Buying Process, Consumer Behaviour - Essay Example

Buying Process Name Institution Course Professor Date Introduction In order to formulate an effective marketing strategy, there is a need to comprehend the process, which various organisational buyers have to adhere to as they make purchasing decisions (Mihart, 2012). The marketer plays a significant role as the organisation changes from problem-recognition phase to definition of procurement need and screening, as well as making a choice for the supplier. However, an organisation buying process nature is dependent on the procurement problems, which such an organization faces. This includes the definition of the buying situation by the organization as either straight rebuy, modified rebuy, or new task. This occurs since each of the buying situations has an independent problem-solving technique and unique market demands and buying influential. Several forces influence the organisational buying behaviour. These include environmental forces, individual forces, group forces, and organisational forces (Waidrop, 2012). Environmental forces establish boundaries for the interactions of sellers and buyers. These forces include the level of technological advancement and business conditions. As such, the current rate of global technology development is very high. This illustrates that the buying process has to adopt new forms of technology in order to improve on its performance level, as well as attain a new level of efficiency. However, comprehending the most suitable technology level for adoption in the buying process is complex. This is because of the dynamism, which is experienced in the process of technology development. On the other hand, the business environment is very dynamic. This includes the influence of economic factors and inflation rates. These are directly felt at the buying process. Since the economic environment is vulnerable to rapid changes, it becomes difficult to comprehend how it affects the buying process of an organisation. Individual forces are present during the buying process. These are evidenced as individuals depict different perceptions and preferences in the buying centres (Wagner, & Krause, 2009). This includes expression of personal experiences and ideas regarding making of the buying process decisions. This indicates that comprehending buying process challenges is highly hindered by individual personal experiences and demands. This is because these demands vary during each of the buying process situation. This complicates the process of knowing how such individuals influence the buying process. This occurs since each individual in the buying centre has a unique perception on achievement of organisation and individual goals, organisation function, learned experiences and personality. Group forces are experienced at the organisation buying centre. Buying centre group composition changes and evolves depending on the situation of purchasing and organisation. This indicates that new ideas and strategies are expected during this time within the buying process of the organisation. Moreover, continuous group composition dynamics renders it complex to comprehend challenges, which are expected in the overall process of organisation buying. This is because the analyses of group factors become difficult as the composition for the group varies from one buying situation to another (Lager, 2012). Members of the buying centre may be classified as gatekeepers, influencers, deciders, and the buyer. This illustrates how the buying centre members are complex to distinguish and identify. As such, in order to comprehend the challenges of the buying process, one would be required to focus on making a distinction of these members and identifying their influence in the buying process (Hutt, & Speh, 2010). However, such as operation would be difficult since buying centre membership is dynamic. Organisation forces influence the correlation between organisation strategic priorities and buying activities. This includes tying of the buying process to organisation strategies, which are focused on improvement in the performance level of an organisation (Preuss, & Walker, 2011). This indicates that as the organisation renews its strategic objectives or the overall organisation strategy, the buying process has to be altered, so that it becomes strategically fit. Changes in organisation strategic fit are based on several factors, which include performance parameters. As such, comprehending challenges of the buying process is complex since one has to focus first on the challenges of the organisation strategy (Miller, 2007). Analysing organisation buying process is also complex because of the strategy implications of the organisation (AdanValles et al., 2011). Portfolio placement of purchases varies among industries and firms. As such, some organisations align their buying process to the functionality and strategies of the organisations. These have an impact on customer value and revenue earnings. Further, strategy implications determine the relationships, which exist between suppliers and customers. This indicates that comprehending the buying process is challenging since one has to identify the impact of these relationships on the buying process. On the same note, the relationships are dynamic, which implies that it is difficult to characterize them. Moreover, organisations tend to adopt ineffective strategies for the buying process. This leads to attainment of weak power bases, which makes the adopted strategy not to have the ability and potential of creating an effective relationship with the desired