Format of the research work

Title Introduction/Rationale Objectives Conceptual Framework Methodology Results and discussion Conclusions and Recommendations Deadline: March (final exam sched)

The Buying Decision Process It is easy to identify the buyer for many products. Men normally choose their shaving equipment, and women choose their pantyhose; but even here marketers must be careful in making their targeting decisions, because buying roles change. When a chemical company discovered that women made 60% of the decisions on the brand of household paint, it decided to advertise its brand to women.

Roles People Play in a Buying Decision Initiator: The person who first suggests the idea of buying the product or service. Influencer: The person whose view or advice influences the decision. Decider: The person who decides on any component of a buying decision: whether to buy, what to buy, how to buy, or where to buy.

Roles People Play in a Buying Decision Buyer: the person who makes the actual purchase. User: The person who consumes or uses the product or service.

Buying Behavior Consumer decision making varies with the type of buying decision. The decision to buy toothpaste, a tennis racket, a personal computer, and a new car are all very different. Complex and expensive purchases are likely to involve more buyer deliberations and more participants.

Buying Behavior Henry Assael distinguished 4 types of consumer buying behavior, based on the degree of buyer involvement and the degree of differences among brands.
High Involvement Significant Differences Between Brands Few Differences Between brands Complex buying behavior Dissonancereducing buying behavior Low Involvement Variety-seeking buying behavior Habitual buying behavior

Complex Buying Behavior

Process: 1. The buyer develops beliefs about the product. 2. He/she develops attitudes about the product. 3. He/she makes a thoughtful choice.

Complex Buying Behavior

Consumers are highly involved in a purchase and aware of significant differences among brands. This is usually the case when the product is expensive, bought infrequently, risky, and highly self-expressive, like automobile.

Complex Buying Behavior

The marketer of a high-involvement product must understand consumers information-gathering and evaluation behavior. The marketers needs to develop strategies that assist the buyer in learning about the products attributes and their relative importance, and which call attention to the high standing of the companys brand on the more important attributes. The marketer needs to differentiate the brands features, use print media to describe the brands benefits, and motivate sales personnel and the buyers acquaintances to influence the final brand choice.

Dissonance-Reducing Buyer Behavior  Sometimes the consumer is highly involved in a purchase but sees little difference in brands. The high involvement is based on the fact that the purchase is expensive, infrequent, and risky.  The buyer will shop around to learn what is available. If the consumer finds quality differences in the brands, he/she might go for the higher price. If the consumer finds little difference, he/she might simply buy on price or convenience.

Dissonance-Reducing Buyer Behavior

 After the purchase, the consumer might experience dissonance (conflict) that stems from noticing certain disquieting features or hearing favorable things about other brands, and will be alert to information that supports his/her decision.  In this example, the consumer first acted, then acquired new beliefs, then ended up with a set of attitudes.  Marketing communications should supply beliefs and evaluations that help the consumer feel good about his or her brand choice

Habitual Buying Behavior  Many products are bought under conditions of low involvement and the absence of significant brand differences.  Consider vinegar, consumers have little involvement in this product category. They go to the store and reach for the brand. If they keep reaching for the same brand, it is out of habit, not strong brand loyalty.  There is good evidence that consumers have low involvement with most lowcost, frequently purchased products.

Dissonance-Reducing Buyer Behavior  With these products, consumer behavior does not pass through the normal sequence of belief, attitude, and behavior.  Consumers do not search extensively for information, evaluate characteristics, and make a decision.  Instead, they are passive recipients of information in television or print ads. Ad repetition creates brand familiarity rather than brand conviction. After purchase, they may not even evaluate the choice.

Dissonance-Reducing Buyer Behavior  For low-involvement products, the buying process begins with brand beliefs formed by passive learning and is followed by purchase behavior, which may be followed by evaluation.  Marketers of this kind of product find it effective to use price and sales promotions to stimulate product trial.  Television advertising is more effective than print because it is a lowinvolvement medium that is suitable for passive learning.

