Introduction:
Basically, consumer behavior is the study about the consumers
buying decisions about using and disposing the particular product and service
considering the emotions and behavioral responses, we want to see what factors
influence consumers and why they switch from one service to another. We also
want to see consumer responses to the exciting products and new products that
have been recently launched in terms of prices.
As we know there are many things that impact the consumer
behavior like brand image, quality of service, family and the friends, culture,
demographic and psychographic and many other factors but my purpose is just to
investigate the impact of prices on consumer behavior along with all these
factors.
Research question:
I am predicting the
price impact on the consumer behavior, I am doing this because I want to see,
are there any other factors along with the brand image, quality of service and
family & friends which influence the consumer buying behavior? According to the research conducted in the
Pakistan, people find the price to be the most important factor in the
purchasing decision, so people find themselves easy and comfortable in
switching from one service to another if service is not provided at the
reasonable price because of the high competition in the market. Hence it was
concluded that there is a positive relationship between price and the consumer
buying behavior and price is directly related with the consumer satisfaction.
Procedure:
This Sunday as I went on the shopping mall with my close
friend John without letting him to know that I was observing him. When we
entered the mall, there were the many different shops having the different and
new varieties of brands came in and we were really excited to see them. So when
we went at the first shop we asked the shopkeeper to show us some new brands
like T-shirts, formal shirts and formal shoes. By seeing all these brands my
friend liked many of them and he asked about prices of them, and the prices
that the shopkeeper tolled about the both T-shirts and formal dress, my friend’s
reaction to it was like that, “these are the really too high prices that you
are quoting and they are not the fair prices because I have bought these types
shirts before at much lower prices,” but shopkeeper was not lowering the prices
so my friend said let’s check it at another shop, and like this we changed four
shops and then finally he got the brands at the prices he wanted to buy.
While buying all these
things, one thing I noted about my friend and that is his behavior is really
affected by the prices, we just changed four shops because of not getting the
fair prices, so one thing I learned that our behavior is not just affected
because of the brands and the quality of services but also prices is one of the
major factors that influence our behavior and due to which we can switch from
one service to the another service.
Another thing that I noticed in my friends buying behavior
and that is he really had the good knowledge about the T-shirts in which he
dealt very well with the shopkeeper and was not so much involved in buying that
particular product may be because they were inexpensive or he was continuously
and repeatedly buying the t-shirts since a long time and he also knew a lot
about its prices so he didn’t took much time in that. But when it came to the
formal dressing and formal shoes he was really reluctant in buying that because
may be because they were too expensive or he do not regularly buy these formal
dresses, and he was investigating a lot about that and he was repeatedly asking
the shopkeeper to describe the good and bad about the formal dress particularly
the one he was buying, and he was also asking about reducing the price because
he really did not know the pricing of it so he was very much involved in buying
that formal dress and investigating about it.
Same thing I noted
here in the other buyers and that is many of the buyers were really concerned
about the prices and they were switching from one service to another due to
prices, furthermore, different buyers were buying the different products but
one thing was common in all the buyers, they were very much confident in
dealing with the shopkeepers and were less likely investigating about the products
that they were very much aware of and whose prices were low. They looked much
involved in buying the product that they were not aware of and which were
expensive because may be they were buying this product first time or they have
bought it few times.
Outcome:
I have found and observed in my marketing research that
prices matter a lot in the consumers buying decisions. As I mentioned Earlier,
when I observed my friend in the shopping mall, he changed the four shops just
because of not getting the fair price. So yes, this is true that consumers
switch just because of not getting the products at fair prices. Other thing
that I observed is consumers’ involvement is low with inexpensive products and
when they are already aware of the products, and vice versa is also true.
Conclusions and marketing
implications:
As I was investigating about the impact of the prices on the consumers, I found that prices have huge impact on consumers decisions making, and consumers can switch from one service to another because of not getting the considerably fair price. The implication of this result for marketers and the shopping mall that I was analyzing is that, they should reduce the dissonance buying behavior, like they should ensure customers that they are buying the good product at the fair prices with the attractive and reliable features and they can use many techniques for this like they can give guarantees and warrantees to the customers so that customer may feel that if product gets any defect he can return this product. Furthermore, marketers should not quote unfair prices to the customers, if there would be varying prices at different shops this can also switch customer from one service to another. Marketers can also change the attitudes and beliefs of the consumers regarding the prices, by telling them that they are buying the product with extra features and with guarantee and warrantees so they can use these types of technique.