Consumer Buying Behaviour - Essay Example

Introduction This is a study of people's purchasing habits; the reasons as to why people do or don't buy products. This study seeks to answer questions like what, where, why, when and how people buy or do not buy products (Delbert 2009). The study of consumer buying behaviour starts from the market all the way to the consumer but in between, it has several determining factors that lead the customer into making a decision for or against buying a particular product [Own]. Consumer buying behaviour There are certain environmental factors that affect a consumers buying behaviour and these depend on the marketing vigour of the producing company. These stem from the marketing concept of the four P's: place, promotion, price, and product. (Kennedy 2007) These have a considerable effect on potential consumers as they determine where the products are, at what price they sell and whether there is communication directed towards promoting certain products as opposed to others [own]. The next stage determining the consumers buying behaviour is the actual situation of the consumer which either puts him/her in a position to acquire certain products which are dependent on social, economical or technical positions. Factors under this group include the following factors. (Kennedy 2007) Economic- this determines the consumer's financial position which puts him or her in a position to afford or not to afford certain products at certain times. Natural- this determines whether the actual nature of the individual has an effect on his/her consumption. For example, a vegetarian would not be interested in the purchase of meat even if all the other factors are in favour of the purchase. (Kennedy 2007) A political environment also influences the purchase of goods as it determines the in flow and distribution of goods. (Kennedy 2007) Demographics- these are such factors as sex and size of population; they play a major role in a customer's determination to buy certain products and their amounts. (Kennedy 2007) Cultural- the culture of a place either encourages consumption of certain products or bans consumption of certain goods. This has an effect on the buying behaviour of these individuals as it determines what they go for in the market. (Kennedy 2007) Technological- the technological environment also has considerable effects on what individuals buy or do not buy. This is because people may either want to remain with their ancient technology or would want to go for new technology. This will influence what individuals actually go for at particular times and periods. (Kennedy 2007) The next tire in a consumer's buying behaviour results from the consumer himself and includes those characteristics inherent to him/her. These include individual's attitudes, knowledge about the goods, the lifestyle of the particular consumer, personality, perceptions and motivation (Kennedy 2007). Having looked at the environmental and individual characteristics that determine consumer buying behaviour, it is now time to examine the actual buying process which I defined in terms of stages. This stage defines the consumers buying decision process and is a six stage process. These include: Step one-Problem recognition This is the first step in actual determination of a need by the consumer. A consumer will first have to recognize what he/she needs and is missing; this, leads to ones awareness that he/she need to acquire a particular good. The recognition of what really one needs is the starting point of the consumers buying behaviour. From sitehttp://www.udel.edu/alex/chapt6.html Step Two-Information Search This involves the search for information on the goods that the consumer may need. The consumer may acquire this information from several sources which include friends or the product manufacturers. The product manufacturers make this information available through their advertising, or product promotion campaigns. This is readily available if the consumer has the required media. Information is also available through friends or relatives. The information that the consumers may be interested in includes availability of the products, quality of the products and the price of the products. From site http://www.udel.edu/alex/chapt6.html Step Three-Evaluation of alternatives When an individual recognizes a need and gathers information on the particular need recognized, then he/she has several options of products likely to meet his need. Besides, he/she may have several options of different goods which would suit the need (Zaltman 2003). This stage then involves an evaluation of the alternatives he/she has, which involves matching ability against the alternatives or matching taste of the products to come up with one that meets expectations [own]. Step four-Purchase decision It is at this stage that the consumer makes a decision to make an actual purchase. This is after evaluation of alternatives and probably coming up with the actual good that meets the need (Graham 2009). Step five-Purchase This is the actual purchase which involves exchange of the required good with cash. The decision to buy a product is a well thought process which is likely to give the buyer the best of the good and bedsides meet his actual needs. Step six-Post purchase evaluation This involves an examination of whether the good meets the need initially recognized; whether the quality of the good is as thought among other evaluations that may have been done earlier. Consumer buying behaviour The consumer buying behaviour is in itself differentiated into four distinguishable behaviours which are determined by the consumer's involvement in the purchase of a product (Delbert 2009). These buying behaviours that have been identified include the following. Frequent /routine purchasing-this is the buying behaviour characterized by many purchases and the most identifiable characteristics are the low cost of these goods. Limited decision making- These are goods that require some time to consider ensuring the right purchase. These goods are not bought often and examples of this maybe clothes. Extensive decision making-this involves buying goods that are not often bought and thus require a lot of time in determining the exact goods to buy. An example of this might be a decision to buy a car or home. Impulse- this involves a random mode of purchase where an individual does not give much though to the goods he/she is buying and much consideration is not given to frequency either. [from site http://www.udel.edu/alex/chapt6.html] Motivational factors for buying wine. Wine is a consumer product characterized by several factors that individuals always look forward to as they believe it gives a direction on the quality of the wine. Among the various factors considered in wine purchase include the age of wine as those who drink wine say that the older the better [Own]. The other factors include the manufacturer as some industries are believed to make better wine than others while the last of the factors that has an impact