Business Buying Decision Stages

In any marketing firm there should be a set of steps taken when a business is making buying decision. The first stage when a marketing firm is making a decision is when at least one person recognizes there is a problem or a need is present. There are many different ways to find problems in the business. For example some if a machine malfunctions, it then may be modified or disposed of. The second stage of the process is the development of specifics relating to a product. Then the buying center participants look at the problem or need and determine the correct actions to solve the problem. The third stage of the business buying decision process is to search for and evaluate potential suppliers and products. This can involve looking at trade directories, contacting suppliers for recent information and even soliciting vendors proposals. In this stage some firms use value analysis. Value analysis is the evaluation of the quality, design and materials to acquire the product in the best cost-effective way. Some vendors even employ vendor analysis. This a systematic evaluation of both current and potential vendor's based on using the marketing mix. Lastly, the forth stage of the business buying decision process is selecting the product to that should be purchased and which supplier to buy from. Sometimes the buyer may select from more than one supplier which is known as multiple outsourcing. Most others use sole sourcing which is using one supplier. For any firm business decisions are very important factors and should take steps before jumping into a buying decision. (Pride,2009) Do you think businesses should just jump into buying decisions if the deal sounds good, or do you think they should take their time and use the analysis of these four steps?

In Response to Laura's post...

Should we be more careful when it comes to sharing information online? Or do you think that this information will inevitably be found when scouring the web? And do you share/post a lot of your own personal information online? Why or why not?

Personal information being available on the Internet has been one of the greatest advances in technology, but one of the most risky at the same time. With information being on the Internet it can bring unwanted things, such as credit card information stolen to being stalked. I do think everyone should be more careful when sharing information online. Like Laura said, it is important to make more stuff on networking sites private, because you really don't know who's actually looking at your information. Recently my family told me about how easy it is to access information online. With just the click of a button and my name in the name field, I was able to view a lot of information that I thought was private. It listed my mothers name, fathers name, sisters name, our house phone number, and our exact mailing location. At first I thought it was illegal, but when I did some research I found out that it was in fact "public information" that is able to be found anywhere. This really stunned me. As for stalkers they can easily access your information for free on the Internet. After this circumstance I do believe personal information can be found on the Internet. As for private information such as social security numbers etc. I do not believe that will be posted on the Internet. As for myself posting my own personal information online, I do but not a lot. On my facebook page I do not have my full birth date like Laura. I also set almost all of my stuff to private so my friends are the only ones that are able to view my personal information. I do not list my address or any direct contact information. The only flaw to making my profile private is the ability for one to hack into my profile and see the information. People can also track where you are by your ISP address in your computer. I have already seen in the news that this is causing problems. Not only were people being stalked to where they drove to but they could also be found through their ISP address. Do you believe that eventually there will not be privacy what so ever?

Psychological Influences on the Buying Decision Process

There are many psychological influences on the customer during their decision when buying a product. According to Marketing Express, psychological influences determines people's general behavior and influence their behavior as consumers. The main psychological influences on consumer behavior are perception, motives, learning, attitudes, personality, self concept and lifestyles. When a customer is perceiving, this is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information inputs to produce a meaning. These information inputs are received through the five senses. Perception has a three step process to it. The first is selective exposure, where the consumer is selecting inputs to be exposed to their awareness and ignoring others. The second is selective distortion. With this, a customer changes and twists information when it is inconsistent with their own opinion. The last is selective retention. A person would be doing this if they were only remembering information inputs that supports their decision. Motives are the second type of psychological influences. Motives are internal energy force that brings a persons behavior to satisfy needs. Patron motives are important for any marketer. Since these motives influence where a person purchases products on a regular basis, means a new firm must come up with new ideas to get them to shop at their company. Learning is also a psychological influence. Any firm would want the consumer to learn only the best things about the firm. If a consumer learns new information they are happy with, it can attract more customers to the company. Attitudes are also psychological influences. Since customers have different preferences, their attitude could be beneficial to your company or not. A way to measure consumer attitudes is through the attitude scale. Ones personality and self concept are also psychological influences in the buying decision process. Once again, based on the different preferences of the customer may or may not attract them to your company. Lifestyle is the last psychological influence. Lifestyle is an individuals pattern of living expressed through their interests and opinions. For an example of this, if you are coming out with a new very high end retail store. You may want to locate yourself in a place where there is a high standard of living, like New York city. Do you think psychological influences are an important aspect if you are working in the marketing industry?

