Consumer Behaviour and Insight

This document provides an overview of consumer behaviour and insight, including the stages of consumer decision making, the importance of mapping the path to purchase, and a comparison between B2B and B2C decision-making processes.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
AND INSIGHT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Explanation and stages of consumer decision making for a particular product or service....3
P2 Important for marketer to map path to purchase and understand consumer decision
making. .......................................................................................................................................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Comparison between the decision-making process in B2B and B2C :.................................6
P4 Various methods of research in decision-making process in B2B and B2C : ......................8
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................10
P5 Factors that influence the decision-making process of B2C and B2B :..............................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Consumer behaviour define as how the customers, groups select the products and
services to meet their requirements. Their criteria of choosing the specific product for their usage
in terms of fulfilling consumers requirements there are marketplace which works for such
actions. The consumer behaviour is necessary because they play main role in the marketplace.
Apple Inc. is an American company with headquarter situated at Cupertino and California.
IPhone 7 is phone that is reliable and beneficial as it has unique features which are needed in day
to day life practices, it has a unique slim design and easy to carry (Bradford and et.al., 2017).
Customer demand is very much high with the unique features brought by Apple. The company
develops smartphones, Ipods, other electronics gadgets, software and other online services. The
report will include five steps of decision-making procedure of customer for Apple's product and
why buyer mapping is needed for marketer to make ways to purchase and understand customer
decision-making. This report will evaluate market research and methods used for understanding
decision-making process follows in B2B and B2C. Further, the report will evaluate how
marketers can affect the different stages of decision-making procedures of B2B and B2C.
LO1
P1: Procedure of Consumer decision making for a particular product or service.
Many stages are included in buyer's decision-making process which are very important
for business. This process involves the customer to identify their need, gathering information,
find alternatives and then make purchasing decision. The consumer decision-making behaviour
is very complex process which included everything starting from identifying needs or
recognition of problems to post purchase activities. these are five stages of consumer decision-
making process:
Need recognition
Need recognition is the first process in terms of identification of the consumer's
requirement. The buyer will analyse that they are in the need of a product or not. Here the buyer
is thinking of buying an apple product which is Apple iPhone 7 (Chakravarti and Thomas, 2015).
The consumer will identify the needs of an iPhone because of its specific features. As electronics
are things which people wants but actually don't need them, with advancement in technology and
new marketing strategies for these device make them feel and specify and target its need So

people have to actually analyse that they are in the need of an iPhone 7 or they are influenced by
effective marketing strategies.
Information search
This is the second stage after the need recognition. When consumer actually recognise
that they need an apple product. So buyer will search for the information of the product, search
can be internal, external or both (Gensler, S and et.al, 2015). An internal search is the process of
recalling past information stored in the memory and external search is the process of seeking
information in the outside environment. The consumers will search that what are the features of
an apple iphone7. The features they need is there in the apple product or not.
Evaluation of alternatives
Consumer also search for other products that what other substitute company is providing and
make comparison between the products. This stage is important as consumer don't wont to regret
their buying decision. There ar
e various options available with the buyers with the best preferences and available of choices in
the market. There are many objectives for a buyer it is defined what type of features a buyer
needs and needs of the product. (Venkatraman and et.al., 2015).
Purchase decision
This is the stage where buyers make final purchase decision. At this stage, the consumer
has evaluated all the facts and arrives at a logical conclusion which may be based on influence
from marketing campaigns or upon emotional connection or personal experience or combination
of both. After gathering information about all the other products and evaluating them on the
above mention basis the consumer makes final decision that they should buy an apple product or
not. The consumer must be sure at this stage at this is the final stage as once product is purchased
the decision cannot be changed.
Post purchase behaviour
The purchase of product is followed by post purchase which refers to analyse that
whether the product purchased by the consumer was satisfactory or not. As consumer decided to
purchase Apple iPhone 7 so how well their expectations are met, determines whether the
purchaser is satisfied or dissatisfied with the purchase (Karatzas, Kapoulas and Priporas, 2019).
When the consumer is satisfied and happy with the apple product, will also influence other
consumer to buy the same product this helps in increasing the customer base for apple. And

opposite in the case whether the buyers are not satisfied, this create negative impact on the brand
as it may reduce the customer base of apple.
P2 Important for marketer to map path to purchase and understand consumer decision making.
Consumer mapping is a way to visualise the customer experience and how they interact
with the business. This process creates and overview of the customer experience and maps that
how buyers move through the sales funnel. Importance of consumer mapping-
Bridging the gaps between sales, marketing and operations
Consumer mapping helps the firm in bridging the gap between sales. As marketers get
information about the needs of the consumer. Apple will produce the products which are
required by the customers. This approach helps the organization in making marketing strategies,
as which marketing approach attracts more buyers will be adopted by the firm. Consumer
mapping helps the organization in executing the operations and thus assist in increasing the sales.
Better understanding the consumers
Advantage of consumer mapping is that it provides information that how people reacts in
different circumstances with the potential to identify operational inefficiencies. This process
helps in gathering more information from the buyers (Knox and et.al., 2016). This helps the
Apple company in knowing the needs of the consumers, that what products they need, any
improvement required can be made in the product. By understanding the buyers need and
intention more new products can be launched in the market by Apple.
Building an emotional connection
Buying a product or subscribing to a new service can be a very emotional process. This
approach helps apple in building an emotional connection with the consumers. As knowing the
Illustration 1: decision making process

