MM07 Consumer Behaviour

Assignment No.I
Assignment Code: 2011MM07B1 Last Date of Submission: 30th Sept 2011 Maximum Marks:100

Attempt all the questions. All the questions are compulsory and carry equal marks.

Section-A Ques.1 Why is it critically important for marketers to understand consumer behaviour ? Discuss.

Answer: A perspective of marketing is about making a consumer realise that they want your product, even
though initially they might not. Therefore it is important for marketers to understand how consumers behave when they are exposed to particular advertising methods and messages. For example. Consumer behavioural theories such as the process of innovation diffusion is vital for marketers as it allows us to understand how different market segments, which have different purchasing and thinking characteristics might decide whether or not to buy a product. For example - for a consumer in a relatively high social status earning reasonable money, a purchase of a laptop might not be such as high involvement purchase since they have the disposable income to afford it plus, if they are young to middle age, the chances are they know exactly what they want to get out of the product since they have been brought up in a generations where computers run our every day lives. On the other hand, if the laptop was to be marketed at a OAP, their consumer behaviour to such product will change the overall marketing effort to persuade such consumers that they want the product. OAP for example may not know exactly what a laptop can do for them, and if they are living on a pension, such product may seem very expensive and carries high amounts of purchasing 'risk' since they might not fully understand whether the product can solve their initial need to buy the product. If we relate back to the innovation diffusion model and general purchasing decision making process theories, marketers may then have to increase the amount of information within their marketing campaign in order to communicate exactly what the laptop can do for them and how the price justifies they benefit. If you look at consumer behaviour in another perspective, many marketers and marketing campaigns rely on people buying their product due to the self concept theories of consumer behaviour. Products such as Sony laptops rely on people wanting to spend the extra money on their laptops rather than a competitor such as del who may have the same spec for a far lower price because people buy into brands like Sony to show off their image / status. If you see someone on a train with a dell laptop, you may not take a second look. Meanwhile, someone using a Sony laptop; people may think Wow, thats pretty cool and may start associating the user as successful and wealthy. Therefore, the Sony laptop user has may have spent the extra money on Sony rather than dell in order to portray this reaction and create a positive self image for himself. Look up a theory called the looking glass self theory (Cooley 1902 or 1922). If brands can understand such form of consumer behaviour, it works hand in hand with brand management and product positioning since once the marketers have generated a positive, prestige image about their products, they then rely on other consumers buying into this form of 'quality' and portraying their positive self image from using this product to other consumer who then may think ... 'that guy looked cool... i want to buy one'.... Another very important consumer behaviour concept for marketers is how consumers learn about a product. Does a marketing campaign want to use cognitive learning approaches in its advertising i.e. whereby our product will be associated with a band or a type of music or do we want to use a form of instrumental or behavioural learning approaches - A market needs to think what type of consumers they are targeting, look at their general characteristic and then work out what is the best approach to generate their overall campaign objectives. For example, cognitive learning approaches are used (by theory) on more educated consumers as theorists believe they have more ability to make a cognition between i.e a song and a product - Check out some Sony adverts - For example, every time people heard that Jose Gonzalez tune back in 2005, people immediately thought of thousands of coloured balls rolling down a hill in San Francisco - then they thought of Sony

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Ques.2

Write short notes on:(a)Two categories of buyers: - Individual Consumer, Business buyer.

The different types of buyers and consumers are combined within several major categories, theconsumer market and the business market. Amid these two major categories, the consumer/buyer market is comprised of individuals and households that purchase goods and services for personal consumption, whereas the business market encompasses organizational entities that purchase goods and services for the use in the production of other products and services or for the purpose of reselling or renting them to others at a profit. Business markets possess a smaller amount of large buyers, unlike the consumer market, and whose consuming traits are more geographically concentrated. Dependent on the type of buyer and consumer, characteristics through decision processes may differ. For instance, the consumer markets behavior is influenced by four key sets of buyer characteristics: cultural, social, personal and psychological. Culture, is defined by social class and group wants and behaviors; social, incorporates the factors of influences by family and small groups that determine ideal brands and products; personal adopts the different age groups and lifestyles, and psychological, utilizes motivators and perception of beliefs and attitudes. Additionaly, the business markets behavior is influenced by a buying center that displays three types of buying situations: straight rebuys, modified rebuys, and new tasks.

