Chapter6 Transaction behavior on the Internet 6.1 consumer buying behavior 6.1.1 What is Consumer Buying Behavior? Buying Behavior is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using products. Need to understand: why consumers make the purchases that they make? what factors influence consumer purchases? the changing factors in our society. Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the buying behavior of the ultimate consumer. A firm needs to analyze buying behavior for: Buyers reactions to a firms marketing strategy has a great impact on the firms success. The marketing concept stresses that a firm should create a Marketing Mix (MM) that satisfies (gives utility to) customers, therefore need to analyze the what, where, when and how consumers buy. Marketers can better predict how consumers will respond to marketing strategies. 6.1.2 Stages of the Consumer Buying Process Six Stages to the Consumer Buying Decision Process (For complex decisions). Actual purchasing is only one stage of the process. Not all decision processes lead to a purchase. All consumer decisions do not always include all 6 stages, determined by the degree of complexity...discussed next. 1. Problem Recognition(awareness of need) difference between the desired state and the actual condition. Deficit in assortment of products. Hunger--Food. Hunger stimulates your need to eat. Can be stimulated by the marketer through product information--did not know you were deficient? I.E., see a commercial for a new pair of shoes, stimulates your recognition that you need a new pair of shoes. 2. Information search-- Internal search, memory External search if you need more information. Friends and relatives (word of mouth). Marketer dominated sources; comparison shopping; public sources etc. A successful information search leaves a buyer with possible alternatives, the evoked set. Hungry, want to go out and eat, evoked set is; chinese food indian food burger king klondike kates etc 3. Evaluation of Alternatives--need to establish criteria for evaluation, features The buyer wants or does not want. Rank/weight alternatives or resume search. May decide that you want to eat something spicy, indian gets highest rank etc. If not satisfied with your choice then return to the search phase. Can you think of another restaurant? Look in the yellow pages etc. Information from different sources may be treated differently. Marketers try to influence by "framing" alternatives. 4. Purchase decision Choose buying alternative, includes product, package, store, method of purchase etc 5. Purchase May differ from decision, time lapse between 4 & 5, product availability. 6. Post-Purchase Evaluation outcome: Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction. Cognitive Dissonance, have you made the right decision. This can be reduced by warranties, after sales communication etc. After eating an indian meal, may think that really you wanted a chinese meal instead. 6.1.3 Types of Consumer Buying Behavior Types of consumer buying behavior are determined by: Level of Involvement in purchase decision. Importance and intensity of interest in a product in a particular situation. Buyers level of involvement determines why he/she is motivated to seek information about a certain products and brands but virtually ignores others. High involvement purchases--Honda Motorbike, high priced goods, products visible to others, and the higher the risk the higher the involvement. Types of risk: Personal risk Social risk Economic risk The four type of consumer buying behavior are: Routine Response/Programmed Behavior--buying low involvement frequently purchased low cost items; need very little search and decision effort; purchased almost automatically. Examples include soft drinks, snack foods, milk etc. Limited Decision Making--buying product occasionally. When you need to obtain information about unfamiliar brand in a familiar product category, perhaps. Requires a moderate amount of time for information gathering. Examples include Clothes--know product class but not the brand. Extensive Decision Making/Complex high involvement, unfamiliar, expensive and/or infrequently bought products. High degree of economic/performance/psychological risk. Examples include cars, homes, computers, education. Spend alot of time seeking information and deciding. Information from the companies MM; friends and relatives, store personnel etc. Go through all six stages of the buying process. Impulse buying, no conscious planning. The purchase of the same product does not always elicit the same Buying Behavior. Product can shift from one category to the next. Example: Going out for dinner for one person may be extensive decision making (for someone that does not go out often at all), but limited decision making for someone else. The reason for the dinner, whether it is an anniversary celebration, or a meal with a couple of friends will also determine the extent of the decision making. 6.1.4Categories that Effect the Consumer Buying Decision Process A consumer, making a purchase decision will be affected by the following three factors: Personal. Psychological. Social. 1. Personal Unique to a particular person. Demographic Factors. Sex, Race, Age etc. Who in the family is responsible for the decision making. Young people purchase things for different reasons than older people. 2. Psychological factors Psychological factors include: Motives--A motive is an internal energizing force that orients a person's activities toward satisfying a need or achieving a goal. Actions are effected by a set of motives, not just one. If marketers can identify motives then they can better develop a marketing mix. Perception—What do you see?? Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information inputs to produce meaning. IE we chose what info we pay attention to, organize it and interpret it. Ability and Knowledge—Need to understand individuals capacity to learn. Learning, changes in a person's behavior caused by information and experience. Therefore to change consumers' behavior about your product, need to give them new information re: product...free sample etc. Attitudes--Knowledge and positive and negative feelings about an object or activity-maybe tangible or intangible, living or non- living.....Drive perceptions. Personality--all the internal traits and behaviors that make a person unique, uniqueness arrives from a person's heredity and personal experience. Lifestyles--Recent US trends in lifestyles are a shift towards personal independence and individualism and a preference for a healthy, natural lifestyle. 