Factors Influencing the Choice of Products and Services Essay

As the consumers, many factors influence our purchasing decisions. Majority of people are conditioned in such a way to choose from the millions of the alternatives of products as well as making other choices. In reality, it is not easy to recognize these factors. However, the factors that influence our choices play crucial roles in helping the consumers in identifying their needs and ultimately finding the solutions to such demands. In reality, the decisions, processes, and the actions involved in the buying as well as using the products is referred to as the consumer behavior.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Factors that influence the kind of products vary from one individual to the other. Primarily, personal preferences affect the decision of a consumer to buy a given product or service. The shades of likes, dislikes, the morals and the values that one attaches to a given product or service can influence this decision. Also, the opinion of the consumer about a given product will also contribute as an influencing factor. Secondly, the economic conditions have been shown to have a tremendous impact on the kind of the products or services that the consumers buy (Karimi, Papamichail, & Holland, 2015). A positive economic environment will make consumers more confident and willing to indulge in the purchases despite their personal financial needs. Also, people cannot buy the items and products they cannot afford. While the lack of the product plays a crucial role here, the affordability dictates the purchasing decision and power in this case (Solomon et al. 2014).

The group influence or group factors is also observed as factors that affect the decisions made by the consumers (Nagle & Muller, 2017; Zhang et al. 2014). Ideally, the primary influential group composed of the family members, classmates, immediate relatives have a more significant influence on the actions and decisions of a consumer. As such, the consumer is likely to like or go for the products and services preferred by their family members of friends. The activities that I did or engaged in over the weekend included mountain biking and the listening to music through my personal computer. For the mountain biking, I used my bicycle that I had purchased a few weeks ago.

In the same way, I used my personal computer to listen to some of my favorite music. Various factors influenced my decision and actions to purchase the personal computer, and the bicycles and these factors included the pressing need that I was subjected to at the time of purchase, group influence, and brands. However, the decision to purchase the computer was solely influenced by the brand as I preferred the Apple computer to another kind of brands. Primarily, the choice for this brand was based on its efficiency, as I believed that it would substantially meet the nature of my personal needs. Besides, the favorable experiences with the Apple Computer formed a strong emotional bond that converted into the brand preference and ultimately acted as my Trustmark's. This perception truncated my decision-making buying process as I could shop without inspecting the features of the product and benefits. Other factors such as the group influence further shaped my decision-making when it came to buying of the bike but was not influenced by the personal elements.

References

Karimi, S., Papamichail, K. N., & Holland, C. P. (2015). The effect of prior knowledge and decision-making style on the online purchase decision-making process: A typology of consumer shopping behaviour. Decision Support Systems, 77, 137-147.

Solomon, M. R., Dahl, D. W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J. L., & Polegato, R. (2014). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). London: Pearson.

Nagle, T. T., & Muller, G. (2017). The strategy and tactics of pricing: A guide to growing more profitably. Routledge.

Zhang, K. Z., Zhao, S. J., Cheung, C. M., & Lee, M. K. (2014). Examining the influence of online reviews on consumers' decision-making: A heuristic-systematic model. Decision Support Systems, 67, 78-89.