ABSTRACT:
This paper applies the method of subjective personal introspection to the analysis of my buying behaviour as a postmodern consumer, which is unpredictable consumer. The research looks to different types of product and concerns decision making processes and purchases involvement, individual influences, group influence, loyalty and deriving value from a product. This focus emphasizes on the various factors and dimensions that influence customers choices. In sum, overall, the aim of the paper is to demonstrate that buying behaviour is a useful framework that could further the implication of SPI to discern the buying behaviour of postmodern consumer.
According to Holbrook (2005) subjective personal introspection as a methodological approach comprises of the creation of rich, impressionistic stories of our own experiences regarding phenomena of interest to a person. Tracking postmodern consumer’s behaviour shows that they behave inconsistently in comparison to modern consumers. Firat and Venkatesh (1995) say that modern consumers who present scientific thinking, coherence and order, which form the logic of production, are no longer exist in postmodern consumers. There are number of pieces of research that utilise SPI as a methodology in the marketing sphere such as Holbrook (2005) Holbrook (2006) and Shankar (2000). SPI involves looking inwards and assessing our own experiences working in different organizations. The aim of this paper is to track the process of my buying behaviour and identify the influences impact on my buying decisions. I decided to give examples from different types of products and to fulfil this objective, subjective personal introspection is used as a methodology. This paper is divided into number of sections. First, a background provides a brief overview of SPI methodology and prior work of segmentation in addition to defining what is meant by postmodern consumer. Followed by describing the decision making process according to the levels of involvement. Then I focused on individual and group influence on my behaviour, then levels and form of loyalty are illustrated, and finally deriving value from product is pinpointed. Recommendations for marketers are given in each section. This work is to add to the existing marketing research further and deeper knowledge on customer behaviour.
BACKGROUND:
This paper provides subjective personal introspection or auto ethnography on my buying behaviour fore several types of products. This methodology required me as a researcher a provision of my won observation and reflection on my thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Brown and Reid (1997) defined SPI as the involvementof the researcher analysis of experience and reflection on specific topic then produce it in the form of autobiographical essay. Although SPI has been criticised (Wallendorf and Brucks, 1993), the great advantage that in favourof this methodology over others relies on the mindful set observation of the inner state without the mediation of others (Gould, 1995). In other words, no one will fully know him/her inner state more than they will. Form applying this technique I sought internal understanding and discerning of my consumption behaviour and reflecting from an insider view.
Prior to this research, a poster was produced showing my consumer profile characteristics. To fulfil this objective different types of segmentations have been presented; geographic, demographic, behavioural, Social culture, effective and cognitive characteristics. A case in point, it illustrated that I am a middle class Female from the Middle East particularly from Saudi Arabia. The poster also shed light on what is believed to be key influences on my buying behaviour. Individual, group and media influences were illustrated. The salient example of influences would be the individual influences, as I tend to buy what reflect my personality without being recognised that I belong to an Arabic or Muslim culture. The various behaviour of consumption indicates that I belong to postmodern consumers. Postmodern consumers have distinct characteristics that differ from modern consumers. Simmons (2008) Highlighted that postmodern consumers are more individualistic in their behaviour but without being odd from the society. Additionally, Dawes and Brown (2000) indicated that postmodern consumer are less commitment and loyalty to products or brand thus freedom is a distinctive characteristic. Elliott (1993) mentioned that in postmodern society there is no fixed meaning of objectives, consumers hold different views of objectives according to their won perception.
DECISION MAKING PROCESSES AND PURCHASES INVOLVEMENT:
Involvement is the degree to which people feel relevant to a product or brand based on their needs, interests and values (Zaichowsky, 1985). In the last Father’s day I bought my father a hand watch as a gift. I consider this experience to be high involvement purchase. The category of involvement here could be seen as Ego involvement. According to Blythe (2008) Ego involvement in purchasing reflects the importance of a product to the person’s self-concept. In choosing the right hand watch I seek for impressing my father that I did the right purchase and I show that I understand exactly what he likes, otherwise I will be in a high social-risk and embarrassment. In addition, it is also product involvement which product attributes match the person’s values and goals (Blythe, 2008). I was searching for a hand watch that its attributes meet my values which was mainly quality. Laurent and Kaferer (1985) provided a model that spots five dimensions of involvement. The high involvement in choosing gift for my father is driven from two dimensions. The first dimension is the perceived risk importance result from incorrect choice. Secondly, the sign value of the gift that shows my values. The high involvement here stems from the repercussions on my self-esteem. Emotional effects lead me to a rational thinking, Blackwell, Miniard and Engel (2006) provided a model on the decision process of consumer. firstly, I recognize the need to buy a gift for the special occasion then I actively Search for information as I am highly committed then evaluated the alternatives after that Purchase was done and my father consumed it and finally, Post-consumption evaluation was been made.
