Executive Summary of Assignment
The ability to present one's findings from an evaluation or research study in a concise and persuasive manner is a requirement for any successful manager.
In Assignment , you evaluated the buying process of an online consumer product or service from the marketer's point of view using the five stages of the buying decision process.
Using your research findings from above Assignment create an executive summary PowerPoint presentation. Cover the following:
• Include a statement of the problem or the topic of Assignment .
• Concisely evaluate the findings from your research.
• Recapitulate any main conclusions or recommendations.
Develop a 6-8-slide presentation, excluding the title and reference slides, in PowerPoint format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.
Introduction
The buying process is also called the buying decision process, it describes the journey that a consumer takes before he or she buy a product. The buying process represents various stages that a consumer goes through before making the final purchase (Pride, 2015). The main aim of this process is for the customer to get the value for his or her money used in purchasing a product or a service. This paper will discuss the process of buying a marketing eBook from kindle; the eBook to buy should clearly explain the following topics, the first topic is the power of prospecting in network marketing, the second topic is the power of presentation in network marketing and lastly preparing oh how to lead in network marketing. The process of buying this eBook is explained step by step in this paper.
Problem recognition
The first step in the buying process is the need recognition; it is also called the problem recognition, this stage is the precursor of all customer-initiated actions activities; this frames the problem-solving stage. There are three main ways that a consumer can recognize the problem or unfulfilled wants. The first way that a consumer can recognize the problem is when he or she becomes frustrated by a product for not meeting its expectations, the second way to identify the problem is when the consumer runs of the service or the product and the last way to recognize an unfulfilled want is when the consumer become aware of a better product or service than the current product or service. In this case, the problem involves a need to get information on network marketing. A consumer is always triggered by external stimuli or internal stimuli (Davis & Gschwandtner, 2011) in order to identify a problem. Through an internal stimulus, information comes from within an individual such as memories about a certain product, from family or from friends, then through external stimulus information about the product comes from the environment such as media and other advertising agents. For example, an advertisement of eBooks on Kindle is an example of external stimuli that led to the availability of information that there exist good network marketing eBooks in their store. Also, the internal stimulus was the need for network marketing information for class work and also for application in real life. Networking marketing is a major trend in today's businesses and it is taking over from the traditional distribution channels. The problem identified was to acquire the information about the following topics in network marketing first is the power of prospecting in network marketing; the second problem is getting information about the power of presentations in network marketing and finally the preparing on how to lead in network marketing.
Search and determination of alternatives
After the consumer has identified and developed a need or a want of a certain product, he or she starts to search for the information about the different available alternatives that can best satisfy the need or the want. Information search can be internal or external, internal information search involves utilizing past experience or past memories with the product, then external information search consists of outside the environment such as getting information from friends, family and research. Also, a consumer can acquire information from marketing controlled sources; these include poster ads, radio, television, and brochure. This is the second stage; it involves evaluating different products and available brands. A consumer can get the product information from print media, visual, voice or through the internet. At this stage, the potential buyer examines different product or brands on the basis of the product attributes and finding out if the product can deliver or satisfy the consumer needs (Pride, 2015). This stage involves comparing good and bad attributes of a service or a product, several factors leads to the evaluation of alternatives, and these factors include the number of competitors and the difference between the products. Also the consumer considers the product characteristics i.e. how important or complex the product is and finally the situational characteristics. Evaluation of alternatives is influenced by the buyer's attitude, the attitude leads to the consumer liking or disliking a product. The available alternatives in this eBook's case include buying from Amazon, Alibaba, AliExpress and other online outlets selling kindle eBooks. These all companies offer almost similar services and the main aim is to access the seller with network marketing eBooks which best explains these network marketing topics. Each store sells eBooks from different authors, so the key issue is to get the best seller among the available sellers.
