Brand and High-involvement Products

In a nutshell, a brand needs to know its consumers to be able to provide them with premium products and service as well as to communicate theses benefits through the right channels.

Research suggests that customers go through a five-stage decision-making process when making any purchase. This is summarised in the diagram below:

Consider the last purchase you made in these categories: personal electronics, clothing, and vacation destination. To what extent was your purchase decision influenced by decision-making complexity, individual influences, social influences, and situational influences? What specific issues were the most influential in making the decision? How could a marketer have swayed your decision in each case?

The BMW brand and its subsidiaries attempt to create value for the costumer by differentiating themselves from the rest of their competitors. All of them: BMW, Mini and Rolls Royce want to project an image of luxury and exclusiveness, thus creating enough customer value that they are capable of increasing the prices over the real market price; in other words their selling point is high quality in exchange of high prices. The only one that differs from the rest is the BMW Motorrad, their motorcycle company, as while it also counts itself in the “high quality – high price” market, the other vehicles BMW produces are targeted towards a successful and middle age people market, while their motorcycle campaign targets a younger customer segment by projecting an adventurous, energetic and free image. It is also arguable that the Mini segment tries to identify itself more as just being different or eccentric rather than to project a high social image in order to differentiate itself, but, then again, it is a “high quality – high price” product.

This semester having to track all of my buying has been very helpful and eye opening. I was able to break down all of my buying into 8 categories; clothes, food (groceries), food (restaurants), entertainment, gas, gym, miscellaneous, and school. I was able to conclude that most of my purchases were paid with a debit card with the exception of my school payments. Most of my purchases were in store with the exception of a few purchases online. The majority of my purchases were wants and not necessities, and after doing this project throughout the semester I have a lot of unnecessary buying. This paper is a reflection of all of my buying.

Understanding consumer behaviour is essential to succeed in business. As Solomon et al. (2013) stresses, businesses exist to satisfy consumer’s needs. By identifying and understanding the factors that influences their customers, firms have the opportunity to develop a more efficient strategy, marketing message and advertising campaigns that is more in line with the needs and ways of thinking of their target consumers (Perreau, 2015).

The article The Great Brand Controversy is written to display Lewis’ opinion of how brand names are losing popularity to a price driven economy. He supports his argument through

Have you ever wondered why most people are buying products from familiar brands? Usually, the most valuable brands becomes associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumer's mind. They provide unique design, performance, technology and durability in order to fulfill their customer's needs.

Brand competitors and the diversity of choice that is available to consumers, puts brands under pressure to offer high quality products and service, excellent value and a wide availability (Clifton et al., 2009). Brands must differentiate themselves from the competition and create an unforgettable impression.

In today’s world of various products and services, businesses aim to excel and lead the competition by marketing the most number of consumers, which is a full time endeavor of business. To survive in the market, a firm or an organization has to be constantly innovating and understand the latest consumer trends and tastes. Marketers need to understand consumer behavior because the decision-making process for consumers is anything but straight forward. Consumers’ behaviors and their purchasing patterns is a huge advantage to understanding the way customers think and the reason for their purchases. Therefore, the study of consumer behavior is important because it allows the

Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.

1) The buyer decision process of traditional Porsche customers relies on the motivations that determine these people to select this brand. Their purchasing decision process is based on the exclusivity of the brand that is connected with the car owner. In their opinion, by purchasing a Porsche, traditional customers purchase the exclusivity and luxury associated with the brand. These customers want to purchase a car that reflects their social status and their financial power. In addition to this, they are not interested in the utility of the car, but in the characteristics that differentiate it from utility cars. These traditional buyers are rather interested in their feeling while driving a Porsche in comparison with the size, price, or fuel economy of the car.

Customers can make different judgements as regards a brand. Customers put together imagery and the different brand performance to make the judgement (Lane Keller, 2011).

quality, and recognized by the consumer as such. The brand is seen as expensive, but

Understanding consumer behaviour may lead to changes in the design of a pilot product, a product 's packaging or its position within the store. Understanding why customers buy what they do also helps a company create campaigns to encourage repeat purchase and referrals.