Factors influencing purchasing decisions

Discuss about the Purchasing Behaviour Of A Consumer.

The marketing or purchasing strategies are determined by various factors that influence the buyer to buy the particular product. The primary reasons that determine the marketing strategies are the budget, choice, requirement, social influence, affordability and availability (Abd-El-Salam,Shawky & El-Nahas, 2013). The study will discuss about the marketing analysis done on an individual consumer on the basis of a seven day purchase. The purchase will include low and high involvement purchase and the reasons for selecting such type. The purchase will be done on the basis of requirement and luxury of the individual customer.

It will detail the type of purchase, type of consumer, selection reason, alternate selection and reason for rejecting the alternate option, deciding time, calculations, effort and customers preference. It will show a typical contrast between the high involvement and low involvement expenditure (Choi et al., 2013). It will clearly show the effective and efficient market analysis and demand for product in the market. The study will help the brand or organizations to understand the consumer type and their preference type which will help them to create products for such typical consumers. The study will mainly focus on the customer analysis and their purchasing strategies, followed by a clear review about the consumer which will help the company or business organization to change their marketing strategy to reach such consumers.

Demographics:

The consumer:

• Completely family oriented
• Spends her free time with her son
• Highly busy with work pressure
• Concerned about health and fitness
• Saves for son’s education
• Loves to shop but gets very less time
• Brand oriented
• Interested in food and loves to cook
• Likes to buy gift for son
• Spends an average amount in salon and beauty care
• Likes to safe
• Not interested in vacations
• Often goes for dinner or outing with son

The big five test was applied on the consumer and the result are as follows:

The above test was done on the consumer to identify her preference and purchasing pattern. The result determines the purchasing strategies of an individual. It reflects the analysing limitation of an individual with an approximate idea of what type of products the person might purchase. From the above study it can be concluded that the consumer is a reflective person as she has a high score in openness. The imaginative power of the consumer is high. Her score in conscientiousness is highwhich means she has a tendency to scrutinize and study the product before purchasing and selecting a product(Wu, Yeh& Woodside, 2014).

She studies bout the product before purchasing and is calculative about the purchase. She is highly dependent on brand quality even though she scrutinizes and selects among the brands. She has a low score in Neuroticism which means she has a lot of patience and purchases a product with a lot of patience and judgement. These type of consumer’s are highly selective about their product and prefers only the one they like. They are difficult to convince and thusproper branding is very important for such consumers. The consumer mentioned here has a tendency to prefer branded products and premium products. She is also interested for discount and sale but that too in an established shop.

Consumer’s purchasing behavior

Psychological diverse of the purchasing behaviour

The monthly and weekly expenditure of the consumer are as follows:

She spends $1200 every month for her son’s school fee. She spends $200 for her son’s football session. The household expenditure including the bills and rents totals up to $3000. She also spends $200 for her yoga class, as it is mentioned earlier that she is a fitness conscious person. The grocery and fruits total up to an expenditure of $500. The above expenditure are monthly and has to be spent by her on a monthly basis.

She has few weekly expenditure that includes her transportation fee, her son’s transportation fee, and her salon expenditure that sums up to $1000. These are her regular expenditure has she makes every week and month.

From the above study it is clear that the consumer is choosy and her preference for product depends on the attractiveness and looks of the product. She prefers to buy any product that suits her choice and she finds attractive. The brand is not a factor, however she has bought something which was not required for her. This can mean that the necessity products are bought depending on the brands but she also likes to buy general product that is attractive and appealing to her. She is calculative about her expenditure but random purchasing are also a part of her purchasing pattern. She is selective about the product and prefers to buy the product depending how well the product suits her.

This month she needed a mobile phone for her son. It was becoming difficult for her to communicate with her son so she decided to buy him a smart phone. It was again a sudden plan. She decided to buy her son a new smart phone communicating with him when she is at work.

The factors that influenced the consumer to buy the product were:

As mentioned earlier the consumer is very much fond of branded products and prefers to buy the branded product instead of buying local product. She might have a belief of using a proper brand for a long time instead of changing the product by using local brands. The happened in this case also. She decided to buy the phone among the top brands in the digital world. As it is known that Apple is one of the reputed brand for digital product and electronic products hence she decided to buy the product of Apple. The features attracted her too and she felt that the product would be best suited for her and thus she bought the product. Before buying the product she enquired about the product and got review from her colleagues. She was aware of the brand name but was not sure about the model type.