(b)What motivates the buyer? Why does he buy a specific brand and what induces him to buy from a particular shop?

Motivation relates to our desire to achieve a certain outcome. Many internal factors we have already discussed can affect a customers desire to achieve a certain outcome but there are others. For instance, when it comes to making purchase decisions customers motivation could be affected by such issues as financial position (e.g., Can I afford the purchase?), time constraints (e.g., Do I need to make the purchase quickly?), overall value (e.g., Am I getting my moneys worth?), and perceived risk (e.g., What happens if I make a bad decision?). Marketing Implications: Motivation is also closely tied to the concept of Involvement, which relates to how much effort the consumer will exert in making a decision. Highly motivated consumers will want to get mentally and physically involved in the purchase process. Not all products have a high percentage of highly involved customers (e.g., milk) but marketers who market products and services that may lead to high level of consumer involvement should prepare options that will be attractive to this group. For instance, marketers should make it easy for consumers to learn about their product (e.g., information on website, free video preview) and, for some products, allow customers to experience the product (e.g., free trial) before committing to the purchase.
Ques.3 How do general personality traits influence consumer behaviour.

Introduction. Consumer attitudes are a composite of a consumers (1) beliefs about, (2) feelings about, (3) and behavioral intentions toward some object--within the context of marketing, usually a brand or retail store. These components are viewed together since they are highly interdependent and together represent forces that influence how the consumer will react to the object.

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Beliefs. The first component is beliefs. A consumer may hold both positive beliefs toward an object (e.g., coffee tastes good) as well as negative beliefs (e.g., coffee is easily spilled and stains papers). In addition, some beliefs may be neutral (coffee is black), and some may be differ in valance depending on the person or the situation (e.g., coffee is hot and stimulates--good on a cold morning, but not good on a hot summer evening when one wants to sleep). Note also that the beliefs that consumers hold need not be accurate (e.g., that pork contains little fat), and some beliefs may, upon closer examination, be contradictory (e.g., that a historical figure was a good person but also owned slaves). Affect. Consumers also hold certain feelings toward brands or other objects. Sometimes these feelings are based on the beliefs (e.g., a person feels nauseated when thinking about a hamburger because of the tremendous amount of fat it contains), but there may also be feelings which are relatively independent of beliefs. For example, an extreme environmentalist may believe that cutting down trees is morally wrong, but may have positive affect toward Christmas trees because he or she unconsciously associates these trees with the experience that he or she had at Christmas as a child. Behavioral Intention. The behavioral intention is what the consumer plans to do with respect to the object (e.g., buy or not buy the brand). As with affect, this is sometimes a logical consequence of beliefs (or affect), but may sometimes reflect other circumstances-e.g., although a consumer does not really like a restaurant, he or she will go there because it is a hangout for his or her friends. Attitude Change Strategies. Changing attitudes is generally very difficult, particularly when consumers suspect that the marketer has a self-serving agenda in bringing about this change (e.g., to get the consumer to buy more or to switch brands). Changing affect. One approach is to try to change affect, which may or may not involve getting consumers to change their beliefs. One strategy uses the approach of classical conditioning try to pair the product with a liked stimulus. For example, we pair a car with a beautiful woman. Alternatively, we can try to get people to like the advertisement and hope that this liking will spill over into the purchase of a product. For example, the Pillsbury Doughboy does not really emphasize the conveyance of much information to the consumer; instead, it attempts to create a warm, fuzzy image. Although Energizer Bunny ads try to get people to believe that their batteries last longer, the main emphasis is on the likeable bunny. Finally, products which are better known, through the mere exposure effect, tend to be better liked--that is, the more a product is advertised and seen in stores, the more it will generally be liked, even if consumers to do not develop any specific beliefs about the product. Page No. 3 of 13

