What Consumer Decision Process Is Influenced By Marketing Essay

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The company was founded by 2 Japanese Mr. Masaru Ibuka and Mr. Akio Morita after
the WWII and it was originally called the Tokyo Tsushin. The company firstly created
the radio tape which became very valuable commodity after WW2, after that they were
looking for a Romanized name so that they can bring their brand to the international
field which becomes Sony which means Whiz Kids in Japanese. The company has
revenue exceeding $77.20 billion U.S. (FY2010), Sony's current CEO, president and
chairman of Sony Corporation is Sir Howard Stinger.
The group of the brands or options that the Shannon is aware of is called awareness set.
From the Awareness set she will then have an Evoked set which is consist of brands in a
product category (Shannon product category is stylish design & Full HD TV) that she
remembers when she is making decision.
3rd Evaluation of Alternatives
The 3rd step will be the evaluation of the attributes for the exposed item, weather this is
good or that is bad, weather that the consumer might be choosing to purchase the
product or the consumer has no intention of buying it.

Example- Shannon wanted a Stylish design & Full HD TV but Brand GG TV production
is only until black and white colour, therefore Shannon will not consider buying Brand
GG TV even she is aware of that particular brand.
Shannon will eliminate the brand that is unfit to her need right away. Those remaining
brands are termed the consideration set which are the brands that Shannon will
consider buying.
4th Purchase & Use of product

The 4th step is when buyer or consumer purchased the product and use it, this is the
period where all of the product functions and durability can be tested and observed.
Those external information or any marketing strategy of the company will be shown
weather is true or false as well in this stage. Example-Claims that Sony Bravia can be on
for 800days without turning it off or put in standby mode, consumer can then prove
weather this information is true or false.
5th Evaluation of the Consumption Experience
After the consumption experience of the product, the consumer will then evaluate that
the performance of the product is it good or bad? Consumer evaluates the product
during and after the consumption and this will become the internal memory search.
Future purchases are highly dependent on post purchase evaluation.
Example- Shannon is very happy with the performance of Sony Bravia as she feels like
buying another Sony Bravia TV for her room.
6th Feedback
The given feedback on the product will affect other people's opinion towards the
product. Weather the products is good or bad.
Example- Shannon told her friend Mandy that Sony is a good brand and the product
perform well. The thinking of Sony is a good brand will then implant into Mandy's
thinking and will become her information and able to retrieve back when she wanted to
purchase similar product.
7th End of Consumption Experience

Psychological core
Perception-exposure /attention /interpretation
Perception is a process that begins with consumer EXPOSURE and ATTENTION to
marketing stimuli and ends with consumer INTERPRETATION.

Exposure

How the consumer is being open up into messages, information and opportunities from
their surrounding environment.
Selective Exposure
-Consumers can pay attention to messages that are consistent with their own attitudes
and beliefs, consumers can also ignore messages that are inconsistent.
Example-There are a few type of TV in the market like the LCD, LED, Plasma, CRT and
flat screen TV. To Shannon that wanted to buy a LCD TV she will concentrate on her
choice and those others TVs ads or commercial might be shut off by her as she believes
that LCD TV is what she wants now.
Voluntary Exposure
-Consumers sometimes will seek out some commercial or marketing stimuli for various
reasons, which consumers will voluntarily to be exposed.
Example-Shannon saw an online ad of Sony Bravia, therefore she went to check it out
and view it as she wanted to purchase a Sony TV during her search for alternatives.

Attention
Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the
environment while ignoring other things. Attention has also been referred to as the
allocation of processing resources.
Example- Sony Bravia ads is all related to colorful images, consumer will pay more
attention to it as colors is much more attractive, it will create a type of awareness that if
I want a very good image viewing TV I must get Sony Bravia.

Interpretation
Interpretation is how we represent and express out the previous information that we are
given or exposed to. An explanation about something is an interpretation.

