Sony A77 Digital Camera - Making Purchase Decision

In this paper the student will be unfolding the entire process that a consumer would experience; the process which would sway them into making a final purchase of a Sony a77 DSLR Camera. The Marketing mix stimuli would be used to explain the consumers' experiences; their influences within their decision making process of making a final choice or purchase. Reference would be made when a consumer purchases a Camera; the Brand, Sony, the model a77 DSLR Digital Camera.

1.0 What is Consumer Behavior

In marketing, one has to understand what motivates the consumer to buy. By the application of sociology, psychology and demographics; marketers can begin to understand why consumers form attitudes and make decisions to purchase. Consumer-behavior studies inform marketers, advertisers and public agencies how product and service selection is influenced by personality, perception, values and beliefs. For marketing, these influences are studied in the context of demographics, which includes ethnicity, age, marital status, size of family, income, education and employment, according to www.ehow.com's website.

Other factors which influence the process are as follows:

 Perception

 Personality

 Values

 Beliefs (Religious or other)

 Attitude

At the end of the day the main factors that influences the consumer's behavior the most, are the 7 P's; Product, Place, Price, Promotion, People, Process and Physical Evidence. As illustrated in the diagram below.¬¬¬

Diagram 1.0 - 7P's of the Marketing Mix

Source: Business iHub, 2010 available at: http://www.businessihub.com/now-we-have-four-plus-three-seven-ps-of-marketing-mix/

2.0 The Psychology of the Consumer

Motivation

What would motivate the consumer; a perfect reference/theory for this analysis would be the 'Maslow theory', which suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs. In this theory, persons needs varies but it is generally much of the same.

Abraham Maslow (1954) has presented 'a hierarchy of needs' model which can be divided into two parts. Basic or deficiency needs which are physiological, safety, love, and esteem and; secondly, growth needs, cognitive, aesthetics and self-actualization.

In order to attain higher growth, one must firstly satisfy lower level basic needs. Only then one can progress on to meet higher level growth needs. Once these needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be able to reach the highest level called self-actualization.

Every person is capable and has the desire to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualization. Unfortunately, progress is often disrupted by failure to meet lower level needs. Life experiences including divorce and loss of job may cause an individual to fluctuate between levels of the hierarchy. Maslow noted only one in a hundred people become fully self-actualized because our society rewards motivation primarily based on esteem, love and other social needs.

It is important to note that Maslow's (1954) theory has been elaborated upon by other researchers. Maslow's original five-stage model has been adapted by other researchers who have interpreted Maslow's writings to develop both seven and eight-stage hierarchy of needs pyramids. Please see below diagram 1.2.

Diagram 2.0 - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Source: Business Psychology Today, 2012-2010 available at http://www.psychologytoday.com/

3.0 Cognitive Response

A cognitive response is a thought generated in response to persuasive communication (Petty, 1981) and therefore, triggers an attitude change. The way in which a cognitive response effects attitude, after being exposed to persuasive communication, has to do with the way the recipient of the communication manipulates, elaborates and integrates the information (Greenwald, 1968). When people are exposed to information, they relate it to pre-existing thoughts that they already have on the subject. People are of course more likely to be persuaded by messages to which they have previously thought optimistically. The cognitive response theory attempts to understand the link between the initial response to communication and the attitude change that results. The theory says that a cognitive response influences final attitude and therefore may effect behavior.

There are four characteristics of the cognitive response theory that makes it different from other research about attitude; the model uses production tasks, it is multidimensional, it is a qualitative theory and it is a memory-based theory. Production tasks refer to the fact that the subject who is being exposed to the text has an opportunity to express thoughts as s/he experiences them. THis is contradictory to previous studies when the subject's thoughts had to be expressed by rating their experience on a scale. Other studies about attitude ignored the fact that attitude is multidimensional and only attempted to "explain people's responses in a single dimension" (Kyu-Wu Oh, 1997). This theory