Monthly and weekly expenditure

The price was $920. The requirement for the phone was basically to communicate as her son did not have much demand for the remaining features. She purposely bought a smart phone with variety of features as she felt the necessity to teach her son about the use of latest phone and technology. The primary need was fulfilled along with her different perception that she had and intended to buy the phone. She bought the phone as she liked the features herself and felt her son might find interest in the phone as it has good picture quality and memory. The images will be of high quality that will attract her son to use the phone. The memory would be used by him to store games which once again will be highly attractive to her son (Ensworth& Reynolds, 2015, April). Thus she decided to buy this phone. The price of the phone was also in her budget and altogether she did not have any problem buying the phone. Initially she has decided to buy a Micro Max phone with similar features. However, later on she changes her opinion about the phone. There were few areas where the two differed and she chose to buy Apple over Micro Max. The difference between the brands were :

The features in Apple were better than the other brand and thus she decided to buy the selected brand. The brand was not only superior to other brands but also an assured quality producer. Their product are undoubtedly the best product and has been selected by most of the people. The suggestion and the brand had influenced her and at the same time the brand image supported her to buy the product. Being a brand preferred women she selected the superior brand and gave the best product to her son.

Promotion- The promotion of the product that are purchased by the consumers are very general and common in the market. This they do not require much promotion. These brands are local brands and has a very less intention to promote their product.

Product – The product that the consumer purchases on a weekly purpose are general product for regular use. The product that has been mentioned here is bread that the pasta which is common food product. There are few local and international product but the product is commonly used by all.

Price- The price of the product is minimum and it is a low investment product. The consumer purchases low involvement product on weekly purchase and does not incurr a huge expenditure by the consumer.

Consumer’s payment methods

The consumer buys the product mostly by using debit cards. The credit is used by the consumer only for high-involved transactions. She also uses cash for buying small scale products in the market. The consumer prefers to make card payment rather than cash payments.

The consumer uses two mode of purchase that includes in-store and online. The consumer uses online purchase system more than any other system as she has very less time to go out and purchase products. The consumer likes to choose her product and buy them, hence whenever she cannot go out and buy her products she prefers to buy it from online store.

The consumer is very choosy and takes a lot of time to select her product. She shows interest to try new things but before that she likes to investigate about the brand and trend and then take her decision.

Initially she has decided to buy a Micro Max phone with similar features. However, later on she changes her opinion about the phone. There were few areas where the two differed and she chose to buy Apple over Micro Max. The difference between the brands were:

The features in Apple were better than the other brand and thus she decided to buy the selected brand. The brand was not only superior to other brands but also an assured quality producer. Their product are undoubtedly the best product and has been selected by most of the people. The suggestion and the brand had influenced her and at the same time the brand image supported her to buy the product. Being a brand conscious woman she selected the superior brand and gave the best product to her son.

This month she also needed a mobile phone for her son. It was becoming difficult for her to communicate with her son so she decided to buy him a smart phone. It was again a sudden plan. She decided to buy her son a new smart phone communicating with him when she is at work.

The nominated high involvement product that the consumer decided to purchase was a smart phone. It was an Apple phone. The key feature of the phone are as follow:

The primary reason for buying this were:

• It was attractive and liked by her
• On trying the glass suited her.
• The shopkeeper assured her a quality product
• The product could be returned if got damaged within two months of purchase
• The price was comparatively low
• The type of the glass was on trend
• She looked nice in that pair

The five factors that are in place in the purchase of high-involvement products are product features, differentiation, product fit with the customer, price and after sales service. The primary factor that influences the purchase of a high-involvement product is the features of the product. In this case, the quality of glass was quite suitable for the concerned person that attracted her to buy the product. The better the features of the product, it is more likely that the consumer would be impressed and veer towards buying the product. The second factor that influences the purchase of high-involvement product is differentiation. Along with the specific features of the product, the brand needs to distinguish itself from the competitors. In this case, the pair of glass purchased by the consumer is found in other brands too but it is the specific brand that attracted her towards the brand. The third factor of product fit with the requirement of the customer is that the brand needs to have the right features that would be compatible with the aesthetics of the customer. The fourth factor involved in the purchase is the price. It plays a major role in the purchase of high-involvement product in determining the interest of the customer towards the product. Another factor for the purchase is after sales service that is concerned with the service provided by the brand to the customer.

