The Importance of Consumer Decision Making for Businesses
Question:
Marketers frequently use the Problem Recognition phase of the consumer decision process as the focus of their campaigns. Using the example of a recent campaign, discuss why they have chosen this focus, and evaluate how successful this approach is for their product.
The consumer decision making is a complex procedure including different range of issues. Each and every consumer does have different choice regrading a good. These decisions form to be complex in nature depending upon the individual choice. The purpose is to derive consumer opinion regarding Iphone X and compare it with the ongoing products. Thus, for gaining a better understanding related to consumer development and well-being it is necessary to utilize the theories in a common view. There is a necessity to coordinate the function in order to satisfy the need of customers (Aaker, Kumar and Day, 2008, Pg 4). For a better understanding, it is necessary for a business organization to accept the key issues faced. Depending on different factors and theories, different author have derived theories that are important enough to deal with the situation. Considering all the factors and the purpose it is necessary to evaluate different factors in order to make purchase decision. The Consumer Decision Processes (also known as Buyer Decision Processes) refer to the decision-making stages that a consumer undergoes before, during, and after they purchase a product or service(Belz and Peattie,2009, Pg 35). John Dewey has introduced 5 stages undergone by a consumer while making a purchase decision. The five stages are as follows:
- Problem or need recognition
- Information search
- Evaluation of alternatives
- Purchase
- Post-purchase behavior
This stage is important from the point of view of consumer decision making. This is regarded as the event that initiates purchase decision. It is the precursor of every decision making activities. The problem recognition stage is related to the evaluation of effective decision making program. It has a crucial influence on the consumer in future buying decisions. Recognition of need or a problem is important to recognize the purchasing idea. For instance a marketer has to develop an innovative idea that would eventually trigger sales (De Mooij, 2010 Pg 142). Human needs are divided into two parts: psychological and functional needs. Former arise due to emotional feelings whereas latter is associated with the necessity. The purpose of an effective decision making is related with encountering the availability of product at various circumstances (Zentes, Morschett and Schramm-Klein, 2007, Pg 229). Human needs has no limits hence creating a problem recognition is repetitive in nature. From the point of view of gaining product dynamic it is necessary for the marketer to connect the needs of the product with their campaign. This in return will allow in improving the sales on a long run. Product recognition is important enough from the point of gaining competitiveness. Major brands are improvising on their brand by understanding the issue at an early stage (East, Wright and Vanhuele, 2013 Pg 5). This has helped in improving the situation in order to gain business goals.
Recognition occurs when there is a difference in between the person’s desired needs and actual state. Depending upon the complexity of the problem, it is important to acknowledge the requirements pertaining to the issue. There are needs that occur every day that need to be met. There are relatively many problems that need to be satisfied through understanding of the problem. Like for example: trading an old car for a new one, soft drink vending machine etc. Here, the occurrence of a problem created a need in the mind of the consumer which was very well converted by the seller. There are many determinants involved in triggering the sale in order to gain effectiveness. On the basis of the available information, consumer gets motivated and engages in the process of sales (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012 Pg 58).
Understanding Consumer Needs through Buyer Decision Processes
Apple has meanwhile created a buzz in the market through its consumer oriented approach. The brand recognizes customer problems and incorporates the changes in the new model. Apple as a brand understands the requirements of the customers and acquires distinguish needs. It is evident from the point of view of understanding evolving customer needs. The ad campaign particularly focus on meeting individual requirement in order to arrange distinguished requirements. The colourful launch of the Iphone X video evokes customer interest. It focuses on the upcoming consumer needs and developing them accordingly. This is widely acceptable fact that the brand is influencing the customers by deriving their interest.
The recent marketing campaign by Apple primarily focuses on delivering consumer requirements. One of the basic functions behind such a marketing campaign is to manage the individual requirements by primarily understanding the consumer basic needs. Apple as a brand has a large number of loyal customers. Iphone X has imbibed the requirements of software as well as hardware. The new software composition is primarily derived of individual requirements and consumes the effective market needs (Tett, 2017). Understanding of problem derives the implementation of basic consumer requirement and aligning it with the projected needs. It is therefore necessary for generating consumer interest (Lantos, 2015 Pg 291). Iphone X has added new feature in accordance to the competitor. The purpose is to generate an interest and to create hunt-themed marketing platform. The brand is using the platform efficiently in order to generate customer interest. Apple has very well understood the problem faced by customers in real time. This has helped in managing the consumer interest and basically proved to derive effectiveness in an open market. It is definitely important for managing the issues and allocating the responsibilities in accordance with the issue.
