1. Introduction
1.1. Background
Consumers today are given a myriad of choices when they want to purchase a product, be it a mobile phone, laptop, or even a simple chair. Statistics show that ‘the average American is exposed to about 3000 advertising messages a day, and globally corporations spend over $620 billion each year to make their products seem desirable and to get us to buy them.’ This suggests a consumer may have been influenced into buying a certain product.
1.2 Purpose of report
The objective of this report is to understand the factors which influenced my interviewee’s decision to buy a LG Viewty Smart mobile phone, to get a deeper insight into a typical buyer decision process and compare it with the theoretical buyer decision process.
2. Five factors influencing my interviewee’s choice
2.1. Culture
From my interviewee’s response, it was clear that the subculture she belonged to had influenced her decision. A sub-culture refers to a group of people with a similar belief that makes them different from a larger community that they belong to. She had belonged to the Asian-American subculture, where the buyer is considered to be technological savvy and brand conscious. She mentioned that LG Viewty Smart became her choice because of LG’s reputation for making quality touch-screen phones. Also, she was fascinated by the cutting edge technology that the phone offered. Not only that, the phone’s sleek design despite having an eight megapixel camera also attracted her.
2.2. Social factors
Another factor influencing her decision was her group of friends. In marketing terms, they are often referred to as membership groups, where people within the group have direct influence on each other. She mentioned that her decision to buy a touch-screen phone was fuelled by her need to blend in with her group of friends. My interviewee was the only one in her group using the old style of mobile phone in her social group. Even though her friends did not made...