Hey guyz ,
here i m .... once again asking 4 help 4 my Consumer Buying Behavior project ....
can u guyz help me out in getting d content of my topic ...
Topic Name:- Family as a Decision Making Unit(DMU) and the strategies adopted & created by the marketer to combat them .
Early replies will be highly appreciated .... Also THANK u so much 4 helping me out in my earlier project .... i hope the same wud follow in dis one .....
Spl Thanks to : Ms. Kalpana Heliya .
Hi Vinay... thnx for your compliments, I'm sure even u wish to feel the pleasure that I derive helping others::smile:
DMU is a very important part in the Consumer Behavior studies. Please refer to a book titled
'Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy' by Jerry Olson if available in your library.
Starting with the defination of Consumer DMU..
Consumer decision making unit:
An important concept in marketing communications is the DMU, the Decision Making Unit, and the role it plays in buying the product or service. While making business plans marketers must think about who they are targeting their marketing efforts towards. When talking about the DMU, they have to ask themselves who makes the decision to buy the product.
The decision maker in the family, organization, or group. The decision making unit need not necessarily be a single individual, but may be a committee or informal set of individuals that makes the final choices.
Strategies:
- One imp aspect Marketers needs to understand is to clearly dentify its customer in the DMU and better focus its marketing communications. A company that soley focusses on the purchaser may neglect to communicate with the user of thier product/services. I beleive Vinay you clearly understand the difference between the terms CUSTOMER and CONSUMER.
- The potentail roles in the DMU are the' initiator' the person who first suggest the need or the problem to be solved, the 'infulencer' who has the greater credibilty in the information search, the 'decider' who makes the final choice.. the 'buyer' who performs the transaction..the 'user' who experiences the product/service. Individuals play arious roles and more than one takes part in the process. Hence Marketers needs to identify well who plays the role of the ' decider' for their product and essentially target the 'decider' who makes the final decision. This can be done by devising an effective communication strategy, criticaly differentiate their product from others in the same category, in short give stronger reasons to the 'decider' to go for his product/service.
- For Mareters it implies a critical understanding of the 'decders' atttude and beliefs to develop communication objective and keeping track of the changing & reinforcing of attitudes towards his brand/ product. Attitudes forms an important part of the decision making process and attitudes are ften an indication of the behaviorial intent.
I hope members having knowlege on this will definately share their insights::help:
Goodluck Vinay
