The Buying Decision Process Marketing Essay

The purpose of this study is to understand the factors of advertisement on consumer behaviour. This study of consumers help firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues such as how the psychology of how the consumer think, feel, reason and select between two alternatives such as brand and brand image.

A company cannot make dream to be a well known brand until they invests in their promotional activities, for which consumer market have been dominating through advertisements (Hussainy et al, 2008).

Other than that, this study can helps advertiser to understand the psychology of the consumer is influenced by his or her environment such as slogan and logo. This investigation on consumer behaviour also can make a understanding issues on the behaviour of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions and limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome. Advertising typically has some positive or negative content that can trigger affective reactions (Coulter, 1998).

In addition, the reason this study was carried out because of the important of advertisement for consumer knowledge. This is because research on advertisement is difficult to study in academic literature. It also was made to describe the trends in advertisement industry to understand the consumer behaviour issue. Consumer behaviour analysis is helpful for advertiser to understand the behaviour of consumer in buying different situations. According to traditional hierarchy-of-effects models, advertising affect of advertising exposure leads to brand cognition and cognition about the ad, which then leads to the attitude towards the ad and the brand until their purchase intent (Mendelson and Bolls, 2002).

As a promotional strategy, advertisement also can be tooling for control the consumer’s mind to take final purchase decision. It can be an important tool to reach consumer behaviour thinking. As advertiser’s primary mission is to reach potential customers and influence their awareness, attitudes and buying behaviour (Ayanwale et al, 2005 and Adelaar et al, 2003).

2.2 Literature Review

This study will analyze the factors of advertisement that influence consumer behavior such as brand, brand image, slogan and logo. It can be done by review the past research conducted in order to understand the relationship between advertisement and consumer behavior.

The relationship between advertisement and consumer behavior can be explained by how people interact to purchase products or services that influencing by advertisement. For an example, people will purchase Big Mac at Mc Donald’s because the burger looks very delicious in advertising.

2.2.1 Consumer

Consumer is the person or group of people who are the end users and the products or services produced in the social system. Term of consumer can be defined as those individual who purchase for the purpose of individual or household consumption (Fitzsimmons, 2001). Consumer also means an individual who purchase products or services for personal use and not for making or resale.

2.2.2 Consumer Behaviour

With the business environment changing, consumer behaviour also changed, it is therefore important for businesses and marketers to understand consumer behaviour. (Solomon et al, 2002:5) state that consumer behaviour it is the study of the processes that’s are involved when people select, make a purchase and use products, services or experiences in order to satisfy needs and wants.

Similarly, (Kotler, 2002) illustrates consumer behaviour that, it covers all the ground that is related to the selection of a product or service, buying and then consumption of the goods or services.

Lars Perner also agrees with the Philip Kotler and Michael R. Solomon thinking about the consumer behaviour that it is the study of the individuals or the groups of the individuals when they think about selection of the product or service. Then it is the purchase and finally consumes, in order to satisfy needs and wishes (Perner, 2001).

2.2.3 Buying Decision Process

A buying decision process explaining the processes of customer will go through when they purchase the product. Many researchers have given their definition of buying decision model. Although, the model are different but there are common similarities in the model stages.

Although the descriptions of the consumer decision process vary across these models, five similar decision process stages occur in all these models (Mitchell and Boustani, 1993).

In buying decision process there are five basic steps which is need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post purchase behaviour (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004).

