Which Of The Following Product Or Service Is An Example Of A Low-involvement Purchase?

3.2 Depression-Involvement Versus High-Interest Buying Decisions and the Consumer's Determination-Making Process

Learning Objectives

1. Distinguish between low-involvement and high-interest ownership decisions.
2. Understand what the stages of the buying procedure are and what happens in each stage.

Equally you lot take seen, many factors influence a consumer'southward beliefs. Depending on a consumer'south experience and noesis, some consumers may be able to make quick purchase decisions and other consumers may need to get data and be more involved in the conclusion procedure before making a purchase. The level of involvement reflects how personally important or interested y'all are in consuming a product and how much information you demand to make a decision. The level of interest in buying decisions may exist considered a continuum from decisions that are fairly routine (consumers are not very involved) to decisions that require extensive thought and a high level of involvement. Whether a decision is depression, high, or limited, involvement varies by consumer, not past product, although some products such as purchasing a business firm typically crave a high-involvement for all consumers. Consumers with no experience purchasing a production may accept more involvement than someone who is replacing a product.

You have probably idea about many products you desire or need only never did much more than that. At other times, you've probably looked at dozens of products, compared them, and then decided not to purchase whatsoever one of them. When you run out of products such equally milk or staff of life that you buy on a regular basis, you may purchase the production as before long equally yous recognize the demand considering you do not demand to search for information or evaluate alternatives. As Nike would put it, you "just do it." Low-involvement decisions are, however, typically products that are relatively inexpensive and pose a low hazard to the heir-apparent if she makes a mistake by purchasing them.

Consumers oftentimes engage in routine response behavior when they make low-interest decisions—that is, they brand automated purchase decisions based on express information or data they have gathered in the past. For example, if yous e'er club a Nutrition Coke at lunch, you're engaging in routine response behavior. Yous may not even think about other drink options at lunch because your routine is to order a Nutrition Coke, and you simply exercise it. Similarly, if y'all run out of Nutrition Coke at abode, yous may buy more than without any information search.

Some depression-interest purchases are made with no planning or previous thought. These buying decisions are called impulse buying. While you're waiting to check out at the grocery store, possibly you see a mag with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on the embrace and buy it on the spot simply because you want it. You might meet a scroll of tape at a check-out stand up and remember you need one or you might see a bag of fries and realize you're hungry or just desire them. These are items that are typically depression-involvement decisions. Depression-interest decisions aren't necessarily products purchased on impulse, although they can be.

By contrast, high-involvement decisions bear a higher risk to buyers if they fail, are circuitous, and/or have high price tags. A automobile, a firm, and an insurance policy are examples. These items are not purchased often but are relevant and important to the buyer. Buyers don't engage in routine response behavior when purchasing high-involvement products. Instead, consumers appoint in what'south called extended problem solving, where they spend a lot of time comparing different aspects such as the features of the products, prices, and warranties.

Loftier-involvement decisions can crusade buyers a great bargain of postpurchase dissonance (anxiety) if they are unsure nigh their purchases or if they had a difficult time deciding between 2 alternatives. Companies that sell high-interest products are enlightened that postpurchase racket can be a trouble. Oft, they try to offer consumers a lot of information about their products, including why they are superior to competing brands and how they won't let the consumer down. Salespeople may exist utilized to reply questions and do a lot of customer "manus-belongings."

Figure 3.8

Allstate'south "You're in Good Hands" advertisements are designed to convince consumers that the insurance visitor won't let them down.

Express problem solving falls somewhere between depression-involvement (routine) and high-involvement (extended problem solving) decisions. Consumers engage in limited problem solving when they already have some information about a good or service but continue to search for a piffling more information. Assume you need a new backpack for a hiking trip. While yous are familiar with backpacks, you know that new features and materials are available since you purchased your terminal backpack. Y'all're going to spend some fourth dimension looking for one that's decent because you don't want it to fall apart while y'all're traveling and dump everything you've packed on a hiking trail. You might do a picayune research online and come to a determination relatively quickly. You might consider the choices bachelor at your favorite retail outlet but not look at every haversack at every outlet before making a conclusion. Or you might rely on the advice of a person you know who'due south knowledgeable about backpacks. In some manner you shorten or limit your involvement and the decision-making process.

