Buying Behavior and Involvement - Coursework Example

Marketing Concepts and Theories Regarding Consumer Behaviour Buying may seem as easy as walking into the shop, picking what one desires, and walking out after paying for it. However, this is not the case as buying encompasses a complex behaviour that take into consideration several elements and concepts before one settles for the product or brand to buy. Thus buying a provide entails higher levels of involvement by the consumer in the purchase decision. Involvement in this context refers to the underlying actions and evaluations a consumer undertakes to familiarize and understand the product or service before being motivated to buy. According to Neil “Consumer involvement affects the ways in which consumers seek, process, and transmit information, make purchase decisions and make post-purchase evaluation”. As a result, when creating a commercial or marketing message, marketers need to capture this process of involvement in their favour through a strategic marketing mix. Involvement is divided into two categories low and high involvement whereby low involvement deals with inexpensive goods and services that do not require a lot of information processes. On the other hand, high involvement is consumer decisions based on extensive processing of the information based on the purchase of important products such as car, land among others. Therefore, this essay evaluates the concept of high and low involvement in buying behaviour of a consumer with regard to two chosen products. The first step in the buying process is the recognition where a buyer recognizes a need, or when a buyer responds to the stimulus created by marketing message and activities. In my recent purchase, I made a purchase of computer and a Nivea lotion, in which my purchases were driven by the need to have these items. After determining the need then one finds out the information about the product, however, the search for information only fails to occur when there is a product or service that meets a strong need. Information on products can be obtained from commercial sources including through salespeople, dealers, retailers, advertisers and point-of-sale displays. This sources may offer varying information depending on the product that the buyer wishes to purchase. However, customer trust personal sources more than commercial sources, and thus, there is a tendency of buying products recommended by the personal sources. After finding out information then comes the evaluation of the product, which is basically choosing among alternative brands. After this, there is purchase decision which may be influenced by things such packaging and method of purchase. Additionally, there is the actual purchase, and finally post-purchase, which involves expression of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product. Low Involvement Buyer Behavior Taking the example of my case where I recently purchased Nivea lotion, I first established as my lotion was finished, and I needed to replace it with a new. However, I did not have to go through the processes of information search, evaluation and purchase decision. This is because I usually use the product, and since I have used it for long I already have all the information I require about it. As a result, I went directly to purchasing and post purchasing evaluation. This type of consumer behaviour refers to as routine response behaviour. This is where a consumer makes an automatic purchase decision based on information gathered in the past, or one there is limited information available about the product that a person wishes to purchase. Therefore, in my case I always buy Nivea lotion, and as a result, when I walk into the store, I automatically pick it without giving any thoughts for another option or an alternative. This is my routine, and thus, I do not have to think about any other product. Furthermore, such a decision is a low involvement decision because it is kind of purchase that does not carry higher risk of expense in the case that the product fails to work or serve its intended purpose. Another buyer behaviour that falls under the low involvement is impulse buying. This is where there is no previous thinking or planning made prior to buying. For example, as you stand waiting for someone you see something that catches your eyes, and consequently decides to buy it. Or while, at the store, you realize that there is something you need, and you buy it, yet you had not planned to buy such an item. High Involvement Buyer Behaviour Regarding my second product, which I purchased recently, it is clearly a highly involving product because computer is expensive, and I would incur huge loss if it fails to work or serve the purpose it was intended for. Therefore, I will elaborate how I evaluated my product through the stages of buying process. I have always had a desktop which I use for doing my assignment research among other tasks. However, recently I have realized that I need something portable that I can carry and use in the school library, and carry with me when going for overnight stay visits. Moreover, desktops are nowadays becoming faced out as people become more digital, and the portable devices become more and more popular. As a result, I decided that it is time I bought a laptop. This marked the first step in my consumer purchase process, which is establishing a need. The next stage in my buyer process after establishing a need is searching for information. Since this product that has high risk of loss in case it fails to satisfy the reason that I decided to buy it in the first place. This means that I had to evaluate different alternatives. First, I searched for different sizes of laptops available, the features they offer such as processor capacity, and the prices of these different sizes. Once I settled for the size and processor capacity, as well as storage capacity that I needed, the next evaluation was on the brand. Since I already have an idea of what I needed, it was not very difficult to choose a brand because I had to look for one that offers the specifications I needed. Nevertheless, at this point I searched for information about the available brands and their reputation in the market. This helped me in establishing a brand that would be more reliable; that is, offers the highest quality to products. I asked my friends and family members who use laptops of various brands on their experience, and this contributed to my decision on deciding the brand to go for. I searched additional information