These five stages-Problem/Need Recognition, Information Search, Alternative Evaluation, Purchase, and Post-Purchase/Outcomes- were first introduced by John Dewey in the early last century (John Dewey, 1910)

Buying decision process is important to marketers because they must have the knowledge how the customers make their buying decision. Buying decision process involves:

i. Need/Problem Recognition – Marketers identifies customer problem or needs. This is because marketers must know the needs of the consumer and how these needs can be satisfied. For an example, if a person is thirst then water is desirable compare to food.

ii. Information Search – In this stage, consumer searches the information of product in order to find out what they feel is the best solution. The information can be come from family, neighborhood, friends, advertisement or trying the product.

iii. Alternative Evaluation – Consumers evaluate different products to meet their consumer’s needs. Basically, price, brand name and country of origin are the most criteria that consumers use to evaluate different products in marketplace. These three criteria often differ in their influence on consumer’s product selections and some dimensions will have a greater impact than others, which is defined as “salience” (Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard, 1991).

iv. Purchase Decision – In this stage, consumers will make decision to purchase the product. The final purchase decision can be disrupted by two factors: negative feedback from others costumers and level of motivation to comply or accept the feedback (Philip Kotler, Keller, Koshy and Jha, 2009).

v. Post Purchase Behaviour – Stage whether the consumers satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the purchase will influence the consumer’s decision process for their similar purchase especially at the stages of need recognition and information search. If the consumer is not satisfied, he/she will be disappointed and it will bring negative impact on the product or services that they bought. Meanwhile, if consumer is satisfied, it will bring the positive impact on the products or services.

2.3 Evaluation of key studies

In this study, there are 4 important key studies to understand the factors of advertisement towards consumer behaviour such as brand, brand image, slogan and logo. These factors can be important aspect in order consumer to purchase products or services.

2.3.1 Brand

Brand is a set of images and assumptions that represent a company, product and service. Although many people refer to a brand as a logo, slogan or audio sound, a brand is actually much bigger. A brand is the essence or promise of what will be sent or experienced. Importantly, brands allow a buyer to easily identify the offerings of a specific company.

Kotler and Amstrong (1999:260) provide the following definition of a brand as “A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors”.

The relationship between brand and customer is very important. This is because of it is not logo or brand name itself that differentiates a product or service but brand and customer often important for each others. A brand has to be thought of as a relationship with customer (Khermouch, 2001).

A brand is a mechanism for achieving core competencies for firms, through differentiation motive. The attributes that differentiate a brand provide the customer with satisfaction and benefits for which they are willing to pay mechanism (Wood, 2000:666).

The brand name of the product is very important matter. This is because brand name can differentiate to others brand that represent others product or company. Brands have both functional and symbolic dimension (Del Rio, Vasquez and Iglesiaz, 2001).

Meanwhile, a big brand in advertisement industry can give a better image and product to the consumers. Big brand means a better image and better product (Del Rio, Vasquez and Iglesiaz, 2001).

2.3.2 Brand Image

There has been much debate on the relationship between brand and image (Tasci and Kozak, 2006), however one way in which to classify brand image is, being a form of consumer-based equity (Pike, 2004). In this sense, brand image can be defined as being “The perception of a brand in the minds of persons. The brand image is a mirror reflection (though perhaps inaccurate) of the brand personality or product being. It is what people believe about a brand- their thoughts, feelings, expectations” (American Marketing Association, 2008). These beliefs, or perceptions, are developed from the associations or attributes that come a consumer’s mind when contemplating a particular brand (Shrimp, 2007).

A brand image is a set of associations, usually organized in some meaningful way. An association and an image both represent perceptions which may or may not reflect objective reality. A brand association is considered as anything that can be linked in memory (recall) to a brand. The association of a brand not only exists as such but has a level of strength. A link to a brand will be stronger when it is based on many experiences or exposures to communications (Aaker, 1991). Brand image is one of the first consumer brand perceptions that were identified in the marketing literature (Gardener and Levy, 1955).

Brand can be conceptualized as a set of associations perceived by an individual. These associations could be the functional qualities, or with individual people or events. Although it is unlikely that two people will have exactly the same image of a brand, their images may have common features. Such features are said to constitute the image of a brand (De Chernatony, 2001).

“The brand image and brand positioning must be clear, focused and etched into the minds of the target prospects and consumers. The more indelible that brand, the more loyal your consumers will be” (Shimp, 2003). The companies are trying to create a strong image of their brand in the mind of the consumer so that they can gain an important place in the market. This can be done with the use of advertising through the media communicating to their target consumers.