Products, such as chewing mucilage, which may exist depression-involvement for many consumers often employ advertising such equally commercials and sales promotions such as coupons to reach many consumers at once. Companies also try to sell products such equally glue in as many locations as possible. Many products that are typically high-involvement such as automobiles may apply more personal selling to answer consumers' questions. Brand names can too be very important regardless of the consumer'south level of purchasing interest. Consider a low- versus high-involvement decision—say, purchasing a tube of toothpaste versus a new machine. You might routinely buy your favorite brand of toothpaste, non thinking much about the purchase (appoint in routine response behavior), but not be willing to switch to another brand either. Having a brand you like saves you lot "search fourth dimension" and eliminates the evaluation period because you know what you lot're getting.

When it comes to the machine, you might engage in all-encompassing problem solving merely, again, merely be willing to consider a sure make or brands. For case, in the 1970s, American-made cars had such a poor reputation for quality that buyers joked that a car that's "not Jap [Japanese made] is crap." The quality of American cars is very good today, but you lot go the picture. If it'southward a high-involvement product y'all're purchasing, a proficient brand name is probably going to exist very important to you. That's why the manufacturers of products that are typically high-interest decisions can't become complacent about the value of their brands.

Video Clip

1970s American Cars

(click to see video)

Today, Lexus is the automotive brand that experiences the most customer loyalty. For a humorous, tongue-in-cheek look at why the brand reputation of American carmakers suffered in the 1970s, check out this clip.

Stages in the Buying Process

Figure 3.nine "Stages in the Consumer's Purchasing Procedure" outlines the buying stages consumers go through. At whatsoever given time, you're probably in a buying stage for a production or service. Yous're thinking about the different types of things you lot desire or need to eventually purchase, how you are going to find the best ones at the all-time price, and where and how will you buy them. Meanwhile, there are other products y'all take already purchased that yous're evaluating. Some might be meliorate than others. Will you lot discard them, and if so, how? So what will you buy? Where does that process start?

Figure iii.9 Stages in the Consumer's Purchasing Process

Stage ane. Need Recognition

Yous program to backpack around the state after yous graduate and don't have a particularly skillful backpack. You realize that you lot must get a new backpack. Y'all may besides exist thinking about the task y'all've accustomed later on graduation and know that you must get a vehicle to commute. Recognizing a demand may involve something as simple equally running out of bread or milk or realizing that you must become a new haversack or a car after you lot graduate. Marketers try to evidence consumers how their products and services add value and aid satisfy needs and wants. Do you remember it's a coincidence that Gatorade, Powerade, and other beverage makers locate their machines in gymnasiums so you come across them later a long, tiring workout? Previews at movie theaters are some other example. How many times have you have heard about a flick and had no interest in information technology—until you saw the preview? Later on, yous felt like y'all had to see it.

Stage 2. Search for Information

For products such as milk and bread, y'all may simply recognize the need, become to the store, and buy more. However, if you lot are purchasing a car for the first fourth dimension or need a particular blazon of backpack, you may need to get information on unlike alternatives. Possibly you take owned several backpacks and know what you like and don't like most them. Or there might exist a particular brand that you lot've purchased in the past that you liked and want to buy in the future. This is a great position for the company that owns the brand to be in—something firms strive for. Why? Considering it oftentimes means you will limit your search and just buy their make once more.

If what you already know near backpacks doesn't provide you lot with enough information, you'll probably continue to gather information from various sources. Frequently people ask friends, family unit, and neighbors about their experiences with products. Magazines such every bit Consumer Reports (considered an objective source of information on many consumer products) or Backpacker Mag might also help y'all. Like information sources are bachelor for learning nigh dissimilar makes and models of cars.

