Consumer Purchase Decision Making Process - Assignment Example

Marketing Principles Table of Contents Task 3 Segmentation 3 Task 2 4 Consumer Purchase Decision Making Process 4 Role of Marketers 6 Task 3 8 Product 8 References 10 Task 1 Segmentation Segmentation is one of the most important factors that determine the success or failure of any marketing campaign. Market segment refers to any group of organization or people who have some common features or characteristics in terms their need of products and services. Segmentation is the process by which marketers group various organization and people with respect to their needs and wants. In a particular segment there exists homogeneity, as the needs of the elements are mostly same. But across various segment there exist heterogeneity as there needs and wants are different between various segments. Segmentation is mainly done on the basis of various factors which are called segmentation variables. Major segmentation variables are geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008). Segmentation is a key factor based on which marketing strategies of any soft drinks brand are developed. Market segmentation of any soft drinks brand should be based on demographic variables which include age, gender, income, occupation, education, family, earning, religion etc. Age would be the most important criterion in the process of segmentation of soft drinks market. Soft drinks should be marketed focusing on the young generation of any country. In this case young generation refers to those people who fall in the age group of 15 to 30. There would not be gender discrimination which means both male and female would be targeted. As far as occupation is concerned young people who belong to middle class, upper middle class or upper class irrespective their occupation, should be targeted in the marketing campaign. Segmentation could also be based on education. Generally soft drinks are likely to be popular among school, college and university students. As far as religion is concerned, there should not be any segmentation based on religion in the context of soft drinks market. Task 2 Consumer Purchase Decision Making Process There are five stages that are involved in consumer purchase decision making process. These are 1) Need or problem recognition, 2) information search, 3) alternative evaluation, 4) purchase decision and 5) post purchase behaviour. [Figure 1, Consumer Purchase Decision Making Model, Source: Tutor2u.net] Consumers pass through all these stages while making any purchase. But it is not necessary that they would pass through every stage; they might jump from first stage to the last one depending on the product that they are purchasing, extent of their needs, role of marketers etc. Purchasing process starts with need or problem recognition. Need recognition take place when consumers face an imbalance between the desired and actual state. Need recognition depends on the expose of consumers to the external and internal stimulus. Internal stimuli are the occurrence of personal experiences such as thirst or hunger, whereas external stimuli are influences from outside sources like recommendations made by some friends or family members. When someone is thirsty or hungry he/she feels the need of some food or drinking water. This is an example of need recognition that takes place out of internal stimuli. But when an individual watches an advertisement of an attractive sports car and if he wants to purchase that then it is an example of need/problem recognition that has occurred because of external stimuli. Once the need or problem is recognized consumers search information regarding various alternatives that are available to them in order to satisfy that need. Consumers can search information both externally and internally. Internal search for information is based on consumers’ memory. Consumers try to recall information from their past experiences. In case of external information search, consumers look for information in the outside environment (Lamb, et al, 2008). For example when the consumer is searching for a hybrid car he/she might look for information regarding various hybrid models of Honda from outside environment such as Honda dealers, advertisements etc. This is an example of external search for information. But when he will search information internally he will try to recall his past experiences with any of Honda’s hybrid model. Once all the information is obtained on various available alternatives, consumers would evaluate each and every alternative in order to find the best possible one. This evaluation is entirely based on information that consumers have obtained in the information search stage. Example: When consumers select a Honda hybrid model after evaluating various hybrid models of different brands. Once the best possible alternative is chosen by the consumer, he/she would make the purchase. There could be two questions that might come to consumers’ mind, 1) when to buy and 2) whom to buy from. Selection of seller would be based on the location of the seller, past experience with that seller, price offered, return policy etc. Time of making the purchase would be influenced by rebate or discount provided by the owner, store atmosphere, time pressure, persuasiveness of sales person, financial circumstances etc (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelius, 2006). After making the purchase consumer would make the evaluation of the purchased product. He/she might compare it with some other brands that he/she used in the past. Post purchase evaluation results to either satisfaction or dissatisfaction which might lead to repurchase of the product or brand, consumer complaints etc. (Pride, Ferrell, 2004). Role of Marketers Marketers has important