BUYING MODELS
1. NICOSIA MODEL
This model focuses on the relationship between the firm and its
potential consumers. The firm communicates with consumers
through its marketing messages (advertising), and the consumers
react to these messages by purchasing response. Looking to the
model we will find that the firm and the consumer are connected
with each other, the firm tries to influence the consumer and the
consumer is influencing the firm by his decision.
The Nicosia model is divided into four major fields:
Field 1: The
consumer
attitude based
on the firms’
messages. The
first field is
divided into
two subfields.
The first
subfield deals
with the firm’s marketing environment and communication
efforts that affect consumer attitudes, the competitive
environment, and characteristics of target market.
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Subfield two specifies the consumer characteristics e.g.,
experience, personality, and how he perceives the promotional
idea toward the product in this stage the consumer forms his
attitude toward the firm’s product based on his interpretation of
the message.
Field 2: search and evaluation: The consumer will start to
search for other firm’s brand and evaluate the firm’s brand in
comparison with alternate brands. In this case the firm motivates
the consumer to purchase its brands.
Field 3: The act of the purchase: The result of motivation will
arise by convincing the consumer to purchase the firm products
from a specific retailer.
Field 4: Feedback: This model analyses the feedback of both the
firm and the consumer after purchasing the product. The firm will
benefit from its sales data as a feedback, and the consumer will
use his experience with the product affects the individual’s
attitude and predisposition’s concerning future messages from
the firm.
The Nicosia model offers no detail explanation of the internal
factors, which may affect the personality of the consumer, and how
the consumer develops his attitude toward the product. For
example, the consumer may find the firm’s message very
interesting, but virtually he cannot buy the firm’s brand because it
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contains something prohibited according to his beliefs.
Apparently it is very essential to include such factors in the
model, which give more interpretation about the attributes
affecting the decision process.
2. HOWARD-SHETH MODEL:
This model suggests three levels of decision making:
1. The first level describes the extensive problem solving. At
this level the consumer does not have any basic information or
knowledge about the brand and he does not have any preferences
for any product. In this situation, the consumer will seek
information about all the different brands in the market before
purchasing.
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2. The second level is limited problem solving. This situation
exists for consumers who have little knowledge about the market,
or partial knowledge about what they want to purchase. In order
to arrive at a brand preference some comparative brand
information is sought.
3. The third level is a habitual response behavior. In this level
the consumer knows very well about the different brands and he
can differentiate between the different characteristics of each
product, and he already decides to purchase a particular product.
According to the Howard-Sheth model there are four major sets
of variables; namely:
a) Inputs : These input variables consist of three distinct types
of stimuli (information sources) in the consumer’s environment.
The marketer in the form of product or brand information
furnishes physical brand characteristics (significative stimuli) and
verbal or visual product characteristics (symbolic stimuli). The
third type is provided by the consumer’s social environment (family,
reference group, and social class). All three types of stimuli
provide inputs concerning the product class or specific brands to
the specific consumer.
b) Perceptual and Learning Constructs : The central part of
the model deals with the psychological variables involved when
the consumer is contemplating a decision. Some of the variables
are perceptual in nature, and are concerned with how the
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consumer receives and understands the information from the input
stimuli and other parts of the model. For example, stimulus
ambiguity happened when the consumer does not understand the
message from the environment. Perceptual bias occurs if the
consumer distorts the information received so that it fits his or
her established needs or experience. Learning constructs
category, consumers’ goals, information about brands, criteria for
evaluation alternatives, preferences and buying intentions are all
included. The proposed interaction In between the different
variables in the perceptual and learning constructs and other sets
give the model its distinctive advantage.
c) Outputs: The outputs are the results of the perceptual and
learning variables and how the consumers will response to these
variables (attention, brand comprehension, attitudes, and
intention).
d) Exogenous (External) variables: Exogenous variables are
not directly part of the decision-making process. However, some
relevant exogenous variables include the importance of the
purchase, consumer personality traits, religion, and time pressure.
