Critical Reflection: Consumer Behaviour of MacBook and Dell

This report delves into consumer behavior by comparing the purchasing decisions related to MacBook and Dell products, examining the influence of various factors. The report begins by introducing consumer behavior and its models, with a focus on the EKB Model to explain consumer decision-making processes. It explores how situational influences, such as physical factors and social aspects, impact consumer choices. Psychological influences, including motivation, perception, and learning, are analyzed to understand how they shape consumer attitudes and beliefs towards each product. Furthermore, the report investigates the effects of social and group influences, highlighting how brand image and group preferences affect purchasing decisions. Through this analysis, the report concludes that consumer behavior is dynamic and subject to change based on these multifaceted factors, providing insights into the consumer's decision-making journey.

Consumer Behaviour

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Reflection on EKB Model...............................................................................................................2
Situational Influence........................................................................................................................4
Psychological Influence...................................................................................................................5
Social and Group Influence.............................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10
Appendix........................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Consumer behavior is the study of behavior of customers, group or organizations and all the
activities that are associated with the purchase, use, and disposal of goods and services including
the consumer’s mental, behavioral and emotional responses. Consumer’s behavior is an
interdisciplinary social science that blends elements from sociology, social, psychology,
marketing and economics (Murphy, and Dweck, 2016). The main purpose of this is to
understand the concept of consumer behavior that affects the decision of consumers. In this
report, the discussion is made on the topic of consumer behavior and its models. In this report,
there are two groups such as group A and group B. In Group A, the MacBook has been taken as
the production and in group B, Dell has been taken as the second product. In this report, the
various factors affect the decision of consumer of MacBook and Dell by purchasing the product.
At the beginning of the report, the EKB Model of consumer behavior will be discussed to
describe consumer behavior. After that, the discussion is made on the concept of situational
influence, physiological influence; social and group influence the consumer’s behavior towards
the purchase of MacBook and Dell.
Reflection on the EKB Model
EKB (Engel Kollat and Blackwell) Models is the consumer behavior that was designed to save
as a framework for organizing the fast-growing body of knowledge concerning consumer
behavior. The model contains the five steps in which the behavior of consumers has been
explained.

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(Sources: Snowblower, 2019)
Group A
MacBook is the whole new level of performance and profitability. The five-step of the model
such as input, information processing, decision process, decisional variables, and external
factors. It has been seen that the MacBook has a limited consumer just because of its expensive
nature of the product. Being the consumer of MacBook, the advertisement on the different tools
helps to aware me about the new model with the new features. In the information processing
step, I would like to search all reviews, attention, acceptance, and comprehension about the
product to purchase a high-quality product before purchasing product. After getting the whole
information, I would like to decide based on its outcomes. The main decision of purchasing of
the product relies on the problems, alternative evaluation, choice, purchase, and outcomes. There

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is some external factor that influences me to make the decision such as family influence, cultural
norms, and the others (Hofacker, Malthouse, and Sultan, 2016).
Group B
Being the consumer of Dell, the advertisement always influenced me to decide on the product.
At this stage, I get the information from marketing and non-marketing sources that is essential
for me to decide on purchasing the product. After getting the information, I will always prefer to
recheck the information to confirm. In the decision process, I am only focused on the five basic
decision process stages such as problem recognition, alternative evaluation, purchase, and
outcomes. But I am mainly focused on the alternative evaluation as I always prefer to analyze the
alternative products. To find the alternative solution, I would like to check the product in
financial terms as that I am able or not to buy the product.
Situational Influences
Situational influences are the temporary condition that affects the consumer’s behavior whether
they buy your product, buy additional products, or buy nothing. The influences include things
such as physical factors, time situation, social factors, consumer’s mood, and reason for the
consumer’s purchase (Atulkar, and Kesari, 2018).
Group A
Being the consumers of MacBook, my decision towards the product is fluctuated due to the
various social factors. Social factors directly affect my decision to purchase the MacBook.
Various social factors affect the decision such as reference group, role in society, and social
status. I always want to maintain the high status in my society and class that is why; I would like
to buy the MacBook product by analyzing the whole features and information about the product

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with its prices. The premium price strategy more attracts me towards the product to set the social
status (Clarke, Friese, and Washburn, 2016).
Group B
Being the consumer of Dell, physical factors have to be analyzed as to where the company has
been operated in different locations. It is an important factor for me to purchase the product in
specific regions. If the location of Dell is far and online delivery of the product is too late then I
will prefer to buy the product of the different company instead of Dell. I always want the
convenient source to collect the product that is why; physical factor affect my decision towards
the Dell products. Buying decision of mine towards the dell product towards is relying on the
area and location of businesses.
Group Reflection
According to the analysis, it has been seen that the group of consumers can easily influence the
product as per their requirement. It has been seen that the consumers purchase the electronic
product according to their needs and desires that is why; the demand of consumers fluctuates.
The social factor is also the reason for the fluctuation of the decision of consumers.
Psychological Influences
Psychological factors include the psychological factors of an individual that helps to drive the
actions to attain satisfaction such as motivation, perception, learning, attitude, and belief
(Voramontri, and Klieb, 2018)
Group A
As the consumer of MacBook, my behavior towards the organization product will change such
as attitude and belief. Attitude and belief of the MacBook play a major role in making

