Buying Behavior Essay

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CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction

This chapter is focused on existing literature that is relevant to the subject matter of this study. The literature review will comprise of models and studies, which will shed more light on the topic and provide a framework for conducting the study. These models include the consumer decision-making process, consumer buying behavior model, and the consumer choice criteria. This literature review further provides a comprehensive explanation of the factors that influence consumer choice with an in-depth analysis of hedonic and utilitarian factors. It also includes an analysis of similar researches conducted on consumer choice.

2.1 Consumer Buying Behavior

According to Belch and Belch (2007), consumer behavior can be defined as “the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires” (Variawa, 2010). In understanding consumer choice, it is important to understand consumer-buying behavior. There are generally four types of consumer buying behavior that are based on the kind of product being purchased, level of involvement and significant difference between brands (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). Blackwell, Miniard & Engel (2001), furthur define the different kinds of buying behavior as stated below.

Complex Buying Behavior- This behavior is seen when the consumer has a high involvement in the product purchase decision. This means the consumer might seek to collect a lot of information on features and attributes of the product before the choice to buy is made (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). Products under this buying behavior face financial risk, physical risk and a...

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...This makes up the main theoretical framework for this study. The research conducted by Spronk, Hasan and Karjaluoto are similar to this particular research since they sought to identify the main factors of consumer choice, focusing on brands of soft drinks, ice cream, sneakers as well as cars and mobile phones respectively. The findings of these studies were used to juxtapose the findings this research presented.

To the best of literature search however, there has not been any research conducted to determine the relative importance of influences of choice on products with marginal benefit and price differences such as fuel in Ghana. Therefore, this research seeks to determine the relative importance of factors that influence choice of fuel retail brands in Ghana. This study does not seek to understand or explore why certain factors are more important than others.

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