Consumer Decision Making and Behavior - Essay Example

17 October 2008 Consumer decision making and behavior In this paper I will explain and demonstrate the important aspects of consumer decision making and behavior and analyze how the consumers personality influence their consumer behavior. First of all I will present the introduction of the consumer decision making, then decision making process and the factors that can affect on each stages of decision making, then I will discuss that how personality affect the consumers behavior for buying. At the end I will conclude all the discussion. The modeling of how individuals decide between multi-attribute spatial options has been of growing interest to geographers (Kenneth, 1998). During the previous decade an ever augmenting studies has been apprehensive with predicting the probability that an individual will decide an exacting alternative from amongst all probable alternatives, given the location of the individual and the locations and distinctiveness of the alternatives (Kenneth, 2003). Previous studies have adopted a diversity of model arrangement to undertake this research difficulty in the context of spatial shopping behavior. For instance, a number of researchers have employed the revealed preference technique, which efforts preliminary to draw from preference structures by scaling a parallel matrix of location kinds and subsequently, narrates these preference structures to obvious preference probabilities by some mathematical function or decision rule. Though obvious differences exist among these a variety of approaches that researches have utilized to foresee the consumer decision making and behavior, they all have in general that the functional form of the utility expression in the model is incidental from data on observed spatial choice behavior (Foxall, 2005). Consequently, scholars of the present period have shown increased concern for determining the way in which consumers form preferences in laboratory experiments (Kenneth, 2003). The consumer decision making procedure is concerned with buying processes and the phase in which a purchaser might be concerned when making purchases (Kenneth, 1998). These phases are usually referred to in intricate models of consumer buyer behavior as crisis recognition, information investigate information assessment, purchase decisions, and post purchase evaluation (Wansink, 2006). In this part of the paper I will demonstrate that how the consumers identify the problem and recognize their needs: Problem recognition took place when a customer recognizes a buying difficulty or purpose, an unsatisfied or unfilled require (Kenneth, 2003). Sources of trouble are a range of and things: assortment lack; experience to novel information; expanded requirements for supplementary or better products and services; expanded earnings; and changing expectations and wants. Buying requirements may relay to products, brands, supplies services, and so on, and a diversity of wants will prevail at any one time which has to be prioritized as a function of occasion, cash importance, role participation, etc. A readiness to buy thus comes out (Schwartz, 2004). In this part of the paper I will demonstrate how the consumers identify and search the information for the fulfillment of their needs. Information search is the phase at which consumers make effort to match their requirements with market offerings to recognize purchase options and discover out more about them. Information may approach from individual sources, like that a friends, relations, neighbors; saleable sources, e.g., publicity and promotion, exhibitions, and salespeople; public basis, and from practice/use (Solomon, 1994). The quantity of information sought will be a function of both product and person’s factors. Product factors comprise frequency of purchase, price, communal conspicuousness, essentiality of the manufactured goods, and passion of required Individual issues, or search styles, comprise values and ambitions, degree of involvement with the acquiring, risk awareness and risk-handling methods, ease of access of information with no search, previous experience and knowledge of the manufactured goods, time obtainable, perceptions of the expenses and value of information look for, and approval to be gained from searching (Foxall, 2005). In this part of the paper I will demonstrate how the consumers evaluate information to select the best: When deeming consumers evaluation of information with reverence to manufactured goods and brand alternatives, official or informal association of information may occur. Formal organization might encompass detailed financial analysis (Kenneth, 1998), for example with respect to house or car purchase. Further, substitutes are evaluated with respect to an assortment of decision criteria. These are related to: costs, e.g., price, operating costs, repairs, servicing, extras; performance, e.g., durability, economy, efficiency, dependability; suitability, of brand, style, store image, appearance, etc.; and convenience, e.g., of store location, atmosphere, and service (Wansink, 2006). Alternatives that are assessed will be the part of a consciousness set as the customer does not in actual fact have information with respect to all the alternatives accessible. Those which meet early buying criteria fall into a consideration set, which guides to a choice set.1 At this position one is able to refer to consumer purchase aims, i.e., those products/brands or other features of buying and consuming that a consumer is intending to take out in the shape of purchase decisions. Though, one