Situational, Psychological and Social Influences free essay sample

Discuss with your class situational, psychological and social influences on the buying decision process. Think about times when you purchased a product online. What cultural or personal factors influenced your decision? What do you know about your purchase now that you didn’t know before making it? If you have not made any online purchases, why not? Why have Internet sales jumped in recent years? How is promotion used on the Internet? Speculate what the Internet environment will be like in five or 10 years. Now consider how a company capitalizes on the buyer decision-making process with its product or service. List some examples. I purchase products online frequently and the factor that best influences my decision is the psychological. My purchases usually are based on items that I feel will add to my lifestyle, like clothes, shoes and I recently purchased rugs to add to my home. The psychological influences are the person’s behavior, their perception, motives, learning, attitudes, personality, self-concepts and lifestyles. We will write a custom essay sample on Situational, Psychological and Social Influences or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The social influences on the buying decision deals with family Influences, opinions, social classes, culture and subcultures. This influence on the buying decision takes in the actions and activities that a person is supposed to perform based on expectations of the individual and the surrounding persons. In 5 to 10 years, the Internet will play an even bigger part in consumer purchasing habits due to Businesses advertising directly to the consumer by way of their website and I believe in many scenarios, removing the middleman from the process which would make the price even more favorable to the consumer. ** Situational influences include location and timing that effect buying behavior. One example of situational influence would be a professional baseball game. You are out having a good time and get hungry so you buy a six dollar hot dog. Given the environment and the fact you are want to curb your hunger, you are willing to pay an irrational amount for a hot dog. Much more then you would say at a grocery store or any other time/place for that matter. Psychological influences include attitude, lifestyle, and how things are perceived. An example of psychological influence would be smoking. People buy cigarettes because commercials depict a â€Å"cool† lifestyle. The perception is that because of smoking they will be cooler or more popular, and that becomes their motive for buying the product. Not that they actually want the product itself. Social influences include culture, roles, and social classes. One example of social influence is the classic â€Å"keeping up with the Jone’s† theory. In this scenario people buy things to fit in to a group or out do their peers. They make purchases to show off or instill jealousy in others as opposed to buying out of necessity. I personally have never bought anything off the internet and the reason for that comes down to trust. I hear about hacking information and fraud too often and because of that I don’t trust putting my financial information on the web. Internet sales have jumped in recent years because more companies are offering products on the web, often times at a discount to retail stores. The internet is used for promotion to make products well known (more visible). Take Google as an example, if you search the word â€Å"camera† those companies that paid the most money will be at the top of the list. Pop up ads are another way the internet uses promotion. For those reasons and convenience purposes the internet will continue to boom as a means for sales. Companies capitalize on the buyer decision making process by appealing to the correct influences of their target market. An example would be for a Corvette. Something that shows a forty year old man smiling while cruising around in his sports car may influence people that are experiencing a mid life crisis to buy one as a cure or status symbol.