Consumer Behaviour Before Buying a Product

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Introduction

Consumer behaviour is concerned with studying how people purchase, what they purchase, when they purchase and why they purchase. It blends aspects from psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology and socio-psychology. It tries to comprehend the purchase decision-making process, equally as an individual and also as a group. Consumer behaviour studies features of individual consumers, for example, demographics, behavioural variables and psychographics, in an attempt to comprehend people’s needs.

It also attempts to analyse influences on the buyer from groups, for instance, family, friends, relatives, reference groups, and society in general. Schiffman (1993) clearly defines consumer behaviour as “the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires”.

This research paper examines why consumers buy the product for consumption; the paper will examine the main process, both internal and external, that a consumer undergoes before making the final decision of buying a product. The paper will answer the three outlined questions for the study; HP Company will be our company of study.

Company profile

Hewlett Packard Company, also known as HP, is a technology company that was established in1939; the company has its headquarters in Palo Alto in California. Currently, it has operations in over 170 countries worldwide. The company mainly deals in making personal computers, business computer systems, workstations, and printers together with scans. The company is geared towards producing technological products and services that satisfy the desires and dreams of the people.

The company use new ideas to come up with simple, precious and trusted technology experiences, which has continued to improve the way customers’ lives and works. Today HP is among the biggest companies in the world with a total of $97.5 billion in revenues posted in the year 2007, making the company be the biggest technology dealer as far as sales were concerned (HP, 2008)

Question one: Cultural and sub-cultural differences – how understanding and responding to them can lead to competitive advantage

Culture

It is important for any firm that wishes to be customer-oriented to understand fully the concept of culture and how this cultural environment will affect its business undertakings. To many writers, culture is the central core of any marketing policy. This is because as firms thrive to increase their markets share, customers of different cultures are involved, and thus the marketing policies of each and every firm has to meet the demands and desires of the diverse cultural aspects of these consumers. (Grunert, 1988)

The cultural aspect is the most basic determinant of an individual’s needs and behaviour. While lower creatures are ruled by instinct, human behaviour is mostly learned. The kid growing up in a community leans a fundamental set of norms, values, perceptions, inclinations and behaviours through the process of socialization which involves the family and also other key institutions. Consequently, a kid growing up, for example, in America, is thus exposed to the values of Achievement and success, efficiency, activity and practicality, material comfort, progress, individualism, freedom, humanitarianism, external comfort, and youthfulness. (Solomon M et al., 2002)

Culture is a problematic issue for many marketers because it is inherently nebulous and normally difficult to understand. It is possible that marketers of our company may not underscore the importance of cultural norms of the consumers without knowing; hence the potential consumers may become uncomfortable with our behaviour. Thus our markets must first understand the cultural aspects of our consumers to increase our sales.

Question two: Measuring and understanding attitudes will help us to influence customers’ behaviour

Basic model showing consumer decision making.

Stage	Brief description	The relevant inner psychological process
Problem recognition	The consumer perceives a requirement and becomes motivated to solve a problem.	Motivation
Information search	The consumer look for information required for making a purchase decision	Perception
Alternative evaluation	The consumer compares a range of brands and products	Attitude formation
Purchase decision	The consumer decides the brand to buy	Integration
Post-purchase evaluation	The consumer evaluates their buying decision	Learning

Problem recognition

Problem recognition comes as a result of when there is a disparity between an individual’s desired status and an individual’s actual status. Consumers are then motivated to deal with this difference, and consequently, they start the buying procedure. Starting places of problem recognition consist of:

An item is exhausted.
Dissatisfaction with an existing product or service.
The consumer wants and needs.
Associated products/purchases.
Marketer-induced.
New products.

Motivation is the related inner psychological process that is connected with consumer problem recognition. A motive is a reason that induces action. Schiffman (1993) give a clarification of motivation on the basis of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. (Loudon, 1988)

Information Search

The moment a consumer has recognised the problem, a consumer may look for information regarding products and services which can solve the problem. Schiffman (1993) elucidate that consumers embark on both inner (memory) and also external exploration. Information sources include:

Personal sources
Commercial sources
Public sources
Personal experience

Perception is the relevant inner psychological process that is linked with information search. Perception can be described as ‘the process in which a person receives, selects, put in order, and interprets the information to generate a meaningful image of an aspect. (Loudon, 1988)

In the process of selective perception, during the stage of description, selective disclosure consumers choose the promotional messages that they will have to expose themselves to. Selective interest consumers choose which kind of promotional messages they will pay notice to. At the same time, selective comprehension buyers interpret messages according to their beliefs, attitudes, experiences and motives. Lastly, selective retention buyers remember messages which are more significant or meaningful to them. (Loudon, 1988)

A company will have to think about the implications of this progression to develop an effective promotional approach. First and foremost, know the sources of information which are more efficient for the brand or a product and secondly, what sort of communication and media strategy will increase the probability that consumers get exposed to our company message, that the consumer will pay attention to the message, that consumer will comprehend the message, and recall our message. (Loudon, 1988)

Alternative evaluation

At this moment, the consumer contrasts the brands and also products that are in consumers’ evoked set. The significant point is how the marketing organisation can increase the possibility of their brand to ensure it is a component of the consumer’s evoked (deliberation) set? Consumers assess alternatives in accordance with the functional and also psychological advantages that they provide. The marketing organisation should understand what advantages consumers are looking for and thus which aspects are most vital in terms of decision making. (Grunert, 1988)

The relevant inner psychological process which is related to the alternative assessment phase is the formation of attitude. Schiffman (1993) observers that attitudes are “learned predispositions” towards an item. Attitudes encompass both cognitive and also affective elements; that is, what you think and how you feel about an object.