target (Schiele, & McCue, 2011). Strategies are essential in order to ensure that buying process has the ability of being executed as per the required stages effectively. The various stages of buying process include problem recognition, need description, specification of the product, searching for supplier, acquisition and analysis of various proposals, selection of the desired supplier, selection of the procedure for the order, and performance and feedback evaluation. As such, buying process decision makers tend to differ on the best way in which the stages of the buying process should be followed during a specific buying situation. This makes it complex to identify the inherent problems in the buying process since some stages may be skipped or role override may take place (Weerakkody, & Irani, 2010). In addition, decision-makers tend to experience problems in terms of formulating the most suitable strategy, which deserves to be adopted for each of the buying process stages. This is evident in buying situations such as straight rebuy, modified rebuy, and new task. This leads to the presence of the various buying process forces, which determine the best buying process strategy, which should be adopted in order to attain the desired success level. Consumer behaviour in terms of making varied decisions on what to purchase induces another challenge to the buying process, which is difficult to quantify (Bhamra et al., 2011). This occurs when factors such as personal, psychological and social are evidenced in the decision-making process of consumers. Personal factors tend to influence an individual’s desire. These factors are devastating since it is complex to understand what are personal in a particular product. Psychological factors, which could be either individual based or group based, create another challenge of the organisation management. These factors include lifestyles, personality, perception, and attitudes. These create a problem of them being integrated in the buying process of an organisation. Finally, social factors prevail when consumers based their decisions on opinion leaders, culture, their wants, reference groups, and social class (Liu, & Gal, 2011). It becomes complex for an organisation to focus on satisfying these desires and wants of consumers. I n addition, diversity of consumer wants exists, which complicates satisfaction of their desires. Therefore, the ability of consumers having different levels of making their decisions based on their desires induces a significant challenge to the buying process of an organisation. As such, negative consumers never lead to attainment of success in an organisation buying process while positive consumers contribute towards attainment of success in the buying process. Organisations tend to adopt different buying decision approaches (Hwang et al., 2010). These approaches differ from one buying situation to another. The most common approaches are the routine low-priority and causal approaches. Routine low-priority involves moderate analysis by an organisation while causal approach does not involve analysis and information search. This shows that each approach may be applied to a unique buying situation. Based on this, it becomes complex comprehend challenges of buying process since each of the approach has its own strategy that varies from time to time. Furthermore, inability of the buying process to adopt one buying decision approach complicates the process of identifying challenges, which are inherent in this process. Moreover, organisation structure influences buying process. Therefore, internal conflict, lack of influence, and lack of power of an organisation buying centre leads to attainment of complexities in comprehending challenges of an organisation buying process. Conclusion Attainment of success and improvement in the efficiency of the buying process of an organisation is reliant on the buying centre of the organisation. This includes the composition of the organisation buying centre, group factors, individual factors, and organisation strategies, which influence decision-making process in the buying centres. Moreover, the buying centre should have a strong power, which will influence its ability to make effective decisions, which are related to the buying process. As such, it is complex to comprehend the challenges, which are faced by the buying process of an organisation due to the nature of the buying centre, as well as the buying process. Consumer behaviour is factor, which complicates organisation buying process. This includes the ability of determining the impact of psychological, social, and personal factors on buying process. This indicates that organisation buying process will continuously experience challenges since it is complex to keep on analysing the impact of consumer behaviour on the organisation decisions regarding buying process. As such, it is difficult to comprehend buying process challenges. Reference List AdanValles, S. S., Salvador, N. M., Jaime, S. L., & Maria Reyes, R. (2011). “Applying Lean Manufacturing to Purchasing Processes”. International Journal of Business Strategy, 11(1), 186-196. Bhamra, R., Dani, S., & Bhamra, T. (2011). “Competence understanding and use in SMEs: a UK manufacturing perspective.” International Journal of Production Research, 49(10), 2729-2743. Hwang, Y., Wen, Y., & Chen, M. (2010). “A study on the relationship between the PDSA cycle of green purchasing and the performance of the SCOR model.” Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 21(12), 1261-1278. Lager, T. 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