Changing behavior. People like to believe that their behavior is rational; thus, once they use our products, chances are that they will continue unless someone is able to get them to switch. One way to get people to switch to our brand is to use temporary price discounts and coupons; however, when consumers buy a product on deal, they may justify the purchase based on that deal (i.e., the low price) and may then switch to other brands on deal later. A better way to get people to switch to our brand is to at least temporarily obtain better shelf space so that the product is more convenient. Consumers are less likely to use this availability as a rationale for their purchase and may continue to buy the product even when the product is less conveniently located. (Notice, by the way, that this represents a case of shaping). Changing beliefs. Although attempting to change beliefs is the obvious way to attempt attitude change, particularly when consumers hold unfavorable or inaccurate ones, this is often difficult to achieve because consumers tend to resist. Several approaches to belief change exist: 1. Change currently held beliefs. It is generally very difficult to attempt to change beliefs that people hold, particularly those that are strongly held,even if they are inaccurate. For example, the petroleum industry advertised for a long time that its profits were lower than were commonly believed, and provided extensive factual evidence in its advertising to support this reality. Consumers were suspicious and rejected this information, however. 2. Change the importance of beliefs. Although the sugar manufacturers would undoubtedly like to decrease the importance of healthy teeth, it is usually not feasible to make beliefs less important--consumers are likely to reason, why, then, would you bother bringing them up in the first place? However, it may be possible to strengthen beliefs that favor us--e.g., a vitamin supplement manufacturer may advertise that it is extremely important for women to replace iron lost through menstruation. Most consumers already agree with this, but the belief can be made stronger. 3. Add beliefs. Consumers are less likely to resist the addition of beliefs so long as they do not conflict with existing beliefs. Thus, the beef industry has added beliefs that beef (1) is convenient and (2) can be used to make a number of creative dishes. Vitamin manufacturers attempt to add the belief that stress causes vitamin depletion, which sounds quite plausible to most people. 4. Change ideal. It usually difficult, and very risky, to attempt to change ideals, and only few firms succeed. For example, Hard Candy may have attempted to change the ideal away from traditional beauty toward more unique self expression. One-sided vs. two-sided appeals. Attitude research has shown that consumers often tend to react more favorably to advertisements which either (1) admit something negative about the sponsoring brand (e.g., the Volvo is a clumsy car, but very safe) or (2) admits something positive about a competing brand (e.g., a competing supermarket has slightly lower prices, but offers less service and selection). Two-sided appeals must, contain overriding arguments why the sponsoring brand is ultimately superior--that is, in the above examples, the but part must be emphasized. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Celebrity Endorsements. The ELM suggests that consumers will scrutinize claims more in important situations than in unimportant ones. For example, we found that in the study of people trying to get ahead of others in a line to use photo copiers, the compliance rate was about fifty percent when people just asked to Page No. 4 of 13

get ahead. However, when the justification ... because I have to make copies was added, compliance increased to 80%. Since the reason offered really did not add substantive information, we conclude that it was not extensively analyzed--in the jargon of the theory, elaboration was low.

The ELM suggests that for unimportant products, elaboration will be low, and thus Bill Cosby is able to endorse Coke and Jell-O without having any special credentials to do so. However, for products which are either expensive or important for some other reason (e.g., a pain reliever given to a child that could be harmed by using dangerous substances), elaboration is likely to be more extensive, and the endorser is expected to be congruent, or compatible, with the product. For example, a basket ball player is likely to be effective in endorsing athletic shoes, but not in endorsing automobiles. On the other hand, a nationally syndicated auto columnist would be successful in endorsing cars, but not athletic shoes. All of them, however, could endorse fast food restaurants effectively. Appeal Approaches. Several approaches to appeal may be used. The use ofaffect to induce empathy with advertising characters may increase attraction to a product, but may backfire if consumers believe that peoples feelings are being exploited. Fear appeals appear to work only if (1) an optimal level of fear is evoked--not so much that people tune it out, but enough to scare people into action and (2) a way to avoid the feared stimulus is explicitly indicated--e.g., gingivitis and tooth loss can be avoided by using this mouth wash. Humorappears to be effective in gaining attention, but does not appear to increase persuasion in practice. In addition, a more favorable attitude toward the advertisement may be created by humorous advertising, which may in turn result in increased sales. Comparative advertising, which is illegal in many countries, often increases sales for the sponsoring brand, but may backfire in certain cultures.

