MBA404 Consumer Behavior and Marketing: Herbal Soap Purchase Analysis

This assignment delves into the consumer behavior surrounding the purchase of a herbal soap from The Australian Natural Soap company, analyzing the decision-making process through the lens of the five stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase behavior. The paper outlines the consumer's journey, starting with the recognition of an unmet need for eco-friendly, chemical-free products and a desire for healthy skin. It then explores the information search phase, encompassing internal recall and external sources like friends, family, and advertisements. The evaluation of alternatives is examined, highlighting the consumer's comparison with other brands and the factors influencing the final choice, such as medicinal benefits. The purchase stage details the actual transaction, and the post-purchase behavior reflects the consumer's satisfaction, leading to a potential repeat purchase and recommendation. The analysis also incorporates relevant marketing factors and psychological influences, along with references to supporting literature.

Consumer behavior and marketing psychology
THE AUSTRALIAN NATURAL SOAP COMPANY

Concept of consumer behavior
 Consumer behavior is the study of the way groups , individual
customers or organizations buy, use and dispose the goods or services
in order to satisfy their wants and needs.
 It is also the actions of the customers in terms of marketing along with
the motives underlying those decisions.
 It can be also said that consumer behavior is the decision process of
people purchasing goods or services for the personal consumption.

Factors affecting consumer behavior
 The marketing factors as price ,product design, positioning , packaging
and distribution.
 Personal factors as gender, age, income level and education .
 Psychological factors as product perceptions, buying motives and
attitude toward product.
 Situational factors as purchasing environment and time.
 Social factors as reference groups, social status and the family.
 Cultural factors as religion, caste, class and sub-castes.

Benefits of consumer behavior
knowledge
 The marketers can become extremely benefitted by the knowledge of
consumer behavior.
 It helps in determining the product design,
 Product pricing
 Packaging
 Positioning
 Place of distributing

Consumer decision making process
 The selected product is a herbal soap from The
Australian Natural Soap company
 There are five stages of a consumer decision making process which I
have undergone to buy this product. The steps are as follows:
 Need Recognition
 Information search
 Evaluation of alternatives
 Purchase
 Post purchase behavior

Need Recognition
 The need recognition occurs at the time of a customer facing
imbalance between desired and actual states.
 The need can initiate through sight of the product , smelling it, tasting,
touching or hearing.
 The need of the product can be initiated through recognizing an
unfulfilled need and a product which will satisfy it.

Need recognition (herbal soap)
 The need aroused from the growing awareness of eco-friendly
products free of chemicals and harmful stuff.
 The need was to have a beautiful , naturally glowing skin within
affordable prices.
 It was not an impulsive shopping
 It was a planned decision to try the natural soaps of The Australian
Natural Soap company.
 The need became encouraged when an advertise popped up on
television depicting the good reviews of herbal soaps.

Information search
 There are few parts of the information search stage. The internal
information search is the process of information recalling which are
stored in the memory
 The external information search is about seeking information in the
outer environment.
 The marketing controlled information sources are those which
originates from marketers who promote the product.
 The non-marketing controlled information are those which are not
associated with advertising.

Information search ( Herbal soap)
 During the information search stage I have taken help of both the
internal and external search.
 I have recalled by previous experiences with brands which gave me
rough skin and dull face.
 As external search, I have talked to my friends, neighbor and family .
They have all supported me with the choice of a herbal soap.
 The television advertisements and posters of the product have worked
as marketing controlled source of information for me

Evaluation of Alternatives
 After the information search stage, the search for potential alternatives
comes to the fore.
 Under all the potential alternatives such as other products from other
brands comes awareness set.
 The awareness set consists of evoked set or the considered
alternatives
 Next comes the Inert set or the back up alternatives.
 Then comes the Inept set of the avoided alternatives
 Opposite to awareness set comes the unawareness set.