Week Two - Engel Kollat-The Blackwell Model

I hope you will find my explanation on The Blackwell Model helpful as much as The Howard- Sheth Model.
Tuck (1976) describes that Engel Kollat-The Blackwell Model “Used the concepts of behavioral science in an attempt to model, in a way both detailed and capable of general applications, the process which the consumers must go through in decision.” 
This model was designed to explain the increasing amount of knowledge about consumer behavior. The center of the model is due to five stages. These include problem recognition, alternate evaluation, search for alternatives, purchase and outcomes. However it is not essential for the consumer to go through every stage. The consumer gathers information from marketing and non-marketing research, which influences the ‘problem recognition’ stage of the decision making for the consumer. However if the consumer does still not conclude to a decision, the search for external information will be conducted to make the consumer have a final decision. The next stage is to process the information. This exists of the consumer’s exposure, attention, perception, and retention of incoming information. The consumer firstly needs to be exposed to the message, they then need to place the information, interpret the stimuli, and hold onto the message by allocating the information to the long-term memory. The final stage includes personal influences that affect all of the stages of the decision process. Individual characteristics such as values, social influences, culture and lifestyle. Situational influences, for example the consumer’s financial situation can influence the decision process.

Engel Kollat-The Blackwell Model

(Lashley and Upchurch, 2006)

I hope you have found this helpful and you now have a wider knowledge of Engel Kollat-The Blackwell Model . If you have another explanation of this theory, please provide the link in the comment box below. 

Week Two - The Howard- Sheth Model

As I explained in my previous post I have posted the theories separately. I done this so you can have a detailed explanation on the theories as they are quite informative. I have done some research and tried to explain the model myself. John Howard and Jagdish Sheth introduced their buyer model in 1969. The Howard-Sheth Model attempts to explain and simplify the complex decision making process by the consumer. The model suggests this in three stages. First stage is extensive problem solving. At this stage the consumer does not have knowledge of the brand and do not have a preferred brand. In this stage the consumer will then research information about different brands in the market for the specific product. Second is limited problem solving. This is for consumers who have little or partial knowledge about the product and the market. There must be some comparative decision making here so the consumer can find a preferential product.  Finally the third is habitual response behaviour. This is when the consumer’s knowledge on the product is high, they know of a range of brands and can determine traits in individual products. According to the module there are four major variables. This is consisting of inputs, perceptual and learning constructs, outputs and external variables.The input variables have three types of information sources in the consumer’s surroundings. They are as follows:

Significant – Brand characteristics such as price, quality and availability.

Symbolic – Verbal or visual characteristics of the product.

Consumers Social Environment - This can consist of friendship groups, family circle, and social class.

Perceptual and learning constructs of the psychological variables when the consumer is making a decision. This is when the consumer has reached their goals, found all information needed for the brand and has preferences and intentions to purchase the product.

The outputs are the conclusion of the perceptual and learning variables and how the consumer will respond to this.

Lastly are the external variables. This is the important part of the purchase where the consumer has involved her own traits into her purchase decision. 

The Howard- Sheth Model 

                                                                    (scibd.com, 2008)

I hope you have found this helpful and you now have a wider knowledge of The Howard- Sheth Model. If you have another explanation of this theory, please provide the link in the comment box below. 

Week Two - Introduction to Perception

I have survived another week! In week two we learned about perception. Perception is a procedure by which stimuli selects, organizes and interprets. Kotler and Armstrong (2009) define perception as, “The process by which people select, organise, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world”.  Perception is based on how we each individually perceive our surroundings. Another definition of perception by Schiffman and Kanuk (2003) “Is how we see the world around us”.

This subject has made me think about how my friends, family and classmates all share similar interests with me, however they see things from a completely different perspective, even if we are looking at the same thing. Ruth showed us a clip from an advert by The Guardian. I think it shows and explains well how we can all see the same event, however we all see it differently. The link for the clip is showed below.

