Analysis Of Consumer Behaviour When Purchasing Laptops

Impact of Personality on Consumer Behaviour

Discuss about the Dynamics and Environmental Implications of Destabilization.

The term consumer behaviour is referred to the decision making process of any individual, group of individual or an organization while purchasing, using, and disposing a certain product as well as availing a service. Consumer behaviour while making the decision for purchasing purpose is highly dependent on psychological, behavioural as well as emotional responses of the consumers. Researchers are working on accessing the degree to which emotions, preferences as well as attitudes affect the buying behaviour of the consumers and develop theories on the basis of the assessment (Gajjar, 2013). Studies related to consumer behaviour demonstrate that purchasing decision of the consumers are highly dependent on the demographic and personality characteristics along with other behavioral variables like consumer loyalty, brand advocacy, usage rates, usage occasion and the willingness to provide referrals to one’s friends as well as families. In this report, analysis of consumer behavior of 3 respondents when it comes to purchasing laptops from 5 laptop models of the same brand will be performed. The analysis will be conducted by using theories of consumer personality as well as theories associated with demographics of the consumers. Along with that, an appropriate recommendation for the marketer of the most chosen laptop options will be provided so that he or she can attract the consumers by applying theories discussed in the report.

The personality of the consumers highly regulates their decision making process while buying a certain product or availing a certain service. According to researchers, the personality of a potential buyer depends on his or her cultural and social background and psychological structure (Jiménez-Parra, Rubio & Vicente-Molina, 2014). All of these factors, in turn, impose an impact on the perception and choice of the consumers. The trait theory measures trait like self-confidence, consumer innovativeness, and consumer materialism and consumer ethnocentrism. Brand personality is a major factor that regulates consumer ethnocentrism. Consumers with the higher financial condition are more concerned about the brand image of the company. When it comes to the response of respondent 2, being a female user, she has preferred a lightweight laptop of a costlier range provided that her economic condition is stable. According to the Freudian Theory of consumer behavior, the behavior of consumers while making a decision of buying a product gets highly trigger by his unconscious mind (Lantos, 2015).

According to Freud, ID relate to the desires of human beings being triggered by the unconscious aspect of human mind (Farzana, 2012). This can be demonstrated by the choice of product made by respondent 2. Being a male user of age 19, the mentioned respondent has a high inclination towards video games. This desire of gaming has made him chose option 5, which has a commendable processor, Memory, hard drive, and video card features within a low price range. In spite of the fact that another laptop of a costlier range was also available in the provided option, the respondent has chosen the cheaper computer due to his lack of financial capacity. Another personality trait of the young respondent which can be detected from his response is his lack of experience. The respondent is least concerned about of the sturdiness, durability as well as of the laptop unlike respondent 2 who has a similar age range as respondent 1.

Response of 3 Respondents

When it comes to the response of the respondent 3, it has been noticed that being an elderly consumer he is highly inclined to buy the lithest consumer. The choice of the laptop is highly dependent on the psychological state of the consumers. Considering the fact that he has got weak due to is age, the most import criteria he has is to buy a highly lightweight laptop which will be easy to carry. Unlike respondent 2, respondent 5 being an elderly consumer has little or no interest in online and offline games. Hence he does not want his laptop to have high graphics or high-performance designing device. However, for browsing purpose as well as for entertainment, he wants his laptop to have a good processor and hard drive. The purpose of the computer is to fulfil more simple entertainment like listening musing, watching a movie or very stipulated amount of official file handling and internet use.

The decision-making process of the consumers is highly dependent on their demographical characteristics that include age, ethnicity, gender, role in the family as well as yearly income. According to the Freudian Model of consumer behaviour, consumers are motivated by both symbolic and economic-functional product concerns (Kopetz et al., 2012). For instance, when it comes to the advertisement of cake mix, importance is given to the minimization of labour and effort of the housewives since the target consumers, in this case, is the female population. While analyzing the choice of the laptop of Respondent 2 who is a female consumer of age 26, it was found that she has chosen option 4. While making a decision, she has given most importance to the weight, price, and warranty period of the laptop. Respondent 2, being a female consumer has preferred a lightweight laptop over a heavyweight one. This demonstrates the fact that sturdiness and durability of the product within a justified price range is what attract adult female users. Since the family income of respondent 2 is high, the choice of the laptop also falls in the costlier range.  The profession of the consumer also plays a major role in depicting consumer behaviour. Considering the fact that the mentioned respondent is a flight attendant, no directed linkage of her profession is there with the usage of the laptop. In this case, the laptop is most often used by the consumers for the purpose of browsing and entertainment purpose. Thus, the second highest priority is given to the processor as well as Memory, hard drive, and video card. Since the consumer belongs to the younger age range, the screen of the laptop is found to be the factor of least importance to the respondent. One of the chief reasons behind this is the lack of optical issues due to young age.

Role of Demographic Characteristics in Consumer Behaviour

When it comes to the response of respondent 1 who is a male consumer of age 19, it has been found that he has chosen option number 5 as his choice of the laptop. Unlike the previous respondent, respondent 1 has given most importance to the price of the laptop. This factor of decision-making process has a direct link with the family income of the respondent which is low. Moreover, considering the fact that the respondent is a student, he does not have enough financial support to invest in an expensive laptop. According to the Pavlovian learning model, the choice of product made by a consumer is highly dependent on his or her controlling power on both internal as well as the external environment (Spinney et al., 2012). Moreover, since the consumer is a male teenager, he is likely to have a high inclination towards both online as well as offline gaming purposes, browsing and for entertainment purposes. Thus, the second most important is given to the processor and memory, hard drive and video card by respondent 1. Being a male consumer of a younger age range, least importance is given to the weight of the laptop.

