Consumer Behavior in Buying a Refrigerator in Oman

This report discusses the consumer behavior of buying a kitchen appliance, that is a refrigerator, in Oman by highlighting the factors that influence a consumer while taking a decision of buying a particular product. It covers the type of purchase involvement, current consumer trends in Oman, positioning strategy of the product, and the consumer buying-decision process.

Running head: CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
Customer Behavior
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author Note

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Introduction
Consumer behavior refers to the process by which an individual or a group select, buy
and use a particular product in order to fulfill their needs and requirements. It is an action of the
customers in the market that allow them to buy a product. In other words it can be said that, the
consumer behavior is the mentality of the buyer while they are taking any particular product. It is
very important to study the consumer behavior as this will allow to know about the needs and
requirement of a particular product (Chand 2018). However, understanding the requirement of
the buyer will help the company to produce a product as per the needs of the customer. However,
it can be said that, if an organization is failed to understand the needs of the consumer, there is a
possibility that the product may not get success in terms of selling that is the buyers will reject
the product. With continuous changes in the requirements of the customers it is very much
important to understand the changing requirement of the buyers in order to maintain the selling
rate of the product. The consumer behavior is an important tool for marketer for gaining the sales
of objectives. During buying a product, a customer goes through a number of steps that help
them in taking decision about a particular product. To understand the consumer behavior is so
much important as a it helps the marketer to design the best possible design, to decide the price
of the product as per the customer needs, to find out the best strategy for promoting the product.
In this report, the consumer behavior of buying a kitchen appliance, that is a refrigerator, is
discussed by highlighting the factors that influences a consumer while taking decision of buying
a particular product.
Type of the Purchase Involvement
Purchase involvement of a product may be divided in two ways. The first one is high
purchase involvement and another one is low purchase involvement. A high purchase
involvement refers to that purchase in which the buyer or the consumer has to buy a product or

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service which is expensive in nature. Behind a high purchase a consumer is involved in lot
information gathering or doing research. In addition to this, the companies, that are selling such
expensive products, are also aware of the anxiety of the buyers before buying a particular
products. By understanding this behavior, the companies are more involved in giving adequate
information to the buyers about the particular expensive products. The companies are quite
aware about problem of the buyers’ post purchase and this may be a great problem for the
company as it may alter the selling rate of the product (Bhasin 2017). On the other hand the low
purchase products refers to those products that are cheap or inexpensive in nature. There are a
few factors that are associated with the low purchase involvement. The factors mainly are low
price of the product, low risk factor of the product, and lastly in a low purchase involvement,
there are a very less difference among the different products in terms of the price and quality of
the product. In addition to this it is seen that, in case of a low purchase involvement there is an
issue of brand switching as the price is not too much high for those products and a high rate of
distribution and availability of a low involvement product is also associated with the selling of a
low involvement product. However, repetitive purchase of a product is another characteristics of
a low involvement product. For example it can be said that during buying a particular shampoo a
buyer will not think so much, but when the buyer is purchasing a high involvement product like
car, he or she must think a lot as this product does not have the chances of repetitive buying
(Bhasin 2017). The high involvement purchase generally have the features like high price of the
product, technically complexity of the product, major differences is seen among the products of
the same type, brand value of the product, evaluation of risks of a particular product, brand
equity, word of mouth from the person who has already used that particular product, value
provided by the product to customer, high marketing strategy, a well maintained post purchase

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service of a particular company and lastly the opinion of the internet that is the online review of
the product is also associated with the consumer behavior (Barkman 2018). So it can be said that,
refrigerator is a high involvement purchase as it is high price commodity, a buyer will compare
the price of the refrigerator before buying a particular refrigerator. In addition to this, a
refrigerator also has a complex technology that is another feature of the high involvement
purchase. The refrigerators generally have a long time of post purchase service like warranty of
the product, brand reputation of a particular refrigerator company.
Current Consumer Trend in Oman
Consumer trends refers to the behavior or habitat of the consumer in buying a product or
a service. However a consumer generally analyses the buying trend of the consumer for a
particular product that is how the product is used by the consumer and what amount of money
they are spending to buy that product or service. In order to analyze the customer trend, the
collected data may include the information about how the buyers use the product and how they
give opinion about a particular brand. In Oman, it is seen that, refrigerator is sold by 8-9
companies. Most of the companies are operating through online and as well as through off line
method. The primary companies that sell refrigerator in Oman are LG, Samsung, Hitachi,
Gorenje, Bosh, Hommer, Whirlpool, Haier, Panasonic, Siemens (Sharafdg 2018). The electronic
product like refrigerator market in Oman is expected to have a huge a growth in next four
business year and due to the use of modern technologies, this growth is associated. The growth is
reported by the industry executives and the retail chain personnel. It is seen that, the total sales
in Oman in the year of 2013 was almost $ 828 million. The business experts assumed that, by the
end of the 2017, the sales would reach to the mark of $ 1 billion (GDP of Oman, 2018). The
report was made as per the statistics of the vendors and they had reported that a strong revenue

