Analysis of Consumer Purchase Decision for Laptop: Report

This report delves into the consumer decision-making process, specifically focusing on laptop purchases. It begins by describing the laptop as a product, categorizing it into core, actual, and augmented components. The analysis then explains why laptop purchases are considered medium-high involvement, highlighting factors such as high price, technical features, competitor differences, projection of self, and risk evaluation. The report also provides a detailed target market profile, segmenting consumers demographically, behaviorally, and psychographically. Finally, it examines the factors influencing the consumer decision-making process, providing a comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior in the context of laptop acquisitions. The report relies on secondary sources like articles, journals, books, and official websites of laptop manufacturing companies. Time and budget constraints were limitations while preparing the paper.

Running head: PURCHASE SITUATION
Purchase Situation
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction:................................................................................................................................2
2. Purchase situation and target market profile:..............................................................................2
2.1. Description of product and analysis of why the purchase is medium-high involvement:....2
Description of the product-laptop:...........................................................................................2
Analysis of why purchase of a laptop is medium-high involvement product:................................3
High Price:...................................................................................................................................3
Technical features:.......................................................................................................................4
Major differences between competitor products:........................................................................4
Projection of self:.........................................................................................................................5
Evaluation of risks:......................................................................................................................5
2.2 Target market profile:................................................................................................................6
Demographic:..............................................................................................................................6
Behavioural:.................................................................................................................................6
Psychographic:.............................................................................................................................7
3. Factors influencing the consumer decision making process:......................................................8
4. Conclusion:................................................................................................................................10
5. Recommendations:....................................................................................................................11
References:....................................................................................................................................13

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1. Introduction:
The aim of the assignment is to understand the consumer decision process and key factors
influencing consumer purchase decisions. The paper takes into account laptops to study the
customer purchase decision making process. The assignment opens with description of laptop as
product. It divides the total product of laptop into core, actual and augmented products. The next
part deals with analysis of laptop as a medium high involvement product. The next section deals
with target market profile of laptops analysing it into demographic, behavioural and
psychgraphic factors. The last section deals with one factor which goes into making customer
purchase decision. The main sources of data are the secondary sources like articles, journals,
books and official websites of laptop manufacturing companies. The limitation while preparing
the paper was that of time and budget.
2. Purchase situation and target market profile:
2.1. Description of product and analysis of why the purchase is medium-high involvement:
Description of the product-laptop:
Laptop is a speciality product for consumers are ready to pay more prices. Laptop is a
specialised product, which is manufactured by multinational information and communication
companies like Del and HP. It comes with special specification in terms of product features like
RAM and memory. Laptops are available in the market in variety of prices; some are low-priced
while others are extremely expensive. The laptop as a product can be divided into three main
parts, the core product, the actual product and the augmented product (Harman et al. 2014).
The core product consist of the convenience a laptop creates to a user like the user can carry it

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anywhere and use it to do his official work as per convenience. The actual product consists of the
physical hardware and software which the user can use to wok. The augmented product of the
laptop include the brand value which the consumers buy along with the laptop. The satisfaction
which the consumers purchase by buying a laptop also form a part of augmented product(Byrd et
al. 2016).
A laptop is a high involvement product which buyers buy with lot of involvement. It is an
expensive product, which buyers buy to satisfy specific needs like working in office, sending
mails and do online shopping. As a result the consumers put a lot of emphasis on the
specifications of the laptops like memory, hardware and power to support accessories like key
board. The laptops show that preferences, personality and lifestyle of the users. The product
shows the status and purchase power of the buyers. These features reveal a laptop is a medium
high involvement product, which shows high involvement of the buyers(Zhang, 2016).
Analysis of why purchase of a laptop is medium-high involvement product:
Laptop is a medium-high involvement product because consumers are ready to high price
to purchase the product. It is a specialised product which consumers purchase to serve specific
needs like doing official work, sending and receiving mails and giving presentations. The
following analysis would elaborately explain the reason why laptop is a medium-high
involvement product:
High Price:
The medium-high involvement products are high priced products which make consumers
pay a lot of attention while purchasing them. A laptop is very expensive but not as expensive as
other high involvement goods like cars and buildings. The buyers pay a lot of attention on the