The last response to be analyzed in this report is the response of respondent 5, who is a male consumer of age 63. Like respondent 2, he has also chosen option 4 for purchasing purpose. However, the reasons behind his choices are different from that of the respondent 2. According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Model, the requirement of the consumers from a certain product or service are highly dependent on his personal requirements (Farzana, 2012). For instance, being an elderly individual, the first and foremost requirement of respondent 3 is the sturdiness and durability of the laptop. For this, the consumer has given the highest ranking to the warranty period of the laptop. Being a retired company director, the financial condition of the mentioned respondent is highly stable. As a result of this, the price is the least important factor to him. The second most important is given to the screen of the laptop. Being an aged consumer, it is the vision of the consumer which is most likely to be weaker than the other two respondents. Moreover, the weight of the laptop is scored as a major factor to be taken into concern. This is because, with age, the physical strength of the consumers gets reduced (Spinney et al., 2012). Hence elderly consumers like respondent 5 prefer lightweight laptops over those which are heavy.

Comparison of Demographic Characteristics and Choice of Laptops

The demographic characteristics and their link with the choice of laptops are compared in this paragraph. It is understood from the above discussion that there prevails a lot of differences between the choice of male and female consumers who fall under the similar age range. On the contrary several similar demographic characteristics have been encountered between the female and the elderly consumers (Hazen, Mollenkopf & Wang, 2017). While male consumers of a younger age are found to be more inclined towards the processor, memory, video card as well as hard drive of the laptop for gaming purposes, female, as well as elderly consumers, are chiefly concerned with the weight of the laptop. When it comes to price, both female and male young users are concerned about the price range of the computer.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the decision making procedure of the consumers is highly dependent on the demographic characteristics as well as the personality of the consumers. Consumer behaviour has found to be highly dependent on demographical factors like age, income, ethnicity, gender or family situation of an individual. Along with that, emotional stage, psychological stage, lifestyle, perception as well as social values are also some of the major regulating factor associated with the psychology also determines the decision of the respondents while purchasing the laptops (Jiménez-Parra, Rubio & Vicente-Molina, 2014). However, it can be understood from the above discussion that personality and demographic factor affects the purchasing decision of the consumers from 2 different aspects. Hence, in order to enhance the consumer base and brand equity of their products, laptop marketers must modify their products keeping accordance to the specific requirements of the consumers (Cummins et al., 2014). This will not only help the consumers to enhance consumer loyalty but will also enhance the overall revenue of the laptop marketing companies.

In order to attract the target consumers, it is highly crucial to access their decision-making process and develop strategies in order to satisfy their specific requirement. Considering the fact that among the 3 respondents only one respondent has chosen option 5 as the laptop to be purchased, in the following paragraphs recommendation in help the marketer of laptop option 4 which is the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming, to attract consumer by assessing their demographic as well as psychological characteristics has been provided below:

Considering the fact that the target consumer of any laptop is the consumers with an age range of 16 years to 60 years, marketers need to focus on enhancing the durability of the laptop. Considering the fact that in this era of modernization several female users are keen on playing online as well as offline video gaming, the market of the mentioned laptop will be able to attract the female consumers along with the male consumer ID they enhance the warranty of the laptop (Solomon et al., 2014). From the above discussion can be understood that warranty period is one of the major concern of both the female as well as elderly laptop users. Thus enhancement of warrant period will not only attract the female consumers but will also attract elderly laptop users who like to play online video games.

Conclusion

Secondly, in order to enhance the consumer base of the mentioned laptop, the marketer should implement strategies to reduce the weight of the consumers. The weight of the mentioned laptop is as high as 2.65 kgs which is very inconvenient for everyday purposes. In this era of modernization, the majority of the consumers prefers lightweight laptops since they are easily portable and can be used for both officials as well as unofficial purposes (Hazen, Mollenkopf & Wang, 2017). Thus it can be understood that a majority of the consumers are abstaining from buying the specific laptop due to the above-mentioned reason.

Thirdly, when compared to the price of other laptops available in the global market, the price at which the market is offering the laptop is highly inconvenient. For instance, in one hand, at a price of only 349 dollars, other marketers are offering the consumers with Dell Inspiron 11 3000 2-in-1, which though lacks the quality of the processor, the Memory, hard drive, and video card of the mentioned laptop, is much better with respect to weight, price range and warranty (Solomon, Russell-Bennett & Previte, 2012). Hence in order to gain competitive advantage, the company needs to lower its piece range so that the laptop become attractive to both females, elderly as well as office gong laptop users along with the young game loving teenager group of consumers.

As suggested by the name of the laptop, the current target market for the laptop is the consumers who love playing computer games both online as well as offline. However, considering the fact majority of the game loving consumers are teenagers and is dependent on the family while making the decision for laptops, the marketer should expand its target market by modifying the features of the laptop (Schütte & Ciarlante, 2016). Along with the features provided in the laptop, other features that need to be included by the marketer are lightweight, high durability and lower price range of Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming.

Reference List:

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Spinney, J., Burningham, K., Cooper, G., Green, N., & Uzzell, D. (2012). ‘What I’ve found is that your related experiences tend to make you dissatisfied’: Psychological obsolescence, consumer demand and the dynamics and environmental implications of destabilization in the laptop sector. Journal of Consumer Culture, 12(3), 347-370.