The multi-attribute attitude concept elucidates how consumers assess alternatives on a variety of attributes. Schiffman (1993) identify several strategies which can be applied to influence the procedure (attitude modification strategies). Lastly, there is a number of ways in which consumers apply criterion in making decisions. Chisnall (1992) also explains that customers integrate information in different ways and make decisions, including the use of heuristics. Thus marketing organisations ought to know how consumers assess alternatives on salient or vital attributes in making their buying decision.

Purchase decision

After the alternatives have been assessed, the consumer is now ready to make a buying decision. At times purchase intent does not lead to an actual purchasing. HP Company has to facilitate a consumer to take action on their purchase intent. Providing credit or better payment terms might encourage the customer to make a purchase or a sales promotion; for instance, the opportunity to be given a premium or entering a competition can provide an enticement to buy at that moment. Integration is the relevant inner psychological process that is linked with the purchase decision.

(Peter, Olson and Grunert, 1999)

Post-purchase evaluation

After a consumer has made a purchase and has used the purchased product, he/she will evaluate his/her purchasing decision. The consumer compares the product’s performance with his/her expectations. When the product purchased does not perform to the expectation of the consumer, he/she will experience post-purchase discontent. When consumers buy high involvement products, which are more costly products for which consumers exert high purchasing efforts in terms of search and time, they generally experience a level of discomfort following the purchase. This is to say; they undergo some uncertainty that they undertook the right selection.

This condition is termed “cognitive dissonance” (thinking disharmony). HP organisation should think about the outcomes of post-purchase behaviour how it can minimise the possibility of post-purchase discontent and/or cognitive dissonance. According to Peter, Olson and Grunert, (1999), Learning is the relevant inner psychological process that is related to post-purchase assessment.

Question three: Understanding the process of perception, we can promote our products and services more effectively

Characteristics of consumer shopping behaviour

Today, the market is being driven by consumers who are more informed and have more money spend than previous. Customers currently are shopping for quality and luxuries so that they can enhance their quality of life. With improved purchasing power, consumers are turning away from purchasing material things to experimental consumerism. Thus, customers will purchase a product because of one or more reasons underlined below. (Loudon, 1988)

Experimenting marketing behaviour

Currently, society has become more affluent, many consumers have got all the material products and goods they really need. Due to this, many consumers who go shopping in the store are hardly ever motivated by the need to buy anything in the shop. On the contra, the consumers are purchasing products based on a desire to have an experience with the product or a feeling of the product. (Loudon, 1988)

Satisfy need and desire

Consumers have different needs and desires that they wish to satisfy when buying a product. Many people have different anticipations and dreams when they buy a product. Thus, a person will buy a product so that the product can satisfy his/her needs and wants. However, the market offers a lot of different but similar products to the consumer who ends up not knowing exactly what is perfect for his/her specific needs; it is this availability of varieties that as seen many consumers buying products that fail to satisfy their needs and desires. (Stern, & El-Ansary, 1992)

Purchasing to acquire

Basically, a person may want to acquire or own a product. Thus some consumers buy products because they want to acquire and own a product. Many studies reveal that many people purchase products so that they can own them; this gives them a sense of power and achievement. Even though the product may not be that important or useful to the consumer but having it becomes a priority. (Stern, & El-Ansary, 1992) by understanding the above process of why consumers by HP can then be able to promote its products effectively to its consumers on the basis of their needs, preferences, and desires.

Conclusion

Consumer behaviour is basically concerned with studying how people purchase, what they purchase, when they purchase and why they purchase. People undergo five main stages before and after making a purchase. These stages are important aspects for any organization to analyse and be able to successfully attract consumers to their products and also satisfy their expectations. As Grunert (1988) points out, it is clear that people will buy a product for various reasons such as to experiment, acquire or satisfy their needs or wants. When making such purchases, a customer is highly influenced by his cultural aspects, class, and family and reference group. Thus it is important and vital that companies study different aspects of consumer behaviour to formulate successful marketing strategies

Reference:

Chisnall, P.M. (1992): Marketing: A Behavioural Analysis, McGraw-Hill, London.

Grunert, K.C. (1988): Research in Consumer Behaviour: Beyond Attitudes and Decision Making, European Research, Vol. 16.

Hoyer W and MacInnis D (2000): Consumer Behaviour, 2nd Ed Houghton Mifflin

Loudon, D.L. (1988): Consumer Behaviour; Concepts and Applications, McGraw Hill, London.

Peter J.P., Olson J.C. and Grunert K.G. (1999): Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Strategy, European Edition McGraw Hill.

Schiffman, L.G. (1993): Consumer Behaviour, Prentice Hall International, London.

Schwartz, B. (2004): The Paradox of Choice; Why More Is Less, Ecco, New York, NY.

Solomon, M.R. (1994): Consumer Behaviour, Allyn & Bacon, London.

Solomon M, et al (2002): Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective, 2e, Prentice Hall Europe.

Stern, L.W., El-Ansary, A.I. (1992): Consumer Behaviour; an Information Processing Perspective, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

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