3. Social Factors Consumer wants, learning, motives etc. are influenced by opinion leaders, person's family, reference groups, social class and culture. Opinion leaders--Spokespeople etc. Marketers try to attract opinion leaders...they actually use (pay) spokespeople to market their products. Michael Jordon (Nike, McDonalds, Gatorade etc.) Roles and Family Influences--Role...things you should do based on the expectations of you from your position within a group. Reference Groups--Individual identifies with the group to the extent that he takes on many of the values, attitudes or behaviors of the group members. Social Class--an open group of individuals who have similar social rank. US is not a classless society. US criteria; occupation, education, income, wealth, race, ethnic groups and possessions. Culture and Sub-culture--Culture refers to the set of values, ideas, and attitudes that are accepted by a homogenous group of people and transmitted to the next generation. 6.2 organizational transaction behavior on the Internet 6.2.1 Differences in organizational markets Organizational markets are different in nature from household consumer markets. Use goods for further production, operations, or resale. Household, or final, consumers purchase products for personal consumption. Purchase equipment, raw materials, and semifinished goods. Household purchasers almost always purchase finished goods for personal consumption. Demand is derived from that of final consumers. If you own a machine shop that makes bushings that are used in washing machine motors, then the demand for your products (bushings) is derived from final consumer demand for washing machines. If the economy is poor, and demand for washing machines is down, then so too will be the demand for washing machine motors and for the bearings that are used in them. Multiplier effect / accelerator principle: However, there will probably not be a one to one correspondence between these. If retailers find that demand for washing machines is declining, they might be conservative in placing new orders with wholesalers, perhaps ordering slightly less than what they actually believe demand to be. Wholesalers, in seeing their orders decline, might also be conservative in placing orders to manufacturers, ordering slightly less than what they actrully believe demand to be. Can make items themselves. Competition in organizational markets comes not only from suppliers of similar goods and services, but can come from buying organization itself. If it is not happy with the suppliers goods, services, or delivery, then it can choose to make those products itself. 6.2.2 Differences in organizational transactions 1。Buying specialists are often used Organizations often employ people who are professional purchasing agents. Just as sales agents are professional specialists at finding organizations that need the products that their employer produces, purchasing agents are specialists are professional specialists at finding what their employer needs. Whatever stereotypes you might have from experiences with salespeople in consumer sales, any negative stereotypes of salesperson behavior probably would not be appropriate in dealing with professional buyers. 2. Often use multiple buying responsibility A household purchaser is often the sole decision maker. Making a sale to an organization, however, often requires selling to several entities within the buying center. For example, you might be the user of a desktop computer at work, but the decision as to what specifications were needed might have been set by someone in the computer department, the decision to buy might have been made by your department manager, bids taken buy taken by someone in the purchasing department, and the final authorization made by the company president. 3. Often use multiple suppliers It is often desireable to have a long term relationship with more than one supplier, even if a second supplier has higher prices for otherwise similar terms and conditions. If problems in quality or delivery are experienced with a supplier, production can still be maintained if the second supplier can be used to replace the first. The ideals of a cozy, trusting relationship that has been promised with strategic alliances in the popular business literature does not always work if it leaves one party vulnerable as a sole supplier or buyer. 4. More likely to require exact specifications A household purchaser might select a particular model of desktop computer for no other reason than it has a pleasing color. An organizational purchaser is more likely to set specifications regarding processor speed, memory, hard drive size, and such before taking bids on price. 5. Often lease equipment and space As a household consumer, you would probably prefer to own your own car, furniture, and home. These are things that represent personal expression, status, and wealth. Your objectives as a business manager, however, are very different. You might prefer to lease public warehouse space to provide the flexibility to change locations when the market demands, to lease trucks so that you can leave the problems of maintenance and disposition to someone else, etc. 6. More frequently employ competitive bidding and negotiation Household consumers (especially those of us in North America) are more likely to accept as final a price that is placed on a product in a retail setting or to accept a price that is given to us by a service provider. As a business manager, your employer is more likely to require that you accept, say, three bids for a service or to negotiate various terms and conditions associated with product specifications, delivery, and price. 6.2.3 Buying center Recall that there are often multiple decision makers involved in organizational purchases. This requires that the marketer is aware of the needs of the various constituancies involved in making decisions. Additionally, there can be constituancies in an organization who do not have decision making authority, but who nonetheless might have some influence over the purchase and consumpion process. 1. Users If you are a secretary, you might have had the experience of arriving to work one day to find a new typewriter on your desk, whether or not you even wanted it. A salesperson would not call on you if you had no influence over what product was purchased. However, if you and your co-workers submit numerous complaints about missing or problematic features of the new replacements, the salesperson might be faced with a very expensive customer service problem to solve. A user is the end consumer of a product. 