For marketers and practitioners, segmentation of the hand watch market can be conducted on the base of dimensions of involvement which are; sign value, personal interest, risk important, bad purchase probabilities and pleasure value (Laurent and Kaferer, 1985). It is also recommended in high involvement purchase that the sell person do not make effort to persuade the customer. However, it would be an appropriate approach to manipulate some aspects of the environment to increase the involvement of the customer. A sell person can provide decent information on the product and explain the potential negative results of buying a product. In terms of advertisement, in high involvement purchases like hand watch customers are active seekers of information therefore, a good approach would be displaying advertisement on magazines and on the internet.
Adapted from Peter, Olson and Grunet (1999)
Figure (1): A means end chain for a hand watch gift
INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCES:
This section will focus on the psychological aspect of the consumption behaviour. This led us to understand the essential reasons on the way of behaviour, which are mainly attitudes, belief, perception, learning, motivations, and values. Attitude is ‘a learned tendency to respond to an object in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way’ (Onkvisit and Shaw, 1994). Using Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) theory of reasoned action, illustrate the influence of attitudes and personal norms on the behaviour intention. In this case, belief is based on faith, real knowledge, or opinion. My salient belief on the hand watch was that it has flexible leather string, the design would appeal to my father’s age, easy to read the time but it wasn’t well known brand or stylish. However, the importance of flexibility and easy read is much more important than the brand name. My personal norms which make me decide is that my father does not pay attention to the brand name also high might also he might has negative feelings if the watch was high price. Regarding motivation, this is ‘the internal force that encourages people to act in specific ways’ (Blythe, 2008 p. 448). Maslow’s theory on hierarchy of needs shows that people are motivated to meet their needs in hierarchy order beginning with the survival needs and ending with self-actualization. The need motivate me to such behaviour was belonging needs. My father suffers from nerves problems in his hand and I noticed that his watch is not convenient as it should be. Choosing flexible leathered watch stems from the need to express my desire to show him my love and make his life easy. Hand watch vendors can activate the needs of pleasing fathers and encourage purchasing men watches by reminding people with the desired status before the father’s day to allow their needs to be in the right level when they become closer to father’s day. Perception refers to the way people choose, categorize, and construe information to form a significant image of the world. This can depend on my father’s sight, touch or smell regarding the hand watch. Three perceptual processes that affect my final decision on purchasing the hand watch are selective distortion, selective attention, and selective retention. Selective distortion elaborates my inclination to interpret information concerning the hand watch in a way that will coincide with what I believe. Selective attention describes my tendency to screen out familiar information. Selective retention refers to my tendency to retain information that affects my attitudes and beliefs. In order to capture my father’s attention, the hand watch vendors should ensure that the information in advertising is easily retained by my father. Certain behaviors I exhibit while purchasing goods are acquired through the process of learning. This can be through cues, responses, drive, or stimuli. Cues determine how, when and where a consumer responds, whereas drive calls for a consumer to act. If the vendors associate the hand watch with strong cues and drive, they may influence me to purchase the hand watch.
GROUP INFLUENCE:
This part will concentrate on the influence of surrounding environment on my buying behaviour. A key concept that plays a vital role in group influence is the reference group concept. A reference group is a group whose values and perceptions an individual uses as the basis of his or her current consumption behaviour. Reference group influence is either informational influence, identification influence or normative influence. In informational influence, an individual uses the opinions and behaviour of other members in that group. For instance, my buying of movies or software’s may be because of the friends that I associate with have a taste and like those kinds of things. Normative influence results from doing things to gain something such as a reward from the group or to avoid being penalized. In Islamic certain types of food like pork are restricted. Therefore, when purchasing food types I have to be certain that they do not contain this food product. Blythe (2008) highlighted that culture influence our buying behaviour as it drives our beliefs, values and attitudes. The influence of culture can be observed on my clothes buying behaviour. Blythe (2008) indicated eleven elements of culture, Islam is almost the defining factor in the Saudi culture, which means that social restriction force me wearing decent cloths in front of men. In this type of culture, clothes marketers have to be aware of several issues one of them would be not to damage the image of the brand by displaying indecent cloths in the advertisements. Society itself influences certain purchasing behaviours. The role you play in the society may prompt you to wear certain clothes that signify respect for your culture and an individual’s social status.