I wanted to find out more examples of this and to find a different clip, however still expressing the same message. I was lucky enough to find a link on you-tube, that I think shows this message perfectly. Its comical approach is designed to entice you, whilst still getting their message across. The link for the clip is showed below, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Are you still laughing from the clip's? I especially enjoyed Ameriquest's advert, with the change for the parking meter incident! Please comment on this post and let me know which advertisement was your favourite. 

Ruth explained that sensation, attention and interpretation make up the process of perception. Sensation is the immediate response of our five senses through stimuli such as light, colour and sound. Attention is where consumers focus on stimuli when they are exposed to products within their range. Finally interpretation is the process where meanings are appointed to stimuli. Consumers alter in terms of the stimuli that they perceive.

I wanted to try and find other people's view of perception and what they think it means. I went on a number of websites and a few stood out.  A website named articlearchive.com allows members of the public to post up articles they have written about numerous topics, a few being on perception. Here is the link to one that I think explains and describes perception well. 

http://www.myarticlearchive.com/articles/9/173.htm 

To finish the lecture, Ruth wanted to explain how we as consumers process our buying decisions. She related to a few theory's, one being Engel Kollat-The Blackwell Model and second being The Howard- Sheth Model. I will create separate posts to explain in detail about these theory's. 

Next week we will be going into more depth about perception and I get to find out more about my first assignment. If you have any comment about my post's, please don't hesitate to comment below. Hope to hear back from you. 

Week One - Consumer's are like onions

Can you guess what this is? This is my artistic version of an onion. Week one was an introduction to Consumer Behaviour, and in fact I really enjoyed the lecture. Ruth is my lecturer for this module as well as being my personal tutor. My first instinct is that she wants to make learning an enjoyable experience, not just to stand in a class room and recite textbooks. My preferential learning style is when I am interactive, I like to get 'stuck in'. I could not help when I walked in to notice an onion on her desk. Ruth described to us how consumers are like onions, we both have layers. In the lecture we were shown two book front covers. One with being red, with a picture of a city and what appears to be a man smirking. The second being opposite with monochrome grey tones, whilst a woman opening a car door showing her foot stepping onto the pavement. Cleverly Ruth deleted both book titles from their covers, which meant we had to guess what the book was about with the only clues being what was on the cover. With book one having suggestions being about wall street, terrorist's and the city life compared to the second being about an independent business woman and romance, clearly the two books are giving two different perceptions. However it was revealed that the two books were in fact the same, one being published earlier than the other. The concept I think Ruth  was trying to make was that each individual sees the world from a different point of view. Our next task was when the onion was introduced. We had to draw an onion on the middle of a piece of paper to represent our different layers, then answering a series of questions about ourselves. The questions varied from our family life, hobbies, interests and our social life. Ruth wanted to show us how other people based on the information we give them can perceive us. We all received another persons sheet, then had to describe what we thought that individual was like. Surprisingly the classmate that received mine described me very differently to how I see myself. Here is a picture of my question sheet I done in class:

Induction Week

Arriving to the university on the first day of induction week, I cannot help but say I was nervous. I have not been in education for a few years and was extremely anxious to get started. However this was short lived. I originally enrolled onto the Business and Retail course as I have for a number of years been interested into Fashion Buying, however due to the lack of numbers the university could not continue the course. Luckily I was given the option to choose a similar course, and with more research into my options I decided to have a brief conversation with my potential tutor at the time Ruth, who is head of the Marketing Department. To be honest I felt let down by the university for telling me on the day I was supposed to start my course. However Ruth gave me a detailed insight into the course and gave me hope again that I was going to do a degree I was interested in and would enjoy. The university hosted a range of workshops and lectures to help us be prepared for the year ahead. The workshops gave me the opportunity to feel more confident with the facilities that are available and gave me an easy transition into university life. The Computer Workshop was helpful due to it giving me the knowledge on how the computer systems work and how to get their best use for my specific course. You will have to come back to see if week one on my new course runs more smoothly than my induction week!