MBA404 Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Psychology Report Sample
Your task
Individually, you are required to submit a 100-word validation step and prepare a 1200-word written analysis, in which you must critically analyse your recent purchase of a product or service based on the 5-step Consumer Decision-Making Process. Please note that you will need to use the same product or service in the second and third assessments in this subject as all assignments in this course are interrelated.
Assessment Description
In this individual assessment, students will be given an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding and ability to explain consumer behaviour determinants by analysing the role of perception, attitude, and motivation in consumer behaviour.
Assessment Instructions
To help you start all three assessments in this subject on the right track, over the first three weeks of the trimester, your workshop facilitator will engage you and the rest of the class in preliminary discussions about the product or service you would like to choose. Please pay specific attention to your workshop facilitator instructions regarding products/services that are not permissible.
By the end of week 3, you are required to submit a validation step via MyKBS, under the ‘assessments tab’ > ‘Product/Service Validation’ icon. In preparing this step, you must explain which product or service you will focus on in all three assessments, when and where you bought this product or service, and what ‘need’ and ‘want’ did your chosen product or service fulfilled. You will also need to take a selfie of yourself and your selected product or a selfie of you experiencing the chosen service and upload it in the validation step.
The validation step is worth 5% of your grade in this subject, with 0% awarded for a rejected choice, 2.5% awarded for a partially approved choice, and 5% for an approved choice in full. Please note that you will not be able to submit any other assessment in this subject until your workshop facilitator has approved your choice, so be wise and don’t be late.
Once your workshop facilitator has validated your product or service choice, you are required to prepare a 1200-word written analysis by providing the reader with an in-depth analysis of how you have moved through each of the consumer decision-making steps.
In preparing your written analysis, you will also need to identify any possible issues that may have occurred during this process. Please use ‘Workshop 2 Student Handout’ as a starting point for your analysis.
More specifically, you must:
1. Analyse the need and want that led you to purchase the chosen product or service.
2. Examine the internal and external sources of information you used to purchase the chosen product or service. Please include screenshots of external sources of information to support your analysis and indicate your awareness set at the end of this section.
3. Evaluate alternatives and narrow down the chosen product or service attributes that satisfy your need and want. Please provide a detailed evoked set diagram to present your findings.
4. Analyse available purchase methods to determine how these methods impacted your decision-making process.
5. Analyse your post-purchase behaviour by identifying the chosen product or service features that reduce your cognitive dissonance. Please note that in this step, the topic of customer satisfaction should not be considered.
Solution
Consumer Decision Making Process
Present study is based on the recent purchase of the product on the basis of 5-step consumer decision making procedure. University Assignment Help, This assessment offers an opportunity to reflect understanding and capability to describe determinants of consumer behavior by evaluating the role of perception, motivation, and attitude of consumer behavior.
Consumer behavior is referred as mechanism used by customer for making purchasing decision and use and disposal of purchased goods or services. It also includes elements that create impact on decision of buy and product use. My chosen product for the present assignment is GUESS perfume (Guess Man 75ml Eau De Toilette Spray). At the initial time, this perfume has been used by me in my home country such as in India, and two weeks before I purchased same perfume from Chemist warehouse in Melbourne.
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Figure 1: Consumer Decision Making Process
(Source: Stankevich, 2017)
Analysis of Requirement and Desire That Assisted To Purchase The Product
In the consumer decision making procedure, need stage initiates when a need is realized by the consumers. There are mainly two causes by which need occur such as internal stimuli and external stimuli. In this aspect, internal stimuli is generally emotional requirement like thirst, sadness, happiness, and others, while external stimuli such as advertisement, marketing, and others (Lamb et al., 2016). It can be said that, need takes place when imbalance is faced by customer between actual and desired states. In the present case, I need GUESS perfume because I am very much attached with its smell. Since, I shifted to Australia and therefore I miss my home country, but smell of this perfume connects me with my home nation. Therefore, it can be said that, it is the internal stimuli that assists need for GUESS perfume. Further, motivation is referred as procedure that assists individual to behave as they do. It takes place when a requirement is taken place that the customer wished to fulfill. My behavior of GUESS perfume is significantly pulled by expectancy theory as my expectation from this perfume is to gain positive incentives. Moreover, by application of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, my need falls within the love and belongingness.
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Figure 2 Maslow's need of hierarchy
(Source:Pinterest, 2016)
Analysis of Internal and External Sources of Information for Support Analysis
As soon as need is recognized by the consumer, they initiates to search for an answer. In this stage, an individual who recognize a need would then probably be persuaded to search for information, whether it may from internal sources or from external sources (Saleh, Alhosseini, and Slambolchi, 2017). In this aspect, internal search is referred to a memory of consumers, recollection of goods, or directed by personal experience. This takes place when an individual tries to search their memories to observe whether or not they recall earlier experience with a goods, services, or brand. Further, external research is performed when the consumer do not possesses any previous knowledge with respect to product that assisted them to look for information from personal sources, public sources or marketer dominated sources (Thomas et al., 2018). In the present case, I already used GUESS perfume that has been firstly gifted by my friend and I like this perfume as it smell is not very strong and I could not to take too strong perfumes. Although, I am already familiar with GUESS perfume, but I also want to research on this product, which is conducted by me from personal sources as well as public sources. In the context of personal sources, I obtained information from my friend who is very fond of perfumes, and as per her perspective GUESS perfume is one of the best as compared to any others. Further, I also observed some feedbacks from consumers at online shopping website that reflects about several qualities of perfumes.
