MKT10007 Assignment 2: Consumer Decision-Making Sony Home Theater

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the consumer decision-making process (CDMP) for the Sony DAV TZ140 home theater system. The report begins with an industry and business analysis of Sony, including its business model and a SWOT analysis. It then meticulously examines the five stages of the CDMP: need recognition (triggered by the desire for high-quality audio and entertainment), information search (internet research, peer influence), evaluation of alternatives (comparing Sony with competitors like Pioneer and Yamaha), purchase decision (influenced by features, price, and brand value), and post-purchase evaluation (assessing satisfaction and peer influence). The utility theory is applied to the evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase stages. The report concludes with recommendations for Sony's marketing efforts, emphasizing the importance of price, features, and compatibility in attracting consumers. The analysis highlights the factors driving consumer decisions, such as peer influence, price, and perceived quality.

ASSIGNMENT 2: CONSUMER DECISION–MAKING
PROCESS :SONY DAV TZ140 HOME THEATER

Table of Contents
Part A: Business Analysis.....................................................................................................................3
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3
Industry Analysis : Consumer Electronics Industry........................................................................3
Sony Business Model.......................................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................................................3
Data.......................................................................................................................................................4
Need recognition..................................................................................................................................4
Information search................................................................................................................................5
Alternatives evaluation.........................................................................................................................5
Purchase decision.................................................................................................................................7
Post-purchase evaluation......................................................................................................................7
Reference Theory and its Application..................................................................................................7
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................8
References............................................................................................................................................9

Part A: Business Analysis
Introduction
Industry Analysis : Consumer Electronics Industry
This industry is growing continuously as well as evolving and has grown rapidly in the recent past
withy exciting new technologies. The products include laptops, computers, tablets, smart phones,
cell phones, music players, TVs, aviation devices, recording devices, cameras, game consoles,
audio equipment, and video recorders among others. The industry is expected to continue growing
at a tremendous pace with exciting new technologies and innovations and will become the center of
human existence in a few years (say 1.5 decades from the present). New technologies like Internet
of Things will become a component of consumer electronics, same as the internet, cloud computing,
and e-commerce will be a major driver of sales (Technavio, 2018).
This report details the five stage thought process and decision making a consumer undergoes when
deciding to purchase a home theater system, specifically, the Sony DAZ TZ 140 home theater
system.
Sony is a Japanese multinational corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, and is among the top name
brands globally for electronics and gaming (Devex, 2019). Sony is a highly reputable global
electronics brand, and a pioneer in various sectors in personal and professional entertainment,
having pioneered mobile music (the Sony Walkman) (Takahashi, 2013). The DZ140 Home Theater
series offers the discerning buyer a unique and high quality user experience at a very competitive
price (Review Forest, 2019).
Sony Business Model
Sony uses a B2B model where manufactured products are sold to other businesses including
retailers, distributors, and other companies that use Sony display panels and semi conductors.
SWOT Analysis

Data
Analysis of data for 2018 shows that the PlayStation is the highest contributor to Sony revenues at $
1479 million, followed by cameras and camcorders at 748.5 million, car and marine products at
124 million. These are shown below;
Need recognition
The process of buying commences with a consumer recognizing a need or a problem for a product
or service and response to a marketing stimulus. The consumer becomes ‘aroused’ and decides the
required information amount; if there is a strong need and there is a commodity at hand to meet the
need, a purchasing decision is made almost immediately, otherwise the process for seeking
information starts (Johnston, 2016). At the center of what it means to be a human being is music;
the human brain loves patterns and music is among the most popular patterns (Resnick, 2016;
Malloch and Trevarthen, 2018). Quality music makes people happy, is soothing, helps lower
depression, elevates the mood, improves health, makes one sleep better, and strengthens learning
and memory. A silent night, low quality sound, experiencing quality music at a friends’ house, or
low volume while watching an action movie triggers the urge to buy a home theater to get high
quality and immersive music. The underlying problem comes from one feeling their listening (or
viewing) experience is poor and falls far short whet their peers are getting (Bhatti et al., 2016). To
fulfill the needs of their ego, the consumer seeks to acquire a high quality home theater system to
enhance their listening experience.

