Consumer and Services Marketing
Knowledge of the Buyer
In buying decisions many times other people also influence the decision. In services
these roles are played by many persons. In purchase of any service six distinct roles
are played
1. Initiator : The person who has a specific need and proposes to buy a service
2. Influencer : The person or group of persons whom the decision maker refers to
or who advice the decision maker
3. Gate Keeper : The person or organization or promotional material, which act
as filter on the range of services which enter the decision choice
4. Decider : The person who makes the buying decision
5. Buyer : The person makes the actual purchaser
6. User : The actual user.
Consumer Decision Making
The consumer’s decision to purchase or reject a product or service is the moment of
final truth for the marketer. It signifies the marketing strategy has been wise,
insightful and effective, whether it was poorly planned and missed the mark. Marketer
are, therefore, interested in the consumer decision-making process by which a
consumer selects an alternative amongst the lot available. The decision not to buy is
also an alternative.
A simple consumer decision-making model, ties together the psychological, social
and cultural concepts into an easily understood framework. The decision model has
three distinct sets of variables: Input Variables, Process Variables, and Output
Variables.
1. Input Variables:Input variables are those variables which affect the decision
making process and include commercial marketing efforts as well as noncommercial influences from the consumer’s sociocultural environment.
2. Decision Variables:The decision process variables are influenced by
consumer’s own psychological fields, which affect their recognition of a need,
their pre-purchase search for information and their evaluation of alternatives.
3. Output Variables:The output phase of the model includes the actual purchase
(either trial or repeat purchase) and post purchase evaluation. Both prepurchase and post-purchase evaluation feed back in the form of experience
into the consumer’s psychological field and serves to influence future decision
processing. (On a holiday a customer may change hotels in between his stay).
Factors influencing the consumer buying behavior are
1. Situational Factors : Time, Store’s atmosphere, Marketing Stimuli (the
occasion)
2. Personal Factors : Personality, life style, other demographic factors like age,
gender, occupation etc.
3. Social Factors : Culture, reference group, family
4. Psychological Factors : Perception, attitude, motivation
MBA- Knowledge Base