Influencing Factors on the Consumer Decision Process
It is understood that before consumers make the actual purchase for a product, they have to go through a buying decision process. The theory has presented the process in detail because these are the steps which customers experience either consciously or unconsciously to purchase a product or a service. The customers of Canon G7x would have to go through a series of steps before they decide to buy the camera. Before going into the details of describing the consumer buying process, a strong understanding of the consumer involvement theory needs to be developed.
The theory is based on the idea that for some products and services, customers are highly involved either logically or emotionally or how low is their degree of involvement with regards to their emotional needs and rational grounding (Zaichkowsky, 1985). If a product is expensive, it requires high involvement from the customers. Customers search for various versions of the products, compare prices and then assess their degree of requirement for the product. They also identify if the product they wish to buy fills their needs logically or do they have an emotional linkage with the purchase. If the product serves to provide benefit in personal or professional life or can be considered as a necessity, it can be called logical purchasing with high involvement. The high involvement fulfills emotional gaps such as those with vacations or visiting places of interests (Bagozzi, Gopinath & Nyer, 1999). In the same manner, if the product is not very expensive, it requires low involvement from consumers and can be linked to both emotional and rational needs.
In the case of the given product that is Canon G7x, a high degree of involvement is experienced by consumers. This is because the product is expensive and purchase decision is made by searching for alternatives and comparison of specifications, features and prices of several brands. If the consumer wants to buy Canon G7x for the purpose of making an earning or building up a portfolio, his usage will be based on rational motives whereas if he wants to make a purchase of the camera for fulfilling his love for photography or capturing moments for fun, then the purchase would be based on emotional purpose.
Coming to the buyer’s decision-making process, there are basically five steps which are experienced by the consumers namely need recognition or problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, store choice and purchase and post-purchase activities (Solomon, 2014).
In the first stage of problem recognition, the customer identifies the gap between what he has and what he wants and then decides to make a purchase. He might make use of internal and external factors to facilitate the decision-making process. He will analyze the personal needs and desires in comparison with his budget and also the suggestions from friends, families and changing fashion and technological trends. Once the customers decide what he wants to pay, he would start searching for the desired product in the market. He might make use of several channels to reach to the right product such as online store, brick and mortar stores, different store locations, wholesalers etc. He might also look for alternatives for the desired product and provide different weight to each option available in the market. The alternative which matches his needs and wants gets a higher score and the consumer makes his final purchase with the dealer. After the purchase is made, post purchase services are offered by the manufacturing company so as to acquire timely feedback from customers and offer any repair and maintenance services to them whenever necessary. Post purchase activities if carried out in an efficient and effective manner can help in building long-term relationships with the consumers.
The given task asks to select an internal and external factor and find out how each of these factors has an influence on two of the stages of consumer decision making process for the product and target market as well as analyze and evaluate marketing activities. The internal factor chosen is perception and it will be analyze it by linking it with the first stage of the decision making process which is problem recognition. In problem recognition stage, the consumers become aware of their needs and wants and further do the fine tuning by exploring personal factors and values as well as the external environment and trends.
Consumers usually create the need for buying a product when they develop a certain perception in mind. For instance, our target market for Canon G7x develops a perception that beautiful moments and events need to be captured in cameras as these moments rarely repeat. The perception that every beautiful moment must be saved in a camera so that when years after it is looked at; the memories get refreshed and emit pleasure and happiness. So this very perception of making memories can serve to generate the need for camera among the customers. Similarly, if the quality of Canon is perceived by the target market as superior to other brands such as Panasonic and Sony, it is likely that the customers will develop a need that they want to buy a camera only by Canon. However, the model search will depend on their budget and the degree of its utilization. Similarly, if the general market perceives the performance of Canon G7x as superior and the price is also considered reasonable then the target market may develop the perception that this very model number of Canon is best suited to their needs, wants and most importantly, their convenience.
