Monday 9 May 2011

Consumer AC Purchase Behavior

Consumer AC Purchase Behavior


Customers make purchases in order to satisfy needs. Some of these needs are basic and must be filled by everyone on the planet (e.g., food, shelter) while others are not required for basic survival and vary depending on the person. It probably makes more sense to classify needs that are not a necessity as wants or desires. In fact, in many countries where the standard of living is very high, a large portion of the population’s income is spent on wants and desires rather than on basic needs.

The decision-making process for consumers is anything but straight forward. There are many factors that can affect this process as a person works through the purchase decision. The number of potential influences on consumer behavior is limitless. However, marketers are well served to understand the KEY influences. By doing so they may be in a position to tailor their marketing efforts to take advantage of these influences in a way that will satisfy the consumer and the marketer (remember this is a key part of the definition of marketing). Examination of the influences on consumer purchase decisions by first looking inside ourselves to see which are the most important internal factors that affect how we make choices.

Perceptual Filter
Perception is how we see ourselves and the world we live in. However, what ends up being stored inside us doesn’t always get there in a direct manner. Often our mental makeup results from information that has been consciously or subconsciously filtered as we experience it, a process we refer to as a perceptual filter. To us this is our reality, though it does not mean it is an accurate reflection on what is real. Thus, perception is the way we filter stimuli (e.g., someone talking to us, reading a newspaper story) and then make sense out of it

Perception has several steps.
  • Exposure – sensing a stimuli (e.g. seeing an ad)
  • Attention – an effort to recognize the nature of a stimuli (e.g. recognizing it is an ad)
  • Awareness – assigning meaning to a stimuli (e.g., humorous ad for particular product)
  • Retention – adding the meaning to one’s internal makeup (i.e., product has fun ads

    How these steps are eventually carried out depends on a person’s approach to learning. By learning we mean how someone changes what they know, which in turn may affect how they act. There are many theories of learning, a discussion of which is beyond the scope of this tutorial, however, suffice to say that people are likely to learn in different ways. For instance, one person may be able to focus very strongly on a certain advertisement and be able to retain the information after being exposed only one time while another person may need to be exposed to the same advertisement many times before he/she even recognizes what it is. Consumers are also more likely to retain information if a person has a strong interest in the stimuli. If a person is in need of new car they are more likely to pay attention to a new advertisement for a car while someone who does not need a car may need to see the advertisement many times before they recognize the brand of automobile.
    Marketing Implications:

    Marketers spend large sums of money in an attempt to get customers to have a positive impression of their products. But clearly the existence of a perceptual filter suggests that getting to this stage is not easy. Exposing consumers to a product can be very challenging considering the amount of competing product messages (ads) that are also trying to accomplish the same objective (i.e., advertising clutter). So marketers must be creative and use various means to deliver their message. Once the message reaches consumer it must be interesting enough to capture their attention (e.g., talk about the product’s benefits). But attending to the message is not enough. For marketers the most critical step is the one that occurs with awareness. Here marketers must continually monitor and respond if their message becomes distorted in ways that will negatively shape its meaning. This can often happen due in part to competitive activity (e.g., comparison advertisements). Finally, getting the consumer to give positive meaning to the message they have retained requires the marketer make sure that consumers accurately interpret the facts about the product..
    Factors influencing consumer behavior
    Consumer purchases are influenced strongly by or there are four factors.
     Cultural Factor :-
  • Cultural factor divided into three sub factors (i) Culture (ii) Sub Culture (iii) Social Class
  •  Culture:-
  •  The set of basic values perceptions, wants, and behaviors learned by a member of society from family and other important institutions. Culture is the most basic cause of a person's wants and behavior. Every group or society has a culture, and cultural influences on buying behavior may vary greatly from country to country.
  • Sub Culture :-
  •  A group of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations.
  • Each culture contains smaller sub cultures a group of people with shared value system based on common life experiences and situations. Sub culture includes nationalities, religions, racial group and geographic regions. Many sub culture make up important market segments and marketers often design products.
  • Social Class:-
  •  Almost every society has some form of social structure, social classes are society's relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests and behavior.
    Social Factors:-
    • A consumer's behavior also is influenced by social factors, such as the (i) Groups (ii) Family (iii) Roles and status
    •  Groups :-
    •  Two or more people who interact to accomplish individual or mutual goals.
    • A person's behaviors are influenced by many small groups. Groups that have a direct influence and to which a person belongs are called membership groups.
    • Some are primary groups includes family, friends, neighbors and coworkers. Some are secondary groups, which are more formal and have less regular interaction. These include organizations like religious groups, professional association and trade unions.