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features and specification while buying laptops but pay less involvement while buying second
hand laptops. This analysis of the features of the laptop shows that it is a medium-high
involvement product(Palla, Tsiotsou & Zotos, 2016).
Technical features:
A very significant characteristic of medium-high involvement products is the consumers
emphasise on the technical features of these products. The consumers while buying laptops pay a
lot of emphasis on the technical features of them. The consumers who are technically strong buy
laptops to serve their needs like doing official work. The manufacturers of the laptops provide
manuals along with them to help the buyers get acquainted with the features of the laptops.
Moreover the sales people demonstrate the basic features of the laptop to the consumers while
selling them. The consumers spend a lot time to know the technical features of the high-
involvement products. This analysis shows that laptops are medium-high involvement products.
Major differences between competitor products:
One of the very important features of medium high involvement product is that there
exists a major difference between products by different product manufacturers. Several
multinational companies like HP, HCL and Apple manufacture laptops. The laptops by these
different manufacturers show a lot of different in features and attributes. This difference in
features and attributes differentiate laptops manufactured by one company from the other. The
customers while buying laptops pay a great attention to the manufacturers who manufactures the
laptops. It can also be pointed out that consumers have preferences for specific brands of laptops
and remain loyal to the companies. This analysis shows that laptop is a medium-high
involvement product.

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Projection of self:
The consumers of medium-high involvement product are very specific about the products
they buy and consume. They are ready to pay extra price to buy the brands of products they
prefer consuming. The consumers of laptops are very specific about the brands of laptops they
buy and consume. They consumers intentionally pay more to buy a specific brand of laptops
because that projects their social status. Many consumers view laptops as status symbols and
prefer buying expensive laptops to show their social status. The buying decision of the
consumers while purchasing luxurious products like laptops is dominated by money power. This
explanation shows that laptop is a medium high involvement product.
Evaluation of risks:
The consumers evaluate the risk factors like actual quality and utilities of medium-
involvement products while purchasing them. They consider whether the products are worth the
prices. They also consider whether the products are capable of having negative impacts on their
health while consuming them. For example, while buying laptops buyers consider the impacts of
the strong radiations emitted from the screens of the laptops. They even try to minimize or avoid
the negative impacts medium-high involvement products. Users install additional screens laptops
which filter the harmful radiations to protect their eyes. This shows that laptops are medium
high-involvement products.
The above study of the characteristics of medium-involvement products show that the
products show specific characteristics, as they are expensive and command brand loyalty. It can
be stated that laptop is a product, which satisfies all these characteristics of high involvement
products. This explains that the purchase of laptops is a medium-high involvement.

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2.2 Target market profile:
Demographic:
The target market profile for laptops can be divided demographically on the variables like
age, gender, occupation, social class, marital status and educational attainment. As far as demand
for laptops are concerned, the people using laptops are mostly young and middle aged. The
product finds equal acceptances among male and female customers alike. As far as segmentation
of customer profile of laptops on the basis of occupation is concerned, laptops are more in
demand by the working people. The target customer profile for laptops are mostly educated
people. The social class using laptops consist of rich upper class people who can afford to buy
and use laptops. Laptop is a medium high involvement product which requires technical
knowledge and knowhow for users to use them. Hence the product is more in use by the rich
upper class consumers who use it to do their office work. It can also be pointed out that laptops
are in use in both homes and offices alike. The laptops are more used in cities compared to the
rural areas. Thus it can be inferred from the discussion that laptops are used by educated, rich
upper class customers who use them to do their office.
Behavioural:
The variables of behavioural segmentation of customer profile of laptop are purchase
occasion, benefit sought, user status, usage rate, loyalty status, buyer readiness, attitude to
product and adopter status. The purchase occasion refers to the occasion which make the
purchasers buy laptops. Most of the buyers of laptop may purchase for regular use while others
buy laptops to gift them on special occasions. The customer prtofile of laptop can also be
grouped on the basis of benefits sought. Laptop is a high involvement product which the buyers
buy to serve specific purposes like sending mails, doing their office work and so on. The buyers