Ques.4

How can the study of consumer behaviour assist marketers in segmenting markets and positioning products

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Segmentation, targeting, and positioning together comprise a three stage process. We first (1) determine which kinds of customers exist, then (2) select which ones we are best off trying to serve and, finally, (3) implement our segmentation by optimizing our products/services for that segment andcommunicating that we have made the choice to distinguish ourselves that way. Page No. 5 of 13

Segmentation involves finding out what kinds of consumers with different needs exist. In the auto market, for example, some consumers demand speed and performance, while others are much more concerned about roominess and safety. In general, it holds true that You cant be all things to all people, and experience has demonstrated that firms that specialize in meeting the needs of one group of consumers over another tend to be more profitable. Generically, there are three approaches to marketing. In the undifferentiatedstrategy, all consumers are treated as the same, with firms not making any specific efforts to satisfy particular groups. This may work when the product is a standard one where one competitor really cant offer much that another one cant. Usually, this is the case only for commodities. In the concentratedstrategy, one firm chooses to focus on one of several segments that exist while leaving other segments to competitors. For example, Southwest Airlines focuses on price sensitive consumers who will forego meals and assigned seating for low prices. In contrast, most airlines follow the differentiated strategy: They offer high priced tickets to those who are inflexible in that they cannot tell in advance when they need to fly and find it impractical to stay over a Saturday. These travelersusually business travelerspay high fares but can only fill the planes up partially. The same airlines then sell some of the remaining seats to more price sensitive customers who can buy two weeks in advance and stay over. Note that segmentation calls for some tough choices. There may be a large number of variables that can be used to differentiate consumers of a given product category; yet, in practice, it becomes impossibly cumbersome to work with more than a few at a time. Thus, we need to determine which variables will be most useful in distinguishing different groups of consumers. We might thus decide, for example, that the variables that are most relevant in separating different kinds of soft drink consumers are (1) preference for taste vs. low calories, (2) preference for Cola vs. non-cola taste, (3) price sensitivitywillingness to pay for brand names; and (4) heavy vs. light consumers. We now put these variables together to arrive at various combinations. Several different kinds of variables can be used for segmentation.

Demographic variables essentially refer to personal statistics such as income, gender, education, location (rural vs. urban, East vs. West), ethnicity, and family size. Campbells soup, for instance, has found that Western U.S. consumers on the average prefer spicier soupsthus, you get a different product in the same cans at the East and West coasts. Facing flat sales of guns in the traditional male dominated market, a manufacturer came out with the Lady Remmington, a more compact, handier gun Page No. 6 of 13

more attractive to women. Taking this a step farther, it is also possible to segment on lifestyle and values.

Some consumers want to be seen as similar to others, while a different segment wants to stand apart from the crowd. Another basis for segmentation is behavior. Some consumers are brand loyali.e., they tend to stick with their preferred brands even when a competing one is on sale. Some consumers are heavy users while others are light users. For example, research conducted by the wine industry shows that some 80% of the product is consumed by 20% of the consumerspresumably a rather intoxicated group. One can also segment on benefits sought, essentially bypassing demographic explanatory variables. Some consumers, for example, like scented soap (a segment likely to be attracted to brands such as Irish Spring), while others prefer the clean feeling of unscented soap (the Ivory segment). Some consumers use toothpaste primarily to promote oral health, while another segment is more interested in breath freshening.

In the next step, we decide to target one or more segments. Our choice should generally depend on several factors. First, how well are existing segments served by other manufacturers? It will be more difficult to appeal to a segment that is already well served than to one whose needs are not currently being served well. Secondly, how large is the segment, and how can we expect it to grow? (Note that a downside to a large, rapidly growing segment is that it tends to attract competition). Thirdly, do we have strengths as a company that will help us appeal particularly to one group of consumers? Firms may already have an established reputation. While McDonalds has a great reputation for fast, consistent quality, family friendly food, it would be difficult to convince consumers that McDonalds now offers gourmet food. Thus, McDs would probably be better off targeting families in search of consistent quality food in nice, clean restaurants. Positioning involves implementing our targeting. For example, Apple Computer has chosen to position itself as a maker of user-friendly computers. Thus, Apple has done a lot through its advertising to promote itself, through its unintimidating icons, as a computer for nongeeks. The Visual C software programming language, in contrast, is aimed a techies.

Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema suggested in their 1993 book The Discipline of Market Leaders that most successful firms fall into one of three categories: Page No. 7 of 13

Operationally excellent firms, which maintain a strong competitive advantage by maintaining exceptional efficiency, thus enabling the firm to provide reliable service to the customer at a significantly lower cost than those of less well organized and well run competitors. The emphasis here is mostly on low cost, subject to reliable performance, and less value is put on customizing the offering for the specific customer. Wal-Mart is an example of this discipline. Elaborate logistical designs allow goods to be moved at the lowest cost, with extensive systems predicting when specific quantities of supplies will be needed. Customer intimate firms, which excel in serving the specific needs of the individual customer well. There is less emphasis on efficiency, which is sacrificed for providing more precisely what is wanted by the customer. Reliability is also stressed. Nordstroms and IBM are examples of this discipline. Technologically excellent firms, which produce the most advanced products currently available with the latest technology, constantly maintaining leadership in innovation. These firms, because they work with costly technology that need constant refinement, cannot be as efficient as the operationally excellent firms and often cannot adapt their products as well to the needs of the individual customer. Intel is an example of this discipline.

Treacy and Wiersema suggest that in addition to excelling on one of the three value dimensions, firms must meet acceptable levels on the other two. Wal-Mart, for example, does maintain some level of customer service. Nordstroms and Intel both must meet some standards of cost effectiveness. The emphasis, beyond meeting the minimum required level in the two other dimensions, is on the dimension of strength. Repositioning involves an attempt to change consumer perceptions of a brand, usually because the existing position that the brand holds has become less attractive. Sears, for example, attempted to reposition itself from a place that offered great sales but unattractive prices the rest of the time to a store that consistently offered everyday low prices. Repositioning in practice is very difficult to accomplish. A great deal of money is often needed for advertising and other promotional efforts, and in many cases, the repositioning fails. To effectively attempt repositioning, it is important to understand how ones brand and those of competitors are perceived. One approach to identifying consumer product perceptions is multidimensional scaling. Here, we identify how products are perceived on two or more dimensions, allowing us to plot brands against each other. It may then be possible to attempt to move ones brand in a more desirable direction by selectively promoting certain points. There are two main approaches to multi-dimensional scaling. In the a prioriapproach, market researchers identify dimensions of interest and then ask consumers about their perceptions on each dimension for each brand. This is useful when (1) the market researcher knows which dimensions are of interest and (2) the customers perception on each dimension is relatively clear (as opposed to being made up on the spot to be able to give the researcher a desired answer). In the similarity rating approach, respondents are not asked about their perceptions of brands on any specific dimensions. Instead, subjects are asked to rate the extent of similarity of different pairs of products (e.g., How similar, on a scale of 1-7, is Snickers to Kitkat, and how similar is Toblerone to Three Musketeers?) Using a computer algorithms, the computer then identifies positions of each brand on a map of a given number of dimensions. The computer does not reveal what each dimension meansthat must be left to human interpretation based on what the variations in each dimension appears to reveal. This second method is more useful when no specific product dimensions have been identified as being of particular interest or when it is not clear what the variables of difference are for the product category. Page No. 8 of 13