In Response to Laura's Post...

Do you think that people are more likely to be honest in online, mailed or face-to-face surveys? Why?

Laura made some good points in her argument about surveys. I also agree with you that there are always going to be the people who are dishonest on there surveys. Whether they are just filling out the survey to be eligible for a possible prize or even if the person is just bored filling out random answers. Today when I was shopping for my trip to California I bought some new headphones from best buy. When the cashier finally tendered by order, she gave me the receipt saying "if possible please go to the website on the receipt and fill out the survey. You will be eligible for a cash prize if you fill out the survey." I see a couple things wrong with this reward system. I feel as though the people who think the reward is worth taking the time to fill out the survey will be the only respondents. Since only the select people who think the prize is worth the survey will be measured, makes the survey somewhat inaccurate. Referring back to the question, I believe it depends on the situation to whether or not people will more honest on a survey. For example, if you are having a face-to-face survey, and you have nothing truly bad to say, then the person will be 100% honest. But, at the same time if the customer is nervous to give negative feedback they may be dishonest in their answer. I think the mail-in survey would be the most valuable for a company. The person would have to take the time to fill it out and mail it in. If this customer has negative feedback, they may feel better without being confrontational (face-to-face). The only reason why I do not believe people will be as honest with online surveys is because people can just "click away". By click away, I mean that anyone on the Internet, bored or not, can just click a million random answers and then just click the submit button. On top of that this person would be able to easily fill out more than one of the same survey and keep submitting them. I do believe that the mail-in surveys are the surveys where most people will be honest. Do you think it is worth having an online survey with more customer feedback is more beneficial than mail-in surveys with less customer feedback? Do you believe the online surveys could be from one person taking the survey multiple times?

Surveys for Marketers

Any marketing organization must know the wants and needs of customer. It is important for the marketing firm to come up with different ways to obtain this important information. Surveys can be an ideal way to get customer feedback. In the marketing industry there are different types of surveys to forecast the customers wants and needs. There are four different types of survey techniques listed in our textbook, Marketing Express. The first type of survey useful to marketers is the customer forecasting survey. The customer forecasting survey is a survey used to find out the types and quantities of products the customer is intending to buy in a specific period of time. This survey is useful for marketers regarding ordering products within a time period. It can tell a firm whether or not to increase production of the product, not buy as much of the product, or even tell a firm to continue with the current ordering quantities. Also, it gives the marketing firm a period of time when it should be important to manufacture more of the product, or not. The second type of survey used in the marketing industry is the sales force forecasting survey. This is a survey of the firm's sales force regarding anticipated sales in their territories for a specific period. This survey differs from the first because this survey is using forecasting techniques in the firm, and doesn't need to go outside the firm for this survey to be completed. This is done by the forecaster combining the territorial estimates to arrive at a tentative forecast. Instead of surveying customers, the firm would survey the sales staff. The advantage to this method is that it can be prepared for a single region, several regions and can even divide consisting territories. The third type of survey is the expert forecasting survey. Within this survey Sales forecasts are prepared by experts like economists, management consultants, advertising executives, college professors, or other persons outside the firm. This survey gives the firm information about the company and the market. The experts prepare and present forecasts. The last and final survey is the Delphi technique. This type of survey is a procedure in where experts create initial forecasts, submit them to the company for averaging, and then refine the forecast. The benefit to this technique is that the experts will use averaged results when making refined forecasts, therefor creating a narrower range. All of these types of surveys can prevent the company from doing projects that are costly, that in fact actually do not need to be done. If marketing firms did not conduct surveys, do you believe the firm may spend more money at unnecessary times?