In order to gain consistent organizational needs it is important to manage the focus on the marketing campaign. Apple will likely to sell millions of Iphone X. No matter what, Apple has gained a significant name in the market through its consistent marketing strategy. The primary focus is to drag the upper income class who basically wish to focus on maintain a status (Varley and Rafiq, 2014 Pg 22). The needs are efficiently deployed by the brand in order to gain consistency. In terms of Apple, the consumer is largely influenced by the brand image. The sales are driven by the consumer force and arranging individual requirements apparently in order to develop customer expectations. The gadget sales are largely influenced by the apparent growth in the brand. This has definitely created positive output on the brand image in order to derive product growth (Lee and Chen, 2010 Pg 26).
The market campaign primarily focus on seeking attention from the customers on the basis of the basis of few add on feature. Apple as a brand is developed due to the ongoing market requirements and consequent promotional campaign. This consequently helps in adding effective features as a brand. It is necessary for generating needs and allowing customers to use the features in a better way. This will help in securing a positive brand image in order to gain effectiveness. This is necessary from the point of view of generating consumer needs and deploying results on a long run (Lindquist and Sirgy, 2009 Pg 10). The basic idea behind the marketing campaign is to derive the sales by focusing on the loyal consumers. These consumers are ready to make purchases in future. It is very much evident that a person using Apple will switch to new version rather than android. This marked as an important aspect in understanding the consumer behavior. A large section of the society is influenced by the ad campaigns and continuous support by an efficient team. In understanding the influence of the actual state with respect to a need, it is basically two sets of internal circumstances that are likely to trigger the decision making process (Malhotra, 2008 Pg 10).
The Five Stages of Consumer Decision Processes
Apple is launched as a brand on a future point of view. The purpose of the brand is to grab people attention and to generate long term sustainable results by generating consumer interest. As a consumer centric brand, Apple has created a vast range of loyal customers. It is therefore important from the point of view of generating sales and grabbing long term consumer interest. A need can be generated by internal or external stimuli. On one hand internal stimuli is focused on personal perception experienced by the consumer; whereas External stimuli include outside influences (Quester, Neal, Pettigrew, Grimmer. Davis and Hawkins,2007 Pg 55). Apple is using both the strategies in order to give 100 percent outcome. Hence for a brand like Apple, it is important to manage the function to satisfy the need of customers. This is directive in decision making process in order to grab consumer interest. This approach led to better understanding in terms of consumer decision making and applying effective results. The first stage is related with the amount of satisfaction given by the product whereas the second stage is related with the depleting satisfaction by a product. Rising dissatisfaction in the product generate need for the new product. While turning to the influence of the desired state it is important from consumer purchase decision. The first condition is related with the acquisition of a product representing new requirements (Solomon, 2014 Pg 270). The second corresponds to the possession of products related with the high level of satisfaction. It is necessary to meet the needs of the consumers and to deploy an effective model so as to generate maximum customer satisfaction. . For instance, in the former case the depletion can be sudden or more routine. In case of Apple series, a new Iphone model reduces the importance of former model (Solomon, Russell-Bennett and Previte, 2012 Pg 121). People get focused on using the new technology with a better focus. In the latter instance, the acquisition could be sudden or more meditative in nature. The incorporation of this time effect is important enough for delivering necessary growth. Additionally, it is possible that the time effect is necessary from the point of the discrepancy between the desired and actual states. This has led to the classification of certain consumer purchase problems.
Conclusion
To conclude, for a brand like Apple, it is necessary for understanding the consumer needs and to drive them accordingly. This is important enough for arranging individual needs and deriving applicable objects in order to presume relevant growth. It is evident from the point of view of deriving long term growth and developing basic requirements. It is necessary for generating applicable consumer interest and implying the consumer needs. In a competitive world, it is necessary for deriving the best requirements in order to match up with the competitor. Iphone X comes with a tagline which says- “Say hello to the future”. This directly focuses on managing the customer requirements and looking onto the individual customer requirements. This is evident from the point of view of dealing with their expectations. The first step in a marketing campaign is to identify the use of the tech that genuinely delivers adjacent to the organisation’s objectives
References
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