Internet shopping sites such equally Amazon.com have become a mutual source of information about products. Epinions.com is an example of consumer-generated review site. The site offers product ratings, buying tips, and price information. Amazon.com likewise offers production reviews written by consumers. People prefer "independent" sources such as this when they are looking for production data. Nevertheless, they also oftentimes consult non-neutral sources of information, such advertisements, brochures, company Web sites, and salespeople.

Stage three. Product Evaluation

Obviously, there are hundreds of different backpacks and cars available. It's not possible for you to examine all of them. In fact, good salespeople and marketing professionals know that providing yous with too many choices can be and then overwhelming that you might not purchase anything at all. Consequently, y'all may use choice heuristics or rules of thumb that provide mental shortcuts in the decision-making procedure. You lot may likewise develop evaluative criteria to help you narrow down your choices. Backpacks or cars that run into your initial criteria earlier the consideration will make up one's mind the set of brands you'll consider for purchase.

Evaluative criteria are sure characteristics that are important to you such as the price of the backpack, the size, the number of compartments, and colour. Some of these characteristics are more of import than others. For example, the size of the backpack and the toll might exist more important to you than the color—unless, say, the color is hot pinkish and you lot hate pink. You must decide what criteria are most important and how well unlike alternatives see the criteria.

Figure iii.10

Osprey backpacks are known for their immovability. The company has a special design and quality control center, and Osprey'south salespeople annually take a "canyon testing" trip to run across how well the company'southward products perform.

melanie innis – suspension – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Companies want to convince you that the evaluative criteria you are considering reverberate the strengths of their products. For example, yous might non have thought about the weight or durability of the backpack y'all want to buy. Nonetheless, a haversack manufacturer such every bit Osprey might remind you through magazine ads, packaging information, and its Web site that you should pay attention to these features—features that happen to be key selling points of its backpacks. Machine manufacturers may accept similar models, so don't be afraid to add criteria to help you evaluate cars in your consideration gear up.

Stage 4. Product Choice and Buy

With low-involvement purchases, consumers may go from recognizing a need to purchasing the product. However, for backpacks and cars, you decide which one to purchase after you lot accept evaluated unlike alternatives. In addition to which backpack or which car, you lot are probably besides making other decisions at this stage, including where and how to purchase the haversack (or car) and on what terms. Maybe the haversack was cheaper at one store than another, but the salesperson there was rude. Or maybe you determine to order online considering you're too busy to go to the mall. Other decisions related to the purchase, peculiarly those related to large-ticket items, are made at this betoken. For example, if you're buying a loftier-definition goggle box, yous might look for a store that will offer you credit or a warranty.

Stage v. Postpurchase Use and Evaluation

At this betoken in the process you decide whether the backpack you purchased is everything information technology was cracked upwardly to be. Hopefully it is. If information technology'southward not, you're probable to suffer what's chosen postpurchase dissonance. You might call it buyer'south remorse. Typically, dissonance occurs when a production or service does not meet your expectations. Consumers are more probable to experience noise with products that are relatively expensive and that are purchased infrequently.

You want to feel good about your purchase, simply you don't. You begin to wonder whether yous should have waited to go a amend cost, purchased something else, or gathered more information commencement. Consumers normally feel this mode, which is a problem for sellers. If you don't feel practiced most what you've purchased from them, you might return the item and never buy anything from them again. Or, worse yet, yous might tell everyone you know how bad the product was.

Companies do various things to try to forbid buyer'south remorse. For smaller items, they might offer a money dorsum guarantee or they might encourage their salespeople to tell you what a great purchase you made. How many times have you heard a salesperson say, "That outfit looks so great on yous!" For larger items, companies might offer a warranty, along with instruction booklets, and a toll-free troubleshooting line to call or they might have a salesperson call yous to see if yous need help with product. Automobile companies may offer loaner cars when you bring your car in for service.

