Consumer Needs and Purchasing Decisions

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Consumer Needs and Purchasing Decisions

The relationship between consumer needs and purchasing decisions is a controversial issue that has undergone widespread research for many years. Especially, marketers believe that if they gain proper understanding of this topic, they will ultimately have a gateway to making the best marketing decisions for their products or services. True to this notion, extensive studies on the behavior of distinct buyers have helped determine their consumption patterns, although not with pinpoint precision. Indeed, several discourses on this topic show immense analogy regarding a number of factors that cause specific consumers to behave differently or in particular way. Thus, to properly explain the leading aspects that are responsible for this disparity, it is imperative to undertake a literature review with the aim of juxtaposing the rationales customers use to arrive at each of their decisions. Specifically, the impact of the following issues on purchasing behavior must be analyzed: high involvement versus low involvement decision making processes, motivation and values, buyer attitudes, product messages, purchase and post-purchase activities, and socio-demographic factors such as the family and culture.

Literature Review

Consumer needs and purchasing decisions are miniature complexions that make up a broader field called consumer behavior: a theoretical subject that seeks to provide answers to marketers. It mainly helps them make hypothetical analyzes regarding the choices of consumers. In sum, its scope covers all the personal, psychological, situational, and social forces that push people to shop for specific items, use them, and later dispose them. Marketers desire to have full knowledge about these forces so as to create and communicate about products that the consumers can prioritize when making purchasing decisions.

The Significance of Consumer Behavior

Overall, the main purpose of wanting to know the purchasing patterns of consumers is to establish what kind of communication or representation makes them tick. Particularly, it helps businesses to know how buyers think, feel, and make choices about the products they purchase (Nyuyen & Gizaw, 2014). That is the reason why many organizations spend a lot of time and resources gathering information about consumers. For instance, some of them go to the extremes of risking millions of dollars in hiring firms such as Google and Yahoo to monitor browsing patterns of people on their behalf. Essentially, they use the resulting data to auto-generate distinctive coupons that they can send to individual internet users based on the nature of the sites they access. Incidentally, this approach of using internet filters has proven effective as many people obtain what they are looking from the online suggestions made by their respective search engines. Others, more so startups conduct regular market research with the objective of knowing what messages to encrypt in their products.

The Autonomy of an Individual Buyer

Even though marketers portend that applying the information they gather from consumption trends can help them boost their sales, reality has proven that this postulation is not always true. At times, even the best conceived ideas experience severe failure as customers usually vary their choices depending on one’s situation, financial ability, and psychology. That is the reason why one may find very similar people such as best friends with analogous backgrounds making distinct purchasing decisions. For instance, one may prefer to buy a car while the other prefers to acquire land. However, to curb this anomaly, businesses use multiple marketing approaches even amongst individuals with similar demographic characteristics so as to convince those with varying tastes or attitudes to buy their products or services. A case in point is where a hospitality firm sells its services through website and newspaper coupons. After the vouchers are totally sold out, the company may audit its sales to establish the most preferred mode.

While accepting that purchasing decisions are mainly done on an individual level, it is not proper to entirely disregard the concept that there is a resemblance in the manner various people make their choices. Undoubtedly, this fact is validated by several analytical studies that have discovered indiscriminate consumption habits in certain groups of people or specific geographical regions. Firstly, majority of consumers use a sequential decision-making process to determine what to buy. According to Rani (2014), the process consists of five stages: recognition of the problem, search for information, evaluation of options or alternatives, determination of purchase decision, and post purchase behavior. Secondly, a consumer’s final purchase decision is influenced by personal, social, psychological, and cultural factors (Rani, 2014). Throughout the world, marketers give keen attention to these four elements before making their policies because failure to mix them properly can render their products useless.

The Consumer Decision-Making Process

Recognition of the Problem. Appropriate identification of a need is the first and most vital stage of any purchasing procedure. Ideally, this phase is indispensable because without it there is no justification to go on buying anything. Essentially, recognition of a need at this level is triggered by the disparity between a consumer’s status quo and his or her desired state (Lee, 2005). The higher the difference between these two items, the higher the urge to satisfy oneself. Hence, most consumers prefer to fulfill those needs that they have a higher urge first before they can resort to those that they have a lower desire for. One of the earliest scholars to develop a framework that explains the hierarchy of needs is Abraham Maslow. He claimed that some needs naturally have a priority over others and thereby categorized them into five groups based on the precedence: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and actualization (Boeree 2006). Also, people can develop sudden needs as a result of a change in status. For instance, after securing jobs, most workers discover that they need a fast means of transport to reach work on time. As a result, this increases their demand for cars.

