JAMIA HAMDARD UNIVERSITY

NEW DELHI

COURSE: MBA – GENERAL

SUBJECT: MARKETING MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT: CUSTOMER BUYING BEHAVIOR

Submitted By: Submitted To:

Mr. John J. Kundi Prof. Shahnawaz Abdin

Mr. Faisal Khan Department of management
Mr. Mousin Mahir

Section – A,
1st Semester.
Date: 16th September, 2008
 CONTENTS:

Executive Summary…………………………………………........ 3

Introduction ……………………………………………………… 4

PART 1

Consumer Buying Behavior In Brief …………………………… 6

Consumer Buying Process ………………………………………. 8

PART 2

Case Study ……………………………………………………….. 12

References ……………………………………………………….. 17

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This assignment is concerned about Consumer behavior and Consumer Buying

Process. Throughout the assignment the following points are going to be discussed.

1. The Consumer buying behavior in general with examples.

2. The Consumer buying process with aid of examples.
3. A case study to ascertain the customer purchase decision process and post-
purchase satisfaction / dissatisfaction with a mobile communication service
provider in Delhi / NCR

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 INTRODUCTION

Before business can develop marketing strategies, they must understand what
factors influence buyers behavior and how they make purchase decisions to satisfy their
needs and wants. Buyers are moved by a complex set of deep and subtle emotions. Their
behavior result from deeply held values and attitudes; their perception of the world and
their place in it, from common sense, impulse or just plain whimsy.

There are also several stages through which the consumer exhibit before deciding
to purchase goods or services. These includes 5 steps which are: problem or need
recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase and post-purchase
evaluation.

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PART ONE.

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 CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR

Definition:

Consumer behavior refers to the mental and emotional process and the observable
behavior of consumers during searching, purchasing and post consumption of a product
or service.

Consumer behavior involves study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and
why they buy. It blends the elements from psychology, sociology, sociopsychology,
anthropology and economics. It also tries to assess the influence on the consumer from
groups such as family, friends, reference groups and society in general.

Buyer behavior has two aspects: the final purchase activity visible to any observer and
the detailed or short decision process that may involve the interplay of a number of
complex variables not visible to anyone.

Factors Affecting Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumer buying behavior is influenced by the major three factors:

1. Social Factors
2. Psychological Factors
3. Personal Factors.

A. Social Factors

Social factors refer to forces that other people exert and which affect consumers’
purchase behavior. These social factors can include culture and subculture, roles and
family, social class and reference groups.

Example:
By taking into consideration Reference group, these can influence/ affect the
consumer buying behavior. Reference group refers to a group with whom an
individual identifies herself/ himself and the extent to which that person assumes
many values, attitudes or behavior of group members. Reference groups can be
family, school or college, work group, club membership, citizenship etc.
Reference groups serve as one of the primary agents of consumer
socialization and learning and can be influential enough to induce not only socially
acceptable consumer behavior but also socially unacceptable and even personal

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destructive behavior. For example, if fresher student joins a college / university,
he/she will meet different people and form a group, in that group there can be
behavior patterns of values, for example style of clothing, handsets which most of
group member prefer or even destructive behavior such as excessive consumption of
alcohol, use of harmful and addictive drugs etc. So, according to how an individual
references him / herself to that particular reference group, this will influence and
change his/her buying behavior.

B. Psychological Factors

These are internal to an individual and generate forces within that influence
her/his purchase behavior. The major forces include motives, perception, learning,
attitude and personality.

Example:
Attitude, is an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual
and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of our environment.
Consumer form attitude towards a brand on the basis of their beliefs about the
brand. For example, consumers of Sony products might have the belief that the
products offered by Sony are durable; this will influence those customers to buy
Sony products due to this attitude towards the brand.

C. Personal Factors

These include those aspects that are unique to a person and influence purchase
behavior. These factors include demographic factors, lifestyle, and situational
factors.