Dissonance-Reducing Buyer Behavior  4 techniques To Convert a lowinvolvement product into a higher involvement: 1. Link the product to some issue. Ex. Colgate toothpaste is linked to avoiding cavities. 2. Link the product to personal situation. Ex. Advertising a coffee brand early in the morning when the consumer wants to shake off sleepiness.

Dissonance-Reducing Buyer Behavior 3. Design advertising to trigger strong emotions related to personal values or ego defense. 4. Might add an important feature (Ex. Fortifying a plain drink with vitamins).  This will raise consumer involvement from a low to a moderate level; they do not propel the consumer into highly involved buying behavior.

Variety-Seeking Buying Behavior  Characterized by low involvement but significant brand differences.  Consumers often do a lot of brand switching.  Ex. Biscuits. The consumer has some beliefs about biscuits, chooses a brand of biscuits without much evaluation, and evaluates the product during consumption. Next time, the consumer may reach for another brand out of a wish for a different taste.

Variety-Seeking Buying Behavior  Brand switching occurs for the sake of variety rather than dissatisfaction.  The market leader will try to encourage habitual buying behavior by dominating the shelf space, avoiding out-of-stock conditions, and sponsoring frequent reminder advertising.  Challenger firms will encourage variety seeking by offering lower prices, deals, coupons, free samples, and advertising that present reasons for trying something new.

Stages of the Buying Behavior Stages Model of the Consumer Buying Process
Problem Recognition

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

Purchase Decision

Post-purchase Behavior

Problem Recognition  The buying process starts when the buyer recognizes a problem/need.  The need can be triggered by internal (normal needs) or external stimuli (television ad).  By gathering information from a number of consumers, marketers can identify the most frequent stimuli that spark an interest in a product category. They can then develop marketing strategies that trigger consumer interest.

Information Search  An aroused consumer will be inclined to search more information.  Levels of arousal Heightened attention A person becomes more receptive to information about a product. Active information search Looking for reading materials, phoning friends, and visiting stores to learn about the product.

Information Search  Of key interest to the marketer are the major information sources to which the consumer will turn and the relative influence each will have on the subsequent purchase decision.  Groups of consumer information sources
Personal sources: Family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances Commercial sources: Advertising, salespersons, dealers, packaging, displays Public sources: Mass media, consumerrating organizations

Information Search
Experiential sources: Handling, examining, using the product

 The relative amount and influence of these information sources vary with the product category and the buyers characteristics.  Through gathering information, the consumer learns about competing brands and their features.

Evaluation of Alternatives  Consumers evaluation process:

The consumer is trying to satisfy a need, The consumer is looking for certain benefits from the product solution. The consumer sees each product as a bundle of attributes with varying abilities for delivering the benefits sought to satisfy this need.  Consumers vary as to which product attributes they see as most relevant and the importance they attach to each attribute. They pay the most attention to attributes that deliver the sought benefits.

Evaluation of Alternatives  The consumer develops a set of brand beliefs about where each brand stands on each attribute.  Brand Image The set of beliefs about a brand make up.

Purchase Decision

 In the evaluation stage, the consumer forms preferences among the brands. However, factors can intervene between the purchase intention and purchase decision.
Attitude of others: The extent to which another persons attitude reduces ones preferred alternative. Depends on: 1. The intensity of the other persons negative attitude toward the consumers preferred alternative.

Purchase Decision
2. The consumers motivation to comply with the other persons wishes. The more intense the other persons negativism and the closer the other person is to the consumer, the more the consumer will adjust to his/her purchase intention.

Unanticipated situational factors that may erupt to change the purchase intention. Ex. A consumer might lose her job, a salesperson may turn her off, other purchase might become more urgent

Post-Purchase Actions  Satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product will influence a consumers subsequent behavior.  If the consumer is satisfied, he or she will exhibit a higher probability of purchasing the product again.  Dissatisfied consumers may abandon or return the product. They may take public action by complaining to the company, going to a lawyer, or complaining to other groups.