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of the laptop may seek various types of facilities like carrying it around as per convenience. The
user status for laptops can be the users who are using the laptop for the first time and the ones
who use laptops on regular basis. The customer profile on the basis of usage can be divided into
three groups. The first group consists of users who use laptops on heavy basis while the second
group uses laptops only for work. The third group consists of users who use laptops on moderate
basis occasionally. The customers can be divided into loyal users, disloyal users and users who
have switched over to the competitor products. The buyers can be divided into three categories
on the grounds of readiness to buy the products. The first set of buyers are aware about the usage
of the laptops while the second set of consumers are ready to buy laptops. The third set of
consumers are not aware and willing to buy the product. The customer target market profile can
be divided into enthusiast, indifferent, hostile, price conscious and quality conscious on the basis
their attitude towards laptops. Laptops are high inovolvement products and the buyers are
enthusiastic about purchasing them. The people who buy laptops are normally concerned about
the quality and brand values of laptops. They are specialised products which has quality
conscious educated and rich customers as the target customer segments. The customers of
laptops can be divided into early adopters and late adapters on the grounds of adopter status.
Psychographic:
Psychographical profiling of the customer base of laptops shows that educated upper-
class customers use the product. The customers who use laptops are rich people who have the
economic capability of buying expensive laptops. The customer profile using the laptops consist
of customers who primarily use it for works. There are also customers who use laptops for
leisure and other purposes. It can also be stated that laptops are primarily used by people who
like using electronic items to do their work.

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3. Factors influencing the consumer decision making process:
Each and every business organization has some internal as well as external environmental
forces which impacts its growth and progress. At times, it becomes uncontrollable by the
business owners and their management team. These forces can be anything, such as, customers,
creditors, competitors, government, socio cultural organization, national as well as international
organizations, political influence and few others. A business organization has some general and
specific forces. General forces affect a firm indirectly and specific forces are the ones which
affect an enterprise on a daily basis. Uncertainties arise when the future of any organization is
too unpredictable and the changes are too frequent (Sekaran, & Bougie, 2016).
The internal forces have a direct impact on the business organizations. The influences
generally come from the consumers’ lifestyle and the way they think, that is, their personal
thoughts, feelings, self concepts, attitudes, memory and motivation. These can also be regarded
as the psychological influences, that is, the influence on the consumers’ purchasing behavior or
their decision making process (Wheelen & Hunger, 2017). It depicts the way through which
customers interact with others. The most influential internal force which affects the purchasing
behavior of the consumers is their personal needs or motives and attitudes. The consumers’
needs can be referred to as the lack of anything or difference between their actual or desired state
(Davies, Lee & Ahonkhai, 2012). Motive can be defined as a customer’s inner state which
encourages him/her to satisfy the specific need. For example, if an individual is hungry, it
defines his/her actual state, but when he/she has a strong wish of being fed well then that is
his/her desired state. Motive is the inner state of an individual which encourages him/her to
satisfy the specific needs or desires. The need of the individual can motivate him/her discover
some great restaurant in order to satisfy his/her desires (Solomon, 2014).

