Consumer Behavior Portraiting - Essay Example

?Part 2: Consumer Portrait. Buying is a common behaviour of any person, but the nature of the buying depends on many factors. The buying can be categorised as a critical function which has a major decision making process involved in it. Previously the reason behinds the buying used to be categorised in two major segments and they were needs and wants. This is the simple economics involved in the buying behaviour of an individual. However, as the time passed by the wants has become the needs for some group of people in the society so, the luxury has become necessity. It has been seen that many things which used be treated as the luxury goods in the past have become the necessity in the present time. For an example, laptop computers have become necessity for the modern tech savvy people. The buying behaviour or an individual is controlled by many factors some of the major factors are price, quality, reputation and many more. Lifestyle is another major factor which influences the buying behaviour of an individual. It has been seen that many time a same person changes his or her buying attitude according to the lifestyle (O'Shaughnessy: 1995). The factors which influence the buying process can be categorised into two major factors and they are internal factors and the external factors. These two factors are closely related to each other. However, the external factors come from the market and these factors are created by the marketers with great marketing and branding effects. The internal factors are the behavioural traits of the individuals. I am clear about these factors which have forced or rather helped me to take the final buying decision. I have understood the behavioural traits of my buying behaviour with the thorough study of the may last ten prominent buys. I have realised that most of the products which I have bought are all branded and high end products. Some of them are highly expensive and top of the line products. I have also realised that I take sudden decisions about buying while I love the product. For an example, I bought Tom Ford (Bois Marocain) Perfume from David Jones as I liked the perfume. The aroma made me obsessed about the perfume so I bought it in a sudden manner while I was not at all thinking of buying a perfume. This shows that I am not majorly influenced by the price factor but I am influenced by the emotion. The factor analysis: The personal behaviour and perceptions create a lot of sense at the time of buying process. The personal traits are the major factors to execute the buying decisions. The individual perceptions towards products vary due to many internal factors like attitude, status, perception, lust and many other factors. However, to identify my buying behaviour I would like to take the help of the factor analysis of my behavioural traits towards buying relations. Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory: Famous psychologist Gordon Allport (1961) realised that there are majorly three trait factors which help to understand the human nature or the uniqueness of the individuals. And these three factors are central traits, secondary traits and the cardinal traits (Pastorino, and Doyle-Portillo: 2008). The central traits: The central traits focus on the behavioural factors which can be treated as the general nature of an individual. For an example if a person is friendly in most of the situation then the friends would take his friendly behaviour as the central trait. Same way in case of buying the openness and price sensitive nature can make the central traits of the person towards the buying behaviour. In this case my central trait is to buy products which are upgraded in nature and branded offcourse. The price sensitivity is not at all the central trait of my buying behaviour. From the VAIO notebook to the YSL bag, Bobby Brown cosmetics to iPhone 4 each of them are the top of the line products. The luxury is another primary trait which controls my buying behaviour. Raymond Cattell’s factor analysis: Raymond Cattell introduced the statistical technique to identify the different relations among the behavioural traits and that technique is majorly known as the factor analysis. There are sixteen important traits are there which can determine the personality of an individual. And, most of the time these sixteen traits vary with from person to person. These sixteen traits are majorly divided into 2 major traits and they are surface traits and source traits. The surface traits are the basic traits which describe the individual personality. However, the source straits are the common tendencies which support the surface trails (Pastorino, and Doyle-Portillo: 2008). However, in my case among all the sixteen traits I have chosen few to describe my personality towards buying behaviour. I have chosen 5 major factors among all the sixteen factors and they are expressive, highly sensitive, emotionally stabile, perfectionism (precise) and experimenting. From this analysis I am basically an innovator; it means I am directed outward, I love to experiment new things and I love to buy high end expensive goods to be on the top of the status so I can be confident to be the person who possesses the best products. The factor analysis tells that I buy custom made laptop as I am a perfectionist, I love to buy products which are unique in nature and for that money or specific pricing does not stop me to buy the product I want. And that is the reason I asked Vaio to make a custom made notebook for me which was eventually got out of the stock. In other hand if I analyse my affection towards Tom Ford perfume it can be seen that I acted as an experiencer. The experiencers are the persons who are ready to take new products to experiment with it and they are basically offbeat in nature (O'Shaughnessy: 1995). I bought the perfume as I loved the amazing smell, but on the other hand I was attracted to know that the perfume was having Arabic luxury ingredient. I was ready to experiment with the new fragrance as it was having something new which was missing in other perfumes. Even if I analyse my buying behaviour towards the surprise birth day party which I bought for my friend was also experiencing a new feeling. I was interested to see my friend’s reaction for that unplanned surprise party. Even the Mocha Chocolate and Arabian peppermint tea was also experimenting baying behaviour. So I am an experiencer. However, the buying behaviour of an individual is also partially controlled by the marketing activities of the selling brands or company. The relation between buyers and sellers gives a great importance to generate the final buying decision (Perreault, 2006). For example high profile advertising can make an individual prone to buy the particular product for the fame and opportunity of possessing the good. From all of my ten buys I can conclude that I am an extraversion and experiencer. Part 3: Consumption Narrative Organizing a surprise birth day party for my friend: The buying behaviour of the individuals depends on the circumstances and also on the value of the products. According to VALS survey as single person can be innovator also and in some other cases experiencer also. However, from my buying history I can see that most of the products I have bought are high end and branded goods. I am strictly an