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purchasing decision towards the product. The attitude and belief of the MacBook is “providing a
high-tech product to consumers to satisfy the consumer’s requirements. But the consumers have
different perception with the consumer’s thoughts and mentality. If the requirements of the
company are similar to the consumers then the interest of the consumer to buy the product will
change. If the attitude and belief of the organization do not similar to the perceptions and
thoughts then the less number of consumers attracts towards the services (Zhang, and Benyoucef,
2016).
Group B
As the consumer of Dell, my behavior will change due to changing with the learning skills. It has
been seen that the company provides the product to consumers with high technology due to
which the consumer faces the issues to understand the features in initial stages. Being the
consumer of Dell, I would like to prefer the product of other companies such as Samsung and
Nokia as they provide simple features than a consumer can easily understand. My behavior
towards the company product in the context of psychological is based on learning the factor. The
skills and intelligence of mine should be matchable with the features of a company product so;
that I will prefer to buy the product of the organization (Chang, and Tseng, 2015).
Group Reflection
It has been seen that the demand for a group of consumers is fluctuated towards the organization
product due to different perceptions of consumers. The different consumers have different
perception and requirements due to which the demand of consumers is affected. The demand of
my group members is different as they have a different perspective (McConnell, and Rydell,
2019).

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Social and Group Influence
Social and group define how individuals change their ideas and actions to meet the demand of
the social group. Social and group influences are those factors that affect the demand of
consumers just because of the different beliefs and attitude (Wang, 2017).
Group A
It has been seen that the MacBook has a high brand image in the market due to which a large
number of consumers are attracted to their product. Being the consumer of MacBook, my
decision towards the organization is change with the preferences of a group of people. The
organization is developed with the number of consumers as they enhance the brand image in the
market. If the group of people prefers the product of the organization then I will more be
attracted towards the product of the organization. The behavior of a group of people or
community behaviors affects my decision of purchasing towards the organization product. I
always believe in group reviews and decisions as compare to individual reviews and
manipulation activities (Zeugner-Roth, Žabkar, and Diamantopoulos, 2015).
Group B
As discussed above, the social group or society affects the demand of consumers towards the
organization. It has been found that the market value of Dell is also high due to which the more
or more people attracted towards its product. Consumer loyalty is also enhanced towards the
product due to which the organization gains success in the market. Being the consumer of Dell, I
would like to buy the product as my friends and the relatives believe in its product just because
of high quality. According to the EKB model, I always prefer to analyze the reviews of the
experienced consumers, their choices, and the information about the product. This social factor

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affects the decision process of consumers especially if the experienced reviews and comments
have been mentioned in websites and on the other sources (Monga, and Williams, 2016).
Group Reflection
It has been seen that a group of people is developed by the individual. The demand and
perspective of an individual are different due to which the group of people has different
perspectives towards a similar product. People always buy a product where the majority of
people have the same attitude and belief. In our group, the members believe in buying the
product based on the percentage in the experience of a group of people (Stephen, 2016)
Conclusion
From the limelight discussion, it has been concluded that the behavior of consumers will be
change with the changing the factors such as social, psychological, and situational. According to
the EKB model, it has been analyzed that the consumers always purchase the product by
implementing the process. In the EKB model, there are five steps that the consumers of
MacBook and Dell are always implemented to decide before purchasing the product of both the
companies. The five steps include information about the product, decision process, and others.
This report is based on a reflection in which the behavior of consumer has been defined in
purchasing terms. As per the situational analysis, the decision of consumers towards the product
is affected due to social and physical factors of both the organizations. According to the
Psychological analysis, it has been observed that the demand of consumers of both the
organization is affected due to its high tech features, and different perception of consumers and
the organization's belief. At the last, the analysis on consumers’ behavior as per the social and
group influence states that the behavior of consumers is fluctuated or change due to a different
perception of consumers. In the end, consumer behavior fluctuates with external factors.

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References
Atulkar, S. and Kesari, B. (2018) Role of consumer traits and situational factors on impulse
buying: does gender matter?. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 46(4),
pp.386-405.
Chang, A. and Tseng, T.H. (2015) Consumer evaluation in new products: the perspective of
situational strength. European Journal of Marketing, 49(5/6), pp.806-826.
Clarke, A.E., Friese, C. and Washburn, R. (2016) Situational analysis in practice: Mapping
research with grounded theory. Routledge.
Hofacker, C.F., Malthouse, E.C. and Sultan, F. (2016) Big data and consumer behavior:
Imminent opportunities. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 33(2), pp.89-97.
McConnell, A.R. and Rydell, R.J. (2019) Implications for Understanding Consumer Behavior.
Handbook of Research Methods in Consumer Psychology, p.143.
Monga, A.S.B. and Williams, J.D. (2016) Cross-cultural styles of thinking and their influence on
consumer behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, pp.65-69.
Murphy, M.C. and Dweck, C.S. (2016) Mindsets shape consumer behavior. Journal of
Consumer Psychology, 26(1), pp.127-136.
Psychologist world. (2018) Social Influence. [online] Available from:
https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence/social-influence [Accessed 12/07/19].
Snowblower. (2019) Engel Kollat Blackwell Model Of Consumer Behaviour Pdf. [online]
Available from: http://atvsnowblower.info/engel-kollat-blackwell-model-of-consumer-
behaviour-15/ [Accessed 12/07/19].

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Stephen, A.T. (2016) The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer behavior.
Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, pp.17-21.
Voramontri, D. and Klieb, L. (2018) Impact of social media on consumer behaviour.
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Wang, T. (2017) Social identity dimensions and consumer behavior in social media. Asia Pacific
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Zeugner-Roth, K.P., Žabkar, V. and Diamantopoulos, A. (2015) Consumer ethnocentrism,
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Zhang, K.Z. and Benyoucef, M. (2016) Consumer behavior in social commerce: A literature
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Appendix

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