Example:
Lifestyle is an indicator of how people live and express themselves on the
basis of their activities, interests, and opinions. Lifestyle dimension provide a
broader view of people about how they spend their time the importance of things
in their surroundings and their beliefs on broad issues associated with life and
living and themselves. This is influenced by demographic factors and personality.

E.g. A CEO or Manager is likely to buy more formal clothes, ties and
shoes or PDAs and less informal clothes like jeans as compared to a Mechanic or
Civil engineer. So according to their lifestyle and profession, the buying behavior
of people differ from one another.

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 CONSUMER BUYING DECISION PROCESS

Definition:
Consumer buying decision process is the processes undertaken by consumer in regard to
a potential market transaction before, during and after the purchase of a product or
service.

Consumer decision making process generally involves five stages:

Problem Information Alternative Purchase Postpurchase

Recognition Search Evaluation Action Actions

Problem Recognition
Purchase decision making process begins when a buyer becomes aware of an unsatisfied
need or problem. This is the vital stage in buying decision process, because without
recognizing the need or want, an individual would not seek to buy goods or service.

There are several situations that can cause problem recognition, these include:
• Depletion of stock
• Dissatisfaction with goods in stock
• Environmental Changes
• Change in Financial Situation
• Marketer Initiated Activities

Example:

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 Its when a person recognizes that she can not make a call from her mobile phone
that’s when she recognizes that her phone has been damaged i.e. the phone has hardware
problems and needs to be repaired or buying a new piece.
Information Search
After the consumer has recognized the need, he / she will trying to find the means to
solve that need. First he will recall how he used to solve such kind of a problem in the
past, this is called nominal decision making. Secondly, a consumer will try to solve the
problem by asking a friend or goes to the market to seek advice for which product will
best serve his need, this is called limited decision making.
Sources of information include:
• Personal sources
• Commercial Sources
• Public sources
• Personal experience

Example: (continuing from previous…)

The user of the phone after recognizing that her phone is damaged, she will
eventually try to find out how she can repair her phone. If she cannot repair it herself she
will ask a friend to help out, if the friend can not solve the problem she will go to mobile
repair shop, if they also can not repair it then she will try to find which mobile phone is
good and that can serve her need. In this process of information collection it will yield
awareness of set of brands of mobile phones she can buy.

Alternatives evaluation
Consumers’ evaluates criteria refer to various dimension; features, characteristics and
benefits that a consumer desires to solve a certain problem. Product features and its
benefit is what influence consumer to prefer that particular product. The consumer will
decide which product to buy from a set of alternative products depending on each unique
feature that the product offers and the benefit he / she can get out of that feature.
Example: (continuing from previous…)

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 When that user got enough information concerning the different brands of mobile
phones available in the market, she will decide which kind of a mobile phone and brand
she’s going to buy depending upon her need for that particular mobile, either a mobile for
multimedia and entertainment, smartphone or classic phone.
Purchase Action
This stage involves selection of brand and the retail outlet to purchase such a product.
Retail outlet image and its location are important. Consumer usually prefers a nearby
retail outlet for minor shopping and they can willingly go to a far away store when they
purchase items which are of higher values and which involve higher sensitive purchase
decision. After selecting where to buy and what to buy, the consumer completes the final
step of transaction by either cash or credit.

Example: (continuing from previous…)

After selecting brand of the phone and model from different alternatives of mobile
phones, she will make a final decision of where to buying that phone and make the final
transaction procedures.

Post-purchase Actions
Consumer favorable post-purchase evaluation leads to satisfaction. Satisfaction with the
purchase is basically a function of the initial performance level expectation and perceived
performance relative to those expectations. Consumer tends to evaluate their wisdom on
the purchase of that particular product. This can result to consumer experiencing post
purchase dissatisfaction. If the consumer’s perceived performance level is below
expectation and fail to meet satisfaction this will eventually cause dissatisfaction, and so
the brand and/ or the outlet will not be considered by the consumer in the future
purchases. This might cause the consumer to initiate complaint behavior and spread
negative word-of-mouth concerning that particular product.

