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| Key Factors Affecting Consumer Decisions |
| By: Miraye Nicolas and Amanda Abboud |
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Consumers make decisions that affect the quality of our lives. Some of these decisions are commercial while others relate to our physical wellbeing, relationships with our family and friends, our values and beliefs and our social life.
A consumer is someone who purchases goods and services. The consumption of goods and services has important impacts on the quality of people's lives. Some of these goods are essential for our survival and are known as needs. They include food, water, shelter and clothing. Luxury goods and services are known as wants. Wants may not be essential for our survival but they do provide us with a level of satisfaction and help to support the lifestyle or standard of living that we are used to.
Wants can be grouped according to whether they are purchased to satisfy the personal desires of individuals, these are known as personal wants, or the needs of a society as a whole , recognised as collective wants. Collective wants include: a police force, roads, public transport, hospitals and schools.
On a day-to-day basis, consumers make a range of decisions when purchasing goods and services. A good is an item that is tangible (that can be seen or touched).The types of goods purchased are either durable or non-durable goods. A good that has a long lifespan and doesn't need to be replaced frequently is known as a durable good, such as a fridge or a car, whereas, non-durable goods are purchased frequently and have a short lifespan, such as pens and food.
Services are intangible goods that are provided to consumers by individuals or firms. Some services include education and getting a hair cut.
The key factors that affect consumer decisions include: finance, price, marketing, age and gender, environmental concerns, service and convenience, warranties and after-sales services, advertising, advice, fashion, friends, quality, poduct features and reputation of the service provider.
These factors will be explained in depth in this website |
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Factors that influence consumer choice |
The factors that influence consumer choices are: finance, price, marketing, age and gender, environmental concerns, service and convenience, warranties, before and after sales service, advertising , fashion, friends, quality, product features, culture and reputation of service provider.
Finance: Consumers require access to funds in order to purchase goods and services.
Price: The amount of money you are willing to spend and the product's price are two of the most important factors affecting your decision as a consumer.
Marketing: Retailers and manufacturers use the five p's of marketing ( price, position ,product, promotion and place) to influence the buying behaviour of consumers.
Age and Gender: Most consumers realise that their wants change as they get older and girls and boys decide to purchase products for their gender.
EnvironmentalConcerns: Consumers have become increasingly aware of the environmental issues and have taken these into account when choosing goods and services to purchase.
Service and Convenience: Service and convenience have become increasingly important to consumers as their lives have become busier and the value of their free time has increased.
Warranties,Before and After sales: A warranty is an agreement that outlines the conditions under which a consumer is entitled to have either repaired or replaced.
Advertising: People are being bombarded with millions of advertisements and product suggestions everyday.
Fashion: As the styles in the fashion industry begin to differ, people then begin to invest their money in newer styles.
Friends: Peer influences affect individuals throughout their lifetime.This causes people to conform to other people's standards.
Quality: This mainly involves the purchase of popular brand names.
Product features: People are attempting to purchase products that aren't throw-away items and products that meet their standards.
Reputation of service provider: People try to purchase products from services from which they have heard posittive feedback.
Culture: Culture is one of the many factors that influences consumer behaviour during purchases. Simply culture is defined as our attitudes and beliefs.
To view more information on these topics click on the links button or here.
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With so much choice in the marketplace it can often be difficult to decide which good or service to buy. Impulse buying is where you purchase a good or service on the spur of the moment and later discover that you cannot afford the product or didn't really need it. You can avoid the trap of impluse buying by considering the following questions:
What exactly are my needs?
Can I afford this?
Have I compared prices?
Does the product come with a garantee or a warranty?
What are the features of the product and will it do what i want it to do?
How safe and reliable is this product?
These are explained in depthin the following link.
Click here. |
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Buying Locally, Regionally, Intersate or from another Country |
Another important choice that consumers need to make is whether to purchase locally manufactured or imported goods (goods produced overseas). The price and quality of a good along with the service provided (including warranties and after-sales advice) can act as a guide when making these decisions. When we purchase imported goods there is a flow of money out of the country to pay for them. This is not a problem unless we,as a nation, spend more on imported goods than we earn, exports (goods we sell to other countries). If this continues for a long time it increases our foreign debt. Improvements in communications techenology as well as road,rail and air transport have also made it easier for consumers to purchase products regionally or interstate. |
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| Page Updated Sun Mar 13, 2005 9:31pm EST |
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