Consumer Behaviour Assignment: Customer Decision Making Process of Panadol Tablets

Question

Task: You are required to submit a validation step and prepare 1200 words written analysis in a consumer behaviour assignment report, in which you must discuss and critically analyse your recent purchase of a product or service based on the 5-step Consumer Decision Making Process.

Answer

Introduction
As per the research on consumer behaviour assignment, it is stated that every business produces, manufactures, and markets its products for attracting customers to generate revenue for its business. Thus, the final customer becomes an important part of the business, hence insights about decision making and psychology help in undertaking business decisions. The consumer decision-making process is referred to as the procedure through which the customer becomes aware of the products while are also able to identify the needs. The understanding of customer decision making is very important for every business to optimize the opportunities and increase their customer base. This report will be a self-reflective analysis for deciding on the product in real-time scenarios.

Customer Decision-making process
The customer decision-making process consists of five stages through which the consumer (Like me) realizes the problem and finds a solution by purchasing a product or service. The processes are illustrated below

Need Recognition- This is the first stage that of the purchasing process as the customers should be aware of the problems while substituting the same with the product or service. In addition to this, the customer becomes aware of their needs and issues if an advertisement or promotion is aimed at solving their issue. Many companies produce products but lack of awareness amongst the customers reduces the market opportunities. It becomes important for all businesses to target the right customers for a gap that can be fulfilled with a product or service (Zisman2019, p.57). In this view, I face issues of headache and fever which can be healed through appropriate medications, hence the need for purchasing paracetamol arisen when I faced health issues. Many brands sell paracetamol tablets, however, friends and advertisements helped in selecting Panadol tablets. The features of the product were explained by the medical shop service man which helped in confirming my need on taking Panadol Tablets whenever I have a cold, cough, fever, or other types of viral diseases. The purchasing of medicinal products requires in-depth research as it might impact the health and increase discomfort.

Information Search: In this stage, the customers are more interested in finding options about the product or service. The information about the products or services might be obtained through word of mouth from friends and acquaintances. The product cost, risk, and other features are evaluated by the buying the product so that decision is not regretted (Lantos2015, chap 2). Every customer aims at receiving value for his money hence information from all sources is collected before making the final purchase. As I mentioned, there are many brands of paracetamol tablets, at first, I obtained information from advertisement and bill boards outside the medicine shop while one of my friends also recommended me that this product heals health problems. Since the product is associated with my body and varied type of harmful chemicals used in the products, I inquired about the product from my family as well medicine shop owner after which I understood that Panadol will be appropriate for my needs. In the other words, advertisement and some kind of internet search acted as external information source while word of mouth recommendations from family and friends was internal information sources. I strongly believe in internal sources as it provides me with real time information on the products (due to is usage done by my family and friends).

Figure 1:Poster Advertisement of Panadol Tablets

Evaluation of Alternatives: In this step, different alternatives of the product that might be available are searched. The customer searches for different types of alternatives that can satisfy the demands while seeking the best option from all. The evaluation of alternatives can be judged through varied product features like prices, quality, and other factors that are important for meeting the needs and demands (Lee&Sharon 2015, p.1). In this view, I viewed alternatives of paracetamol tablets on the internet as well as in the pharmacies, I found thatIbuprofen is the best alternatives for paracetamol. The prices and quality of each product were analysed by me for selection, the comparison made by me is given below. Even, I reviewed other variants of Panadol for differentiating product features. I was skeptical about purchasing high dosage paracetamol tablets due to the side effects I had heard and read through online platforms thus I compared them with another alternative that is Ibuprofen. The other variant of Panadol that is Panadol Extra which comes in red colour was rejected because of the high dosage and required a prescription from the doctor.

Purchasing Decisions: The purchasing behaviour of the customer is converted into actions. At this stage, the customer generally decides to purchase the products by evaluating all the factors. The final decision might be influenced by varied marketing campaigns or from experiences that have beenresulted from personal observation. In this view, the purchasing decision was made by purchasing through medical shops that are located near me (Arora&Jentjens- Bacouel2014, chap 2). After searching all types of information and comparing it with Ibuprofen, I decided to purchase the product as it will be effective in meeting health discomforts like headache, cold, fever, tooth ache, and others. Also, the reviews on online purchasers were reviewed before taking the final decision. I prefer purchasing medicines through offline methods hence did opt for online ordering through different pharmaceutical or grocery applications. I have maintained a good relationship with the nearby medical store, hence the owner was kind of to give us discounts as well guiding us in choosing the correct product.

Post- Purchase Evaluation: The post-purchase evaluation is considered to the usefulness of the product to the final consumer. The customer does not repurchase the products if it has not matched the expectations of the client, however, if the value of the product is worth the usefulness then it is promoted through word- of mouth recommendations (Mihart2012, p.121). Thus, it becomes important for the businesses to price the product according to the quality and usefulness for further promotions and high brand awareness. In this view, the usefulness of the product according to the price and quality is high for me, hence I will repurchase the product while also promote to my family and friends.

Conclusion
In the report, a self- purchasing decision regarding a product was discussed through 5 steps. The customer decision-making process of mine started with the identification of the need for my health discomfort, continued with a collection of information through internal and external sources, along with an evaluation of alternatives. After I had collected all the required information, I purchased the product while I have also decided to repurchase the same as it was highly useful for me.

References
Arora, A &Jentjens- Bacouel, S 2014, ‘ Advertising Confluence- Transitioning Marketing Communications Into Social Movements’, Palgrave Macmillan. Chap 2

Lantos, GP 2015,’Consumer Behavior in Action- Real-life Applications for Marketing Managers’, Taylor &Francis, chap 2.

Lee, AL & Sharon NG 2015, ‘Handbook of Culture and Consumer Behavior’, Oxford University Press. Page 1

Mihart, C. 2012, Impact of integrated marketing communication on consumer behaviour: Effects on the consumer decision-making process, International Journal of Marketing Studies, vol. 4, no.2, p.121.

Zisman, BS 2019, ‘Banks and Thrifts: Government Enforcement and Receivership’, Lexis Nexis, p. 57.