Week Three Reflection

This week in HONBUS 200-02, the class was instructed to thoroughly read chapter 6 of the text, through which the concepts surrounding consumer decision making were discussed. One said crucial concept refers to the types of "consumer buying decisions and consumer involvement." There are generally only a select few categories that consumers' buying decisions fall into, based off of the level of involvement involved in the purchase at hand.

A main category relating to this process is the routine response behavior, in which the goods and services that fall under this title are typically inexpensive and are commonly purchased. Due to this, consumers tend to not spend much time or energy on researching the product prior to making the purchase. A product that I buy which falls under this category is tissues. As I typically have to buy more tissues for my room every few weeks while at school, I usually buy tissues made by the brand Kleenex because of their lower prices. I find the tissues to be a satisfying purchase, and therefore have never really felt the need to purchase tissues made by another brand, despite my knowledge of other tissue brands that exist.

Another consumer purchasing category that has low levels of consumer involvement is the limited decision making category. Purchases that fall under this label often occur when the brand that a consumer is comfortable with spending money on is unavailable, and thus they are forced to buy another brand of the product without spending much time or effort considering the other available product options. A product that I purchase with limited decision making soap. Although I generally almost always buy Dove soap, if the store is out of Dove soap or if it's too expensive at that given time then I'll buy another brand of soap upon quickly examining the price and predicted quality. However, as I don't consider soap to be all that different regardless of which brand produces it, I won't spend much time or energy searching for another brand if Dove soap is unavailable.

On the other end of the involvement spectrum, being brand loyal refers to consumers who choose to repeatedly purchase the same brand of a product due to how highly satisfied they are with the product's results. A brand that I'm extremely loyal to is Sebastian Drench shampoo and conditioner, due to its specification towards consumers with very curly hair. Although this product is indeed more expensive than other brands with similar products, I choose to willingly spend money on it in order to obtain (what I believe to be) the high end results. This displays a fairly high level of involvement in the purchase, as I did adequate research and experimentation with the product prior to becoming loyal to the specific brand that produces it.

Finally, the category that many deem to consist of the highest level of consumer involvement is the extensive decision making method. In this category, the consumers often perform extensive levels of research and questioning prior to purchasing the, most likely highly expensive, good or service. I'm currently using this decision making method to find a car to purchase in time for the upcoming summer. As this is a huge investment, especially for a student my age, I want to ensure that I spend my money on a quality vehicle that will provide me with safe transportation. This involves researching brands, dealers, prices, styles and sizes, etc.

Additionally in this week, my SMART Project team designed an official logo for our product, the Bed Bug, and devised a "Point of View" statement that emphasizes what it is that we hope to accomplish with the design of our product, as well as who we plan to specifically market it to. We created both our first team memo and agenda at our last meeting, and we are planning on meeting again within the next few upcoming days to begin coming up with ideas concerning the actual physical production of the Bed Bug. Upon learning of the ways in which buyers make their purchase decisions, I'm excited to begin thinking from the marketers' perspective on this project in terms of devising ways that the product can be advertised in order to appeal to our target market(s).