In Response to David's Post...

What do you think, is it worth keeping the good reputation and not violating as many part of the Statement of Ethics by laying off the workers, or would you sell the numbers to keep bread on your employees tables?

In my opinion I do not think John should sell the names. Like you said, John violates a few categories in the statement of ethics. Since marketers should follow these ethics it would be immoral to break them. As for the workers, if it's necessary for the company to move forward by laying off some workers then it must be done. When you are in any business your objective is to do whatever is best for the business as a whole. Not necessarily what's best for every individual person who works there. Sometimes you must separate personal matters with business matters to come up with the best solution for your company. If John did not want to fire any employees or sell the names, he could possibly work something out. John would have to take the initiative to come up with a tactical way for the firm to make money. This could be anything from developing new marketing strategies, or some type of community service. John could collect donations for a charity where 50% of their donations go to the charity and the other 50% goes to the company that the customer is loyal to. But if all else fails John must take the action to lay off some of his employees. Although personal relationships are very important in any organization, it must not reflect what is beneficial for the company as a whole. I was a witness to this for myself personally. At my job, there was a time when they were selecting certain people to receive less hours due to the recession. Some of the other co-workers were full time employees providing for their family, similar to the people in John's situation. As time went on more and more full time employees were losing hours. I believe this was a wise choice for the place I work. Instead of completely ridding them from the company, they gave them less hours. The may have needed more hours but it was necessary to cut some employees hours. It was beneficial for the company as a whole to cut hours, which is why I agree with that decision. Do you believe you should take personal emotions into consideration when making important business decisions?

John Smith Scenario

Should John Smith sell the names? Does the AMA Statement of Ethics address this issue? Go to AMA website; look at their Statement of Ethics; write a blog posting on what the AMA Statement of Ethics contains that relates to John Smith’s dilemma.

John Smith should not sell the names. The American Marketing Association Statement of Ethics broadly addresses this issue. First off, the statement of ethics is a list of ethical norms and values that marketers should follow. In this specific case, it relates to "foster trust in the marketing system", listed under ethical norms. What this means is that marketers should be striving to do what's best in good faith as well as avoiding deception in pricing, product design, and communication. In the scenario it states that he could potentially be selling personal information to another company without their consent. In doing this he would be violating the the ethical norm having to do with having trust in your company. Just from the introduction to the Statement of Ethics site alone shows he shouldn't make this deal and deceive his customers.

There are also other places within the statement of ethics that are relevant to this scenario. Listed under the ethical values section is honesty. It states in this section that marketers should strive to be truthful in all situations and at all time. This is relevant because if John goes along with this deal he will break this code. Unless John told the people who filled out the survey that their information may be distributed, that would be fine. By not listing that on the survey he would be dishonest by selling their information without their consent. Also under ethical values is fairness. In this section it is stated that marketers should avoid knowing participation in conflicts of interest and seek to protect the private information of customers, employees and partners. John would be breaking this code also if he went through with the deal. He would not be protected his customers personal information only for his benefit.

Since John would be breaking many codes within the American Marketers Association Statement of ethics he should not sell the names for $8,000. Right of the bat you would be able to tell he is breaking the code "foster trust in the marketing system" listed at the top of the website. It would not be right of John Smith to break this ethical norm. Also, he would break ethical values going along with this decision. This would include breaking the honesty and fairness codes. My immediate reaction to this question was yes. The reason for this was because John Smith needed the money for himself and his employees. But after doing some research on the American Marketers Association website it was clear this would be an unethical action. Do you believe it is unethical for a company to give personal information out, such as this instance, if their is fine print at the bottom stating that your information may be distributed?