Compare and Contrast the Decision Making Process

...

Last but not least, when the product is purchased and used, consumers will evaluate the adequacy with their original needs. In the stage of post-purchase evaluation, consumers’ expectation will versus actual product performance. They will feel either a sense of satisfaction or disappointment of the product they purchased. Their opinion will influence their future decisions and buying behaviour, if the product has brought satisfaction to consumers, they will then minimize stages of information search and evaluation of alternatives for their next purchases in order to buy the same brand, which will produce customer loyalty. In contrast, if the experience with the product was disappointing, they are going to repeat the five stages of the Consumer Buying Decision Process during their next purchase but by excluding the brand from their “evoked set”.

As conclusion, these five stages of the Consumer Buying Decision Process are definitely important to marketers. Although consumers are not being rational all the time, but they will follow subconsciously as research part because there is enough information. When come to limited buying process, marketers can do promotions to create awareness in order to let consumers make quick decisions.

---------------------------------------------------------------

- Consider why marketers should be interested in understanding family decision making.

During the previous time, traditional families – married couples and children were occupied 78% of household. This does not means traditional about families are outdated, the reality is that many other types families are growing rapidly. Many important demographic dimensions of a population relate to family and household structure in today.

In the previous time, a father usually makes decision rationally. They are making decisions on electricity or plumbing matters. For example, normally you will see men appear in a hardware store to purchase materials to repair certain things at home. In contrast, a mother makes decision emotionally. They usually make decisions on grocery. For example, mothers always go to the nearest supermarket to purchase ingredients for preparing meals. Meanwhile, they will also shop for other necessities. Only father is in the financing role and mother would be staying at home to do house chores and take care of children.

However families make decisions as a unit today. Members of a family unit are playing different roles and having different amounts of influence when the family makes purchase decision. Basically, families make two basic types of decision: consensual purchase decision and accommodative purchase decision. In a consensual purchase decision, there are agreements about the desired purchase, but conflicts will occur over the product alternatives or how to make it happen. For example, when a family organize a holiday trip, they will discuss and plan properly with other family members such as where to go, how to go, when will go and who is going. In contrast, in an accommodative purchase decision, family members are having different preferences or priorities and cannot satisfy the minimum expectations of all involved. For example, wife wants a vacation and husband wants a new car. This will cause conflicts and eventually lead to conflict management. It is either give and take or influencing others to agree a decision.

In addition, family identity defined as the household both to members and insiders. According to this perspective, it means the everyday interactions that help families to maintain their structure and family character, and clarify members’ relationships to one another. For example, a father may take his young children out for ice cream every Saturday afternoon; this becomes a predictable ceremony that defines their relationship. Or, a mother seeks the comfort of her iPod to shield from the noise when her kids play after school. In the decision-making process, family members play diverse roles, including the initiator, influencer, decision maker, buyer and user. Most of the early research emphasized the relative influence of husbands and wives on purchase outcome. With respect to the main decision-maker, it is mainly centred on who ‘‘gives the orders’’ in a family. There are primarily two types of decision making modes: autonomic (one member decision making) and syncretic (joint decision making). Although, the husband and wife are the family’s chief decision-makers, the child’s influence cannot be ignored. The society is changing, nowadays, children are playing an important role in family decision-making and their influences are growing rapidly and they can differ by product categories, services, and different decision stages. When parents are out for work, children are staying alone at home after class. Meantime, their responsibility and independence are increasing. When no one at home, TV will become the electric babysitter in both commercials and programme. For example, when the children saw what they want in an advertisement, they will direct request to their parents about what they have seen from the TV. A relevant company will be Kidzania. They are targeting children as targeted market but parents are the one who pay, which means children are influencing their parents to spend indirectly.

As a conclusion, families are one of the most important buying units, there is more than one person in a family makes decisions. The era is changing, it is important to understand the collective decision making process. Since this is complex and difficult to research, so marketers need to put more efforts to know the roles played by different family members and how decisions are made.

---------------------------------------------------------------

- Outline and evaluate two theories of consumer motivation.

Motivation refers to the processes that leads people to behave as they do. It occurs when a need is aroused that the consumer wishes to satisfy. Once need has been activated, a state of tension exists that drives the consumer to attempt to eliminate or reduce the need (Solomon et al, 2010). There are four types of needs among consumers, which is biogenic, psychogenic, utilitarian and hedonic. Biogenic needs refer to element that is necessary for consumers need to maintain life (food, water, air, shelter); psychogenic needs refer to elements that is unnecessary for consumers want for a specific culture (status, power), this is reflecting the priorities of a culture and effecting on consumers behaviour. This will change depends on different environment. Next, in order to satisfy utilitarian needs of consumers, they emphasize