Information search
Once a need for better sound is inculcated, the consumer then begins searching for a product to
meet their need. The buyer starts paying greater attention to marketing and other information
sources, for example on social media or their circle of friends/ family. The consumer will likely
purchase a product without seeking a lot of information if the product is nearby, meets their needs,
and the need is high; for instance, if one is hungry and is in front of a restaurant. For a home
theater, the consumer is likely to seek a lot of information and research widely before settling on a
product if it is a high involvement product as the Sony home theater (Lantos, 2015). Sony is a well
known brand with high quality home theater products with some being priced at premium rates. The
consumer will actively seek information using various means including;
 Searching the internet
 Observing the kinds of products their peers have
 Visiting retail centers and getting a feel of the product (demos)
 The consumer is likely to consider other home theater brands and models apart from the Dav
TZ 140 and some factors to be considered include;
 The design and style
 Performance
 The price
 The purchase options and location
 After sales services such as warranties
 Suitability for use with future and existing technologies
 Brand value
Alternatives evaluation
At this point, the information search has helped the consumer narrow down to a few possible
options; consumers loyal to a brand or are impulsive buyers will likely skip this stage but this being
a high involvement product, alternatives will be considered. The consumer considers various factors
in evaluating alternatives; for the Sony DAV 140, there are several impressive features, including
DVDs quality being upgraded to 1080p quality, control of multiple devices such as Blu-Ray
players, HDMI, digital cameras, camcorders, and others using a single remote commander. The
model can be hooked to device such as laptops to stream videos plus other content from Netflix,
YouTube, Hulu, among others. It can play multimedia from USB ports and its prices at below $
300. A comparison is made with other products ( Pioneer VSX-832, Yamaha YHT-4930UBL, and
Onkyo HT-S5800) (Derek, 2019).

Brand/ model Price in
$
Features Attractiveness
and fit (1-5)
where 1 is
lowest and 5
is highest
Perceived
quality (1-
5) where 1
is lowest
and 5 is
highest
Sony Dav TZ140 250 300 Watt 5.1 channel home theater
USB port with DVD upscaling to
1080p
HDMI output
Control HDMI connected devices
such as Bravia TVs, cameras,
camcorders
laptop connection to stream
content such as YouTube and
Netflix
3.9 4.3
Pioneer VSX-832 936 5.1 channel with immersive
DTS:X atmos
Ultra HD pass-through with HDCP
2.2
165 W per channel
Built in chrome cast
Wireless music streaming to any
room
4.5 4
Yamaha YHT-
4930UBL
460 Wireless streaming and bluetooth
4K Ultra HD pass-through
HDCP 2.2 support
Compressed music enhancement
5.1 channel superb for gaming and
music
4.3 4
Onkyo HT-S5800 546 Bluetooth wireless audio streaming
Dolby 5.1.2 channel audio , 115 W
4 4

per channel
4K/60 Hz-Capable HDMI
Terminals
Advanced music optimizer
(Derek, 2019)
Purchase decision
After evaluation, the consumer makes a decision based on features that suit their needs, their
budget, and influence from peers and the strength of the brand. For purchasing the home theater, the
most important factors that influence the buying decision include the feature set that fit into the
consumers’ requirements, the price, and perception of quality. In this case, the price is a very
important factor given that the model has modest power but several features, some exceeding the
more expensive models (Rezaei, 2015). The brand value would also be a strong determining factor;
Sony is a well known and respected brand known for quality electronics. Once the decision is made
to purchase the Sony DAV TZ 140, the remaining decision would be where to make a purchase and
other after sales issues.
Post-purchase evaluation
This is the final purchase step and the consumer evaluates the value obtained from the product
versus expectations and price and there can be satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Ashman, Solomon and
Wolny, 2015). A key issue with selecting the Sony DAV TZ140 would be around the sound quality
given its power rating is modest compared to alternatives and the feature set. The model has several
features that fit into the present needs of the consumer, including ability to play streaming media
from the internet and its sound quality is still immersive and amazing at that prize, with video
quality upscaling to 1080p, even for video from USB drives. The price is also an important feature
of the post review process, when weighed against the available options and performance. Peer
influence can also be a strong factor in the post purchase evaluation; what the consumer peers say
plays a big role in determining the consumer satisfaction (Ashman, Solomon and Wolny, 2015). As
a result of these, the consumer can be motivated to make more purchases of electronics from Sony
in future, especially given the inter compatibility of many HDMI enabled devices to the DAV TZ
140 Sony home theater.
Reference Theory and its Application
Making a choice is premised on some theory; in this case it is the Utility Theory

