Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

For a company their most important aspect to research and know about is their customers, or for some starting companies customers they hope to attract. To understand how a customer behaves and and make decisions is key on selling your product.
Traditionally the first step in customers rutine to buying a product is need. Most electronics in todays world are not neccaseraly needs, however Apple products have been so accepted, and praised that someone who isn't necaseraly the biggest Apples fan might hear about how great iphones, ipods, etc are that they feel they need it for its conviniet features and to fit in among others that have Apple products.
After deciding wheather or not the product is a need customers then try to find information on the product. Their is many ways to find information now a days thanks to our civer world. Customers ask their fellow piers if they have been satisfied with a passed generation of a product by Apple or they can go directly on Apples website wich has slide shows videos and hardware specs on all their latest products. apple does a really good job on informing consumers on the their products. Take their new Itouch generation 5. I personaly can't survive without my Itouch gen 4. It not only has an informing media player but also has games, apps, retina display, etc. I wasn't sure if buying a new Itouch would be necasery until I looked it up on Apple's website and I was mind blown. They literaly have information on every little detail of the new itouch from design to software (http://www.apple.com/ipod-touch/features/). It was really helpful for me as a consumer and I decided i will go ahead and replace my current Itouch when ever I can financialy get a chance.
With that being said its obiuse the next step is the decision. After gathering information customers will waigh their options with other products. However Apple is in the unique position of being a golden standerd for certain areas. For example most people my age (16 - 24) dont say "I need an MP3 player" they say "I need a new Ipod". The satisfaction on Apple products in certain areas has become so massive it is the face of that area of consumption.
Finally a consumer will purchase a product. Fortunetly for Apple lack of purchases has not been a problem in recent years. In fact in 2010 (one of Steve Jobs last events) Apple announced that it sold 100 million products in Iphones alone (http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/02/apple-announces-100-million-iphones-15-million-ipads-sold/). Now add the 5 million record breaking sales Apple had in the first 3 days of its Iphone 5 release (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/09/24/apples-5-million-iphone-5-sales-what-analysts-are-saying/).
The last and final step in purchasing a product is called post purchase behavior. Is the customer satisfied with the product? Will they recomend it to their piers? Will it keep him/her coming back for more. I would say do to the record breaking sales of the new Iphone that customers are pretty satisfied with their products. In addition due to its large demand of the Iphone 5 many Apple stores have put up signs recomending customers to just order their Iphone online due to shortages.



People camping out for the Iphone 5 in manhattan.