If looked at one of the external factors which assist the buying behavior pattern of consumers and analyze it with respect to a stage of the consumer buying behavior process, a social class will be chosen as the external factor and choice of alternatives as a stage of the consumer buying behavior process. Every consumer belongs to a specific social class and he has to follow the norms and rules very stringently. If an individual engages in activities which are not considered as appropriate within a social class, he has not welcomed anymore. If other consumers in a social class use the camera of high quality and believe in getting classic finish results, they would opt for good brands. While going through the process of making a choice from the alternatives of camera brands, the customers would look at all the brand names and models popular in his social class. For instance, he would analyze the lens, properties, price and qualities of cameras by Sony, Panasonic, and Canon and assign weight to each of the brand names and models. When Canon G7x gets the highest rating score among the set of alternatives, the individual would compare this model and rating with the acceptance and level of influence with the benchmark of his social class. If the analyses turn out to be favorable, the consumer would make the final purchase of Canon G7x. Other external factors such as reference groups can also influence the consumers to make a purchase of Canon G7x. This might be because the reference group is composed of people who have previously used this model of camera and are content with the functioning and results.
Sometimes, if suggestion and positive opinions about the operational efficiency, handling, and convenience to carry come from reference groups, the consumers take their opinions very seriously and can consider purchasing Canon G7x on the basis of trust towards the reference group. Similarly, culture, lifestyle and demographic variables also play a key role in ensuring that the customer decision-making process is influenced and right choices can be made.
Conclusion
It has been seen that Canon G7x is considered as one of the best cameras on the market. Customers belonging to Europe, America use the camera frequently and the markets of Asia also contain ample potential. The Canon G7 camera is considered as one of the best in terms of its quality and convenience. Although all cameras come with the convenience of carrying and the psychical look is also impressive but what distinguishes the quality of one camera from the other depends on upon the resolution of its lens. The lens of Canon G7x is way better than those offered by Sony and Panasonic. The camera price of Canon G7x is also less than other brands available in the market which makes it affordable as well as of great quality.
The customers who purchase Canon G7x usually exhibit a high degree of involvement and make a rational decision while purchasing by looking at the lens and end results. However, they can also use the camera to fulfill their emotional needs. Internal factors such as perceptions, attitudes, memory and past experiences with a product help consumers in making better and informed decisions. Ajzen (1985) mentioned that external factors such as those related to the lifestyle, culture, perceptions and reference groups influence the buying behavior decision of consumers. The five step process of decision making by consumers also proved to be helpful in analyzing how internal and external factors can influence every step of the consumer buying process.
Recommendations
There could be several ways clients can make use of to improve their promotional activities. The consumer decision-making process is based on five steps of problem recognition, information search, choice of alternatives, actual purchase and post purchase activities. Every step is linked to the next. Firstly, the consumer develops a need which can be satisfied by purchasing a certain product. There are certain factors responsible for the need creation such as internal which are based on one’s personal characteristics and external, which are mostly based on factors such as latest trends, innovations in technology and improved systems.
The second step is information search which details the number of ways a customer makes use of to get knowledge about the product he wishes to buy. Information could be obtained from a number of sources such as peers, magazines, annual reports, newspapers, websites on the internet which allow brand and feature comparison as well as from those who have been users of a certain product for long (Schmidt & Spreng, 1996). In the third step, the choice among alternatives is made- the chosen alternatives are assigned weight depending upon their specifications such as in the case of a camera, quality, lens resolution, the weight of the camera, the size of the camera, image quality, and its pricing. In the fourth step, consumers search for platforms such as stores where the alternative with the highest score is available and in the fifth step, they make the actual purchase by paying the price and getting possession of their desired product. Finally, post purchase service or customer relationship service is also considered essential for ensuring that the customers are satisfied with the product they purchased and provide repair and maintenance service for it. In the case of Canon G7x, the post-purchase activities could be in the form of warranty card and feedback forms.
The information search process is heavily influenced by the internal and external factors. It is recommended that customers make most of their search through the internet when they want to buy a product because social media has become very vast and original opinions of global customers can be reached with convenience. Although culture and geographical factors influence the buying behavior of customers- opinions of customers cannot be called as genuine because customers form their judgments on the basis of their experience with the product as well as their after sales services. This experience cannot be similar for two customers. Since there are millions of consumers present on the internet and some provide genuine views. So it is a good idea that customers make use of the internet to carry out the process of information search.
References
Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior(pp. 11-39). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Bagozzi, R. P., Gopinath, M., & Nyer, P. U. (1999). The role of emotions in marketing. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 27(2), 184-206.
Schmidt, J. B., & Spreng, R. A. (1996). A proposed model of external consumer information search. Journal of the academy of Marketing Science,24(3), 246-256.
Solomon, M. R. (2014). Consumer behavior: buying, having, and being. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Zaichkowsky, J. L. (1985). Measuring the involvement construct. Journal of consumer research, 341-352.
