Consumer Decision Making Process

Question: Analyse theinternal and external factorsinfluencing the consumer decision making process for amajor purchase e.g. a car or a holiday. Answer: Introduction: The idea of the Consumer Buying Behaviorcan be designated as the buying behavioral pattern of the final consumers. Consumer Buying Behaviorconsists of the analysis of influencing factors those are instrumental in the process of decision making of the consumers buying decisions and how thy influence the decision of the customers. As opined by Hande and Ghosh 2015, a company needs to examinethe buying behaviorof the consumers as to utilize the decisive factors in developing its marketing strategy and thus ensuring the firms success. As opined by Ghosh and Ghosh 2013, the buying decision of a consumer can be influenced by a number of influencing factors. Theses factors are crucial to be evaluated by the companies to examine, as they are helpful in determining their strategy. However, these factors, which are influential in determining the consumer buying behavior, are manifold. There are a few internal and external factors, which are typically instrumental in determining the consumer bu ying behavior pattern. The case: In the following case study, the influential factors of the buying behavior of a person will be evaluated. A person with a moderate income lives in a locality of Australia. he did not have a car. Most of his neighbors and his friends owned cars, which are popular in the recent car market, and these are expensive too. His family and the friends told him to buy a car several times. However, he resisted it for a long. However, in the last month he bought a car, which is more expensive than his neighbors and friends. This is also causing him a budget cut in his daily routine. He was aware of this issue but he could not resist this buying decision. Now, with this real case study the author will examine the internal and external factorsinfluencing the consumers decision-making process for thismajor purchase of a car. The potential internal influences: As opined by Holland and Mandry 2013, there are a number of the internal factors are influential in the process of decision making of the consumers related to its buying. These internal factors typically mean the personal and the psychological factors of the consumers own self. As discussed by Prakash and Pathak 2014, this personal factor consists of the Perception, Learning, motivation, personality and attitude of the consumer. Now, if the Five Factor theory of the personality can be discussed, the buying behavior of the person in the case study can be identified (Gangai and Agrawal 2016). As discussed by Kumar 2015, the extrovert personality pattern is sometimes responsible for the extravagant buying behavior. The man in the case is also an extrovert. He has a large group of friends and he is popular in his group. He loved the idea to be popular among the friend circle by this buying decision. On the other hand, the core trait of instability is also there behind the decision of buying that car. The subject is a person who is moody and temperamental. His whimsical decision of buying can be cited as a proof of this claim. As opined by Gangai and Agrawal 2016, in many cases these personality patterns are influential in determining the extravagant buying behaviors of the consumers. Here, the learning factor of buying behavior can also be discussed. As opined by Khan 2013, the learning or the knowledge of the product or the services of a company determines the possibility of purchase of a product. Here, in the context of this case, the theory of cognitive learning can be discussed. The cognitive learning of the consumer can be discussed as the learning through the information gathering and intellectual processing. In the case of buying that car, the person set the goal of achieving popularity, increased social status and masculinity. The marketing and promotional advertisements have disseminated the idea that a consumer will be able to achieve all those by obtaining their car. It has driven him to the decision of buying a car. On the other hand, the attitude factors are also responsible for such decisions. As discussed by Badgaiyan and Verma 2014, customers attitudes are a mix of a consumers (1) idea about, (2) approach about, (3) and behavioral purpose toward some object. Here, in the context of this case, the person had a positive belief about the big and expensive cars and his positive feeling about the high-end brand shaped his buying intension. The advertisement also worked positively in shaping his attitude towards that brand. In addition to this, the motivational factors are also influential in determining the buying behavior pattern of the consumers. As discussed by Kumar 2015, according to the Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, people has a ladder of needs. When the basics are attended, the people want to obtain the higher level of requirements. In the context of this case, the person is a moderate earner. Hence, he may not have a physiological, Safety and Security Needs of the lower level of the Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. He is occupying the stage of social and ego needs. His social need of having popularity and the ego needs of status and self-esteem has driven him to buy an expensive car. In addition to this, if the examination of the McGuires Psychological Motives can be done, it can be found that the Affective preservation motives and Affective growth motives were instrumental in his decision-making. As discussed by Gangai and Agrawal 2016, here, his underlying motives were demonstrating his success to his neighbors and the sense of being powerful and wealthy by buying an expensive product. On the other hand, he has shown the manifest motives that a big car is more comfortable, it performs well and most importantly, most of his friends own such cars. All these typically influenced his buying behavior. His perception regarding that car has also influenced his buying behavior. As opined by Malik et al. 2013, the brand name of that particular company allured him to own that product. (Source: Hande and Ghosh 2015) The external or situational factors As opined by Khan 2013, there are a number of external or situational factors are there which influence the consumer buying behavior pattern. These external factors include Group Influence and Culture of the consumers. As man is a social animal, he cannot ignore the influence of the group. Now, the group influence mostly manipulates the purchase of the products like car, bike, etc. in the context of this case the ascribed group type i.e. the family influenced the buyer to buy that car. In addition to that, as mentioned by Singh 2013, the associative and the peer group i.e. his neighbors, friends and his colleges and their possession of cars made him decide in this way. The influence of the reference group influence i.e. the comparison between him and his friends regarding the ownership of car influenced him to buy a new and more expensive car. Here, the external factors influenced his internal drives to take a decision in favor of buying a car. In this discussed case, the expectations of the family member and the friends have driven the person to purchase that expensive car over an inexpensive one. The Aspirational reference group has also influenced his buying behavior. As opined by Gupta 2015, most of the branded and high-end car companies use the marketing strategy of celebrity endorsement. It creates an urge among the customers to be in the society of those celebrities. In the context of this discussed case, the person was also influenced by the urge of belonging in the same social status of those celebrities. In addition to this, the cultural values also determine the buying behavior of the consumers. As discussed by Holland and Mandry 2013, there are a number of cultural values, which can be cited as the determinant of the buying of a car. The environment oriented and self-oriented values like the idea of acquiring a higher cultural status, the materialistic culture of possession of wealthy products, the idea of immediate gratification of the materialistic urges were instrumental in determining his decision of buying that expensive car. His cultural values made him think that this car will provide him a better social status. He also possessed a materialistic view of life and it made him think about spending his money in acquiring the products of his choice as a way of seeking pleasure in life. Conclusion: Thus, theses internal and external or the situational factors were characteristically instrumental in shaping the purchasing choice of the consumer. The influence of the internal and external factors in the customer buying behavioral pattern is a very popular subject in the marketing management. The psychological factors are typically responsible for the buying decision of the customers. As discussed in the above case the demonstrative effect influenced the buyer to go beyond his buying capacity and compelled to buy that particular product. This demonstrative effect was originated by the influence of a number of deep-rooted internal factors. The personality pattern, motivations, learning and attitude of the person has driven him towards the influence of the demonstrative effect. 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