Consumer Behaviour: Meaning - Essay Example

Consumer Behaviour A few days ago an idea that I should buy myself a new cell phone stuck into my mind. Not that I hadn't any (only two, both in perfect condition) but the idea somehow haunted me fiercely till the moment I went for a research on the prices in the neighbourhood. I hadn't the slightest idea what I was looking for and stared avidly at the shop windows. The first thing my eyes saw was a good collection of trade-ins. "Good idea," I thought, "In two weeks is Christmas, may be I can afford something small!" So I went into the shop and the smiling face of the Indian shop assistant met me at the tiny counter. The shop itself wasn't big either. I asked for the cell make I liked: Nokia 2103. It was of a small size, folding one, with hand shape, camera and radio, but no bluetooth, alas!, and $100 euros free credit at the price of $109!!! There was only one defect: the pink color of the cover. I asked if they had them in any other color. No, they hadn't. Then I said I would visit the shop in two days to buy it. Later I decided to have a look at some other parts of the city and see what phones and deals would be offered there. On the next day I visited a store downtown. It was much bigger in size and the choice was bigger too. So I saw the same phone as a sales promotion of one of the cell operators at the price of $120 with $110 free credit! I said, "Wait a minute! It is the same cell phone and promotion of the same operator." Then I compared the two offers, which seemed quite the same with the difference that the first store would sell it as a trade-in, that is it will take your old phone claiming great benefits for the customer and, in fact, receiving it for free, and the second store would sell it as a promotion item and still get the same kind of profit. Eventually, I ended up with a different make: Samsung X860, which had a similar shape and functions as the Nokia phone but also Bluetooth, Voice recorder, and Mp3 player. And I paid only $10 more than the first Nokia price, that is for the same price I bought a better product. In order to facilitate the analysis of the purchase the whole event can be divided into two distinct stages and studied separately. Stage 1: Research and choosing of trade-in product Stage 2: New research, comparison and new choice. For the first stage the internal impulse for buying a new cell phone seems indefinite. May be subconsciously the Christmas season and the associated with it huge amounts of sales and purchases had a decisive impact on the suddenly born idea to posses a new gadget, and more notably to interprete it as a Christmas gift. However, the cultural framework of the Christian holiday, performed by the common perceptions of the individual, is more likely to have facilitated or justified the purchase idea but the internal energy for the actual occurring of the idea seems to be an individual choice. This choice happens to be a product of the integration of the personal knowledge, attitudes and intentions, described best by the integrative consumption model, which deals with the "internal antecedents of behaviour such as values attitudes and intentions" (Jackson vii) The actual start of research and choice of the particular desired product marks the initial behaviour performed into the social context. In my case the motivation was internal, there were no incentives or external factors that played main role in the problem building, although they would appear during the contextualizing of the problem and the actual process of its solving. What Jackson claims in his study is that: Individual deliberations clearly do play some part on our behavior. (Jackson vii) The author argues further on that behaviors are justified in the social environment and they are usually "embedded in social contexts"(Jackson vii). Therefore, decision-making is a complex process of interaction of interpersonal factors and social medium. My idea of purchasing a cell phone started as an intention and formed as a real choice after my research in the neighborhood. But what really made me decide to go for the trade-ins was the background knowledge that it will be beneficial to me (clear self-interest) because of the reduced price. Not to mention my previous experience with the Nokia make - I have been using Nokia for ten years and have no complains, which is a good motivation for making the choice at the first store and the positive emotional attitude I had due to the good memories of my old cell phones. The first choice for purchasing the cell phone was made rationally, all parameters were taken into account, weighted and judged on the basis of the expected outcomes and "the value attached to those outcomes" ( Jackosn vii), because although the phone functions were not all the last cry of the fashion (no bluetooth or Mp3 player), and the color was quite disputable, the decision made was positive. Nevertheless, I applied a cautious and rational approach, based, most probably, on prior experience and knowledge that there might be a catch in the offer and that before purchasing I should try to expand my research and compare the offers. It seems that my strong personality influenced the process of choice taking, which resulted in change of my behavior. By changing the social context (going to a second store and pricing the phones) I adjusted the already build expectations about the outcomes of the intended purchase like real discount on the trade-in, and my attitude changed from positive into negative after I compared the two offers. Such situations Jackson refers to as "adjusted expectancy value model" application: Adjusted expectancy value models attempt to account for the influence of other people's attitudes on individual behaviour. The most famous example of this kind of theory is Ajzen and Fishbein's 'Theory of Reasoned Action'. Ajzen's 'Theory of Planned Behaviour' extends the same model to incorporate the influence of people's perceptions about their own control over the situation. (Jackson vii) Obviously, what is valid for the discussed situation is the second part of the quotation, inserting the extended model of the afore mentioned adjusted model, because the external factors like price and marketing approach (offering product on sale) played essential role in the change of my choice and eventually my behavior. Another important aspect, again external, was the social context, in terms of the bigger choice of phones, on the one hand, and the actual offers, on the other. After comparing the prices of the offered items on sale and the range of parameters they had, I made a different choice of a completely new make to me but my motivation for taking it was purely influenced by the perceived concept of state-of-the-art product and the 'greater functionality' attitude. Work cited: Jackson, Tim, Motivating sustainable consumption, Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, 2005 Read More