Evaluation of alternatives
Once the product information is collected, the consumer evaluates all the available brand options or products which have the ability to satisfy or deliver the need or the benefit that they are seeking. The consumer selects the product with the best attribute; the attribute could be price, quality, location or price (Pizam, 2010). Consumers seek alternatives in terms of physiological and functional benefits provided by the product. The buyer is significantly influenced by their attitude and also the degree of involvement that they have with the brand or the product. The buyer considers the objective characteristics and the subjective characteristics; the objective characteristics involve the functionality and features of the product or the service while the subjective characteristics involve perception or the perceived value of a product or service. Each consumer has his/her own attributes that they are looking for in buying decision. The Consumer must effectively identify the value of all the brands or products in their evoked set before they decide to buy the product. After shortlisting of two to three eBooks, there is need to choose the best alternative. The desired eBook should contain the required content explained in an easily understandable manner. The alternatives to look for should include, the author, title, why was it written and the content. The background information about the author is important when buying any reading material; it shows his or her area of expertise and interests. The title of the eBook helps in identifying the content included by the author, also many authors split their work into small eBooks which are sold separately at a small amount; small eBooks makes them more affordable to consumers. It is important to clearly identify the required content about network marketing topics. In this study some of the eBooks selected in order to choose from include the following titles Gumtionade: The Book for Your Self Improvement Plan by Robert B. O'Connor, Network Marketing for Facebook: Proven Social Media by Jim Lupkin, also there was one titled Rock Your Network Marketing Business: How to Become a Network Marketing Rock Star by Sarah Robbins and finally Three Easy Habits for Network Marketing: Automate Your MLM by Keith Schreiter. These materials were evaluated on the different basis such as content and also the price. The eBook titled Rock Your Network Marketing Business: How to Become a Network Marketing Rock Star by Sarah Robbins had all the required content about network marketing topics and the price was favorable as compared to other eBooks. The author is also a teacher in network marketing and she has vast experience in the field. The book clearly explains the require information and also its price is friendly. This was the best book available for the problem at hand, also I have bought Kindle eBooks from amazon severally and the experience was good.
Purchase decision
After the evaluation of all sellers, the best product is picked. The purchase decision depends on the available information and the perceived value of the product or the service offered to them (Pizam, 2010). After evaluation of all the eBooks, the decision was reached to purchase the one titled Rock Your Network Marketing Business: How to Become a Network Marketing Rock Star by Sarah Robbins. Amazon had the right quality and a good price compared to other Kindle eBooks sellers. The book contained all the required materials and explained in a more clear way as compared to other books from other sellers. The purchase was made through PayPal account and the eBook received after the purchase was made it led to the last step of post-purchase evaluation.
Post-purchase evaluation
This is the final stage in the buying process; the consumer compares the purchased product with their expectations to know if they are satisfied or unsatisfied. It greatly influences the buy decision on either to buy from the same seller again in future (Douglas & Bateson, 2016). If the consumer is satisfied it leads to brand loyalty. On the basis of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, the buyer will either give either a positive or negative feedback about the brand or the product. Cognitive dissonance is common at this stage, for example, "have I made the best decision". After evaluation of the eBook it contained all the required information and it was of high quality, I will continue buying eBooks from the same outlet in future because they offer quality products at a fair price. It's good for the seller to get post-purchase evaluation information from the customer in order to know the major areas to improve.
All the five steps are equally important when making a purchase decision; equal attention should be given to all stages. The main aim was to acquire a network marketing eBook which gives a clear explanation of the following topics: Power of prospecting, the power of presentation and preparing to lead. Post-purchase evaluation is critical to the seller ant the buyer, seller evaluates if the product has met the expectation and the sellers get to know how the consumer perceives the product. The seller also identifies the major strength and weaknesses of the product. A good seller should have a follow-up strategy in order to get the customer's feedback about the product; this feedback will assist the seller in improving the customer experience next time or replace the product if it had some defects. Customer review after the purchase of the product is the major feedback channel in which the seller can get the customer's opinions and experience about the product. From the above experience, the eBook's information was satisfactory and the review was positive. The buying process is crucial for rational buying of any product in the market.
Reference
Bateson, K. D. (2016). Services Marketing: Concepts, & Cases. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Gschwandtner, K. D. (2011). Slow-Down, Sell Faster!: Understand your Consumer 's Buying Process and Maximize your Sales. New York: Kelvin Davis.
Pizam, A. (2010). International Encyclopedia of Hospitality. Oxford: Elsevier.
Pride, W. M. (2015). Foundations of Marketing. Boston: Cengage Learning.