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All the needs of the customers are nearly impossible to define. It is important to identify
their specific demands and desires, which influences their purchasing decisions. Therefore, a
thorough understanding of the needs is very crucial to direct the customers towards their
purchasing decisions. A customer may buy a laptop only after deciding whether they need it or
not (Wilson et al., 2012). There are different needs of a consumer, be it basic or psychological.
For example, a college student needs to submit his/her assignment before deadline, otherwise his
grades will fall. Therefore, he/she needs portability to work in home and at the college as well.
Therefore, at this point, he/she recognized his/her problem which is to be solved only by buying
a laptop (East et al., 2016).
After recognizing the solution to the problem of the consumer, he/she now needs to do a
background research about the brands of the products available in the market, which can satisfy
his basic requirements. He/she would gather the available information about the brands with
higher specification, that is, HP, Mac, Dell and others. Evaluation of products on the basis of its
performance, warranty, service, price, high battery life, durability, quality and others, has direct
influence on their buying process. After evaluating all the above factors, the college student will
make his/her final choice of buying the product (Babin & Zikmund, 2015).
Moreover, the consumers’ attitude influences their buying behavior. It defines the way an
individual thinks or feels about some particular brand or product. Once a buyer’s attitude is
fixed, it becomes very difficult to change his/her perception about that particular product. It can
be negative as well as positive (Farzana, 2012). It informs the marketers about the consumers
and how are they established overall in the market place. Identification of such attitude can help
the marketers know about the consumers’ minds and perceptions. It becomes essential that the
marketers design their product’s advertisements appropriately without hurting anybody’s

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feelings. Once the product has negative impact on the consumers’ minds, they may end buying it
(Kozar & Hiller Connell, 2013).
For example, the college student’s attitude will change if the marketers advertise the
laptop brand negatively. It will create a bad impression on the student’s mind and he/she may not
buy that product. Moreover, while analyzing the post purchasing attitude, it can be stated that if
the student is dissatisfied after buying the laptop his/her perception about the brand will change.
He/she will then persuade his/her friends to stop buying that particular laptop brand, and as a
result, the product will lose its brand value (Bian & Forsythe, 2012).
4. Conclusion:
It can be concluded from this assignment that laptops are medium- high involvement products
because they are priced high so that the customers become careful when making such purchases.
The findings show that only the technically potential customers can afford to buy laptops to
serve their personal or professional purposes. The target groups of the laptop companies are
based on the gender, age, occupation, marital status, social class and educational qualification.
The preference scale is more tilted on the working customers’ side than others. The user manuals
that are provided along with the laptops are beneficial for the customers as they can get ready
and instant help. There are different features and attributes which make a laptop different from
the other. There are customers who make up their mind which brand to purchase and do not
deviate from their decision. This shows their loyalty and dedication towards the specific
company. Sometimes, they even become ready to offer extra money for their chosen product.
The reason behind doing this is that they like to portray their social strata. At the same time, they
even raise questions while purchasing the laptops that if the price is worth the product. The

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consumers’ buying behavior is not only limited to purchasing the laptop but also the different
accessories associated with it such as, screen cover, headphone etc. The research on the topic
derives the conclusion that laptop is a medium- high involvement product because medium
involvement products showcase certain characteristic features like high cost and brand value.
5. Recommendations:
Laptops are medium-high involvement products consumers purchase to serve their
professional and personal purposes. The following recommendations can be made to the laptop
making companies in the light of the above discussion:
1. The client can modify the ongoing marketing strategy by introducing certain innovations
in the actual product which consists of the software and the hardware. If the customers
get some better specifications in their original product at the same price, they will not
only be satisfied but has a high chance of recommending to their acquaintances. Nothing
can be greater than a company apart from their customer satisfaction.
2. The company need not have to make any extra investment for satisfying their customers
but only make some amendments in the traditional strategy. The term, high- involvement
refers that the customers are engrossed in the purchasing of this product. The game must
go on from both the side. As the customers are putting effort to select the product
carefully, it becomes the responsibility of the company too, to serve the customers better.
They must make sure that the hardware and software should be built in such a way so that
there is no scope of complaint on the part of the customers. This will increase their brand
value and recognition. With the increase in fame and recognition, sale will increase
which will lead to increase in profit. So, these are all interconnected to each other which

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take care of the company as well as the customers. Laptop is an essential product which
is an integral part of professional life. Therefore, it should be taken into account to make
the product special with every passing day to grab the customers’ attention.

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Palla, P. J., Tsiotsou, R. H., & Zotos, Y. C. (2016). Effective Interactive Websites: Examining
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