Companies may besides try to gear up expectations in order to satisfy customers. Service companies such as restaurants do this oft. Think about when the hostess tells yous that your table will be ready in xxx minutes. If they seat you in 15 minutes, you are much happier than if they told y'all that your table would be fix in 15 minutes, just it took 30 minutes to seat you. Similarly, if a shop tells you lot that your pants will be altered in a week and they are ready in three days, y'all'll be much more satisfied than if they said your pants would be prepare in three days, yet it took a calendar week before they were ready.

Stage 6. Disposal of the Product

There was a time when neither manufacturers nor consumers thought much almost how products got disposed of, so long as people bought them. But that'south changed. How products are being disposed of is becoming extremely important to consumers and social club in general. Computers and batteries, which leech chemicals into landfills, are a huge trouble. Consumers don't desire to degrade the environment if they don't have to, and companies are becoming more aware of this fact.

Accept for example Crystal Calorie-free, a h2o-based drink that'due south sold in grocery stores. You tin purchase information technology in a bottle. However, many people buy a concentrated grade of information technology, put it in reusable pitchers or bottles, and add water. That way, they don't have to buy and dispose of plastic canteen after plastic bottle, damaging the surroundings in the process. Windex has done something similar with its window cleaner. Instead of buying new bottles of it all the fourth dimension, you tin purchase a concentrate and add water. Yous have probably noticed that about grocery stores now sell cloth bags consumers tin can reuse instead of continually using and discarding of new plastic or paper bags.

Effigy 3.xi

The hike upward to Mount Everest used to be pristine. Now it looks more than like this. Who'due south responsible? Are consumers or companies responsible, or both?

Other companies are less concerned nigh conservation than they are about planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is a deliberate effort by companies to make their products obsolete, or unusable, later on a period of fourth dimension. The goal is to improve a company's sales by reducing the amount of fourth dimension betwixt the repeat purchases consumers make of products. When a software developer introduces a new version of production, it is usually designed to exist incompatible with older versions of information technology. For example, not all the formatting features are the same in Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. Sometimes documents do non interpret properly when opened in the newer version. Consequently, you will exist more than inclined to upgrade to the new version and so you tin can open all Word documents you receive.

Products that are disposable are another way in which firms have managed to reduce the amount of fourth dimension between purchases. Disposable lighters are an instance. Do you know anyone today that owns a nondisposable lighter? Believe it or not, prior to the 1960s, scarcely anyone could have imagined using a cheap dispensable lighter. There are many more dispensable products today than there were in years past—including everything from bottled water and individually wrapped snacks to single-use eye drops and cell phones.

Figure three.12

Disposable lighters came into vogue in the United states of america in the 1960s. Y'all probably don't own a absurd, nondisposable lighter like one of these, but you don't have to bother refilling it with lighter fluid either.

Primal Takeaways

Consumer behavior looks at the many reasons why people purchase things and later on dispose of them. Consumers go through distinct buying phases when they buy products: (1) realizing the need or wanting something, (ii) searching for information nigh the particular, (3) evaluating different products, (4) choosing a product and purchasing information technology, (five) using and evaluating the product later the buy, and (vi) disposing of the product. A consumer'southward level of involvement is how interested he or she is in ownership and consuming a product. Depression-involvement products are commonly inexpensive and pose a low risk to the buyer if he or she makes a mistake by purchasing them. Loftier-involvement products conduct a high chance to the buyer if they fail, are complex, or have high price tags. Limited-interest products autumn somewhere in betwixt.

Review Questions

1. How do low-involvement decisions differ from high-interest decisions in terms of relevance, price, frequency, and the risks their buyers face? Name some products in each category that you've recently purchased.
2. What stages do people go through in the buying process for high-involvement decisions? How do the stages vary for low-involvement decisions?
3. What is postpurchase dissonance and what can companies do to reduce it?

Which Of The Following Product Or Service Is An Example Of A Low-involvement Purchase?,

Source: https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmarketing/chapter/3-2-low-involvement-versus-high-involvement-buying-decisions-and-the-consumers-decision-making-process/

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