has to be conscious that overriding variables may come up to into play among purchase purpose and achievement of decision. These comprise attitudes of other consumers, accessibility, and unpredicted situational issues, and may holdup purchase decisions or motivate them not to acquire place at all. For instance, plans for a holiday could be given up for lost owing to unexpected financial situation or ill physical condition, or a meaning to purchase a satellite television may be postponed for the reason that a washing machine unexpectedly breaks down and has to be restored (Schwartz, 2004). Purchase decisions are prepared with reverence to goods and services, stores, and techniques of payment. Product decisions comprise choice of brands (counting distributors vs. manufacturers brands), answer to price contracts, and impulse purchase decisions. Decisions also report to option of store, to comprise place, personnel, ambiance, car parking, services, credit accessibility, home shopping, mail systematize, and frequency of shopping (Solomon, 1994). After purchasing, customers practice some stages of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with every of their decisions. With respect to product/brand choice, if apparent product performance meets customer expectations then the customer would be pleased; if performance does not meet opportunity means it creates disconfirmed expectations, then dissatisfaction happens. Dissatisfaction guides to one of several post-purchase behavior, as well as returning the product, in search of information to agree with the choice prepared, or argumentative (Solomon, 1994). Further, consequences of purchasing behavior can be evaluated either casually, amongst family and friends, or more formally, e.g., with approbation to car performance and costs, by judgment with others. Post purchase assessments make available the consumer with a thought of how well he or she or is doing in the marketplace and add to his/her state of knowledge, knowledge, and information to be employed in future purchasing decisions (Foxall, 2005). When considering models of the customer decision-making process, it is significant to note that not all the phases may be relevant, timing among stages varies, and feedback loops be real. On the other hand, the extent to which an official process does occur will depend on the extent of consumer taking part. One knows how to think about a continuum of low to high participation consumer decision making. Products that are luxurious, dangerous, reflect self image, or have optimistic reference group influence may be referred to as high involvement situations and subject to extensive problem solving, i.e., active information search and evaluation. At the other end of the continuum are custom, low-involvement conditions with no motivated look for information, and the consumer proceeds on the basis of what he/she by now knows. This is further developed by, who identified four types of consumer buying behavior based on the amount of buyer participation and the degree of difference in the middle of brands: (Foxall, 2005), complex buying behavior, when consumers are highly implicated and there are significant differences between brands (e.g., personal computers), Variety-seeking buying behavior, with low involvement but momentous differences between brands (e.g., biscuits, soap powders), habitual buying behavior, characterized by low consumer involvement and slight difference between brands (e.g., petrol and commodities); and dissonance-reducing buying behavior, when consumers are extremely involved in a buying but see little difference between brands (e.g., carpets); However, there is decreasing reliance on complex models of consumer decision-making, firstly because of the mounting comprehension that buyer behavior is too composite to be captured in a single model, since it represents most of the fundamentals of human psychology, and secondly, because of the complicatedness inherent in empirically testing the broad. Subsequent models of buyer behavior that have received widespread attention include information-processing model of consumer choice and behavioral perspective model (Wansink , 2006). The beginning and rising popularity of information processing and cognitive research on consumer decision-making and buying behavior have led to an mounting appreciation of models that eschew theories of rational choice in favor of models that proffer bounded rationality (the theory that decision-making may be defective due to cognitive limitations) as a more realistic outlook on how consumers in point of fact make purchase decisions. It is suggested that consumer decision-making is constructive in nature: consumers have limited processing capacity (e.g., for memory and computation), may not have well-established preferences for all stimuli, and when required to make a choice or purchase decision for a product/service may compute preferences ad hoc. Their model thus appreciates that consumer preferences may be context dependent, not derived from a predefined set of values, and looks to intrapersonal cognitive phenomena such as memory and choice goals to model, explain, and predict buyer behavior (Solomon, 1994). The behavioral perspective model (BPM) of consumer choice proposes that the determinants of buyer behavior and consumer decision-making should be sought in the consumption situation, rather than by elucidations which refer to intrapersonal information processing. Particularly, the BPM recommends that definite dimensions of buyer behavior and decisions can be predicted based on the