Example: (continuing from previous…)

If she decided to buy a multimedia phone she will try to compare the quality of
music it provides and pictures taken if they meet her expectations. If she will find that her

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expectation are meet she will be satisfied, if she found that there are more additional
features that she did not expect this mobile phone to have, she will be delighted,
otherwise she will be dissatisfied.

PART TWO

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 CASE STUDY
Introduction:
The this research we are going to ascertain the customers decision process and post
purchase satisfaction / dissatisfaction with a mobile communication service provider in
Delhi, especially students from Jamia Hamdard University.

How the Research Was Conducted:

In this research we used the method of Questionnaire and Interviewing. Questionnaire
papers were given and filled by the student, and some of the students were interviewed to
clarify some of the issues.

The sample format of the questionnaire is as follows:

JAMIA HAMDARD
Name:
Age:
Designation:
Address:

1. Which Mobile Connection are you using these days?

Airtel Vodafone Idea Tata Reliance Others
2. Since how long are you using this connection?
Less than 3 months
Less than 6 months
Less than 12 months (1 year)
More than 12 months(1 year)
3. Are you Satisfied with the connection you are using?

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 Yes No Can’t say

4. If yes then which feature of the service of your service provider makes you feel
Comfortable?
Lower call rates
Good connectivity
New offers and special tariff plans
Good customer service
All of the above
5. If no then which feature of the service of your service provider makes your feel
dissatisfied?
High call rates
Bad connectivity
No good offers
Bad customer service
All of the above
6. had you used any connection before started using this connection?
Yes No
7. If yes which among the two you find much better?
Existing Connection Previous Connection
8. In general, Rate the satisfaction level of your existing connection
Dissatisfying Satisfying very satisfying
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
9. what feature or services would you like to be changed or improved in the near
future?
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
10. Do you want to give any suggestion to your network provider. If yes, what are
your suggestions?
…………………………………………………………………………………..

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 …………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………..
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS:

The following data was collected during the survey process:

1. Provider – population table:
This table shows the number of customers in each mobile communication
provider.
PROVIDER-POPULATION
TABLE

Provider Frequency
AIRTEL 10
IDEA 14
RELIANCE 3
TATA 2
VODAFONE 5
OTHERS 1

Proder-Population Chart

OTHERS
VODAFONE 3%
14% AIRTEL
29%
TATA
6%

RELIANCE
9% AIRTEL
IDEA

IDEA RELIANCE
39% TATA
VODAFONE
OTHERS

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 2. Customer Satisfaction level table:
This table shows the level of satisfaction of customer in each mobile
communication provider (i.e. 1-highly dissatisfied increasing as 10 –highly satisfied )

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION LEVEL

Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
AIRTEL 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 4 2 0
IDEA 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 8 2
RELIANCE 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
TATA 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
VODAFONE 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 0

Customer Satisfaction Level

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8
No. Of Customers

7
6
5
4
3
2
AIRTEL
1
IDEA
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 RELIANCE
TATA
Satisfaction Level
VODAFONE

So, as shown in the graphs, high number of customers are generally satisfied with the
general operation of each mobile communication provider.

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3. Suggestions on Improvement or changes:
SUGGESTION FROM CUSTOMERS TO PROVIDERS
PROVIDER SUGGESTIONS
AIRTEL 1. STD calls at rs. 1/ min
2. free local messages
3. hide networking areas
4. free internet
5. e-mail and voice messaging
6. improvement in connectivity
IDEA 1. Improve connectivity
2. improve customer care
3. special schemes for students
4. reduce monthly rental of hello tune
5. reduce STD call rates
6. Free roaming
TATA 1. better handsets
RELIANCE 1. Improve network connectivity
2. low call rates for other service providers
3. increase availability of tariff , recharge and SMS offer
VODAFONE 1. improve customer care and connectivity
2. Lower call rates, special tariff for students
3. Free talk time for night users.

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 REFERENCES

Marketing Management Text And Cases, S H H Kazmi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_behaviour
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyer_decision_processes

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