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Figure 3 Ratings and reviews of GUESS perfumes
(Source:GUESS Man Eau de Toilette - 75 ml (For Men), 2021)
Alternatives of the Product
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Analysis of the alternatives of product is considered as third stage of the consumer decision making procedure. In this stage, all alternatives are evaluated by the consumer as well as brand options on a range of features that have the capability to provide the advantage that the consumer is looking for (Stankevich, 2017). In specified phase consumer does compares the product with the characteristic which are expected in product chosen. The characteristic of perfume which enforced me to purchase it was its refreshing smell and reasonability of price. As I stated that after I moved to Australia, I started using other perfume i.e. Gucci y Gucci EDT for men which were comparatively strong from Guess Man perfume. Even though the fragrance was mesmerizing but it didn’t give the comfort or the way I feel while I use Guess Man perfume. Moreover, it was expensive in comparison to Guess Man perfume and didn’t provide satisfaction due to which I always think about some alternative.
Figure 4: Evoked Set for Chosen Product: Guess Man Perfume
Above Evoked set asserts the option chosen by me along with alternatives which I considered and which I ignored. As I cannot deal with strong fragrance for long period, thus when I found that Guess Man perfume is available I stopped using Guess Man perfume and switched back to same. Lastly, as I am emotionally attached with Guess Man perfume as I feel like being in home with its fragrance; thus I do prefer using it only. It is difficult to explain connection with the product as I have used same for long time and its fragrance is not too strong, due to which I does have to deal with other issues like allergy etc and can use it easily in the way I want. Thus, I would prefer using Guess Man perfume only.
Analysis of Purchase Methods for Purchasing Product
It is the fourth stage of consumer decision making process and in this stage purchase actually takes place. In this stage, an individual may form an intention to purchase the most preferred brand as evaluation of all alternatives has been done by them and they also ascertained the value that it would bring them (Wang, and Yu, 2017). It can be said that, making purchase decisions is the final decision in consumer decision making process. There are distinct considerations with respect to the manner in which customer purchase goods or services such as –
• Use of individual income
• Use of credit card
• Home loans
• Lease or rent agreement
• Lay-by/Afterpay
• Secured and unsecured personal loan
I used individual income for purchasing the GUESS perfume. In other way, it can be said that, I purchased perfume in cash from the Chemist warehouse.
Analysis of post-purchase behavior by identification of selected product features that decrease cognitive dissonance
In this phase of consumer decision making process, consumer demonstrates on their recent purchases. At this, consumer may face cognitive dissonance, which is meant as inner tension that is felt by consumer subsequent to recognition an inconsistency between behavior and opinion (Rybaczewska, Sparks, and Su?kowski, 2020). However, companies can decrease the cognitive dissonance through effective communication, providing guarantees, follow-up, and warranties. Since, it is the decision related to perfume only and therefore I am not facing any cognitive dissonance. The reason behind the same is that, GUESS is one of the leading and popular companies in all over world, which is known for its best quality of goods and services. Therefore, I am very much sure that this product would definitely as per my standards.
References
GUESS Man Eau de Toilette - 75 ml (For Men), 2021. (Online). Available through<https://www.flipkart.com/guess-man-eau-de-toilette-75-ml/p/itmf3wgvhwvhjerq>[Accessed on 10th December 2021]
Lamb WC, et all 2016, Consumer decision-making, MKTG3, Asia-Pacific Edition, Cengage Learning, pp 46 – 56.
Pinterest, 2016, Explore Maslow's Hierarchy, retrieved 23November 2016https://in.pinterest.com/pin/199354720981938641/
Rybaczewska, M, Sparks, L and Su?kowski, ? 2020,‘Consumers’ purchase decisions and employer image,’ Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, vol. 25, p.102123.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102123
Saleh, M, Alhosseini, S E and Slambolchi, A 2017,‘A Review of Consumer Decision-Making Styles: Existing Styles and Proposed Additional Styles’ InternationalJournal of Research in IT, Management and Engineering, vol. 7, no. 1, pp.33-44.http://indusedu.org/pdfs/IJRIME/IJRIME_1048_44055.pdf
Stankevich, A 2017,‘Explaining the consumer decision-making process: Critical literature review,’ Journal of International Business Research and Marketing, vol 2, no., 6, http://dx.doi.org/10.18775/jibrm.1849- 8558.2015.26.300
Thomas, V L, Magnotta, S ., Chang, H and Steffes, E, 2018,‘Role-playing in a consumption context: An experiential learning activity focused on the consumer decision-making process,’ Marketing Education Review, vol 28, no. 2, pp.89-97.https://doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2018.1431051
Wang, Y and Yu, C 2017,‘Social interaction-based consumer decision-making model in social commerce: The role of word of mouth and observational learning,’ International Journal of Information Management, vol. 37, no.3, pp.179-189.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.11.005
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