During a perception process it ends with the consumer interpretation, this is because
after receiving and getting exposed to the marketing stimuli, consumer will be able to
express out their thinking or make their choice towards the product.

Motivation
Motive is type inner force that will affect our behavior based on the feelings it generated.
Consumer buy products that they feel they need, it is a very subjective assessment based
on their inherent motivations.
McGuire's Psychological Motives
Is a detailed set of motives used for specific aspects of consumer behavior. It is also a
classification system that categorizes theories of motives into 16 categories. McGuire
first divides motivation into four main categories with two criteria:

4 Categories further subdivided:

After categorize we will then have the McGuire's Psychological Motives
A lot of the advertisement now days will include a few McGuire's Motives into the
advertisement in order to stimulate the desire of buying the product or services, as
consumers do not buy products; instead they buy motive satisfaction or problem
solutions.
Examples below will show how ads will draw the buyer/consumer motives
From the ads above we can tell that different motives are being shown in the ads to
attract customer that have different needs.
1st Advertisement poster we can see that need of modelling is there as Sony Bravia uses
a young model in their ads, this show that Bravia is trendy, fashionable and young.
2nd Advertisement shows a very clear image of a footballer kicking a football, it is able
to express the need for tension reduction and also the sharpness of the images

produced, football lover would buy into this advertisement as they always like to watch a
football match in a clear image after a day of work.
McGuire's Psychological Motives also enable us to discover 2 types of purchasing
motives, which are the Latent and Manifest motives.
Manifest motives are motives that are known and can be seen in the outer. However
Latent motives are hidden and might be unknown to the consumer or it is reluctant that
consumers admit them.

Learning & Memory & Retrieval (recognition &

recall)
Learning is an organism applying options to a set of situations
Marketer always wanted consumers to learn and memorize the positive features,
feelings, and behaviour associated with their brands. In times consumer will forget
about the ads they saw before or even the company brand if the relative information are
not adapt by consumer.
Example - Sony Bravia always uses very colourful ads which are matching to their slogan
- Colour Like. No. Other.
The consumers that watches the building painting or colour pyramid ads will then learn
that Sony Bravia series is very focusing on the colour quality of the TV, as the company
brand standings and positioning is clearly told out in their commercial and very
concentrate in the viewing image quality more than other brands.
Memory is the property of human mind, ability to retain, recall, interpretation,
remember information. There is short-term Memory which consist of the working
memory or those information that we are using currently, also the long term Memory
which is those information that is stored permanently and able to retrieve out when is
needed .
Table below shows the differences between short-term memory & long-term memory

Retrieval is to recall or reuse the information that we already learn and stored in our
memory, weather we know about the brand or remembering it, recognition or recall. Is
better if the person is know about the brand compare to recalling it, because it will
greatly influence the response of consumer in decision making process.
Table below explain the Memory Process
From the case in the consumer decision making step 2, we can see that Shannon is able
to recall that Sony Bravia TV got good performance and stylish designs. This is because
her dad told her before, and she retrieves the information when she needs it.

Attitudes
Attitudes is the judgment view of a person towards an object weather is positive or
negative. It is organization of perceptual, emotional motivational and cognitive
processes of an individual. Graph below shows the Attitude Component Consistency:
There are 3 components for attitudes:
Cognitive Component (Beliefs, Mental)-The beliefs about specific attributes or overall
object. A belief is a subjective judgement; expectations are a form of belief about the
future. Examples - The salesperson cannot be trusted, downloading music is like
stealing, prefer eco friendly products......etc
Affective Component (Emotions, Feelings)
-Colour Becomes Alive ad
-The feelings or emotional reactions to an object, marketer often put their attention in
consumer's emotions and feelings during advertisement. Examples- Sony Bravia ads
often concentrate on colours. This is because colours can enhance the happy feelings
and we will feel bright and positive as we are exposed to colourful graphics compare to
the dull black and white.
Behavioural Component (Response Tendencies)
-The one's tendency to respond in a certain manner toward an object or activity, it
reflects the intentions as they are modified by the situation in which the behaviour will

occur. Examples- After watching the Sony Bravia colour pyramid ads, consumers have
higher urge to buy the product compared to old black and white advertisement.