customers feeling is important for business. Any product consumers buy only when they trust the
brand, for holding the customers for a longer time it is very important that their trust must not be
broken.
Helps in development of products
By this approach, data can be gathered which helps the marketer in gathering information
about the needs of consumers. Consumer mapping helps the Apple in making any change in the
products as consumers are not satisfied with the features, so new features can be launched by the
company. If the buyers are not satisfied with the quality provided company can make changes
according to that. Thus, consumer mapping assists the development of Apple products.
Marketers are responsible as they provide a brief feedback to the company about the
product and customers response towards the product (Morales, Amir and Lee, 2017). Which can
help them in providing the strategies needed for the product's existence in the marketplace.
M1 Marketers responding to consumer decision making process
Black box model: The black box model of consumer behaviour identifies the stimuli for
buying behaviour. This model gives details about how buying behaviour of consumers changes.
The black box model comprises of two components, the buyer’s characteristics and buyer’s
decision process (Venkatraman and et.al., 2019). There are several characteristics by which
buying behaviour impacts these are as follows:
Beliefs/Attitude
The buying behaviour of consumers are impacted by their beliefs and attitude. As belief
plays an important role it can be positive or negative towards a particular product or services.
Consumers have certain specific feelings towards some products or brand. So if people like and
trusts the product iPhone7 of Apple brand then only they will purchase the products otherwise
they will not, so in this sense belief impacts the buying behaviour of people. So this assist
marketer in producing the products which match the belief of buyers.
Perception
Perception affects the behaviour of consumer as different people have different
perception towards a particular product or service. According to which they make purchase, as
some people wishes to buy flagship phones of Apple and sell iPhone7 they will buys that and
others who not prefers these types of phone will not purchase that (Mueller, Diehl and Terlutter,
2015). The perception also includes pricing of products, brand values and ethics, quality

provided and packaging. So it is important for marketer to know perception of consumers and
then manufacture a product.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle impacts a lot in buying behaviour. As the buyers buys only that stuffs which are
suitable to their lifestyle. As lifestyle plays a huge role in influencing consumer behaviour.
iPhones are costly as compared to other products available in market. Iphone7 comes out with a
different pricing strategy. People who have high living standard will purchase products of high
price, so this helps marketer to manufacture products which satisfy the life style of consumers.
LO 2
P3 Comparison between the decision-making process in B2B and B2C:
B2B Decision Making Process B2C Decision Making Process
It is the first process of decision-making where
the product value is low and it's had low
strategic importance among the business
clients. Client company are not paying
attention to the price of the product's which can
give company a huge margin. For example –,
the pricing of the product is low but then also
consumers doesn't tend to buy that product
(Shankar and et.al., 2016). At that time client
organisation were not aware of such smart
watch so the consumer's are not attracted
towards that watch.
It is the very first step in the decision-making
process which recognition of needs. Purchase
will not be happened if consumer doesn't need
the product and services of the company. The
need of the client can be evaluated by internal
and external stimuli. For example – Apple had
launched iPhone in 2007 with its first
generation then with evaluation of the needs
and demands of the consumers and new
updates in the technology the company had
launched the iPhone 3G in 2011 the process
carried on further and currently they had
introduced the iPhone 11 Pro Max with the
updated features according to the needs of the
consumer's.
It is the second process of decision-making in
which the pricing of the product is low but it is
highly strategic important to the business
clients. The client organisation are eagerly
The next step is information gathering
techniques and evaluation of alternatives now s
days in the hi-tech world more technologies are
updated and consumers are more friendly with