on the internet, and also checked for commercials related to these brands. Though I also compared the prices for the various brands, this was not very important to me because my major concern was on quality. At the end of this process, I settled for Apple as my preferred brand. Another reason why I settled for Apple is because it offers a different OS, which I prefer over other OS, and this is Mac OS. After searching for information on my product, a step I went for was product evaluation. Normally, companies offer varied products in the same category to fit various needs and incomes. This is to mean that products in the same category may be created differently to appeal to different customer segments such as low incomes and high end market, age groups, religious groups, cultural groups among others. Therefore, in my product evaluation I narrowed down my choice to specific colour, price range, design and shape, weight, and features helpful in academic purposes since I am a student. The next step is product choice and purchase, which involves the decision on where, how and when to purchase the desired product. During search and evaluation, one might have noticed that the product is cheaper at one store than the other, or there is a store that offers discount. In addition, there are terms of purchase that need to be considered at this point to determine which place offers the best terms. Furthermore, one may make a choice to purchase either from a physical store or an online store. Regarding my purchase, I bought a laptop from a physical store that was giving out discounts at the time. The final step is post-purchase use and evaluation, which entails the experience with the product. When the product fails to meet expectations, this results in dissonance. In my case, the product I purchased met all my expectations and I am happy with it. At the end of the process, I ended up with Apple MacBook Pro Laptop - Core i7-8GB-750GB-13-inch - MD102HN-A. Factors Influencing Consumer Buyer Behaviour There are several factors that influence customer behaviour regarding the decision to purchase a particular product, and these include cultural, market, personal, psychological, situational, social and cultural factors. These factors determine consumer behaviour on how an individual, organizations, groups among other categories will buy and use goods and services, as well as use ideas to satisfy their desires and needs. First, marketing factors involve price, promotion, product and place. Concerning product, the factors that appeal to consumers include packaging, physical appearance and uniqueness of the product. Another important aspect that influence buyer behaviour is pricing, and thus, marketers fix prices with regard to target customers. Similarly, promotional strategies such as publicity, advertising, and public relations influence consumer behaviour, as well as place, which include channels of distribution. Personal factors that influence consumer behaviour include gender, age, education, income level, and status in the society. For example, while office people prefer formal wear, teenagers may prefer casual and trendy clothes. Similarly, girls prefer colours labelled feminine while boys prefer masculine colours. Finally, people with higher income spend highly than people with low income. Psychological factors also influence buyer behaviour, and these include attitude, motives, learning, beliefs and perception. For instance, information experience may cause changes in behaviour of an individual, thus, influencing their buying decision. Similarly, people have different inner drives such as pride, comfort and convenience, and love and affection that influences their purchasing behaviour. Additionally, consumers may have positive, neutral or negative attitude towards a given product that may influence their buying behaviour. Finally, perceptions and beliefs also play a vital role in an individual’s choice of products and services. Situational factors deal with social and physical surroundings, monetary moods, time and nature of tasks among other that the influence consumer buying behaviour. For example, physical factors that may influence purchasing involve location, layout and décor of the store. Further, monetary conditions are caused by the moods and condition of the buyer at the time of purchase, for instance, a happy mood or sad mood. Another factor that influence consumer behaviour is a social factor that deals with social status, family and reference groups. For example, with regard to role and status of an individual influences them to seek services and products that conform to their position in the organization, community or society. Another example is a family whereby children may influence what to buy based on information they see from the internet or commercials. The last factor that influence consumer behaviour is a cultural factor, which encompasses race, religion, moral values, traditions, language among other cultural elements. Cultural elements and values influence the decision to purchase a particular product. Moreover, cultural diversity also influences clothing customs and food habits. Another example is religious groups whereby some religions does not allow consumption of alcohol, meat among other food products. Additionally, there are sub-cultures whereby the behaviour of people greatly differ, thus creating various preferences leading to the difference in buying behaviour. Undeniably, it is hard to understand why a person may prefer one product, and another person a separate product despite the fact that these serve the same purpose. Evidently, there are several factors that influence buyer behaviour such as cultural, social, situational, psychological, personal, and cultural factors. Social-cultural factors that influence consumer behaviour include traditions, social status, family, reference groups, moral values, language, religion, and sub-cultures. In addition, education among other factors that require making decisions based on rationality also influence buying the behaviour in consumers. Furthermore, the practice of purchasing a product involved either high involvement or low involvement buying whereby high involvement is applicable in the purchase of expensive stuff while low involvement is applicable in less expensive and regular goods. Furthermore, buying occurs in processes starting from the establishment of needs, searching for information, product evaluation, product choice and purchase, and finally, post-purchase evaluation. Read More