Understanding Consumer and Consumption

Understanding the Consumer and Consumption:

Total Customer Value:

The satisfaction that a customer gets on the purchase decision of a product is called as the total customer value (i.e.) the benefit a customer gets out of the purchase. The various factors that constitutes Total customer value are,

• Image Value-  Britannia is the market leader. So being able to purchase a loaf of Daily Fresh bread adds to the image value of the customer.
• Personnel Value- Since Daily Fresh is a tangible product that doesn not involve any sort of delivery or other intangible services, the utmost personnel value that a customer draws out of the product is the customer care helpline provided on the wrapper.
• Service Value- As discussed earlier, there is no specific service value Dily Fresh delivers to the consumer.
• Product Value- The product in itself delivers a lot of value. The variant are designed to cater to specific target groups- Sandwich bread, White Bread, Multigrain Honey Oats bread et al.

Total Customer cost:

Total customer cost refers to the benefit a customer gets for the payment he makes for a product or a service. Here, the customer will see if their money is spent worth on the particular product. Total customer cost is a cost spent on the following entities.

• Monetary Cost (the price of the product) The consumer pays 21 rupees for an 800 gm loaf of Daily Fresh Bread
• Time Cost (time consumed to buy a product) The time spent in making it to the closest rtail outlet- the kirana, hypermarts, mom and pop stores in order to buy a loaf of bread. And again, bread is a perishable comodity. So the customer needs to frequent these shops on a daily basis inorder to buy bread. This also increases the time spent on buying a loaf of bread as opposed to buying a shampoo/ soap that lasts longer
• Energy Cost (energy spent to buy a product. Energy cost is criticised to be of less depth in this subject) The energy spent in walking or the fuel spent on travelling to the store
• Psychic Cost (other the psychological factors) This doesn’t hold relevance to the product

Consumer Buying Behaviour

Consumer buying process:

There are 6 stages that a consumer goes through before he decides to purchase and thereafter repurchase a product.

1. Problem Recognition(awareness of need)--difference between the desired state and the actual condition. Deficit in assortment of products. Hunger--Food. Hunger stimulates your need to eat.
   Daily fresh Loaf of bread is purchased inorder to serve breakfast needs of people.
2. Information search--
• Internal search, memory.
• External search if you need more information. Friends and relatives (word of mouth). Marketer dominated sources; comparison shopping; public sources etc.

A successful information search leaves a buyer with possible alternatives, the evoked set.

The only information search that is available in case of this product is the word of mouth. Daily Fresh being a prominent brand is most likely to frequent the shopping lists in a household.

3. Evaluation of Alternatives--need to establish criteria for evaluation, features the buyer wants or does not want. Rank/weight alternatives or resume search.

The possible alternatives that bread can have are the various other breakfast products that are available in the market. The others include cereals and corn flakes. Bread is still the forst option that a household will opt for its ready to serve and almost has no prep time.

4. Purchase decision--Choose buying alternative, includes product, package, store, method of purchase etc.
5. Purchase--May differ from decision, time lapse between 4 & 5, product availability.
6. Post-Purchase Evaluation--outcome: Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction. Cognitive Dissonance, have you made the right decision. This can be reduced by warranties, after sales communication etc.
   After eating an indian meal, may think that really you wanted a chinese meal instead. Daily Fresh offers a huge range of variants. This leads to the customer picking him the type that suits him and his requirement the best. This leads to increased satisfaction and the consumer is most likely to buy the product for a second time.