experience with a great touch of an innovator. But if I analyse my buying behaviour with one single buy then I could analyse my particular behaviour towards the product. In this case I have chosen the buy related to the birth day party and birthday gift for my special friend. Self esteem and the self actualization have a great significance over the particular buying behaviour. There is a great satisfaction related to the each and every buy. After every purchase the buyers normally think if he is satisfied with the buy or if he has taken the perfect decision over the particular buy (Raji: 2007). However, the perfect decision also varies person to person. There are many psychological reasons behind a particular purchase. Some of the individuals buy out of need, some people buy to express the self esteem and some people buy to make themselves proud by offering gifts to their love ones. Gifting something special to some special person has a great feeling within it. I have experience this factor while I gifted a great party to my friend on her birth day. Long time back Sherry (1983) expressed that the act of gifting has a great pleasure attached with it. And, I experienced that while I gave a surprise party to my friend. However, this buying behaviour has a complete cycle of the buying process. The adaptation of the proper buying cycle is one of the most important factors for most of the individuals. A buying cycle has multidimensional cyclic process which can be daily, weekly, month or sometimes yearly. In my case I can put this cycle as the yearly as only once in a year I buy a gift for my particular friend for her birthday. According to Buchanan (2008) the proper buying cycle has many stages involved in it. And the steps are recognition of the need, evaluating the options, resolution of concern and taking decisions. The recognition of the need has a great significance. There are several factors are involved in the recognition of the need for the purchase. The group behaviour, cultural factors and the personal factors all of these three factors are equally important for making buying decision (Blythe: 2008) for giving a gift to a friend. In my case the group behaviour and the cultural factors acted as the influential factors to generate the need for the purchase. The personal pleasure of gifting was obviously there but other factors were equally important to compel me to buy a great experience for my friend. I wanted to be different from the other friend and I wanted portray myself as the best friend who has given the best presentation. And that is the reason I chose to sponsor the surprise party which could prevail the great fun within us. As we were in a group so the self respect and self esteem played the vital role within me to take the final decision about the gifting. For the last several years we both have exchanged many birthday gifts but, I have realised that most of those gifts don’t stay forever as in materialistic point of view and many times those gifts have been misplaced or lost and the sweet memory of the gifts also lost in the past. So, this time I thought of doing something different which stay in our memory for ever. However, we bought jewellery for her but the surprise party was the primary initiative of my gifting. At the beginning i searched for many gifts for her birthday, I searched in several online gift shops for the perfect gifts. I took the help of the internet as that was the best option to find out the best options faster than loitering in the different shops physically. Digital marketing is basically the electronic form of marketing process (Poole: 2008). In the recent time the internet has proven it to be the most fast and cost effective way of purchasing. The marketing cannot be done without the effective communication process. The concept of “e” that is the development of the electronic shopping has given a phenomenal advancement to the marketing industry. However, the online shopping option helped me to figure out the potential options for the gifting process. It saved my time but as the time of taking the final buying decision I preferred to make it physically instead of virtually. I took several steps to come to the conclusion of selecting the final product to be bought as the best present. The specific steps of the decision process are given below. 1. Chalking out the lost of gifts I have given to her for the last five years: I made a list of several gifts which I have given her for the last five years to be specific about the uniqueness of the gift to be given this time. For last five years I have given her watch, perfume, show piece, clothes and pens. So I thought this time let me make it a different one. 2. Chalking out the possible gifts for the event: At the beginning I never thought of gifting her a great surprise party as the primary gift. Primarily I chalked down many options as the appropriate gift. I made a list of possible gifts like designer clothes, novels, mp4 players etc. But as I am an experience & innovator as a buyer from the VALS point of view so I thought of something else which can give me a great pleasure and a new experience. So I kept an option of throwing a surprise party for her. 3. Evaluating the options: I went through many online shops to compare the pricing and the status of the gift which I chalked down. From my past ten buys I had realised that I was not price sensitive at the time of buying a product. However, this time I compared the price as it would be a gift for a friend. I had realised that for each and every buy the self esteem plays a vital role on manipulating my buying decision. So I was not happy with the options which I chalked down. I was looking for something more experiential and memorable. I thought of discussing with my other friends about the final selection. I told them about the surprise party and they appreciated my thought of gifting her a great party. I was always prone to the self esteem so the appreciations of my other friends about the option of gifting a surprise party gave me the endeavour to select the final gift to be bought for my friend. 4. Executing the decision: After having a fruitful conversation with my other friends i took the final decision of gifting het the best possible gift which well be in our memories for ever, and that was the birth day party. It gave us a great experience and I do appreciate my final buying decision. And I also realised that I am a true experience and an innovator as an active buyer. References Blythe J, (2008). Consumer behaviour. Stamford: Cengage Learning EMEA. Buchanan M (2008), Profitable Buying Strategies: How to Cut Procurement Costs and Buy Your Way to Higher Profits. London: Kogan Page Publishers. O'Shaughnessy J. (1995). Competitive marketing: a strategic approach. London: Routledge. Pastorino E E, and Doyle-Portillo S M. (2008). What Is Psychology? Essentials. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Perreault, (2006). Basic Marketing 15E. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Poole, T. (2008), “Play it by Trust”, Internet WWW page at URL: LuLu.com [Accessed February 18, 2010]. Raji, P T. (2007). Secrets of Consumer Buying Behaviors Revealed. Shanghai: eFortune US. Sherry, John F., Jr. (1983), "Gift Giving in Anthropological Perspective," Journal of Consumer Research, Vol 10 (September), 157-168. Read More