The decision-making process, which Howard-Sheth Model tries to
explain, takes place at three Inputs stages: Significance, Symbolic
and Social stimuli. In both significative and symbolic stimuli, the
model emphasizes on material aspects such as price and quality.
These stimuli are not applicable in every society. While in social
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stimuli the model does not mention the basis of decision-making
in this stimulus, such as what influence the family decision? This
may differ from one society to another.
Finally, no direct relation was drawn on the role of religion in
influencing the consumer’s decision-making processes. Religion
was considered as external factor with no real influence on
consumer, which give the model obvious weakness in anticipation
the consumer decision.
3. ENGEL-KOLLAT-BLACKWELL MODEL
This model was created to describe the increasing, fast-growing
body of knowledge concerning consumer behavior. This model,
like in other models, has gone through many revisions to improve
its descriptive ability of the basic relationships between
components and sub-components, this model consists also of
four stages;
First stage: decision-process stages
The central focus of the model is on five basic decision-process
stages: Problem recognition, search for alternatives, alternate
evaluation (during which beliefs may lead to the formation of
attitudes, which in turn may result in a purchase intention)
purchase, and outcomes. But it is not necessary for every
consumer to go through all these stages; it depends on whether it
is an extended or a routine problem-solving behavior.
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Second stage: Information input: At this stage the consumer gets
information from marketing and non-marketing sources, which
also influence the problem recognition stage of the decision-making
process. If the consumer still does not arrive to a specific decision,
the search for external information will be activated in order to
arrive to a choice or in some cases if the consumer experience
dissonance because the selected alternative is less satisfactory than
expected.
Third stage: information processing: This stage consists of the
consumer’s exposure, attention, perception, acceptance, and
retention of incoming information. The consumer must first be
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exposed to the message, allocate space for this information,
interpret the stimuli, and retain the message by transferring the
input to long-term memory.
Fourth stage: variables influencing the decision process: This
stage consists of individual and environmental influences that
affect all five stages of the decision process. Individual
characteristics include motives, values, lifestyle, and personality;
the social influences are culture, reference groups, and family.
Situational influences, such as a consumer’s financial condition,
also influence the decision process.
This model incorporates many items, which influence consumer
decision-making such as values, lifestyle, personality and culture.
The model did not show what factors shape these items, and why
different types of personality can produce different decision-
making? How will we apply these values to cope with different
personalities? Religion can explain some behavioral
characteristics of the consumer, and this will lead to better
understanding of the model and will give more comprehensive
view on decision-making.
4. Kano Model:
The Kano model of customer satisfaction classifies attributes
based on how they are perceived by customers and their effect on
customer satisfaction.
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The model is based on three types of attributes viz. basic or
expected attributes, (2) performance or spoken attributes, and
(3) surprise and delight attributes.
The performance or spoken attributes are the expressed
expectations of the customer. The basic or expected attributes are
as the meaning implies the basic attributes without any major
significance of worth mentioning. The third one, the surprise and
delight attributes are those, which are beyond the customers’
expectations.
Kano model measures satisfaction against customer perceptions
of attribute performance; grades the customer requirements and
determines the levels of satisfaction. The underlying assumption
behind Kano’s method is that the customer satisfaction is not
always proportional to how fully functional the product or service
is or in other words, higher quality does not necessarily lead to
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higher satisfaction for all product attributes or services
requirements.
In his model, Kano distinguishes between three types of basic
requirements, which influence customer satisfaction. They are:
(1) Must be requirements – If these requirements are not fulfilled,
the customer will be extremely dissatisfied. On the other hand, as
the customer takes these requirements for granted, their
fulfillment will not increase his satisfaction;
(II)One-dimensional Requirement – One dimensional requirements
are usually explicitly demanded by the customer – the higher the
level of fulfillment, the higher the customer’s satisfaction and vice
versa.
(III) Attractive Requirement – These requirements are the
product/service criteria which have the greatest influence on
how satisfied a customer will be with a given product”.
The additional attributes, which Kano mentions, are: Indifferent
attributes, Questionable attributes, and Reverse attributes.
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