Consumer purchase decision free essay sample

Influences such as cultural, social, psychological, and individual are factors that determine consumer purchase decision. Marketing managers should understand how consumers make purchasing decisions because it is a big help when deciding a marketing plan. Marketers can easily collect information about how consumers make decisions through technology. Knowing how products or services can impact is very important to consumers. Marketers must have effective advertising skills to grab consumers attention. â€Å"Consumers preferences are constantly changing†(Lamb, Hair, McDaniel 2013) and this is why it is important to fully understand the needs and wants of consumers. The consumer purchase decision is a series of stages a consumer goes through before considering purchasing a product. â€Å"Need recognition occurs when consumers are faced with an imbalance between actual and desired states that arouses and activates the consumer decision-making process. †(Lamb, Hair, McDaniel 2013) In the restaurant business, it is more of a want than a need for consumers therefore marketing managers must advertise and promote their product to the best of their abilities so that the consumer would really want to purchase their products. We will write a custom essay sample on Consumer purchase decision or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page â€Å"After Recognizing a need or want, consumers search for information about the various alternatives available to satisfy it. †(Lamb, Hair, McDaniel 2013) When it comes to restaurants you would mostly go by word of mouth about how the food products may taste, the quality, quantity and price of products. Consumers also may remember previous encounters with these products. For example, a friend came by your house to visit and brought food from a specific restaurant and by thinking about what you want to eat the thought about the food being good from that restaurant came to mind. Consumers will also consider other restaurants because of deals, quality, price or location. If a consumer feels that a restaurant that is further away from them has better quality than a restaurant that might be closer and more convenient, they may choose to go to the restaurant that is further away to ensure they get the best quality product. After purchasing a product, the consumer makes a decision on whether that product was worth purchasing, was the quality of the product expected, and was the price worth paying for that product and those factors will determine if a consumer will purchase products from that restaurant organization again. Many consumers may not realize this but, â€Å"what they eat, how they dress, what they think and feel, and what language they speak are all dimensions of culture. †(Lamb, Hair, McDaniel) is a major part of their culture You are introduced to a culture by the environment you are raised in. Marketers must understand how culture influences purchase decisions. A restaurant manager may want to open a restaurant in a small town that has a completely different foods from what the people of that small town eat. Some people may go and purchase from that restaurant and many others just will not eat from that restaurant because it is not what they are used to. To make it easier â€Å"consumers seek out opinions of others to reduce their search and evaluation effort or uncertainty, especially as the perceived risk of the decision increases. †(Lamb, Hair, McDaniel 2013)Word of mouth is one of the easiest ways to find out if a restaurants products is good or not. Some consumers like to research the restaurant online to read reviews about the restaurant or to review menu and prices before they make the decision to go there. Consumers also consider availability of restaurants, because if a restaurant does not have the specific availability that the consumer is looking for, they will consider a different restaurant. Some restaurants are seasonal because of certain products they sell that are difficult to get at a specific time of year and also because of the estimated size of a market for different seasons. This influences consumers decisions because some consumers may find restaurants that have the same products year round and decide to continue purchasing from there instead of only purchasing seasonal from that other restaurant. Some consumers may enjoy a restaurants product more than another but because the other restaurant may be cheaper than the restaurant with the better product, the consumer may settle for less. As some restaurants have websites about services and products, some may not. This may cause consumers to take different steps towards their purchase decision. The information research for a restaurant with no website can be a bit more difficult than a restaurant with a website because the consumers will now have to go by only word or trying the products for their self, whereas with the online site they could have read reviews and get rating on that restaurant. When evaluating different restaurants, consumers may look for restaurants with customers reviews and ratings and online menus and prices. Consumers will still make their decision by the restaurant that is more popular. For restaurant organizations, market segmentation is very important because different people have different wants or needs. Restaurants have to provide for specific markets with different cultures, races, genders, and ages. Sizing up your market is also very important so that you will be aware of the amount of consumers that will be purchasing products. Restaurants need to evaluate the areas that they will be in so that they can know what kind of food to sell. For instance, a restaurant around a high school, a skating rink, and shopping center, would more so sell quick meals such as burgers, sandwiches, fries, hot dog, etc. because they are more catering to a younger age group. A restaurant that is located more around a business plaza would be catering to an older age group and would sell cuisines rather than quick food. When targeting a market for restaurants, culture is one of the major considerations that has to be made. A restaurant cannot expect a different cultures food to interest a culture that already has their own culture. Within these cultures, there are people with different ethnicity that has different cultures. Paying attention to the environment a restaurant is going to be in is important so that marketers can provide appropriate products/services. You can target a younger generation by using social media. By understanding all of the consumers purchasing decisions, marketers will have an easier time deciding how to target a market and what product or service is right. Culture will definitely help a marketer decide how to take appropriate actions to satisfy their consumers need or wants. Recently, it has been much efficient for marketers to gather information through social media and different internet sources. As long as marketers keep up to date with consumers changing needs, they would always have a smoother time deciding their next product. Paying close attention to the different target marget in an environment is the key to consumer purchase decisions.