waiting to purchase such product. For example,
Apple had launched the MacBook Pro in 2009,
the pricing of the product is low but
consumer's eagerly to buy that product and it
was so much in trend that time every
individual want its own MacBook.
the online methods and by searching the
product they can find an appropriate product
with the availability of similar alternatives of
the product available in the market. For
example, Apple is promoting its product with
the help of SEO so that consumer's will easily
get through their products online and the
products are also available on the other
retailing online web portals and applications.
And thus consumer can easily compare the
product with other similar product available in
the market.
The Third process of decision-making involves
the high pricing of the product with the low
strategic importance to its clients. The clients
would bargain to diminish the extra expenses
which are involved in the product. For
example, Apple had launch iPhone 6 in 2014
with the extraordinary high price clients need
to purchase that product but due to the high
pricing consumer will not purchase the product
thus the product does not survive in the market
for long term as business clients wants that the
pricing of the product must be low.
The further step is to select an option which is
appropriate for the consumer according to their
needs and demands. After evaluation of the
alternatives the decision-making is performed
to select an appropriate option for the
purchasing which fulfils the needs of the
customers. The product value, quality of the
product and services which is offered by the
company are trustworthy and reliable. For
example, Consumer will select the suitable
Apple product with the help of comparison and
will select after the comparison and evaluation
of products from other available alternative in
the market.
The last process of decision-making involves
the high value of the product and high
importance among the clients. The clients will
purchase the product even if the pricing of the
The last step includes the implementation of
the decisions and also include the review and
evaluation of the decision. After the selection
of the product the consumer buys the product

product is high as they are provided with the
best output of the demands which they ask for
(Theotokis and Manganari, 2015). For
example, Apple has introduced the Apple TV
(4th generation) the pricing of the product is
high as compare to their TV in the market but
then also high number of clients wants to
purchase such product as the TV contains a
specific feature which differentiate itself from
the other TV available in the market.
which is suitable according to the needs and
demands of them. The product is best in all
cases which are pricing, quality and quantity
etc. The consumer will also review the product
after use whether the product fulfils the needs
and demands or not. This review by the
consumer will help the company to update their
product to cope up with any deficiency in their
product. For example, Apple has been updating
its products according to the reviews made by
their customer's for their product this help
company to satisfy the needs and demand of
the consumer's efficiently.
P4 Various methods of research in decision-making process in B2B and B2C:
Research has been considered as the important parts for company in order to have proper
development along progress in decision-making process. This is important to have research
which make the company to have easily level of in order to have go through development in
needs and demands of consumer to have cope up the level of deficiency in their respective
product developed. This has the level of graduation according the various level of requirement.
Primary Market Research Method –
It is the method which has been considered as the data collection method which have
level of potentiality of consumers. This has the involvement of various techniques which have
inclusion of survey along with field interviews and observation. This helps in collecting the level
of feedback with each consumer on various aspects of emotionally, socially, rationally, culturally
and economically etc (Vehmas, 2019). this helps in having proper level of evaluation's by
customer's feedback to make them as per the current prevailing trends and existing impoverish of
variants product as required. The techniques are such as follows-
Market Research Survey
The survey ha been considered as the basic way used by companies to have the specific
market research which can be level of feedback along with extensive survey of web which is
been used by companies. The company apple has the use of survey techniques which will helps

in availing the customer feedback. The company have tendency in order to have collection of
data with the help of I frame in which there will be signifiant level of popping is been created as
visitors the particular level of insights. This helps the company have the availing of various
needs along with improvement of existing and new products as if change is been required.
Online Questionnaire
it is consideration as the popular form of survey maximum reach of propel can be
achieved. The company apples have the application of online questionnaire so that they are able
to have collection of questionable with large number of propel. The company prepares the
questionnaire which fits all their products like Phones, TV, Ipad, Smart watch, Mac Book etc.
With the use of the current attainable feedback the company is providence level of satisfaction
to the customer as per the products (Venkatraman and et.al., 2015). The company is having the
establishment of services such as questionnaire of that entity would have able top have proper
indentation of problems and able bale to have the rising the issues rearrested to quality items in
more effective manner.
Secondary market research-
It is a type of a market research which simply involves collection of data or information from
various secondary sources. These source may include internet, books and journals,etc. In other
words it can be simply explained that a business can use information that has been already been
collected by other entity or person. There are various sources a business can collect information
or data from and some of them are mentioned below:
Commercial sources: These are the sources from information can be easily collected such type
of sources includes radio, magazines, newspapers, journals etc. These types of commercial
sources contains accurate and valid information on various agendas like business, politics,
environment, economy and other various similar subjects. Apple Inc can use these type of
sources in order to collect the data which can used for making accurate business decisions. With
the help of these sources company can increase the popularity of its products in the market and
can also use these sources to make changes in their products and services. One of the major
information a business can collect is the view of the customers and can analyse their level of
satisfaction and their post purchase behaviour. These source can prove to be an effective sources
of secondary data for a company through which it can collect data and generate awareness about
the product and services of a company.

