Benefits of Knowledgeable Consumer - Research Paper Example

This customer would find it hard to make decisions on whether to purchase the product or service on offer. Some customers who have prior knowledge about a certain product or service seem to take less time when purchasing that product or service (Oliver, 2010). This prior knowledge was got from former purchases or reading about the said product or service. This paper will discuss a Critique About Authors And Their Way Of Expressing Information Using Surveys.

Safley, Wohlgenant, and Suter are three authors who wrote about the various factors that appeared to affect customer purchases. The research contained herein was meant to find out what made customers make the choices they did when it came to purchasing products or services (Safley, Wohlgenant, & Suter, 1999). This research was based on consumers of strawberries. The authors had the following objectives when deciding to conduct the research;
• To identify who the direct strawberry customers were,
• To evaluate the major factors that guided consumers in making purchase decisions.
• To compare the intentions of consumers to the actual purchases made,
• To determine how effective advertising relates to the choices made by consumers, and
• To recommend any changes to the managers, so as to improve on their marketing programs.

Methodology
The survey was conducted by various companies among them; The North Carolina Department of Agriculture. The survey was conducted at eight different operations during the 1999 Spring. The companies conducting the research decided to divide the research into two sections. One section of the survey was conducted when consumers arrived to purchase the strawberries. There are those customers who preferred to pick the strawberries themselves while others bought the already picked ones. This part of the survey was intended to highlight the purchase expectations of the customer, and their experiences when picking strawberries. The other segment of the survey was conducted when customers left the operation. The intention of this second segment of the survey was to find out the actual purchases made by the customers and what contributed to the customers purchasing what they purchased. This survey comprised about 1647 respondents (Safley, Wohlgenant, & Suter, 1999).

From the research conducted, it emerged that two-third of the respondents had come to the strawberry operation before, while a third had not come to the place before. It also emerged that about two-thirds of those who opted to pick the strawberries before had prior knowledge concerning that. They had prior knowledge of how to pick the strawberries without breaking them. This percentage of those who decided to pick their own strawberries comprised of people between 25 and 44 years old. The majority of the older generation found it easier to purchase pre-picked strawberries as they took less time. There were also some people who had all along thought that picking strawberries was a challenging task. When interviewed about the experience, they said they found the exercise rather easier to handle than anticipated. The research also brought to the limelight the impact of advertising on a business.

A third of the respondents who had not visited the operation before attributed their visit to advertising. They had learned of the strawberry farm from adverts in the local media while a few attributed their visit to their friends, who had previously purchased from the same farm. The authors used an easy-to-understand language with no jargon. From the findings in the survey, the authors seem to accomplish their numerous objectives. This is because; the authors seemed to concentrate on any factor that may have led customers to the operation. They took into consideration the fact that some of the customers lived far away from the farm, yet they had decided to drive such long distances to purchase strawberries from this farm. This is despite the fact that the customers could have acquired strawberries from supermarkets and other fruit shops along the way. The need for freshness was attributed to the long drives to the farm for the new customers, as well as, the old customers (Safley, Wohlgenant, & Suter, 1999).

One outstanding feature of this research is the ease with which it is understood. The research is meant for the general public as the words used are common and no vocabulary or jargon is used. This makes it easier for managers of such farms, farmers, as well as, customers to understand the research document. Some documents are hard to understand if the reader is not affiliated with the department conducting the research, for example, in the medical sector, some words may be hard to understand for a reader who has no knowledge pertaining to the medical field.

The conclusion of the research corresponds with the methods used in the research. From the conclusion, it is evident that the research was successful and the authors achieved what they intended from the start. Read More