CB: Session 3 Buying Motives and Consumer Decision Making

Buying Motives

Think of all your purchases in last three months. You must have purchased number of clothes, books, CDs, shoes, watches, creams, lotions, jewelry and other personal items. Some of you may have even purchased a laptop, a tablet, a phone or a camera. Many of you have even enjoyed a lovely vacation with your family or friends or might have purchased a flat. 

• What was the purpose?
• How did you decide? 
• The products that you have purchased, how many of them are using or have ever used?
• How many features of that laptop, camera or phone are you actually use or even aware about?
• Whether your purchase was influenced by inclusions?

The answer to these questions may differ from individual to individual as they have different motives behind these product purchases. For consumer, motivation is the starting point of all product purchases; the motivation is goal oriented and occurs in response to solve a problem. But since, everyone solves it differently; the buying motives are also different. Consumer behaviourists classify them as rational and emotional motives.

Rational motives:

A rational motive looks for the economic and utility oriented careful purchases. Rational motives are objective in nature and hence are same for everyone. They can be explained by ASSURED

A – Appropriateness:  The product must be appropriate or suitable for a purpose. A rational consumer will only purchase a product if it is suiting the requirement. Ginger Hotels in their ad appeal to such appropriateness when they Promote “Everything you need, nothing you don’t” campaign.

S – Safety & Security: Consumers are concerned towards their safety and security. At times, they don’t mind spending higher amount to safeguard them. Small items like electronics, wiring systems to bigger items like cars use safety appeal for a rational consumer. Financial instruments like insurance policies and term deposits are bought to satisfy the rational motive.

S – Service: Rational consumers seek good level of services at the time of purchase and for them after-sales service is also an important criteria. The availability of the product, delivery time and the response time for after sales service decides the rational motive for a brand or retailer.

U – Utility: A rational consumer is utilitarian. They seek utility in every purchase. Such consumers buy only basic product and prefers less of add-ons. The low cost flights target such consumers when they call for advance bookings with no refund on cancellation policies.

R – Relatively low price: A rational consumer prefers discounts, sales and offers to make purchases. They compare and evaluate products before making a final purchase. They prefer products that are available at relatively low price.

E – Economic: Economic viability of the product, which includes running costs, is also an important rational concern. Some electronics brands appeal on their low electricity consumption and some automobiles bank of their fuel efficiency to target rational consumers.

D – Durability: A rational consumer prefers products that are long lasting. May companies offer easy refill packs to give convenience to its customers.

Emotional Motives

These motives aroused due to emotional and psychological processes like desires, fears, affection, status and so on. These motives are subjective and marketers can influence them. They can be explained by term PRAISE

P – Pride or prestige: Consumer may buy a product because it is prestigious to have it. Many people buy iphone due to this emotional motive.

R – Recreation: For some people entertainment may be need, but for many it is recreation. Many products like, holiday packages, theme parks, music concerts, sports tournaments aims at recreational motive of the consumers.

A – Affection: At times people splurge due to affection. This affection may be towards a brand that a consumer wants to patronage or may be towards someone for whom the product is purchased.

I – Individuality: Many a times, people buy different products for their desire to be a distinct individual. These people are high on innovation and high on resources.

S – Shopping Habits: Some people are just shopaholic. They are the frequent buyers who do not need any motivation to purchase. These days with the ease of purchase online there are more and more cases of online shopping addicts.

E – Emulation: As opposite of individualists these are the people who would buy because many people are buying it. They would end up buying a product that is not consistent with their needs and does not solve any problem.

Consumers as Problem Solvers

• Think of your last purchase and try to answer the following questions:
• How did you realize the need?
• Who all did you consult?
• Did you search for more about the product?
• Have you stick to what you wanted to buy earlier or your decision changed?
• Are you satisfied with the purchase?

Not all individuals have the same answers to the questions above. It also hugely depends upon the need type. But one thing is in common. We all purchase in response to some problem that we wanted to solve. It includes three components: input, process, and output.

Input may consists of actual need, recommendations, promotional efforts and other environmental factors. Process involves the search, evaluation and selection of product or services combined with the psychological process. Output is the resultant buying behaviour. It is not just related to the product choice but also the choice of dealer, purchase timing, mode of payment and delivery is decided as an outcome.

The Nature of Decision-making

Consumer decision-making can be simpler or can be very complex. Apart from the needs and involvement, the availability of goods and services also plays an important role in deciding for the choices. There can be a situation of hyperchoice, when too many alternatives are available and the consumer may not be able to decide on best of his/her ability.

 Levels of Consumer Decision-making

Routine Response Behaviour: Applicable to product purchases that are made on a regular basis. Many product purchases are just bought habitually. These are the impulsive buying behaviour and usually things are bought during the purchase of something else.  These purchases are not made very consciously or they are the familiar brands and product categories.

Limited Problem Solving: This approach is usually straightforward and simple. In such decisions consumers follow certain guiding principles, when they have to make a purchase. They buy what is usually good and avoid doing their own research.

Extended Problem Solving: This approach is followed for high risk and high involvement product purchases. These are also the category of products and services that are strong source of pleasure. Consumers invest their time in extensive research and are actively involved in gaining and processing information. There are complex problem solving situations as there are many brands available in the market with plenty of variations in design and cost.

Perspective on Consumer Decision Making

Rational Decision Making

“भा ई  सा ह ब !  स र्फ  की  ख री दा री  में  ही  स म झ दा री  है ”, Lalitaji with her justification for Surf and not an ordinary detergent is a rational perspective on decision-making. 

The consumers are utility oriented and they analyse all the possible information related to the product. Hence, it is imperative to marketers to understand how consumers obtain information, how they form beliefs, and what criteria they use to make product choices.

Researchers also establish that not in all situations, consumers follow these decision steps. Also, at times consumer decisions are also not utility oriented and are bought on impulse!

Behaviour Influence Perspective

For many low involvement buying situations, consumer buying behaviour is influenced by appearance of product. In such cases, they usually get carried away by hedonism ( sensual pleasure). Marketers influence hedonic purchases by providing sensually appealing looks, graphics, sounds, colours and designs. 

Sometimes, behaviour influence perspective also work for high involvement products as well!

Experiential Perspective

This principle stresses on gestalt or totality of the product or service. That means that marketers need to develop affective utility oriented response for product and services and then develop emotional response.