Decision Making and Consumer Behaviour Assignment

1. Introduction:

Consumer behaviour can be defined as the study of an individual or a group of customers regarding their activities and opinions at the time of product purchasing. Not only may the purchasing of the product but also usage and disposal of the goods and services include in the consumer behaviour (Solomon et al. 2012). Moreover, the emotional, behavioural and mental responses regarding the product purchasing or decision making activities also can be involved in the consumer behaviours. In other words, it can be said that the consumer behaviour is an interdisciplinary social science that brings together elements from sociology, psychology, marketing and many other sectors.  These elements together evaluate the response of a certain consumer regarding the purchase activity (Horner and Swarbrooke 2016).The consumer behaviour is evaluated by examining the impact of emotions, attitudes and conflicts of preferences affect the buying behaviour of the customer. In this case, each attribute and characteristics of each customer differ from one another depending on their demographics, personalities, behavioural variables. Apart from that, each person has their own set of ideas and perspectives, which also affects in deciding the different nature in the development of the consumer behaviour (Solomon et al. 2014). In this study, as per the direction of the manager of Ensoft, another thorough evaluation of the consumer behaviour has been conducted to identify the wider issues of consumer behaviour and consumer decision making. Moreover, the detailed study of consumer behaviour also includes the various aspects of purchasing behaviour. The study is concerned about the various aspects of the consumer behaviour along with the consumer decision-making process. Along with that, the various issues regarding consumer behaviour and decision making have also been explored.

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2. Key differences between B2B and B2C decision-making process:

According to Schütte and Ciarlante (2016), the Business to Business or B2B and the Business to Consumer or B2C decision making techniques have the primary aim to grab the attention of two distinct as well as different audiences. Although there are several factors which are common to both of the decision making process, however, there are several factors like driving prospects, communicational approaches etc. are different in the processes. Apart from these, the primary differences between the Business to Business and Business to Consumer decision making processes are described as follows;

2.1. Size of Markets:One of the most significant differences between the B2B and B2C decision making and marketing is the size of the markets involved in both the cases. The markets related to the consumers are much bigger than that of the business markets. However, it is also true that the size of the market related to consumers always depends upon the product (Akehurstet al. 2012). Depending upon the product, the consumer market can have mass marketing or sometimes even have a product related market which is as small as or smaller than the Business to Business markets. Hence, it can be said that, in general, the B2B markets are small and focused target market, whereas the B2C markets are bigger and tend to be a large target market.

2.2. Brand Value:In case of the business to business marketing and decision making, the brand value is developed through consultative business and personal relationships. However, in case of the Business to Consumer, the brand value or the brand identity is a factor created through the development of reputation and imagery and social media presence (Gunter and Furnham 2014).

2.3. Sales Process:The sales process in B2B or the Business to Business requires more of a selling that is based on understanding the needs of the client and development of a relationship with the customer. This is also called the development of consultative selling (Cohen et al. 2014). However, in case of B2C or Business to Consumer, the selling process is more focused on the consumer as the sales are always direct to the client or might involve a retailer.

2.4. Buying Process:The buying process in B2B tends to be more complex than that of the B2C. The buying process in B2B is complicated as the number of people involved is quite high for the case of B2B. Also, nature or the product or service that is being purchased influences the complexity of the buying process (East et al. 2016). On the other hand, the marketing and the decision making efforts in B2C are mostly directed at the individuals or the general population who are the final decision makers.

2.5. Purchase Decision:The decision of purchase in case B2B is generally influenced by the budgets and requirements. This makes the decisions taken in B2B decision making are mostly rational. On the contrary, the decisions that are made in case of B2C are more based on what the consumer wants rather than what is required. Hence, regarding B2C the purchase decisions can be called as the emotional decisions (Lockshin and Corsi 2012). In brief, it can be said that the decision made in B2B is more product influenced, while B2C purchase decisions are more relationship driven.

2.6. Purchasing Process:The purchasing process associated with the B2B or Business to Business marketing is defined regarding months. The sale process in B2B is quite complex that often take months for a transaction to complete (Biswas and Roy 2015). The purchasing process in case of B2C is comparatively quite short as it has a short purchasing period that lasts from a few minutes to a few days.

2.7. Decision-making process: The buying decisions that are made in the case of B2B are often influenced by the business value. The buyer in Business to business decision-making process often tends to be sophisticated and understanding. It also relies on the need to buy products or services to keep their company stay profitable, successful and competitive(Foxall 2014). The buyers of the B2B market are more rational while selecting a product or service for their company. However, the buyers of B2C are more concerned about what they want rather than what they need. Hence, the products bought by them are often not thought out and buying decisions are made often based on comfort, security, status or quality.

2.8. Cost of a sale: The sales involved in B2B are more of a "higher ticket" purchase. Usually, the products from B2B cost from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions of dollars (Pérez et al. 2013). However, the sales of B2C can range in much lesser cost and the products of B2C cost from lesser than a dollar to a few thousand dollars.

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