Understanding Purchase Decisions

Purchasing a laptop can be a major consumption decision, subject to many competing influences. This assignment requires you to look at the laptop choices of 3 people, and provide your analysis on those factors leading to their decisions.

Purchase decisions could be extremely tough decisions given the wide array of choices available in the market nowadays. Most of the consumers feel confused while making purchase decisions and get stuck on the choices available. Especially making decisions about buying laptops or mobiles et cetera becomes extremely complex because there are several kinds of products that have different features which makes the customer confused about going for a particular brand. This is not only complex for the consumers but it is also complex for the marketers to prepare an effective product and release it in the market without thorough analysis of the consumer demands and understanding of the taste and preference of the consumers. In a competitive retail market understanding and determining what consumers want is imperative for the provision of the best possible service to the consumers (Solomon, Russell-Bennett & Previte, 2012). Consumer Survey is an extremely important effective tool which helps the marketers to understand the needs and wants and the inclinations of the consumers in terms of choosing a product and hence this is extremely important to properly analyse the survey results received from the respondents to make effective marketing decisions in favor of an organisation. The present study is critical analysis of the received survey results on the purchase of the laptops. The study will involve discussions of theoretical and practical perspectives which would help the marketers to develop effective strategies for marketing.

The survey questionnaire helps the researchers to understand what they intend to understand from a particular research. Customer survey is extremely effective because it helps the organisation to determine the key aspects that consumers implement while making purchase decisions. It is important to take into account the survey results and interpret them in the best possible way to place products accordingly in the market for the target audience. In the present case few respondents who are consumers looking to buy laptops have been considered as the sample populace for the research (Gunter & Furnham, 2014). The quantitative questionnaire has been developed which mainly contain relevant questions about purchase decisions of the consumers that is what are the factors that drives them to buy different options the laptop segment. For the present analysis 3 different respondents from the groups have been chosen and their response from the questionnaire surveys will be analysed in order to understand the behavior they show and the way they make their decisions while purchasing a laptop (Luchs & Mooradian, 2012).

Effectiveness of Consumer Surveys

The first subject taken is respondent 5 and is a male who is 63 years old. The person is a director of a company. The person has done higher studies and has completed Masters which helps to realise that the person is stable in the professional field. Being a director of a company he requires looking like that to support his cause in the office and this clearly drives his needs and requirements. Personality plays an important role in the decision making for consumption of products and services and hence this stands to be an extremely relevant aspect in making purchase decisions. Since the person is a company director his personality would be pretty similar to his position. It is important that the person is able to maintain a strong executive behavior and personality in the office which should reflect even from his gadgets (Rani, 2014). As per his responses received from the survey no. 5 it clearly reflect that price is not a factor for the person because he wants the best quality product and hence he has chosen option 4 from the given chart in the list because that is the most expensive laptop. As the ethnicity of the man is German he is focused on having all the authority pretty similar to the other German people. According to Allport’s trait theory the personality of a person is driven by the uniqueness of the individual, intelligence, temperament, habits, skills and attitudes which clearly drive the taste and preference of the consumers. As compared to the other two respondents this respondent is educated, with higher skills and knowledge and ultimately also earning more that is actually driving the choice of the person (Huang, Mitchell & Rosenaum?Elliott, 2012).  

On the other hand Respondent 1 is a young student 19 years of age and hence his main criterion to buy a laptop is to get it at an affordable price. It is important to note that he is in the educational stage where the total earning of the person is less and but he also wants get maximum performance and hence he is opting for the 5^th option to get Dell inspiron 15 7000 gaming. It is extremely important to note that the behavior of this kind of student is mainly driven by the trend, interest and influenced by class (Sandy, Gosling and Durant, 2013). According to Freud’s Personality Theory this person is young and aspires to become big one day. It is important to note as a young student he has significant knowledge of computers which clearly inform his decision. Even though his primary driving influence  to buy the laptop stands to be price pretty unlike the 5^th respondent he is looking for quality configuration and feature which is also unlike the previous respondent because there is a huge different in behavior showed as the theories of personality they follow (O’Reilly et al., 2012). The fifth respondent is successful and composed whereas this respondent is in formative stage and volatile which largely impact the choice made by the person.

Three Respondents and their Behavior

Respondent 2 is a flight attendant, female at her mid twenties which clear the air that the individual is largely driven by style and class. Since she is sophisticated she needs sassy products to be in her circle of friends which naturally drives her choice. In this case the social learning theory by Rotter is apt. As per this theory the behavior of the person is largely defined by the interaction which happens between him or her and the environment. In this case the flight attendant is working in different field altogether where individuals have to maintain themselves properly and is also getting paid properly and this drives the choice of the product that is the most expensive product of the list the fifth option that is Dell XPS 13 (Quintelier, 2014). 