role to play in consumer purchase decision making process. They can influence each and every stage of the decision making process. If soft drinks are considered, consumers would like to have soft drinks when they feel thirsty. Although thirst is an internal stimuli, but marketer can also create a feeling of thirst in the consumer by the advertisements and sales promotions. Marketers’ objective would be to create an imbalance of desired state and actual state in the consumers. Their job is to make customers feel their unfulfilled desire. Marketers can bombard consumers with attractive advertisements featuring any popular celebrity. Consumers always want to be like their favourite heroes or heroines. As a result when consumers watch that their favourite heroes or heroines are having a particular brand of soft drinks, an internal desire or thirst would be automatically created in them. So, it is quite clear that marketers have important role to play in the need recognition process. Marketers also can influence the information search process. Information search process is often occurs from marketing controlled information sources. Marketers promote their products in electronic and print media. These advertisements are major source of information for the consumers. As a result marketers always try to make these promotions in such a way so that consumers can get all those information what marketers want them to get. Marketers always focus on the attractiveness and consumer friendliness while doing the promotions. In case of soft drinks also they help consumers by providing all the information (Perreault, McCarthy, 2005) There are several soft drinks brands in the market. As a result consumers have lot of alternatives which need to be evaluated. Marketer of a particular brand would be responsible for making consumers select its brand after the evaluation process. This could be done by providing more value for money. Marketers can market the best features of their products. Like previous three processes marketers can also influence the purchase process. Marketers can provide attractive discounts, store atmosphere, return policy to trigger the consumer purchase process. Sales people should have excellent convincing skills to influence consumers’ decision. In case of soft drinks marketers could provide attractive free offers, discounts, gifts etc. in order to attract the target consumers. Convincing skill of sales people would be an important influencing factor in the context of soft drinks. Since several brands of soft drinks are available in the market, post purchase evaluation for the consumers would not be a difficult process. In this stage major task for a marketer is to maximize consumer satisfaction and after sales service in order to retain consumers. Most of the popular soft drinks manufacturer focuses on these factors. They provide toll free telephone number for making complaints. They provide proper training to their customer service team so that they can handle complaints efficiently. Moreover liberal refund and return policies are adopted by the firms. So from above discussion it is clear that marketers can influence the entire consumers’ purchase decision making process and this is true for the purchasing of any product. In this case role of marketers are discussed in the consumer decision making regarding purchase of soft drinks. Task 3 Product Products or brands could be compared on the basis of their unique selling propositions (USP). Unique selling proposition (USP) of a particular product or brand refers to that characteristic which its competitors do not possess. It acts as an identity of the product to the consumers. Roger Reeves, creator of Unique Selling Proposition, defined the term as a statement that differentiates a product from its competitors (Kennedy, Terry, 2002). USP is often communicated by a tagline. When retail brands are considered, three major brands are Sainsbury, Tesco and McDonald. Each of them has different unique selling propositions which are communicated by their taglines. Sainsbury’s USP is variation and choice which is communicated by its tagline “Try something new Today”. Whereas UK retail giant Tesco’s USP is low price which is communicated by its unique tagline “Every little helps”. Finally McDonald’s famous “I’m lovin it” communicates the unique experience and taste that its customers enjoy. If sports wear industry is considered three most popular brands are Nike, Adidas and Reebok. These three top brands have different USP which differentiate them from their competitors. Nike’s USP is its quality and belief which is communicated by its tagline that says ‘Just do it’. Whereas Adidas’s USP is performance which is communicated by its tagline ‘Impossible is nothing’. On the other hand Reebok’s tagline is ‘I am what I am’ which represents confidence. So, it is quite clear that different brands can be compared on the basis of their USP (Davies, June 8, 2006) References Davies, M. June 8, 2006. The Name of the Game – Unique Selling Points (USPs), Fadtastic, The web design trend journal, [online] Available at: http://fadtastic.net/2006/06/08/the-name-of-the-game-%E2%80%93-unique-selling-points-usps/ [Accessed on December 3, 2009]. Kerin, R. A. Hartley, S. W. Rudelius, W. 2006, Marketing: The Core, McGraw Hill Professional Kotler, P. Armstrong, G. 2008, Principles of marketing, Pearson/Prentice Hall Kennedy, R. E. Terry, K. 2002, Create Web Content That Sells! Wow Your Market with Writing Strategies ..., Universal-Publishers Lamb, C. W. et al, 2008, Essentials of Marketing, Cengage Learning Pride, W. M. Ferrell, O.C. 2004, Marketing:Concepts & Strategies, Dreamtech Press Perreault, W. D. McCarthy, E. J. 2005, Basic marketing: a global-managerial approach, McGraw-Hill Read More