Question

1:drawing from the theory of consumer behaviour, disscuss any two major categories of factors that are likely to influence a consumer in the making of a decision to buy a house.

2: expound on the term marketing mix

3: name the 3 major types of markets

4: behaviouristic characteristics may be used to segment the general real estate market. Give any 3 behaviouristic indicators ( basis of purchase)

5: Briefly discuss any two types of consumer buying behaviour

6: what is product design

Answer 1

1. The two major categories of a factor that is likely to influence a consumer decision of buying a house :

a) Purchasing Power

The purchasing power of a consumer plays an important role in influencing consumer behavior. The consumers generally analyze their purchasing capacity before making a decision to buy any products or services. The product may be excellent, but if it fails to meet the buyers purchasing ability, it will have a high impact on it its sales. Segmenting consumers based on their buying capacity would help in determining eligible consumers to achieve better results.

b) Personal Preferences

At the personal level, consumer behavior is influenced by various shades of likes, dislikes, priorities, morals, and values. In certain dynamic industries such as fashion, food, and personal care, the personal view and opinion of the consumer pertaining to style and fun can become the dominant influencing factor. Though advertisement can help in influencing these factors to some extent, the personal consumer likes and dislikes exert greater influence on the end purchase made by a consumer.

2. The marketing mix refers to the set of actions, or tactics, that a company uses to promote its brand or product in the market. The 4Ps make up a typical marketing mix - Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. However, nowadays, the marketing mix increasingly includes several other Ps like Packaging, Positioning, People and even Politics as vital mix elements.
the 7Ps of marketing :

Price: refers to the value that is put for a product. It depends on the costs of production, segment targeted, the ability of the market to pay, supply - demand and a host of other direct and indirect factors.

Product: refers to the item actually being sold.

Place: refers to the point of sale. In every industry, catching the eye of the consumer and making it easy for her to buy it is the main aim of a good distribution or 'place' strategy.

Promotion: this refers to all the activities undertaken to make the product or service known to the user, and trade.

People: All companies are reliant on the people who run them from frontline Sales staff to the Managing Director. Having the right people is essential because they are as much a part of your business offering as the products/services you are offering.

Processes: The delivery of your service is usually done with the customer present so how the service is delivered is once again part of what the consumer is paying for.

Physical Evidence: Almost all services include some physical elements even if the bulk of what the consumer is paying for is intangible. For example, a hair salon would provide their client with a completed hairdo and an insurance company would give their customers some form of printed material. Even if the material is not physically printed (in the case of PDFs) they are still receiving a “physical product” by this definition.

the importance of the marketing mix

All the elements of the marketing mix influence each other. They make up the business plan for a company and handled right, can give it a great success. But handled wrong and the business could take years to recover. The marketing mix needs a lot of understanding, market research, and consultation with several people, from users to trade to manufacturing and several others.

3. A set up where two or more parties engage in the exchange of goods, services and the information is called a market. Ideally, a market is a place where two or more parties are involved in buying and selling.

Perfect Competition

Perfect competition is a market system characterized by many different buyers and sellers. In the classic theoretical definition of perfect competition, there is an infinite number of buyers and sellers. With so many market players, it is impossible for any one participant to alter the prevailing price in the market. If they attempt to do so, buyers and sellers have infinite alternatives to pursue.

Monopoly

A monopoly is the exact opposite form of the market system as perfect competition. In a pure monopoly, there is only one producer of a particular good or service, and generally no reasonable substitute. In such a market system, the monopolist is able to charge whatever price they wish due to the absence of competition, but their overall revenue will be limited by the ability or willingness of customers to pay their price.

Oligopoly

An oligopoly is similar in many ways to a monopoly. The primary difference is that rather than having only one producer of a good or service, there are a handful of producers, or at least a handful of producers that make up a dominant majority of the production in the market system. While oligopolists do not have the same pricing power as monopolists, it is possible, without diligent government regulation, that oligopolists will collude with one another to set prices in the same way a monopolist would.

alternate as according to management types of market are :

a) Physical Markets - the Physical market is a set up where buyers can physically meet the sellers and purchase the desired merchandise from them in exchange of money. Shopping malls, department stores, retail stores are examples of physical markets.

b) Non Physical Markets/Virtual markets - In such markets, buyers purchase goods and services through the internet. In such a market the buyers and sellers do not meet or interact physically, instead the transaction is done through the internet. Examples - Rediff shopping, eBay etc.

c) Auction Market - In an auction market the seller sells his goods to one who is the highest bidder.

d) The market for Intermediate Goods - Such markets sell raw materials (goods) required for the final production of other goods.

e) Black Market - A black market is a setup where illegal goods like drugs and weapons are sold.

f) Knowledge Market - Knowledge market is a set up which deals in the exchange of information and knowledge-based products.

g) Financial Market - Market dealing with the exchange of liquid assets (money) is called a financial market.

4. Three behaviouristic indicators on the basis of purchase :

a) Lifestyle - A company groups people according to their way of living as reflected in their activities, interests, and opinions. The company identifies groups of people with similar patterns of living. The question that arises in this type of segmentation is whether general lifestyle patterns are predictive of purchasing behavior in specific markets. The company will relate a brand to a particular lifestyle.

b) Geographic Variables - A marketer can use pure geographic segmentation or a hybrid of geographic and demographic variables to segment the market. Geographic segmentation is useful when there are geographic locational differences in consumption patterns and preferences. Variations in food preferences may form the basis of geographic segmentation. Both the geographic and demographic variables help a marketer to point to their segments more precisely.

c ) Purchase Occasion - Products like tires may be purchased as a result of an emergency or as a routine unpressurized buy. Price sensitivity is likely to be lower when products are bought in emergency situations.

Some products may be bought as gifts or self-purchases. Gift markets are concentrated during a festival period, while the advertising budget for these will be concentrated in the pre-festival period. Package designs may differ during this period, and special offers may also be made.Apparel brands are segmented on the basis of the occasion of usage. There are different collections for weddings, formal occasions, parties and for regular wear.Purchase Behavior

5. the two types of consumer behavior are :

a) Complex buying behavior:- when the consumer is highly involved in the buying and there are significant differences between brands then it is called complex buying behavior. So, in this case, the consumer must collect proper information about the product features and the marketer must provide detailed information regarding the product attributes. For eg. Consumer while buying a motorcycle is highly involved in the purchase and has the knowledge about significant differences between brands.

b)  Variety seeking behavior:- in this case consumer involvement is low while buying the product but there are significant differences between brands. Consumers generally buy different products not due to dissatisfaction from the earlier product but due to seek variety. Like every time they buy different washing detergent just for variety. So it is the duty of the marketer to encourage the consumer to buy the product by offering them discounts, free samples and by advertising the product a lot.

6. Designing a new product goes through an analytical process and based on a problem-solving approach to improve the quality of life of the end user and his or her interaction with the environment. It is about problem-solving, about visualizing the needs of the user and bringing a solution.Product designers also work with other professionals such as engineers and marketers. While not in charge of designing the mechanical and technological aspects of the product, they are however concerned with utilization.Product design has many fields of application: medical devices, tableware, jewelry, sports and leisure, food preservation appliances, furniture, etc.It takes into consideration also the production cost, the manufacturing processes, and the regulations.