It is clear from their behavior that all the three individuals are driven by their own position where the company director is looking for effective service and moderate price, the student is looking for best features considering the fact that this will provide the best possible service then the flight attendant is thinking about the weight which is naturally related to her job and hence this choice. The behavior reflected by these three individuals is apt in their own way as the position and abilities influence their purchase decision making (Hawkins, Mothersbaugh & Best, 2013).

The three respondents also significantly differ in terms of demographics. As per the analysis of the chosen respondents it is clear that since the company director is old and wise he is making a choice that is likely to help him operate effectively in his field of operations. It cannot be denied that demographic largely drive consumer behavior which is reflected through the present respondents. With age people become more composed and efficient and through the questionnaire it has been understood clearly (Solomon et al., 2014). The position and demographics of the people are related to each other and hence it could be said that the young student who is looking for an affordable laptop has chosen an option that comes over the range of 1000 USD. On the other hand the respondent in her mid twenties has achieved a position according to her age which clearly helps her to make decision to buy the most expensive laptop. One thing that is extremely important to highlight here is the difference of thought which is clear in this case and it comes with age and accordingly the behavior changes (Lin & Huang, 2012). The young lady has achieved a job that pays well and hence she made a quick decision to buy the most expensive item on the list whereas the older person that is the company director chose to go with less expensive yet performing product which shows the wise behavior of the person. Demographics also involve ethnicity and income and family situation. Given the present information both the company director and flight attendant have strong family background and ethnicity which loves to get expensive things whereas the student is Korean and they believe in buying that what is essential and needed which clearly inform his choice (Nga & Ken Yien, 2013).

Demographics and Personality as Influencing Factors

Conclusion

Demographics and personality largely drive the choice of the persons to buy something. Especially the narcissistic approach of people also plays an important role in making purchase decisions. It is important to mention young people make purchase decisions based on the design and style of the products mostly whereas older ones tend to sleep over the decision getting the justification to make the choice for a product. The present study has been able to analyse the behavior of the consumers based on their age and personality to make purchase decisions that provides significant insights to the markets.

It is important to note that the marketer selling laptop to the flight attendant to have strong understanding of the way his customer thinks. Based on his understanding and memory the below suggestions could be given:

• Customer like Flight attendants with the similar kind of background will be interested to buy expensive items and hence showing something expensive will catch their attention.
• On the other hand these people are pompous about their status and hence being able to show products absolutely classy and snazzy will involve them in the sales communication (Lysonski & Durvasula, 2013).
• They are not bothered about features and it is important to emphasise on the sleek design and price of the products which would help to draw the attention of the customer (Maity & Dass, 2014).

References

Gunter, B. & Furnham, A., (2014). Consumer Profiles (RLE Consumer Behaviour): An Introduction to Psychographics(Vol. 5). Routledge.

Hawkins, D.I., Mothersbaugh, D.L. & Best, R.J., (2013). Consumer behavior: Building marketing strategy. McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Huang, H.H., Mitchell, V.W. & Rosenaum?Elliott, R., (2012). Are consumer and brand personalities the same?. Psychology & Marketing, 29(5), pp.334-349.

Lin, P.C. & Huang, Y.H., (2012). The influence factors on choice behavior regarding green products based on the theory of consumption values. Journal of Cleaner Production, 22(1), pp.11-18.

Luchs, M.G. & Mooradian, T.A., (2012). Sex, personality, and sustainable consumer behaviour: Elucidating the gender effect. Journal of Consumer Policy, 35(1), pp.127-144.

Lysonski, S. & Durvasula, S., (2013). Consumer decision making styles in retailing: evolution of mindsets and psychological impacts. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 30(1), pp.75-87.’

Maity, M., & Dass, M. (2014). Consumer decision-making across modern and traditional channels: E-commerce, m-commerce, in-store. Decision Support Systems, 61, 34-46.

Nga, J.K. & Ken Yien, L., (2013). The influence of personality trait and demographics on financial decision making among Generation Y. Young Consumers, 14(3), pp.230-243.

O’Reilly, N., Ayer, S., Pegoraro, A., Leonard, B. & Rundle-Thiele, S., (2012). Toward an understanding of donor loyalty: Demographics, personality, persuasion, and revenue. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 24(1), pp.65-81.

Quintelier, E., (2014). The influence of the Big 5 personality traits on young people’s political consumer behavior. Young Consumers, 15(4), pp.342-352.

Rani, P., (2014). Factors influencing consumer behaviour. International journal of current research and academic review, 2(9), pp.52-61.

Sandy, C.J., Gosling, S.D. & Durant, J., (2013). Predicting consumer behavior and media preferences: The comparative validity of personality traits and demographic variables. Psychology & Marketing, 30(11), pp.937-949.

Solomon, M., Russell-Bennett, R. & Previte, J., (2012). Consumer behaviour. Pearson Higher Education AU.

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