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was generated due to the new technology products of the modern days. They had seen that, there
was a huge requirement of the products with new technologies and those products were
responsible for generating huge revenues for the industry of electronic goods. Although the
market size of Oman is not so big and despite of that constriction in the market, the consumers’
are very much attracted by the electronic goods of modern days. Therefore, the workers of the
retail chain market had reported that, the modern technology product has mostly chosen by the
customers of the Oman. In addition to this, it was also evident that, the growing population of
Oman was attracted by the large retailer of the world (Khan 2014). The growing GDP of Oman
is another reason for the growing market of the industry. As the GDP of Oman is enhanced
overall, various global companies are investing the market of Oman as they assumed that they
would generate enough revenue from the market of the Oman. In 2017, the GDP of Oman was
amounted to be almost 70.78 billion US dollar (GDP of Oman, 2018). Moreover, it is expected
that, at the end of 2018, the amount will touch the figure of 81.68 billion US dollar and it is
estimated that, the gross GDP will be 93.11 billion US dollar at the end of 2022 (GDP of Oman,
2018). By analyzing such facts, a huge number of companies will invest in the electronic
industry of the Oman. The gradually increasing GDP indicate that, the economic condition of the
Oman people is continuously growing and as a result, the electronic product market can see a
huge amount of growth in the industry. The market of the electronic goods had a huge growth
from the mid of 2013. This growth in the market in the electronic product also helped the
vendors in their growth in the sales. With the rapid growth in the internet use of the marketing
strategies of various electronic products have changed greatly and people have a vast knowledge
about various products and as a result, the sales of the products have been increased greatly. This
rapid growth has enhanced the market of the products by many folds. With rapid needs of the

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customers, various companies are engaging in giving discounts in their products and those
discounts attract the customers in a great way. However, despite of various compromising in the
prices of the products, people are attracted towards that particular product that have the latest
technology in the market. In the market survey, it was seen that, the old technology product have
the lower rate of sales although they have the lower price. People are attracted towards the
newest technology although they have to pay more for it. Oman is a country of Middle-East Asia
and it is seen that the market of home appliances such as refrigerator and other products have a
robust growth in the countries of that region (ICT and electronics 2018). Oman is one of the
important part of the market segment of the middle-east Asia and it also would face the huge
growth of the market. Oman holds the fifth place in that region in terms of the market revenue of
the appliances in that area. A few reasons are detected in behind the rapid growth of the market
of the Oman in the field of electronic goods like refrigerator. The demand of the next generation
refrigerator with various technologies are the key factor for the rapid growth of the market in
Oman in last few years and the growth is expected to be continued as per the GDP statistics of
Oman (GDP of Oman, 2018). In addition to this, more energy efficient home appliances is also
preferred by the consumers. Moreover, the growth of the infrastructure is also another reason for
the growth of the market of the electronic goods like refrigerator. The increase in the per capita
income and penetration of the online market, also allow more people to buy refrigerator allow to
flourish the industry in a healthy manner as well. The market of the Omani customers is
flourishing the GDP growth of the country. An impactful demographic forecast caused in
brighter outlook for the Omani Consumer electronics device spending over medium term. The
improvement in the GDP growth will enhance the condition of the macroeconomic conditions

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over the period of time and that will support the rise in the consumer’s spending power for
buying electronic goods like refrigerator (Oman 2018).
.
Positioning Strategy of the product
A positioning strategy refers to the strengths and weakness of the product or an
organization, the position of the other competitor of the market, and the needs of the customer in
the market. By defining a positioning strategy, the company can spot a few specific areas of
strength of that product. A positioning strategy can be defined by using the price and quality of
the product. The product can be of four types and they are High price and low quality, high price
and high quality, low price and low quality and low price high quality. The refrigerator can be in
the positioning category of the low price and high quality. It is assumed that the positioning
strategy has a huge impact on the consumer buying. In a study it is seen that surrogate
positioning that is psychological positioning has huge impact on the consumers while they were
buying an electronic goods (Azmat and Lakhani 2015).
Consumer Buying-Decision process
The consumer buying process consists of five steps and they are need recognition,
information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post purchase behavior. The
need recognition refers to the requirement of the customers and with increasing technology, it is
seen that the customers want the modern technology and as a result companies are manufacturing
more refrigerators with modern technologies. The next stage is the information search related to
that product and it includes internal and external information search. Internal search is the
consumers; previous experience about the product. The external search refers to the information

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gathering from those who are currently using it or from the relatives who are suggesting that
brand to buy the particular refrigerator. Advertisement of a product is another important external
research and it is seen that the refrigerator company that has better advertisement strategy, they
also have the higher sales rate (Amandeep, Varshney and Aulia, 2017). The next step of the
consumer buying behavior is alternative evaluation that is comparison of the refrigerator in terms
of their price, brand name, appearance, using of modern technology, power saving mode ( Oliver
2014). It is seen that consumer generally prefer a good quality product in a comparatively low
price (Balle 2017). Refrigerator with modern technology in a low price will be more proffered by
the consumers. Purchase decision is dependent on various factors like reputation of the brand,
price of the particular product, the reputation of the shop and needs of the consumer. Post
purchase behavior is very much important for the company as a good post purchase experience
will satisfy the consumer and the buyer may suggest other people to buy the same product. This
will ultimately increase the gross revenue of the Company (Oliver 2014).
Conclusion
Lastly, it can be concluded that, refrigerator buying behavior in Oman people have been
increased greatly due to various factors like needs of new technology, increase of per capita
income, increment of the GDP, penetration of the e-commerce business in the electronic goods
market. The consumer buying behavior is the most crucial factor in buying this product in Oman.
The growing technology requirement in the people of Oman is also another reason of a good
market of refrigerator in Oman. Not only that, the online market of electronic goods is also
growing day by day as various international brands are also investigating in the market of Oman
as they predict their growth in the market of Oman. The growth of the electronic goods market is
continuously increasing with more buying of refrigerator in Oman. So it can be said that, the

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market of electronics products like refrigerator is continuously growing in Oman as per the
economic growth of the country.

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