Introduction
The usefulness of psychology stands above the common knowledge of people. It has wide application in business, particularly in marketing. The study of human psychology helps the business people to understand the emotional behavior of their clients, leading to improved capacity to influence customers’ decisions. Impulse buying is one of the essential psychological applications in the business (Bhakat 149). It results from emotional changes in the decisions of consumers that result in increased purchases than what was initially intended. According to Bhakat (149), having experience in buying is crucial to improving the quality of purchasing decisions. However, such experience has some negative impacts on people. This essay will argue that having buying experience in car business has both positive and negative effects on people. A conclusion will also be drawn from the main ideas from the essay.
Positive effects of car buying experience on people
Great experience in buying is an important thing in business. Individuals with buying experience tend to have excellent performance in marketing and sales. Additionally, individual consumers with experience in buying tend to make quality purchasing decisions that enable them to reduce costs (Brent and James para 3). Sometimes, car dealers tend to be exploitative. Since the objective of every businessperson is to increase business profit, quality becomes an important consideration when it comes to car buying. Additionally, the relationship between price and the quality must be established before making the purchase decision (Lopez 51). Individuals with less buying experience tend to suffer exploitative costs and low- quality products since they have limited capacity to make effective bargains. Furthermore, inadequate buying experience reduces the emotional connections between the buyers and the products, resulting in reduced ability to make brands differentiations (William para 4).
Customers usually have higher expectations in regards to the performance of the products they buy or plan to purchase. Moreover, buyers expect a high level of satisfaction from the products. However, the ability of the products to meet customers’ satisfaction depends on the buyer’s perceptions of the products. Buying experience helps the customers to relate features of cars they buy and their performance expectations. Additionally, buying experience promotes buyers’ ability to make best car selections based on their desires and perceptions.
William (para 3) found that automobile buyers in the United States consider the cost of owning cars as well as the excellence of the automobiles. Thus, the ownership cost and the excellence of products are some of the primary basis on which purchase decisions are made. Buying experience influences the power of buyers to evaluate their car buying alternatives. Buyers are able to select cars with high benefits in terms of cost and performance.
Great experience in the purchase of automobiles enables the buyers to identify the best quality products based on their desired attributes. Car buyers consider the functional characteristics of the vehicles when making the purchase decisions. They tend to ignore alternatives that do not create strong emotional connections with the vehicle brand that possess their desired functional attributes (William para 5). As such, buying experience becomes an important factor that influences the power of consumers in making purchase decisions on the basis of product quality and functional attributes. People with more experience in car buying tend to have long more exposure to quality and the predominantly desired functional attributes. Therefore, they make the best purchase decisions.
The availability of information to both the seller and the buyer is fundamental to the process of decision-making (Lopez 116). Thus, parties involved in car dealing must have adequate information concerning the deal. When one party has less information, moral hazard is likely to occur. In most cases, individuals who are less exposed to car business are more likely to suffer from moral hazard. They pay high prices for sub-standard products with low satisfaction and poor performance. Buying experience affects the level of information possessed by buyers, enabling them to escape the adversity of moral hazards.
The buying experience is essential for individuals who buy cars for resale. Reasonable purchase prices influence the resale prices. Also, the profitability of the deal depends on the amount paid to obtain cars for resale. According to William (para 4), customers tend to have high preferences for cars with high ratings. They consider the durability, performance, and the brand passion when deciding the model to buy. Dealers with high buying experience have significant power to make logical decisions in regards to a brand selection that meet customer expectations in relation to passion and impression of performance features.
The level of customers’ satisfaction is highly influenced by the decisions they make. In addition, buyers tend to develop great confidence with products that meet their desires. According to the research conducted by Gallup organization, there are great emotional connections between the buyer and the brand they choose to buy (William para 6). Research also revealed buyers tend to be more psychologically and emotionally engaged in the brands that meet their passion. Buying experience significantly affects the level of confidence that buyers have on the brand of vehicle they decide to purchase. Besides, experience in the purchase of automobiles affects the emotional component of buyers’ purchase decisions. For example, the buying experience determines the rationale that drives the buyers into making decisions concerning particular purchases. Additionally, buying experience affects the strength of emotions, resulting in varying level of buyers’ confidence in different brands of vehicles, their performance, and brand passion (Michael n.p). Thus, buying experience has considerable impacts on people who deal with cars as well as individual consumers. It affects various aspects that pertain to purchasing decisions and stimulate buyers to take particular alternatives. However, experience in car buying may affect individuals in some negative ways.