      Family:-
    • Family members can strongly influence buyer behavior. The family is the most important consumer buying organization society and it has been researched extensively. Marketers are interested in the roles, and influence of the husband, wife and children on the purchase of different products and services. Roles and Status :- A person belongs to many groups, family, clubs, and organizations. The person's position in each group can be defined in terms of both role and status. For example. M & "X" plays the role of father, in his family he plays the role of husband, in his company, he plays the role of manager, etc. A Role consists of the activities people are expected to perform according to the persons around them.

    Personal Factors:-
    • It includes
    • i) Age and life cycle stage (ii) Occupation (iii) Economic situation (iv) Life Style (v) Personality and self concept.
    •  Age and Life cycle Stage:-
    •  People change the goods and services they buy over their lifetimes. Tastes in food, clothes, furniture, and recreation are often age related. Buying is also shaped by the stage of the family life cycle.
      • Occupation :-
      •  A person's occupation affects the goods and services bought. Blue collar workers tend to buy more rugged work clothes, whereas white-collar workers buy more business suits. A Co. can even specialize in making products needed by a given occupational group. Thus, computer software companies will design different products for brand managers, accountants, engineers, lawyers, and doctors.
      • Economic situation :-
      •  A person's economic situation will affect product choice
      • Life Style :-
      •  Life Style is a person's Pattern of living, understanding these forces involves measuring consumer's major AIO dimensions.i.e. activities (Work, hobbies, shopping, support etc) interest (Food, fashion, family recreation) and opinions (about themselves, Business, Products)
      • Personality and Self concept :-
      •  Each person's distinct personality influence his or her buying behavior. Personality refers to the unique psychological characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and lasting responses to one's own environment.

       Psychological Factors:-
    • It includes these Factors.
    • i) Motivation (ii) Perception (iii) Learning (iv) Beliefs and attitudes
    · Motivation:-
    o Motive (drive) a need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction of the need
    · Perception:-
    o The process by which people select, Organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world.
    · Learning:-
    o Changes in an individuals behavior arising from experience.
    · Beliefs and attitudes:-
    o Belief is a descriptive thought that a person holds about something
    o Attitude, a Person's consistently favorable or unfavorable evaluations, feelings, and tendencies towards an object or idea
    Air conditioning is the dehumidification of indoor air for thermal comfort. In a broader sense, the term can refer to any form of cooling, heating, ventilation, or disinfection that modifies the condition of air.[1] An air conditioner (often referred to as AC or air con.) is an appliance, system, or machine designed to stabilize the air temperature and humidity within an area (used for cooling as well as heating depending on the air properties at a given time), typically using refrigeration but sometimes using evaporation, commonly for comfort cooling in buildings and motor vehicles.