Search for Information. After identification of a need, the second step requires a consumer to look for information that can help satisfy it. Normally, one can obtain this information from personal memory or endeavor to seek it from external sources if internal knowledge is insufficient (Lee, 2005). For the latter, a shopper has to conduct searches through a word of mouth with either friends or marketers. In brief, there are four information sources that a buyer can exploit. The first category involves Personal Marketers such as sales people, whereas the second one involves Non-personal Marketers such as advertisements on television. The third source is made up of Personal Non-marketers, including friends and other close accountancies that may provide an individual with purchasing information. The last source comprises of Non-personal Non-marketers such as newspapers that analyze consumption trends or fashion.

Evaluation of Alternatives. Usually, this stage entails high involvement and low involvement decision making processes. Once a consumer has finished gathering information about a particular need, one has to determine the alternative that offers the best utility. To undertake this activity, many people use two approaches: objective and perceptive. The former is dependent on the actual features of a product, whereas the latter is based on the viewpoints of individual buyers about an item’s reputation or brand. Effectively, this is where individual differences about purchasing decisions begin to emerge. In choosing the preferred alternative, various shoppers award priority to different attributes of a product. For example, while the high speed of a Subaru car might appeal to John, it may actually scare away Mary.

Purchase Decision. After determining the product that offers the highest utility to a problem, a buyer precedes to the purchasing stage. Even though most customers have a predetermined choice at this level, the situation at the market place might alter it. For instance, promotions offered by similar products might skew one’s judgment into buying an item not planned for earlier. Also, an unpleasant experience with marketers might prompt one to abandon buying the preferred option.

            Post-Purchase Behavior. The main reason why consumers undertake a lengthy decision process is to ensure that they purchase items that offer them their desired level of gratification. Hence, after using them they feel delighted if they fulfill their wants. However, if the purchased items fail to meet expectations, the buyers feel disappointed and betrayed. In this scenario, a customer may be forced to undergo the whole process again while excluding the failed brand. Therefore, marketers give emphasis to this level so as to help them cultivate loyalty amongst their customers.

Factors that Influence Purchasing Decisions

            Low-Involvement versus High-Involvement Decision-Making. It is not always that consumers go through all the five stages of the consumer decision-making process to buy an item. Instead, sometimes a decision to buy something just occurs on an impulse. The tendency to conduct such instant purchases without any in-depth forethought is widely referred to as low-involvement decision-making. It is common in cheap commodities whose financial ramifications are insignificant even when the buyer commits a mistake of purchasing them. Also, it is prevalent because of routine behavior that deprives individuals the ability to think about other alternatives. Products that fall under this category include daily newspapers, snacks, and household foodstuffs. Personally, I use this decision making process to conduct my daily purchases, specially an evening cup of coffee in my favorite cafe.

In contrast, high-involvement decision-making involves extensive considerations before finally determining what to buy. It requires careful deliberations because the items involved are of high-risk value, including cars, insurance policies, land, and houses. Unlike in low-involvement where the post purchase period has no significance, here buyers have to analyze the benefits of their purchase. Finally, because of the high costs involved, demand driven by this approach is infrequent. For instance, I used this process to lease the house I reside in currently.

Motivation and Values. Essentially, motivation is what pushes people into making purchasing decisions ( Rani, 2014). Even though a person might have many needs operating on a subconscious level, only a few of them can be motives. For any of them to become so, it must express itself forcefully to the extent of compelling a consumer to satisfy it. Marketers create motives in consumers by provoking their involuntary emotions. They do so by first creating a need and thereafter making a product that satisfies it. A case in point is when I bought my current Samsung handset. Initially, I felt right using a Blackberry. However, I later realized it lacked important applications. Consequently, I developed a motive to buy a different phone.