Negative impacts of car buying experience
Buyers tend to trust car dealers with great experience. They have great confidence in the products of these dealers as well as their capacity to deliver quality automobile services. Additionally, buying experience tends to increase buyers’ emotional inclination to particular brands (Brent and James para 8). For example, individuals with buying experience in General Motors products and other reputable dealers in automobiles tend to develop greater emotional inclinations to the products of these companies. Sometimes, manufacturers may produce products with defects or compromise the quality to minimize costs. High level of confidence and emotional inclination to particular brands as a result of buying experience may lead the buyers into purchasing cars with defects and with poor performance. Additionally, buying experience may drive buyers into making automatic decisions concerning the features, durability, and brand passion (Lopez 93). However, manufacturers make various modifications in their products. Therefore, great reliance on buying experience may lead to wrong purchasing decisions.
Buyers make various considerations before reaching the final purchase decision. According to the Gallup’s research, car buyers’ perceptions on various features such as durability, brand passion, product satisfaction, and performance have a significant influence on the purchase decision. These factors are significantly affected by buying experience (William para 5). For example, individuals with high buying experience may ignore the aspect of car’s performance due to high exposure to similar products. Additionally, great experience may exaggerate the level of emotional confidence beyond the real functional attributes expected by buyers. As a result, buyers end up purchasing cars that do not match their specifications and passion.
High buying experience does not necessarily result in increased customer satisfaction. Moreover, individuals with high experience in automobile do not always purchase cars that are highly rated. Zhang et al. (673) found that if car dealer purchases vehicles that do not meet customer specifications, customers will not buy from him or her regardless of the level of dealers’ experience. For example, individuals who deal with vehicles from Toyota and Honda tend to have a high emotional influence on their client due to a high level of trust (William para 6). However, if other conditions like brand passion and functional attributes are not in line with buyers’ demand, the level of buying experience only will not provoke buyer’s emotions to purchase the products. Thus, buying experience may lead to car dealers making some automatic assumptions that have negative impacts on their business.
Conclusion
The buying experience is fundamental to the quality of purchasing decisions. It enables the car dealers to make optimal choices concerning the best products that meet their specifications. The application of psychology in business enables the business community to establish strong emotional connections between their products and their clients. Buying experience has significant impacts on both car dealers and individual consumers. Although buying experience has numerous benefits for the people, it has some negative implications also. High reliance on the buying experience in making purchasing decisions has detrimental impacts on buyers. Thus, buying experience alone cannot lead to optimal decisions. Other considerations such as brand passion and other features that provoke buyers’ emotional confidence must be taken into account as key determinants of selecting the best alternative.
Works Cited
Brent, Goff and James Boles. "The influence of salesperson selling behaviors on customer satisfaction with products." Journal of retailing 73.2 (1997): 171-183. Web
Bhakat, Ravi. “A review of impulse buying behavior." International Journal of Marketing Studies 5.3 (2013): 149-149. Web. 7 July 2016.
Lopez, Ray. Inside the Minds of Car Dealers: How to Buy Your Next Car Without Fear. United States: Five Star Publications, 2009. Print.
Michael, Schatzki. Negotiating to buy a new car; tips and strategies. Web. 7 July 2016. <http://www.negotiationdynamics.com/Newcar.asp>
William, McEwen. Why Car Buyers Buy" Business Journal. 14 October 2004. Web. 7 July 2016. <http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/13606/why-car-buyers-buy.aspx>
Zhang, Meizhen, Qing Li, and Defeng Yang. “The Effect of Experience Value on Private Brand Purchase Intention.” Journal of Service Science and Management 08.05 (2015): 673–677. Web. 7 July 2016.