    The concept of air conditioning is known to have been applied in Ancient Rome, where aqueduct water was circulated through the walls of certain houses to cool them. Similar techniques in medieval Persia involved the use of cisterns and wind towers to cool buildings during the hot season. Modern air conditioning emerged from advances in chemistry during the 19th century, and the first large-scale electrical air conditioning was invented and used in 1902 by Willis Haviland Carrier.
    Humidity control

    Refrigeration air conditioning equipment usually reduces the humidity of the air processed by the system. The relatively cold (below the dewpoint) evaporator coil condenses water vapor from the processed air, (much like an ice-cold drink will condense water on the outside of a glass), sending the water to a drain and removing water vapor from the cooled space and lowering the relative humidity. Since humans perspire to provide natural cooling by the evaporation of perspiration from the skin, drier air (up to a point) improves the comfort provided. The comfort air conditioner is designed to create a 40% to 60% relative humidity in the occupied space. In food retailing establishment’s large open chiller cabinets act as highly effective air dehumidifying units.
    A specific type of air conditioner that is used only for dehumidifying is called a dehumidifier. A dehumidifier is different from a regular air conditioner in that both the evaporator and condenser coils are placed in the same air path, and the entire unit is placed in the environment that is intended to be conditioned (in this case dehumidified), rather than requiring the condenser coil to be outdoors. Having the condenser coil in the same air path as the evaporator coil produces warm, dehumidified air. The evaporator (cold) coil is placed first in the air path, dehumidifying the air exactly as a regular air conditioner does. The air next passes over the condenser coil re-warming the now dehumidified air. Note that the terms "condenser coil" and "evaporator coil" do not refer to the behavior of water in the air as it passes over each coil; instead they refer to the phases of the refrigeration cycle. Having the condenser coil in the main air path rather than in a separate, outdoor air path (as in a regular air conditioner) results in two consequences—the output air is warm rather than cold, and the unit is able to be placed anywhere in the environment to be conditioned, without a need to have the condenser outdoors.
    Unlike a regular air conditioner, a dehumidifier will actually heat a room just as an electric heater that draws the same amount of power (watts) as the dehumidifier. A regular air conditioner transfers energy out of the room by means of the condenser coil, which is outside the room (outdoors). This is a thermodynamic system where the room serves as the system and energy is transferred out of the system. Conversely with a dehumidifier, no energy is transferred out of the thermodynamic system (room) because the air conditioning unit (dehumidifier) is entirely inside the room. Therefore all of the power consumed by the dehumidifier is energy that is input into the thermodynamic system (the room), and remains in the room (as heat). In addition, if the condensed water has been removed from the room, the amount of heat needed to boil that water has been added to the room. This is the inverse of adding water to the room with an evaporative cooler.
    Dehumidifiers are commonly used in cold, damp climates to prevent mold growth indoors, especially in basements. They are also sometimes used in hot, humid climates for comfort because they reduce the humidity which causes discomfort (just as a regular air conditioner, but without cooling the room).
    The engineering of physical and thermodynamic properties of gas-vapor mixtures is named Psychometrics.
    Automobile air conditioners
    Air conditioning systems are designed to allow the driver and or passengers to feel more comfortable during uncomfortably warm humid or hot trips in a vehicle. Cars in hot climates often are fitted with air conditioning. There has been much debate and discussion on what the usage of an air conditioner does to the fuel efficiency of a vehicle. Factors such as wind resistance aerodynamics and engine power and weight have to be factored into finding the true variance between using the air conditioning system and not using it when figuring out difference in actual gas mileage. Other factors on the impact on the engine and an overall engine heat increase can have an impact on the cooling system of the vehicle.
    Portable air conditioner

    A portable air conditioner is one on wheels that can be easily transported inside a home or office. They are currently available with capacities of about 6,000 to 60,000 BTU/h (1,800 to 18,000 watts output) and with and without electric resistance heaters. Portable true air conditioners come in two forms, split and hose. Evaporative coolers, sometimes called conditioners, are also portable.
    Air-cooled portable air conditioners are compressor-based refrigerant system that uses air to exchange heat, in the same way as a car or typical household air conditioner. With this type of system the air is dehumidified as it is cooled. They collect water condensed from the cooled air, and produce hot air which must be vented outside of the cooled area (they transfer heat from the air in the cooled area to air which must be vented).
    A split system has an indoor unit on wheels connected to an outdoor unit via flexible pipes, similar to a permanently fixed installed unit.




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