The utility theory is a concept in economics which posits tat although measuring the utility derived
from a commodity, it is possible for a consumer to rank alternatives in order of preference. Making
a choice has its constraints such as price and access so rational consumers do not spend money on
additional units of a commodity unless it has a marginal utility at least equivalent or greater than a
unit of another commodity (Shi and Wang, 2019). The utility theory is applied to steps 3 ,4, and 5 of
the CDMP (evaluation of alternative, purchase decision, and post purchase evaluation;
respectively). The theory of utility is based on the beliefs about preferences of an individual such
that people rank order their choices consistently based on what they prefer. Each person
demonstrates different preferences and this is hard-wired to every person. So in evaluating
alternatives, the consumer will rank them based on how well a given product fits their preference
and how close the value of the product is equal or higher than the perceived marginal utility they
derive from the product. Their evaluation of the post purchase decision is also guided by the utility
theory and their perception that what they paid is equal or less than the perceived marginal utility
derived from purchasing the home theater.
Conclusion
making a purchase for a high involvement product results in the consumer going through six stages,
starting with need realization, searching for information, evaluation of alternatives, making a
decision to purchase, and post purchase evaluation. This process was followed in evaluating the
purchase of the Sony DAV TZ140 home theater system. The purchasing decision for the home
theater is driven by underlying factors that include peer influence, price, feature set, ability to meet
the needs of the consumer such as inter connectivity with other devices, and perceptions of quality
as well as brand value. The price of the Sony home theater, its unique feature set, and perceived
performance shows it stands out from its more highly priced peers. The Sony marketing should
therefore focus on the price, features, and compatibility in their marketing efforts for the Sony DAV
TZ140 home theater. The decision making is premised on the utility theory, which guides the rank
ordering of the alternative products, the decision to make a purchase, and the post purchase
evaluation of the product.

References
Ashman, R., Solomon, M. and Wolny, J. (2015). An old model for a new age: Consumer decision
making in participatory digital culture. Journal of Customer Behaviour, 14(2), pp.127-146.
Bhatti, A., Majid, M., Anwar, S. and Khan, B. (2016). Human emotion recognition and analysis in
response to audio music using brain signals. Computers in Human Behavior, 65, pp.267-275.
Derek, T. (2019). Top 10 Best Home Theater Systems for 2019 - Top Ten Select. [online] Top Ten
Select. Available at: https://www.toptenselect.com/top-10-best-home-theater-systems/ [Accessed 7
Sep. 2019].
Devex (2019). Sony Corporation | Devex. [online] Devex.com. Available at:
https://www.devex.com/organizations/sony-corporation-48846 [Accessed 7 Sep. 2019].
Johnston, E. (2016). 5 steps to understanding your customer’s buying process | B2B Marketing.
[online] B2bmarketing.net. Available at: https://www.b2bmarketing.net/en-gb/resources/blog/5-
steps-understanding-your-customers-buying-process [Accessed 7 Sep. 2019].
Lantos, G. (2015). Consumer behavior in action. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, p.59.
Malloch, S. and Trevarthen, C. (2018). The Human Nature of Music. Frontiers in Psychology,
[online] 9. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01680/full
[Accessed 7 Sep. 2019].
Resnick, B. (2016). The scientific mystery of why humans love music. [online] Vox. Available at:
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/2/4/10915492/why-do-we-like-music [Accessed 7
Sep. 2019].
Review Forest (2019). ReviewForest | Product Reviews, Top 10 & Latest Tech. News. [online]
ReviewForest. Available at: http://reviewforest.com/sony-davtz140-dvd-home-theater-system-
review/ [Accessed 7 Sep. 2019].
Rezaei, S. (2015). Segmenting consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) toward marketing
practice: A partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 22, pp.1-15.
Shi, G. and Wang, Q. (2019). The Application of Utility Theory in the Making-decision of
Marketing Risk Management. Proceedings of the International Academic Conference on Frontiers
in Social Sciences and Management Innovation (IAFSM 2018), 1.
Takahashi, H. (2013). The challenge for Japanese multinationals. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, pp.11.4.
Technavio (2018). Top-5 Trends in the Consumer Electronics Industry | Technavio. [online]
Technavio. Available at: https://blog.technavio.com/blog/top-5-trends-consumer-electronics-

industryhttps://blog.technavio.com/blog/top-5-trends-consumer-electronics-industry [Accessed 7
Sep. 2019].