Values on the other hand are convictions that a person has about something. They are mainly gathered through experience in various social settings. Particularly, they make an individual to view products differently. Nonetheless, when used appropriately they can spur demand. Mainly, marketers regulate customer values through brand messages and product campaigns. In fact, on a personal level I have experienced situations that have forced me to abandon my values. For instance, I traditionally resented creamy products until 2007 when Chobani Inc. undertook a massive sensitization of Greek yogurt.

Buyer’s Attitude. Attitudes are emotions that people show towards a product, an organization, a place, or an individual. They are closely related to values, although they are more expressive and enduring. Accordingly, a negative attitude can cause serious harm to the sales of a product. Regardless of the rigidity that surrounds attitudes, marketers try their best to ensure that they convince many buyers to opt for their products. For me, a good example is my preference of liquid vegetable oil over solid animal fat. In spite of numerous campaigns to persuade me to prefer the latter, I have managed to stick to the former.

Product Messages. To increase the demand for their products or services, marketing professionals use messages that act as persuaders. They usually use multiple mediums such as television, the internet, and magazines to bombard consumers with stimulating cryptograms. In the end, the marketers anticipate that the consumers will develop a positive perception about their products and thereafter initiate demand. Fortunately, this approach has worked in many places, thus making it the most preferred marketing approach worldwide. Specially, marketers prefer to use television and internet advertising where messages matching the needs of shoppers are conveyed. For instance, television advertisements inform my choice of detergents.

Purchase and Post-Purchase Activities. The period immediately after a purchase is very important to both consumers and marketers. For the former, it helps them verify the expediency of their choices, whereas it helps the latter to cross-examine the reliability of their products. In case consumers establish that a good is very effective, they will probably develop loyalty for its brand. Hence, there is a high probability of them returning to conduct other purchases. In comparison, if the item is ineffective, they will criticize it and drop its brand for better alternatives. To limit the backlash of buyers incase their products fail to perform to the required standards, most marketers have devised numerous after-sale services, including warrants and product repairs. As an illustration, the electronic industry has one of the most active post-purchase periods and I at one time used the two-year window period of my computer’s warranty to repair it.

            The Family and Culture. The family is arguably the most effective agent of consumer behavior. As children grow, many of them end up having a taste similar to that of their parents. Also, the special needs of certain members of the family may determine what the others purchase. For instance, I have severally bought toys for my niece. Having noted the dynamic relationship of the family, marketers have also developed a special interest on children because hey exert influence on the choices their parents make.

Regarding culture, it is a combination of virtues that dictate how people should behave. As a result, it has a direct consequence on the type of choices buyers make. It is normal to find a practice that is widespread in one society, but very restricted in another. A case in point is the demand for “hijab”, the veil won by Muslim women to cover their heads and faces. Its demand is very high in Islamic countries and very low in regions dominated by Christians. Personally, I have interacted with numerous cultures and I at one time dined in a Chinese restaurant where I ate using chopsticks.

Conclusion

            In conclusion, it is apparent that consumer behavior is an enormous resource to marketers. Firstly, it helps them create products that buyers need so that they do not spend millions developing items that will fail eventually. Secondly, it helps them devise marketing programs that they can use to alter the perceptions of potential customers. In spite of these notions, the power to determine what to buy and what not to buy lies entirely on the consumer. Through the consumption decision-making process, people establish what suits their specific wants and discard all the other alternatives that do not meet their needs. Moreover, they use post-purchase experience to evaluate the correctness of their picks so that they can make better choices in the future. Finally, despite the personal differences that exist in consumer decision-making, many purchasing resolutions are influenced by the following six factors: high-involvement and low-involvement decisions, motivation and values, attitudes, product messages, purchase and post purchase activities, and the family and culture.

References

Boeree, C. G. (2006). Abraham Maslow: Personality theories. Psychology Department, Shippensburg University, 1-11.

Lee, S. H. (2005). An application of a five-stage consumer behaviour decision making model: An exploratory study of Chinese purchasing of imported health food (Doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Business Administration-Simon Fraser University).

Nguyen, T. H., & Gizaw, A. (2014). Factors that influence consumer purchasing decision of Private Label Food Product: A case study of ICA Basic.

Rani, P. (2014). Factors influencing consumer behaviour. International Journal of Current Research and Academic Review, 2(9), 52-61.