personality of an individual. Individuals are viewed as seeking for ways of gaining love, security and relationships. The trait theory postulates that individual personality consists of a number of traits that form their behaviour patterns (Batra and Kazmi, 2008). Personality plays a very important role when informing the purchasing behaviour of consumers. Individuals possess thoughts and feelings that they value. This makes them to purchase clothes that tend to go hand in hand with those values. Individuals with the superego personality want to dress right and elegantly because they also strive for perfection. Thus they will shop for formal clothes; suits, elegant shoes and they do this their shopping in upmarket stores. Those with and id personality for instance will tend to for anything in the stores so long as they serve the purpose of covering their bodies. The four types of self-concept also determine what people will decide to purchase as their wear. The consumers will buy their clothes to suit the self-concept they prophesy. They will go for formal clothing if that is how the society wants to perceive them; successful and elegant. Hip hop rappers have a personality which hugely impacts on the way they dress; baggy and oversized t-shirts is their thing and this influences their decision in buying as far as clothing is concerned. Life style and consumer behaviour Life style is the individual’s mode of living as is told by the individual’s activities, interests and opinions (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2009). Psychographics is a tool utilised by marketers to examine and identify life styles of consumers and this enables marketers to segment the markets and target the right customers. Life style is a pointer on how people live, spend their time, money. What individuals do during their spare time is a good pointer to what their lifestyle might be. Consumer life styles are very pertinent as far as market segmentation, communication and new product ideas. For instance day care services, fast food restaurants and house cleaning services attract those individuals with saving time and convenience form of life styles (Batra and Kazmi, 2008). Life style interpretations gives a picture of consumers and helps in the segmentation of markets based on their activities that is how they spend their time, based on what interests them that is what they deem important in their immediate surroundings and on the basis of their opinions that has to do with their beliefs in themselves and issues. Lifestyle has helped marketers to segment markets appropriately especially with those products where the consumer’s self-image becomes an important factor which include products such as beer, clothes, perfumes, jewellery among others (Batra and Kazmi, 2008). For fashion consumers especially those dealing with clothes six different forms of lifestyles can be identified and hence consumers can be grouped into six groups; yester years who are older consumers, power purchasers comprising of married households with college degree, fashion foregoers, social strivers struggling to fit into the society, dutifuls comprising of individuals who are highly practical and progressive patrons with high disposable income and always when shopping on clothing their decision to buy is always pegged on quality (Batra and Kazmi, 2008). Thus in shopping for clothes there are those individuals who like old fashioned clothing for instance belly bottom trousers hence their decision to buy clothes is pegged on such interests. There are those labelled as fashion goers who are always waiting for new trendy brands to hit the market and grab them and so their decisions to purchase is directed to those clothing lines that are current and trendy in the market. The life style of consumers will influence to a great deal the buying decisions of the consumers especially when it has something to do with their clothing. Lifestyle marketing appreciates the fact that people always group themselves into groups on the criteria of what they like to do and how they decide to use their income. Statistics has it that consumers especially on the clothing front select products, services and activities over others simply because of the lifestyle they pledge allegiance to. It is because of this that marketers attempt to position products in a way fitting into the existing lifestyles of consumers (Krishnan, 2011). Age, Life cycle and consumer Behaviour Age of an individual is an important factor influencing consumer behaviour. It also true that the preferred products for an individual when he or she is 20 years old will not be the same when the same individual is 55 years of age. People buy different products at their different ages. As the ages of individuals progress their tastes and preferences also change (Chand, 2015). The life cycle of individuals is an ordered process consisting of phases in which the attitudes and behaviours of consumers evolve as a result of developments in maturity levels, experience, income and status (Bhasin, 2012). Changes also in environment, activities, hobbies and habits also lead to consumers changing their brands of products and services. Case in point can be a consumer changing from eating unhealthy products that is fast food to a healthier diet during the individual’s midlife and eventually later on to a low cholesterol diet to avoid health complications. As one’s age increases the other factors influencing consumer buying decisions may also change for example the social value of a commodity at 25 years won’t be the same when the individual is 70 years old. Increase in age implies that one gets to college, gets a job, gets married, have kids and so on. These altogether change the consumer behaviours progressively as it also alters the individual’s values and lifestyle (Perreau, 2014). As one ages, changes take place. Such changes include biological changes which are the changes in the individual’s functional capacity due to changes in cells and tissues which result in wearing down of biological systems and subsystems (Gregoire, 2003). This changes almost all aspects of consumer reactions to products and services. It can change what one consumes, it alters one’s perception and processing of information, it can restrict purchasing by restricting movement due to age and also the loss of sensitivity to stimuli. There are also change in the psychological aspect which consists of changes in information processing of an individual as he or she gets older, emotional changes and also changes in personality. As one gets older, he or she also experiences changes in the social arena otherwise known as social changes. Here there are changes in one’s roles that is they become active parents, workers etc. these changes greatly affect the consumer behaviour in that the consumption patterns for the elderly differ on some categories of brands. The aged spend a considerable amount of their capital on products and services associated with medical care and spend less when it comes to transport, clothing and housing (Gregoire, 2003). Age affects to a larger extent when it comes to buying clothes. The young prefer casual clothes to official and formal clothes because this is in agreement with their lifestyles at the youth age. It is socially valued. The uptown youths also prefer more of jeans and trousers as their choice of dressing. The middle aged would go the formal official wear more compared to casual wear because socially this group of people won’t fit into the society with casual wear. In buying of clothes the young prefer to buy clothes if the price is low and favourable and yes most casual wear fall into this category while the middle aged individuals based their buying of clothing on suitability and hence more of the officials and elegant wear. The older individuals peg their purchasing of clothes on the durability (Hervé and Mullet, 2009). Statistics also indicate that the youth and the middle aged would spend a considerable amount of their disposable income on clothes and would also buy more clothes compared to older. This is to some extent simply because their mobility is active and can move around in many clothe stores and are thus afforded the opportunity of variety. But the older folks their movement is restricted hence their purchases are from just around the corner. Information processing is also a challenge for consumers who are aged in that if there an advertisement on television about a specific brand getting that information and creating meaning out of it becomes hard since the advert barely lasts a minute. This is quickly internalised by the young (Gregoire, 2003). This knowledge on how age affects consumer responses is very vital for marketer on devising strategies to get the right products to the right target. For instance if they want to reach the elderly their adverts better be in print form and if in their advertisements especially for clothing they better put emphasis on price if they are targeting the youth but if they are targeting the middle aged group, they should position their products in a way that they communicate suitability and for the elderly more concentration in the positioning of the products should be on durability. Conclusion In conclusion, the decisions to purchase especially clothing do not just happen spontaneously. It is a soul searching process which is influenced by several factors both internal and external. Some of the internal factors having its toll on the decision making process in purchasing especially when buying clothes include needs and motivation, perception, lifestyles, attitudes, personality age and cycles of life. These factors inform the decisions to purchase by consumers to varying levels and some of these factors work hand in hand in enabling consumers reach a decision to purchase, for example a consumer may have a very positive attitude towards Mercedes but income levels will have to come in to influence whether the decision to purchase a Mercedes Benz car has to be bought. For marketers, having the knowledge of these factors and knowing how they shape the behaviours of consumers helps them segment the markets appropriately and position their products right enabling them to reach the right targets for the specific brands of commodities. 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