Business admin and marketing:Organisational Buying Behaviour

Organisational buying behaviour shares some similarities with customer buying behaviour but there are also significant differences which we will focus on later on.

Within organisational buying behaviour there are four market groups namely:

• Industrial markets
• Reseller markets
• Government markets
• Institutional markets

Organisational markets v consumer markets

1. There are fewer transactions compared with consumer markets
2. Transactions are normally of greater volume and value
3. Buyers in organisational markets seek information in a more formal manner.
4. Purchasers in organisational settings tend to be less price sensitive.  Factors such as quality and reliability be take priority over price.
5. Decisions are often more complex than those faced by consumers
6. More than one person amy be involved in the buying process for example,  technical experts, financial advisers, board of directors etc.

There are three different situations involved in organisational buying behaviour.  These are:

• New taks purchase
• Modified re-buy
• Straight re-buy

The organisational buying process

1. Problem recognition
2. General need description
3. Product specification
4. Search for alternative products/suppliers
5. Seek offers
6. Evaluate offers relative to specifications
7. Order product
8. Evaluate product and supplier performance

Market Research-Qualitative Research

When should a company consider using qualitative research?  Qualitative research may be used by organisations to identify the attitudes of consumers' attitudes feelings and to examine them in greater detail.


There are a number of reasons why organisations may use qualitiative methods:These include

1. It may be cheaper due to the fact that the size of the sample will be small.  E.g. 6-12 respondents.
2. It enables the organisation to gain an understanding of consumer motivations through open-ended and probing questions.

However, in some cases organisations may combine but qualitative and quantative methods to improve the overall effectiveness of the market research.


There are a number of disadvantages to be considered as well:

1. Qualitative research does not always detect small differences in the marketing mix.
2. Due to the small sample size it may not reflect the attitudes and views of the population of interest.
3. Some experts may lack experience and may therefore provide low quality work.

There are three main types of focus groups

1. Exploratory groups
2. Clinical focus groups
3. Experiencing focus groups

Advantages of focus groups

1. Snowballing
2. Can observe the respondents for non-verbal communication
3. Very easy to organise the focus group
4. Easy to tabulate findings

Disadvantages of focus groups

1. The respondent may not be a 'typical' customers
2. Setting may make the respondentes feel uncomfortable.
3. Some participants may dominate the discussion.

There are other forms of qualitative research.  These include:

• Depth interviews
• Projectives techniques

Depth Interviews

These are one to one interviews that allow the respondent to
talk in detail about their feelings. 

There are many advantages of depth-interviews

1. No one person is going to dominate teh disucssion
2. The interviewer can probe in greater detail
3. Discussion can be flexible and allow the respondent and the interviewer to explore issues.
4. Interviewer can be more sensitive to non-verbal communication.

However, there are many disadvantages to this method as
well:

These include:

1. It is more expensive to conduct depth interview to focus groups
2. It can be physically exhausting
3. Moderators do not have other group members to help stimulate the discussion

Projective Tests

These tests are used to try and get an insight into the
deepest feelings of respondents.  Respondents tend to
project these feelings into an unstructured sutation.

There are different types of projective tests that

organisations can use.

1. Word association
2. sentence completion and story completion
3. Cartoon Tess  

Marketing-Consumer Behaviour

During this session we focused on the area of consumer behaviour.  This look at what we buy, the process we go through when we buy something, and what influences what we purchase. 
There are a number of factors that influence what we purchase.  These include:

1. Cultural
2. Social
3. Personal
4. Psychological

 

Cultural Factors

Culture is often seen as cumulative in nature (passed down from

one generation to the next) Culture gives meaning to products and

services and this meaning of often expressed in symoblic form-e.g.

McDonald's Golden Arches.  Within a culture there are subcultures

which include

1. Ethnic groups
2. Religious groups
3. Age groups
4. Geographic groups

 

What are the cultural shifts in Ireland?

There is a change in attitudes towards drink driving.

Our values are no longer conserative in nature-we tend to be more

liberal in values and beliefs.

Women's right to work have brought a range of products and

services onto the market.

 

Social Factors

This refers to the influence that other people exert on the buyer, as well as the social role and status

that poeple hold within groups.  There are three main types of groups:

 

• Membership groups
• Reference groups
• Aspirational groups

There are also the issues of social class and the family to be

considered when purchasing a product or service.

Personal factors

•Personal factors that can influence the products and services we buy include:

1.Age

2.Life-cycle stage

3.Occupation

4.Economic situation

5.Lifestyle

6.Personality

7.Self-concept

 

Psychological Factors

The major psychological factors

influencing buying decisions are:

1.Motivation

2.Perception

3.Learning

4.Beliefs and attitudes

Consumer Buying Decision Process

There are a number that a consumer may go through before they

purchase their product or service.  These steps are:

1. Identify a need
2. Look for information
3. Evaluate the alternatives
4. Purchase
5. Post purchase evaluation  

 

Market Research Chapter 11-Questionnaire design

A questionnaire is a common form of collecting information on markets and behavour which can be described and analysed in detail so that opportunities can be taken, company performance assessed and companyactivities can be tracked.

Before the questionnaire can be developed the researcher has to sit down and determine what the research objectives will be. Factors should has determining how the data will be collected, the wording of questions and the response format for questions all need careful consideration.

There are a number of stages invovled in the development of a questionnaire.

1.Determine survey objectives, research and constraints

2.Determine the data collection method

3.Determine the questionnaire response format

4.Decide on questionnaire wording

5.Develop questionnaire flow and layout

6. Evaluate the questionnaire

7. Obtain approval of all relevant parties

8. Pre-test and revise

9. Prepare the final questionnaire copy.

10.Implementing the study

Step 1 Determine survey objectives, research and

constraints-during this stage the research needs to

communicate with their clients to identify what the

survey objectives will be.

Step 2-determine the data collection method. The data

collection method will depends on a number of factors

such as time and budget. Some of the methods that can

be used are: E-mail, postal, person to person or telephone

Step 3-Determine the questionnaire response format3 major types of questions are used in market research:

•Open questions

•Closed questions

•Scale questions

Step 4-decide on questionnaire wording-time should

be spent on the wording of the questions in the

questionnaire.

Step 5-Develop questionnaire flow and layout-the

researcher should ask general questions first,

sensitive questions should be put towards the end of

the questionnaire.

Step 6 Evaluate the questionnaire -when the first

draft of the questionnaire has been complete the

researcher should look to see if:

-there are questions that are deemed 'nice to know'.

-is the questionnaire too long

-will the questions asked achieve the objectives of

the survey

Step 7-Obtain approval of the relevant parties

before the questionnaire is sent out to the public,

managers or the board of directors need to approve

the questionnaire.

Step 8-Pre-test and revise the questionnaire

Step 9-prepare the final copy of the questionnaire

Step 10-implementing the study-need to ensure that

the interviewers and supervisors instructions are

followed