Few of the important Psychological Factors are: Self-Concept, Motivation, Perception, Knowledge and Belief and Attitudes. Psychological Factors The Internal influences that have effect on consumer behavior consist of an individual’s perception, learning, memory, motives, personality, emotions and attitudes. (Hawkins & Mothersbaugh, 2010, 274-275). The buying behavior of consumers is affected by various of psychological factors. The most important ones Motivation, Perception, Self-concept, Knowledge and Belief and Attitudes.
These all comes under personal factors which influence the decision of buyer. For example a young boy would like to buy a trendy bike where as a middle age man would go for car. All the factors which are motioned above influence the buyer decision directly or indirectly so all of them play a very major role in understanding the consumer behavior. This is very complex processes and therefore needs a detailed and vast study or market research. As every individual is different his needs and wants are also different so to understand the common reference point and to create and deliver the value to customer and what he wants is very difficult.
External influences are also as important in the way a consumer behaves as internal influences. External influences can be defined as the “outside influences that can impact a business. Various external factors can impact the ability of a business or investment to achieve its strategic goals and objectives. These external factors might include competition; social, legal and technological changes, and the economic and political environment (BusinessDictionary.com, 2016). Culture is one of the main external influences that have an impact on consumer’s behavior.
It is a significant aspect to bear in mind before launching a new product as mentioned previously. For a business, to avoid the risk of product failure, marketers should study the behavior of consumers and then produce accordingly. There are four different factors that have an impact on consumer behavior, and they are cultural factors, social factors, personal factors and psychological factors. The first factor is culture, which involves the thoughts, words, traditions, feelings and language of society. Cultural Factors: Culture is the part of every society and is the significant cause of a person’s wants, needs, and behavior.
After evaluating the alternatives, consumer move to the purchasing process. According to Blackwell et al. (2012), consumer will go through two phases during the purchasing process. In the first phase, a consumer may prefer one retailer but end up buying from the other retailer because of a sales or a promotional event. The second phase involved in-store choices which are influenced by salespersons, store atmosphere, electronic media and point-of-purchase advertising.
Apple continuously delivers new products in forms of hardware and software to its customers. This company also creates new niches in the market and pioneers new business spaces. The company thinks in terms of pipelines and platforms and continuously pushes the pace of innovation in the consumer electronic industry (Muller, 2011). Apple also hires the services of great innovators who ensure that this company is always ahead of its competitors. Apple also uses an innovative business model, which supports innovation in the company.
Factors affecting brand choice According to Mokhlis and Yaakoop (2012) there are countless factors that influence the way a consumer perceives a particular brand and prefers it over the others. Meyer and Kahn (1991) describe that the extensive attention has been paid to understanding the relative influence of the factors which affects the choice of consumers between various substitute brands of products and services that are purchased frequently. Rogers (1995), Tornatzky and Katherine (1982), Mason (1990) and Charlotte (1999) in their studies observed that various factors influence the consumers when they are making a choice among alternate brands. These factors consist of price, perciever risk, compatibility, triablity, relative advantage, complexity, image and observability. In this research article, the influence of following factors on brand choice has been measured: price, quality, features, family and friends’ recommendations, brand image, innovative features, promotion effectiveness, celebrity endorsement, user friendliness, stylish appearance, post-purchase services.
When Apple Company uses ‘Apple’ as their brand name, it will make the audience feel curious why an electronic product company using a fruit name as their brand name and it success to attract the audience attention. Their logo also very special and distinctive, the designer also draws out an apple as their logo. Again, the logo is has no relate with their product and the special part is the apple logo is not a normal apple, but it got a bite. The designer said it will make the apple look juicy and delicious, it will attract audience’s attention. Others than that, the Apple store also a distinctive part of Apple Company.
In the buyer decision process there are five stages that a consumer has to go through. Theses stages are need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase behaviour. At the evaluation stage, the consumer will have gathered enough information to determine if he /she is willing to buy this product or not. During the evaluation process, the consumer will decides if the benefits are worth their cost. Prior to purchasing, consumers examine, compare and evaluate the product.
Most of them in the UK and the US are using apple Co. products from iPod to the iPhone. 3. Factor Influence Apple’s Consumer Buying Behaviour 3.1 PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS 3.1.1 One of the major factors that influence consumer buyer behaviour is psychological factors. Psychological factors can be distribute into five categories, that is motivation, perception, learning ,beliefs and attitudes and this all can influence a person’s buying choices. 3.1.2 The first psychological factor is motivation.