MARKETING - BUYER BEHAVIOUR

Buyer Behaviour

Buyer Behaviour

Introduction

What influences consumers to purchase products or services? The consumer buying process is a complex matter as many internal and external factors have an impact on the buying decisions of the consumer.

When purchasing a product there several processes, which consumers go through. These will be discussed below.

Problem/Need Recognition

How do a customer decide that he/she wants to buy a particular product or service? It could be that someone's DVD player stops working and he/she now have to look for a new one, all those DVD films he/she purchased, can no longer be played! So he/she has a problem or a new need. For high value items like a DVD player or a car or other low frequency purchased products this is the process a marketier would take. However, for impulse low frequency purchases e.g. confectionery the process is different (East, 1997).

Information search

So customer has a problem, his/her DVD player no longer works and he/she needs to buy a new one. What's the solution? Yes go out and purchase a new one, but which brand? Shall customer buys the same brand as the one that blew up? Or stay clear of that? Consumer often goes on some form of information search to help them through their purchase decision. Sources of information could be family, friends, neighbours who may have the product he/she has in mind, and alternatively he/she may ask the sales people, or dealers, or read specialist magazines like What DVD? to help with their purchase decision. An individual may even actually examine the product before he/she decides to purchase it.

Evaluation of different purchase options

So what DVD player does a customer purchase? Shall it be Sony, Toshiba or Bush? Consumers allocate attribute factors to certain products, almost like a point scoring system which they work out in their mind over which brand to purchase. This means that consumers know what features from the rivals will benefit them and they attach different degrees of importance to each attribute. For example sound maybe better on the Sony product and picture on the Toshiba , but picture clarity is more important to a customer then sound. Consumers usually have some sort of brand preference with companies as they may have had a good history with a particular brand or their friends may have had a reliable history with one, but if the decision falls between the Sony DVD or Toshiba then which one shall it be? It could be that the review the consumer reads on the particular Toshiba product may have tipped the balance and that they will purchase that brand.

Purchase decision

Through the evaluation process discussed above consumers will reach their final purchase decision and they reach the final process of going through the purchase action e.g. The process of going to the shop to buy the product, which for some consumers can be as just as rewarding as actually purchasing the product. Purchase of the product can either be through the store, the web, or over the ...