Section-B Case Study: Camp Prefin Ltd. Camp Prefin Ltd. is a truly global company with subsidiaries in 23 countries and an official presence in almost 60 countries. The companys product mix includes several global brands in the fast moving packaged goods category of soaps, toothpaste, shampoos, and deodorant (perfume spray). The entire portfolio is spread around these four categories with multiple brands in each category. Two parent brands of the company are Camp soap and Perfin toothpaste. The former is sold in 17 countries, while in later is sold in 32 countries under the same brand. The company has been in most countries for almost 25-30 years, and was the first one to enter and create a demand for its products. It is one of the many other packaged goods companies that expanded their sales base in several countries, including many developing ones by introducing their key products, which were very successful in the parent country. Being the first branded product of the category, its brands have immense popularly and loyalty among consumers. Some of its oldest products were actually treated as synonymous to the category and enjoyed a high level of loyalty in major countries. In the last couple of years, due to heavy competition form national as well as other multinational companies, the company has been undertaking a massive promotion plan in all major markets and uses a wide range of media, including outdoor advertising to strengthen its market leadership as well as image in the market. To combat the competitive threats, several new extensions have been developed for its soap and toothpaste products. CPL has formed a brand management group with an objective to assist the company in the following areas: Understand the consumers in different countries, their preferences and expectations form products. Understand the position and image of the brand and its market-value vis--vis other competitive brands selling in the market. Analyse consumer research on these aspects and provide a feedback to the company. Develop or suggest means of enhancing brand image and providing better value-for-product.

One of the first projects undertaken by the group was to review the existing market for its flagship brands and consumers perceptions. The reason for carrying out a research of this type was the fact that these brand have undergone multiple stages and extensions and hence, the portfolio had grown to include a large number of products. One recent product analysis had revealed that even though Perfin was considered a global brand, it was sold in nine different fragrances and four packages in different countries or regions. Similarly, the Camp toothpaste was sold in seven different variations. The other two products were also, in a similar way, sold under multiple packaging, fragrances or variations in all countries. One major handicap of such wide varied range was that the company was not enjoy the benefits of uniform advertising or manufacturing. Hence the advantages of cost effectiveness, capital expenditure savings, or greater interchange of facilities were not present. With the onslaught of several major competitors, both local and multinational, the company had to continuously find ways and means of cutting costs in order to provide better customer value and retain the profits. One way of doing so was to minimize these inefficiencies and develop more cost-effective manufacturing and advertising strategies. Therefore, the company initiated the program to first understand these inconsistencies and then correct them as well as provide better control for growth.

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One of the key and foremost element was consumer research. It revolved around identification and analysis of sub-groups. IN one respect, it was rudimentary segmentation since the sample was to be split into various sub-groups based on certain commonalties (such as demographic, skin or hair type, or lifestyles etc.). One major emphasis was on basic user analysis, dividing respondents into various groups based on their current pattern of usage. The users were divided into loyal users, occasional users, and non-user groups. The purpose was to identify the weakness and strengths and perceived value of these brands. The classification was done on the basis of response to the following nine-point scale: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Never heard of the brand Know the brand Never used and not interested in trying. Never used but interested in trying. Used it, but didnt like it. Used it and liked it. Willing to use again. Use it only occasionally. Use it most of the time. Use this product and brand and no other brand.

CAMP SOAP To start with, this research was carried out for camp shop in eight countries, which consisted about 6.3 percent of total sales volume over a time span of three months. The following results were deducted from the research: The sop broadly falls in two distinct categories of usage. One, as a family soap and other as a cosmetic soap used by one or two members of the family. The loyal users saw the brand as a wholesome traditional product, which offered good value for money and treated the soap as a permanent fixture in their lives. The non-users saw the soap as old fashioned and out-of-sync with their lifestyle. The image was less developed for consumers in age group 16-25 years and they were not heavy users. Loyal users were mostly in the age group of 25 years plus and only 12 percent loyal users were in the under 25 year age group. Further research of loyals revealed that almost 70 percent of loyal users were in the 30-45 years of range, 20 percent in 45-60 years range, and 10 percent in 25-30 years range. Out of all loyal users, almost 65 percent used it as a family-use product and only 30 percent used it as a cosmetic product. Rest saw is as a combination product.

The research findings were discussed at various levels of strategic, product and marketing managers and further broken down at functional levels. Almost everyone concluded that re-launching the product is the only way to increase market share. Case Questions: (a) How can the company increase usage among occasional users and motivate non-users?

(b)

Suggest the kind of advertising that can help its image enhancement among consumers of 16-25 years of age.

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MM07 Consumer Behaviour

Assignment No.II
Assignment Code: 2011MM07B2 Last Date of Submission: 15th Nov 2011 Maximum Marks:100

Attempt all the questions. All the questions are compulsory and carry equal marks.