contextual consumption setting and customers reinforcement history in similar settings (Foxall, 2005). Below I have presented the factors that affect positively or negatively to the Consumer behavior. Variations in the unpredictability of purchase behavior may be given explanation by variation in switching patterns; the quantity of items purchased the characteristics of consumers and marketing mix variables. It is not sufficient to establish and keep an eye on the extent of volatile purchase behavior. We also wish to gain insights into the characteristics of the consumers who are answerable for such purchase patterns and other related facets of their purchase history (Wansink , 2006). If there is no switching and consumers are loyal to a brand, there would be no volatility. The first interest will be with the characteristics of consumers and their purchase history that explain such loyal, constant behavior. Second interest is with illumination variations in the level of volatility. If consumers switch this will go some way to explain volatility, but the concepts remain different and there may be much in volatility which is not explained by switching-the extent of this being an empirical subject which may be different between products. Something of volatility will also be due to the number of purchase incidents. It is considered the case where consumers buy the same brand only two times and measures of loyalty and, in our case, precariousness would be biased. On the other hand, consumers face search costs in the selection of brands. If they are frequent purchasers they may be more likely to search and exhibit volatility. Third, there is much in the demographic characteristics of consumers which might explain volatility (Schwartz, 2004). As a final point, product-specific variables, together with price, promotion, type of product and those relating to usage, might facilitate us to establish whether, for example, heavy users are more volatile or, through communication terms, heavy users of particular brands have more volatility in their purchase behavior, or higher prices induce more volatility (Solomon, 1994). In this part of the paper I will present how the Consumers personality influences their consumer behavior. Personality is explained as a person’s steady habits of responding to the circumstances in which he or she lives. Consumer psychologists put effort to narrate purchase behavior, standard option, modernization, segmentation, and a extensive diversity of other marketing variables to customer personality. Consequences of these researches have been assorted with the preponderance studies representative a delicate association among consumer personality and market activities. The reason of the at hand assignment is to explain the association among human personality and his buying behavior. In this paper I have tried to study and give negligible support for employing information on consumer personality as a planned marketing tool.2 This representation will have persuades the goods, products, they acquire and still the stores they recurrent. Marketer wants to be recognizable with the self idea, as customers are tending in the direction of goods that match their personalities (Kenneth, 1998). Thus, the ideas of self assists marketers to appreciate, forecast, and express the buying decisions of customers. The accurate sight a person has about his self is discriminatory by his possessed emotional and physiological belief.3 This sight also includes the consumers awareness of his self in the judgments of the people about him. Personality primarily decides the consumer as buyer, person paying, and consumer of goods and/or availing service. In consequently performing, the sociodemographic changeable profits and socio economic division assists to decide the degree up to which the customer shall take on the roles itemizes earlier. Also, approaches towards a manufactured goods or service: that is, gorgeous product or products sloping or service tilting as a customer is a psychographic variable that also helps him to purchase and use the product or the service. Mutually the both variables, that effort together to ultimately decides the consumer’s option and penchant of a product or service (Solomon, 1994). Conclusion I have presented the decision making process and the factors that can effect or strengthen the customer decision making process, and then we have discussed how personality shapes the customer behavior. In summing up this discussion and after the lot of research and information pertaining to consumer behavior it is concluded that two of its powerful factors are personality and inspiration. The prospect of improved and additional effectual publicity and marketing promotions of the customer marketplace would be able to additional enhancements. It is concluded that the consumer personality and inspiration are taken into contemplation and recognized as extremely significant in shaping the consumer marketplace in today’s information era. Work Cited 1. Foxall, G. Understanding Consumer Choice. Baingstoke. Palgrave Macmillian, 2005. 2. Kenneth C. Laudon. Management Information System Sixth Edition. New York. Addison Wesley Publishing Company, 1998. 3. Kenneth C. Laudon. E-Commerce: Business, Technology, Society, Second Edition. New York. Addison Wesley Publishing Company, 2003. 4. Schwartz, B. The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, Ecco, New York, 2004. 5. Solomon, M.R. Consumer Behavior, Allyn & Bacon, London, 1994. 6. Wansink B. Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, New York: Bantam Dell, 2006. Read More