on quality is the type of grapes, which is mostly determined by the country of origin (Mitchell 2007). Italian wine is not the same as French wine or German wine, e.t.c. These are some of the factors that a consumer may look at when determining which wine to buy. These factors stem from the actual wine. However, there are other factors that determine the kind of wine that an individual goes for, these have nothing to do with the origin or type of wine but are dependent on the selling agencies, the marketing strategies and the producing or manufacturing company(Graham 2009).Thus, it's more of a marketing question than a product issue [Own]. The fact being that the individuals will only be interested in the quality of wine if they know the kind of wine they are looking for. And just as gathered from the steps in consumer buying behaviour and particularly in the fourth step, purchase decision, the consumer will make a decision to buy only that product he/she has identified based on acquired information on the product [Own]. Thus, to buy a particular wine, the necessary information has to be availed which is actually a motivating factor (Mitchell 2007). Other motivating factors in wine purchase are outlined below. Proper advertising- the way one communicates information on a type of wine produced determines the motivation levels of the consumers towards buying that particular wine. (Lapsley 2001) For example, putting forward scanty information on a particular brand is surely not appealing at all and yields very little if any motivation on consumers [Own]. Appearance of the wine- the way the wine appears determines the motivation levels of the consumer towards buying that particular wine (Mitchell 2007). A good colour wine in a uniquely structured bottle will obviously motivate a consumer to buy that wine even if the wine is of lesser quality in comparison to an ordinary packed bottle of wine [Own]. [more study- Lapsley 2001) Identification- with the people, tracing the wine to certain attributes of the society or certain well known attributes of a well known incident, individual or event will motivate consumers who associate with such events or individuals (Mitchell 2007) Personality- this can be closely related with the advertising bit; personality involves associating wine with some personal traits or with particular influential personalities (Mitchell 2007) .What this does is that it motivates the consumers to get to the level of those people and this actually has an effect on the consumer spending [Own]. The last of the motivational factors is relative pricing. This involves selling the wine at a price individuals can actually afford. It is a motivating factor as individuals who mostly think that wine has a particular class will realize that they can also afford to buy the wine (Lapsley 2001). The ability to afford wine is a motivating factor in the purchase of wine as it links the ability of the consumer and the worth of the consumer. Motivational factors that influence Taiwanese consumers wine choice The factors influencing the choice of wine in Taiwan are not very different with the factors influencing wine use around the world. The only difference that may be there is a cultural value and this may have an effect on the buying decisions [Own]. Cultural inclinations keep changing with each locality and society's based on their take on wine. An individual's perception to wine may or may not motivate him/her towards buying the wine (Lapsley 2001). Taiwan being a moderately wealthy country where most individuals don't have enough resources to over indulge e.g. wine drinking, it becomes an issue to get these individuals to buy wine especially with the locals devising ways to make local wines. (Mitchell 2007) Thus, in view of the economic level and the availability of the locally produced wine, there are certain exclusive ways to motivate these consumers. Among them is: Proper pricing- considering most individuals do not have much in terms of earnings, then the cost issue is bound to have some motivational effects when it comes to buying foreign wine. Foreign in the sense that most grape produced wine is imported in the country (Mitchell 2007). Thus, to have an adequate reason for the individual to go for foreign wine, then it has to be affordable. This motivates most consumers who would otherwise not afford the wine available in shelves. Communication- most consumers are not aware of the availability of foreign wines. Thus, they have no reason to go for it. Provision of the required information on the availability and quality of wine will provide required motivation. The other source of motivation to consumers to make purchases would be: relation of the wine with the local setting or local brewing styles which the locals trust and believe in (Mitchell 2007).Having something foreign but which identify the local culture can obviously motivate the consumers into buying wine. Conclusion Wine marketing is just as involving as any other type of marketing and the success of it is determined by the marketing mix of the producing company or advertising company. This marketing mix can only work if an adequate study and understanding is done on consumers and their buying behaviour. Thus, analysis of consumers is where to start in any marketing attempt [Own]. References Delbert, H (2009). Consumer Behaviour: Building marketing strategy, 11th: McGraw-Hill Higher education. Evans, M (2009). Consumer behaviour 2nd edition: Wiley Graham, J (2009). Critical Thinking in consumers Behaviour: Cases and experiential exercises: 2nd edition. Prentice Hall. Kennedy, D (2007). Consumer behaviour 9th edition: Prentice Hall. Maher, B (2009). Selling when you do not have the best product on the market: Motivating your customers and yourself: http://www.barrymaher.com/motivating_customers.htm, Retrieved on November 2, 2009 McInnis, H (2008). Consumer behaviour 5th edition. South-Western, Cengage Learning. Wright, M (2008). Consumer behaviour: Applications in marketing: Sage Publications What is consumer buying behaviour (2009). http://www.udel.edu/alex/chapt6.html Retrieved on November 2, 2009. Motivation, Emotion, and involvement :( 2009). http://crab.rutgers.edu/ckaufman/ConsumerAnalysismotivationnotes.html: Retrieved on November 2, 2009 Mitchell, R (2007). Wine marketing: A practical guide, Butterworth-Heinemann. Lapsley, J (2001). Successful Wine marketing 1st edition, Springer. Solomon, M (2007). Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, and Being 7th edition, Prentice Hall Zaltman, G (2003). How customers think: Essential insights into the mind of the market 1st edition: Harvard Business Press. (Dear Client) Where my own words were used, I have cited as [own]. I hope all the citations are ok now. Thanks Kennedy, D (2007). Consumer behaviour 9th edition: Prentice Hall. The book Consumer Behaviour-written by Donald Kennedy and Leon G Schiffman eText ISBN-10: 0-13-186963-9 eText ISBN-13: 978-0-13-186963-9 Print ISBN-10: 0-13-186960-4 Print ISBN-13: 978-0-13-186960-8 Read More