Consumer’s purchasing channels

The high involvement and low involvement purchase was a combination two distinct product that has no link among each other. The product prices have a huge gap and has no link among each other. The consumer has shown two variation while purchasing the two products. She has been neutral while buying a pair of glass, not even considering the product quality and brand. Whereas at the same time she was highly conscious about the brand while buying the phone. The product was typically selected by her on the basis of the features and brand of the product. It was sure that the consumer is not concerned about the price while purchasing a product(Lusch&Vargo, 2014). The consumer bought the low invested product with a random selection and did not bother about the quality or brand as she was sure that even if the product did not last long she will not be cheated. The price was low and she considered that to be the key point for buying a random products.

Table 7: Comparison of high end product vs weekly purchase

Thus, it is clear that when it comes to random product she judges them on the basis of her liking and price. At the same time when she is buying with high involvement she prefers to buy the product will complete assessment and review. She believes to buy a high involvement product by judging it on the basis of the brand type and popularity of the brand. She is highly influenced by the brand name and product type. She is very selective about the brand and prefers to buy product that are reputed and assures a quality product. She also scrutinizes the product and calculates the features that fulfil her preference. Thus it can be said that she has two different perspective for two different product type.

The requirement that such consumer types consider before purchasing the product are:

• Reviews matter that incur heavy cost
• Remains loyal to reputed brands
• Believes in one time purchase
• Scrutinizes about the product before purchasing it
• Small investment are made on the basis of attractiveness and likings
• Does not spend much effort for buying a low investment method
• Tends to buy the product which is best suited and that might expensive too.

To judge such consumer it is required to know about their choice and preference. Their buying technique and selection pattern are very important to know for such consumers. The marketing brand can keep into consideration few things before branding to such consumers:

• Maintaining a good reputation in the market: these consumer are highly brand oriented and tries to make investment for long term product. They tend to buy a costly product that will last for a long time. They do not think about the cost if the product is suitable forthem(Guy,2013). Such consumers are asset to the company and they must keep good relation with such consumers.
• Providing offers and discounts for such consumers: the consumer tends to buy small investment product at a low price. If a branded company is giving discount and offers then there are high chances that the consumers will prefer the brand over the other brands.
• Bringing latest and attractive product that will increase their scope to but the product: they tend to buy attractive and innovative product that are new in the market. However the product must be of moderate price. They do not tend to buy costly product without a proper identity(Hill&Brierley,2017). Thus if the company is providing latest product and innovative designs then the customers will automatically get attracted to such products.
• Do not change the product type: they are very loyal to the selected brand however if the product is changes then there are high changes that the consumer might change their preference and shift from that brand to another(Michalske, 2014).
• Do not increase the price to a high extend: these consumers try to go for small scale investment for local products that might not have a proper lasting date. They tend to buy such product only for a temporary use(Lemon &Verhoef, 2016).
• They generally tend to buy costly product if the brand is reputed enough for the price: they buy costly product if the brand is reputed. Thus it will be easy for the reputed brand to incur heavy profit from such consumers(Solomon et al., 2014). But the middle level companies can also try to attract such consumers either by starting proper branding of their product or by decreasing the price of the product that will gain their interest. If they like the product then a rise in price in the future days will not affect the consumer much.

References:

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Choi, C. H., Lee, J. E., Park, G. S., & Na, J. (2013). Voice of customer analysis for internet shopping malls.

Ensworth, J. F., & Reynolds, M. S. (2015, April). Every smart phone is a backscatter reader: Modulated backscatter compatibility with bluetooth 4.0 low energy (ble) devices. In RFID (RFID), 2015 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 78-85). IEEE.

Guy, B. S. (2013). The marketing of altruistic causes: understanding why people help. Journal of Services Marketing.

Hill, N., & Brierley, J. (2017). How to measure customer satisfaction. Routledge.

Lemon, K. N., &Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96.

Lusch, R. F., &Vargo, S. L. (2014). The service-dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions. Routledge.

Michalske, S. C. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,910,299. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Solomon, M. R., Dahl, D. W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J. L., &Polegato, R. (2014). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Pearson.

Wu, P. L., Yeh, S. S., & Woodside, A. G. (2014). Applying complexity theory to deepen service dominant logic: Configural analysis of customer experience-and-outcome assessments of professional services for personal transformations. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), 1647-1670.