Regarding to the family influence, when I desired to go in a holiday there was a significant influence of family and culture on the decision-making. As I live with my parents and disciplines, it was not my won decision, but we experienced conflicts on which destination will be chosen and finally the choice was made on Turkey. Relating to the travel agency, the male-dominant culture effect decision style made for organising the trip.Because my father was the one who will pay for the trip he chose the package and the travel agent. The decider and the number of family are crucial factors in this type of products. Unfortunately, It is seen that most of travel organizes in the states have produced packages for one or two people. However, they can extend their offers and develop family packages and compete in prices.
DECISION MAKING:
According to Rogers (1983) model of classifications of innovators, my adoption of a new product vary depending on the product category. For example, I belong to Entry majority when adapting a new mobile because I don’t have a good knowledge in technology, whereas I consider myself to be an innovator when adapting a new breakfast cereal because basically I love cereal. Using the Adoption Process model mentioned by Blythe (2008) it is asserted for mobile marketers to allow customers to try the product for certain days and if they were not happy they can get refund. In addition, I appear to be unpredictable customer as I experience cognitive dissonance which is psychological tension results from holding two inconsistency ideas (Festinger, 1957) or undesirable results (Cooper and Fazio, 1984). I recognise after buying a product that I don’t really need it. On the other hand, in online shopping I am impulse purchaser. I bought D&G earrings from Secret Sales and was an accelerator impulse because I knew that I will use it in the near future. To increase impulse purchasing online, Zhang, Prybutok, and Strutton (2007) insisted that adapting conventional strategies in marketing such as discounts and promotions could be useful in shopping online. They also suggest creating new norms that contribute to communicate effectively with customers and to improve virtual contacts. Reducing the effort made by e-customer while surfing e-commerce by designing less hierarchical levels web site could encourage e-customer to more impulse purchasing. In the Islamic community, heavy advertising by marketers can have little impact on the decisions they make. A key issue that influences the decision-making processes in the Muslim world is religion. If, for instance, the product I intend to purchase will likely cause me to break certain Islamic rules, I most likely not purchase it. This is regardless of the fact that I may gain some benefits from the product and no harm can result from its consumption.
LOYALTY:
Loyalty is defined as ‘The degree to which an individual will repeat purchase of a product’ (Blythe, 2008 p. 448). I express my loyalty to a certain brand by intending to buy or repurchase a brand continually. Marketers can increase their brand loyalty by constantly reminding people like me of the value their products add to my life. I am loyal to a number of products like Neutrogena facial wash products. According the level scale provided by Oliver (1999), I am in the action loyalty level that I don’t have any tendency to switch to another brand. In fact, this loyalty is a result of trying several brands from the designer level to the mass products. I like the brand because stemsfrom the suitability of the product to my skin and its value for money. Dick and Basu (1994) provided a conceptual framework that classifies loyalty regarding strength of attitudes and repeat patronage into loyalty, latent loyalty, spurious loyalty and no loyalty. According to their work, I am a loyal as I hold a strong attitude toward NeutrogenaI trust it because it is recommended by derma doctors and Ihave been purchasing for more than 12 years. Reichheld and Teal (2001) recommended firstly, to identifywhat they called ‘Long Term Coefficient’ of customers, to full fill this objective the company need to identify which customers are buying the product because they like long relationship, which who spend more on the product and which who find the product valuable. Another recommendation is that loyalty is the most significant measure of loyalty therefore; the company need to understand what particularly satisfy customer.
Deriving value from a product:
Considering the perceived value, Chen and Dubinsky (2003, p. 326) defined value as ‘a consumer’s perception of the net benefits gained in exchange for the costs incurred in obtaining the desired benefits’. As a consumer, I purchase products for the purpose or benefit that I, will attain from the product. To explain how I perceived the value for me as a customer Net VC model by Woodall (2003) will be used. The model illustrates how customer would evaluate between the benefits of behaviour and sacrifices. I balances between the attributes of the watch with is flexibility besides the outcome which is happiness of my father and the monetary sacrifice which fit with my budget. From service –dominant logic, customers are co-producers and involved in the value-creation process(Vargo and Lusch , 2004).Dawes and Brown (2000) assert that in postmodern era traditional strategies of value creation are no longer appropriate for an organisation to gain a competitive advantage. From the given premise, it is suggested that marketers and practitioners to conduct a research in order to understand the values whereas terminal or instrumental which drive people to behave in a certain way and develop their products to match the values identified.
Conclusion:
This piece of research is a subjective personal introspection on my buying behaviour as a postmodern consumer. The aim of this paper is to track the process of my buying behaviour and identify the influences impact on my decisions. The research looked to different types of product and concerned decision making processes and purchases involvement, individual influences, group influence, loyalty and deriving value from a product. Recommendations for marketers and practitioners were given.
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