Comparison
Consumer Environment
Lifestyle
Lifestyles is a mode of living that is identified by how a person spends time and
resources, what a person considers important in the environment, what a person thinks
of self and the world. Every individual current lifestyle and pursuing lifestyle is different
with each other.
From appendix above we can see that 2 different level of people with their purchasing
pattern and lifestyle. John life can be more luxurious because of his financial ability.
However marketer sometimes does get involve in changing consumers lifestyle.
As you can see, the BRAVIA has a PS2 to come in a bundle, Sony not only focusing in
selling their TV but they also try to create a new lifestyle for the consumers. You might
not be a gamer and just want to buy the TV but the bundle has a Playstation 2, after
purchasing it and gives it a try you might have a new hobby or interest. This is what
Sony plan on with this bundle set, compare to other TV seller Sony not only focusing in
their TV industry but also the company change thei strategy and interlink its product to
create better edge in competing with others.

Culture
Culture refers to the set of values, ideas and attitudes that are accepted by a group of
people, it might be passing down from generations, in religious teachings or families
influences. It can be differentiate by the race, religion beliefs, geographical regions and
background of the person.

In Japan youths consume more electronic goods but it is lower in Malaysia compare to
it. Japanese youth are mostly early adapters and they love innovative products, we can
see that a lot new technology can be diffused very fast.
From here we can know that electronic goods can sell better in Japan Market as the
Japanese culture is there to support and affect the consumer making a decision.
Below is the launching of SONY 3D world in Japan.

.
Environment
For environment sector Sony has establish the new concept of Green TV which shows
the pledge of Sony in improving the environment for the sake of next generation.
Therefore Sony combine their innovation with environmental friendly technology.
Sony Bravia Green TV is one of the most innovative products from Sony to keep their
pledge in saving the environment for next generation. They hope to lower the energy
consumption of all products by 30% in the next few years.
Sony able to get support from the "Green Supporters" as they are trying to show that
electronics product is not always damaging the environment and it can be fine tuned to
suit the environment needs. With this Sony can target those consumers with strong
beliefs in green environment and also as an eco friendly product in the market.

Social Class
Social class is the social group that the consumers belong to; they grouped up sharing
the same interest, occupation, hobbies and etc. They can exchange information
regarding interest or others than interest with each other during the gathering.
A person can have multiple social classes.
For Example- A group of hiker consist a group of people who likes to hike, this is one of
the social class of the hiker belongs.

The social class will affect the consumer decision making as well, a group of gamers
might consider spending more money in their TV comparing to hikers where they enjoy
outdoor more.

Marketer controlled activity

Promotion is an element which concentrates in catching the consumer's interest in
buying the product with various strategies. It might be discount offer, contest entries or
free products.
For example- After buying a Bravia TV consumer can get a chance to win a bonus
Playstation 3.

Place (distribution)
Sony distributes its products in various ways through retailers and also direct from
company itself. For retailers they are able to purchase stock from Sony local distributor
company, as for consumers, Sony provide online store purchasing method and contacts
to all nearest Sony retailers are able to find online.

Brand Image and Product Positioning

Brand Image and Product Positioning is highly affecting the consumer in their learning,
memory and retrieval.
For Example- The Product perceptual map
This map shows the positioning of Company Brands that produces Full HD LCD TV,
from here we can see that Sony Bravia is the top in terms of Viewing Image
Performance, Stylish design and innovative functions.
Consumers will then learn the idea of Sony Bravia = Great viewing image, Stylish design
and pricy. Other than the perceptual mapping, Sony Bravia Slogan- Colour Like no
Other also placed them highly in comparing viewing image performance. All these is
done by marketer to define their products image, it will allows consumers to remember
them or to recognize them with their brands features.