Online sources: These are the most popular sources and easiest sources for data collection for
the company. Company can use various online sources in order to gather data and even it is free
of cost which means company does not have to pay for such type of researches. Apple Inc. can
use of various online sources one of the best example is social media in order to collect the
information. Majority of custmers across the world use different social media sites to post their
reviews about company's products and services (Wlömert and Papies, 2016). Here company can
collect these reviews which can prove to be helpful information for the company in developing a
new product or modifying the existing ones. For example Apple can use various online reviews
for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and collect the information from these online sites. Also,
company can make use of statistical data that are available form its competitors sites and analyse
their strategies which can help a company to develop a new and effective strategy in the future.
LO 3
P5 Factors that influence the decision-making process of B2C and B2B:
Market research methods helps the company to avail through the market research through
various techniques this help the Apple to collect the feedback from the consumer's from different
sources as that they can be used for the up gradation of the product and fulfilling the needs and
demand of their customer's. It is very helpful for company to avail that whether the consumers
are satisfied with their products or not more the satisfied customer more the profit margin due to
increase in sale (Vehmas, 2019). There are many factors of market research which influence the
consumer's decision-making process effectively. This may include –
There are various factors that affect purchase decision of B2B business, these are
explained as below:
Economic factor: It is the element that impact on purchasing capacity of buyers. If interest rate is
higher then it may affect value if currency which will affect spending capacity of consumers. In
such condition people will not spend much amount which will affect the purchasing decision of
B2B business.
Competition :it is another element that affect buying decision of B2B business, if competitors are
making changes in the prices then would influence consumers which would create problem in
retaining consumers hence it will affect profit of the firm and its purchasing decision will be
affected.
Factors affecting B2C business are described as below:

Quality of products: it is considered as major factor which influence the decision of B2C firms,
as companies are required to offer quality goods so that consumers retain in business, if
enterprise fails to offer them such kind of products then it would help in satisfying consumers.
 Personality - Personality is the factor which directly affects the buying behaviour
decision of the consumer. The consumer will purchase the product according to their
personality what they need and want all depends on their personality it plays a major role
in the consumer decision-making (Xue and Singh, 2019). A business man, industrialist,
rich man or high economic class people will purchase the products of Apple to maintain
their class in the society as the apple products is the big brand and the products of the
company are expensive which can't be afforded by the middle and lower class.
 Motivation- Motivation also plays a major role in context to the company, the products
which are manufactured by the company should be according to the different
personalities as there can be a product for the high class then there also the product for
middle class that can be afforded by the middle class consumer's. Apple kept in mind,
and they develop the product for every class they develop product with the high price and
medium price is that both of the class can afford the product of their brand. They also
upgrade and update their products according to the needs and demands of the consumer's
which helps the company to be the best brand in the market with the first choice for
consumer's.
 Learning and Perception – Learning and perception is the process of adopting new, or
implementing existing, knowledge, skills, behaviours, preferences or values. Learning
has a Psychological influence on the behaviour of the consumer's behaviour. The
psychological variable directly affects the buying decision process of the consumers. This
learning and perception directly affects the purchase decision of the consumer as business
man will prefer the MacBook manufactured by the Apple as it had a hi-tech feature in it
and easily carried out anywhere and can easily operate so it will be used by them.
 Lifestyle- The lifestyle of the consumers also affect its decision making. If the consumers
belong to economic and luxurious class then they will engage in buying products which
are suitable to their lifestyle. They will not go for any product which is beyond their
lifestyle. So Apple needs to lay emphasis on this.

 Culture - In the present scenario culture factors are playing important role in the business
and consumer taste or lifestyle. There is huge difference due to the presence of the
different culture in the global world. These cultural difference influence the consumer
needs or how people do business. Culture factors affects the business like functional area
of the marketing, sales, propensity of risk taking, business protocol etc. Due to presence
of the different culture in environment consumer taste and lifestyle is also affecting.
Consumer is changing there choice according to the different culture in the environment
(Chakravarti and Thomas, 2015). Nowadays Iphone is the commonly used by number of
people because its became the fashion or trend this is only because of the cultural change.
It affects both the business and the consumer choice in many ways.
M2 Different factors influencing decision making
The learning and perception will also help the Apple to implement new technologies and
upgrade their products with the new trends and innovation developed by their technical and
engineering team as apple is the biggest hi-tech brand with a great goodwill among market
for its differentiate products and its features (Shankar and et.al., 2016). They can learn new
techniques and trends so that they can implement them in their product. Thus, this will help
the company to maintain their brand's stability among the market and compete with the other
rivals in the market and maintain differentiated products so that consumer's first preference
will be there products.

CONCLUSION
Form the above file it can be concluded that the consumer behaviour has been
considered as the importunate parts for development in the organization. The stages which is
stages which is making the different stages of consumer decision-making to order to have
assistance to have feedback before evaluating the behaviour of consumer which can be easily to
fulfil the needs that can be accomplished to with different methods. The feedbacks given
consumers company to have level of up graduation in order to have implementation of changes
on order to have maintenance of stability in the branding on market effectively to have achieved
the objective4s of organization.

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