Section-A Ques.1 Write short notes on the following

a)Role of social class in understanding consumption behavior

b) Relevance of culture in consumer behavior Ques.2 Ques.3 Ques.4 Comment on the statement, Buyer not bound by set rules in taking buying decisions? What are Reference group types and influences. What is meant by the term family? What is the importance of studying families to the

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understanding of consumer behaviour? Section-B Case Study: Purchase of a Microwave Oven

Ramesh Sikand and his family lived in a conformable 2.bedroom flat in respectable locality in a large city. He was employed with a General Insurance company in a supervisory capacity. His wife, Susmita was a teacher in an English medium Public School. Both their children, Rachit aged 10 and Sarita aged 8 years, were studying in the same school where Susmita was employed. Just before Diwali in 2002, one Friday evening the family went shopping. Besides clothes for children and few other things, they bought a 27 lit. Excel microwave from an outlet with good reputation. Susmita was very happy and the children were excited with this new purchase. Both the children were anticipating quick cooking of a variety of dishes they liked. They were expecting that every day Mom would give them School Tiffin-boxes packed with noodles and other Chinese food. To celebrate, Susmita invited two of her school colleagues for dinner and prepared a few dishes in her brand new microwave. Both her friends observed her cooking with great interest. On the dinner table most talk was around difficulties of both spouses being employed and the shortage of time to attend so many household chores. The friends, Ramesh and the kids profusely praised the dishes and how quickly everything for the dinner was ready. What really took most time was cooking the Chapatis. Susmita said? How nice and convenient it can be if some portable Chappati preparing gadget was available. Ramesh said,It was my idea to buy a microwave. Susmita said, Why? You have forgotten. It was I who two years ago during exam time suggested that it would be good if we buy a microwave. Both of them were trying to take credit for the purchase. Finally, both of them agreed that the idea to buy a microwave was discussed after they attended the dinner at a friends place where for the first time they saw a microwave in operation. One of Susmitas friend asked, Why did you buy this particular brand? I have read in the newspaper just a few days back that there are attractive schemes on some brands. Susmita and Ramesh spoke simultaneously, In fact, both of us have read advertisements and articles in magazines within the last six months about what features and benefits every brands offers. Susmita said, As and when I got the opportunity, I consulted some of my knowledgeable friends who have owned microwaves for quite some time, what to look for and what brands to consider. You know, I came across some scaring information about the safety of microwaves. Now the technology is so advanced that all those scaring tit bits of information are quite baseless. Ramesh said, Whatever we learned from magazine articles and experienced friends has helped us quite a lot in buying this brand. Susmita said,About schemes, you are right. We too got a set of three bowls to be used for microwave cooking. Besides, we have paid just a thousand rupees and the rest would be paid in fifteen interest free installments. There is an extended warranty of three years, and if we are not satisfied with the machine, we can return it within the first 30 days of purchase, and no questions asked. Our Rs.1000 would be refunded in cash. One of Susmitas friends said, Recently, one of my relations in Delhi told me her bad experience with this brand. She went to the extent of suggesting me never to buy this brand of microwave. Ramesh said. I dont know what to say about your relations experience. What information we could collect goes quite in favour of this brand. Those who recommended it have had few years use experience without any complaints. Susmitas friend said, You may be right Bhaisaheb. But one thing we all know is that these are machines and they are not perfect. Excellent Cars with unmatched reputations like BMW,

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Rolls Royce, and Mercedes too, need repairs. She smiled, and said, Havent you heard of Murphys Law If a thing can go wrong it will.

At about 10.30 p.m, the friends thanked Susmita and Ramesh, and congratulated them for owning a microwave and left. Susmita and Ramesh were a bit pensive after their departure. They felt somewhat uneasy about the correctness of their decision in choosing this particular brand of microwave. They know their money was safe, but it would be embarrassing if they had made a mistake. They agreed to discuss the matter with some of their experienced friends. Case Questions: (a) (b) Discuss whose decision it was to buy a microwave and when was the purchase decision made. What factors influenced the purchase on microwave?

(c) What is likely to be the post purchase behvaiour in this case and what is the significance of such behaviour? (d) What is the significance of post purchase behaviour for the marketer?

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