In today’s increasing competitive marketplace, consumers often have to make a choice among a range of products or brands in the market that differ very little in its price or function. In such circumstances, their final decision depends on the image they associate with different brands. A brand can be characterized in various ways by the consumers, such as being modern or old-fashioned, lively or dull, conventional or exotic. Brand image has gained popularity as the feelings and images associated with a brand have been powerful purchase influencers, though brand recognition, recall and brand identity .The consumers must be able to identify a brand in order to purchase it. There are two types of brand awareness: recognition and recall. Recognition occurs at the point of purchase when the consumers recognize the brand on the shelf. Whereas recall, the consumers must imagine the brand on their own prior to purchase.

Joseph Plummer (1985) indicated that there are three components to a brand image: product attributes, consumer benefits and brand personality. The dimensions of a brand personality are largely perceptual. They relate to images that have been created over time by the various aspects of marketing communications. It is possible to change the underlying perception of a brand with some advertising effort, but till the desired change is achieved, the brands should deliver to the expectations of the actual consumers (Yeshin, 1999).

2.3.3 Slogan

“Just Do It”: Nike’s rallying call to athletes everywhere is as familiar as the brand name itself. This example illustrates perfectly the vast power and might that can be wielded by the device known as the slogan. Together with brand name and logo, the slogan represents one of the three key elements of brand identity; that is, the elements by which the brand communicates with the world around it (Kohli, Suri, and Thakor,2002).

Slogan is a very important element for a brand because it makes it that much easier to increase consumer’s retention rate and desire. It is an advertising statement that describes what your brand is all about. Some slogans have an attitude like Nike’s “Just do it” or a statement of what they are trying to accomplish like Nokia’s “connecting people”. There’s a lot of confusing slogans out there so being concise and precise is crucial for an effective slogan for branding.

Slogans are a key element of a brand’s identity, and contribute to a brand’s equity. In today’s marketplace, almost all brands employ slogans; they enhance a brand’s image, aid in its recognition and recall, and help create brand differentiation in consumers’ minds. Slogans can bridge this gap, and can and must say something about the image of the product, thereby making it possible to communicate what the brand is about. In this manner, slogans provide a unique and significant contribution to a brand’s identity. This identity, in turn, enhances brand awareness and brand image through recognition, recall, and favourable associations for the brand. Thus, slogans can serve as “hooks” or “handles” in capturing the meaning of a brand and in relaying what makes the brand special (Dahlén and Rosengren, 2005, Keller, 1998). This research should be of use to business practitioners because slogan is one of factors in advertisement that influence consumer behaviour.

2.3.4 Logo

A logo is a graphic design or an emblem that symbolizes an organization may it be a company, business, school, etc. A logo is a distinguishing mark of any organization or company.  However, a logo is commonly used by commercial enterprises.  It is essential for any organization, especially commercial enterprises or businesses to come up with a unique, eye-catching, and attractive logo because this serves as their symbol, one that will always remind the public of what they are. The logo will become the business’ sole identity and it is what sets them apart from other businesses.

Before a logo can be created, a company must have already established its branding.  A logo cannot create a brand but a brand can create a logo.  A logo is just a visual representation of what your brand is, or what your product is.  Branding would create your image and reputation in the market thus influencing how the market perceives you.   A logo is just one way of managing the market’s perception of what kind of a business you are.

I believe that the logo is the cornerstone of the corporate image. That it builds a visual bridge between a company, its products and its service. If the design is unique and memorable it forms a concrete image in the consumers mind, setting the company apart from its competitors, yielding a separate and unique corporate identity (Rolf Ruiz, 1991).

2.4 Theoretical Framework

Independent Variables Dependent Variables

-Brand -Consumer behaviour

-Brand image

-Slogan

-Logo