Pre-Purchase Information Search Process and Sources for Purchasing a New Refrigerator for Family Use in Non-Metro Towns

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

PROJECT REPORT

Pre-purchase information search process and sources for Purchasing a new Refrigerator for family use in non-metro towns

Term-4

Group-7

PGPM 2017-18

Submitted by:

B. Vishnu Karthik                P172A011

Clavell Chris Santiago        P172A013

Ishita Dhar                        P172A015

Shibananda Mishra        P172A047

Vivek Agarwal                P172A059

Biswadeep Paul                P172B010

Prakhar Srivastava                P172B025

Pravish Sekar N                P172B028

Table of Contents

1.        Executive summary:        3

2.        Survey Respondents profile        4

3.        Literature Review        5

4.        External Factors Affecting the purchasing decision of Refrigerator        7

5.        Internal Factors Affecting the purchasing decision of Refrigerator        7

6.        Consumer Decision Making Process        9

6.1.        Need Recognition        9

6.2.        Search for Information        9

6.3.        Internal Sources        9

6.4.        External Sources        9

6.5.        Evaluation of Alternatives        10

6.6.        Purchase Decision        10

6.7.        Post Purchase Evaluation        11

7.        Marketer’s Implications        11

8.        Conclusion        12

1. Executive summary:

Refrigerator companies and dealers should identify the pre purchase information search process that a consumer goes through and the important sources that affect the behaviour of the consumer in buying a refrigerator which helps the marketer in maintaining a satisfying customer relationships and winning new customers in non-metro towns.

Consumers will spend limited time, energy and money to purchase the products and they take the decision over a period of time. Their ultimate goal is to select a particular product by searching for the product, evaluating alternatives and gather information from various sources. They get influenced by various factors while making a decision and they can be grouped majorly as

1. Psychology
2. Sociology
3. Anthropology
4. Communication

The buying frequency of the refrigerator is occasional as it is a durable good. Consumer do an extensive pre-purchase information search and choose an optimal channel to purchase the refrigerator, so it requires a great amount of consumer’s involvement and decision effort in choosing a brand, model, form of refrigerator, features etc.,

To provide valuable insights to the marketers, we have collected primary data by conducting in-depth interviews and surveys among the people living in non-metro towns to understand the external factors, internal factors and buying decision process that affects the buying behaviour of the consumer while buying a refrigerator. We considered both consumer influences and organizational influences while creating the questionnaire and chose people from various demographics for surveying.

Google survey link: https://goo.gl/forms/393QT77farwrNU8s1

1. Survey Respondents profile

We conducted the survey among 50 members belonging to various demographics and the profiles are as shown below

Age:

57% of the respondents are aged between 25-35 years and rest are mix of various age groups which shows the effect of age on the behaviour of the consumer.

[pic 1]

Education:

We have chosen respondents having different educational qualification to identify the effect of education and knowledge on their behaviour

[pic 2]

Annual Income:

We have chosen respondents having various annual income to understand how the annual income affects the consumer behaviour.

[pic 3]

Geography:

To understand how the geography has its effect on the consumer behavior we have chosen the responsdents from various geographical locations.

[pic 4]

1. Literature Review

The research was conducted to examine the factors that affect the co purchase decision of Refrigerators. As it is based on consumer behaviour, we have to understand what is consumer behaviour and topics related to it. All these are described below:

Definition of consumer behaviour

Consumer behaviour has changed dramatically in the past decade. The term consumer behaviour is defined as the behaviour that consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. Consumer behaviour focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources on consumption related item.

Types of consumer

There are two types of consumers:

• Personal Consumer: Who buy goods or services for his or hers own use, for the use of households, or as a gift for a friend.
• Organizational Consumer: It means profit and non-profit business, government agencies, and institutions, all of which must buy products, equipment, and services in order to run their organizations.

Once the problem is formulated, we undertook an extensive literature survey connected with the problem.