2. Influencers Perhaps in this case, the office manager was consulted with regard to features or specifications to set in the purchase of new typewriters. Although the office manager might have no decision making authority with regard to the purchase, whatever specifications that s/he requests could be used without change in making the purchase. A salesperson might need to be aware of these influencers - a special trick is to get the influencer to write a specification list that happens to match the seller's product features! An influencer is someone who has influence over what is purchased. 3. Deciders In this case, some middle manager, ignorant of the needs of secretaries, might have made the decision as to when and what to purchase. The point of this statement is that the marketer or seller must be aware of how it is that decisions are made and often must focus some or all efforts at whomever it is that makes decisions in the organization. Note, however, that decision making authority does not necessarily mean that this person exerts any influence on what is purchased. The company president might be the only person who signs all purchase requisitions, and therefore has ultimate decision authority, but might otherwise merely sign some requisitions without question or involvement. A decider is someone who ultimately has authority if or what to purchase. 4. Buyers The final purchase transaction might be left to a purchasing agent who otherwise has no involvement in decision making. A sales agent for an office equipment supply house might help an organization to decide what brand of typewriters would be best, but that organization could then allow the purchasing agent to find the best deal on that brand, and the best deal with regard to price might come from a competing office supply house. A responsibility of salespeople, then, is often to maintain good, trusting, long term relationships with the purchasing agents in prospective buying organizations, whether or not they have purchased in the past. A buyer is someone who arranges the transaction. 5. Gatekeepers Why do salespeople often give secretaries little gifts of chocolates or flowers or an occasional free lunch? A secretary can be nice or nasty in passing information in either direction. The prospective buyer's secretaries can be helpful in providing names, telephone numbers, and office hours of key members of a buying center in an organization. They can also be helpful in passing messages from the salesperson to members of the organization. A gatekeeper could include anyone in the organization who can control the flow of information. 6.3Electronic Government 6.3.1Introduction The vision of Electronic Government (EG) is one where Government, business and citizens work together for the benefit of the nation. The achievement of this vision calls for the application of information and multimedia technology to improve the productivity of the Civil Service. The collaborative environment and smart partnerships between the various parties have fostered the development of Malaysia’s multimedia industry and will assist the country in marching steadily into the information age. The implementation of EG provides a golden opportunity to the public sector to upgrade the quality of service delively. The dual objectives of EG are to reinvent the Government in making it more efficient and effective and act as a catalyst for the development of the MSC. The objectives of the EC effort go far beyond the mere computerisation of Government Agencies. Of more importance is that it will provide for far more efficient service delivery via information technology and multimedia. It will bring about a new paradigm in Government service delivery through the use of 1atest information and multimedia technology in the effort to achieve excellence. The ultimate objective is for a more efficient and responsive Civil Service. The implementation of the various EG projects is going to affect the community at large as a result of new forms of service delivery. Processes involving the daily lives of citizens such as the registration of births, school registration, the issuance and renewal of identity cards and driving licences as well as the filing of tax returns will be transacted electronically. Government-business transactions such as business registration, company registration, tax payment, Issuance of import/export licences and procurement will undergo changes through the use of information technology and multimedia. EG will also facilitate intra-agency connectivity resulting in more efficient and effective communications and thus lead to higher productivity. All these benefits will as a whole facilitate the creation of an efficient and paperless administrative machinery. 6.3.2Benefits of Electronic Government The benefits arising from the implementation of EG are: Improved Level of Service Delivery. Services provided by Government will improve, as citizens will have better access to higher quality and an ever-expanding spectrum of services tailored to individual needs. For example, multiple services will be provided through one-stop shops such as kiosks while multiple channels of delivery will be available through kiosk, PC, interactive TV, telephone and fax. All Government services, both transactional and involving payment or information access, will be offered through these access channels. Increased Effectiveness and Efficiency of Government.EG will upgrade the level of connectivity between agencies as well as that of individuals within agencies. Processes and work systems can thus be improved. In addition. the speed quality of decision making will be enhanced dramatically due to the smooth flow of information, easily accessible through up-to-date databases. EG applications will enable the use of analytical and decision support tools to analyse complex problems, facilitating better decisions and assisting in formulating realistic public policies. Ultimately, EG will result in Government being more accountable and transparent thus enabling accurate performance measurement. 6.3.3Scope of Electronic Government Services under the EG Flagship can be classified into the following three categories: Citizen/Business to Government Services. These services include lodgement, payment, informanation, communication, electronic procurement, polling, customer care and public complaints. Inter-Agency Services. Services under this category include project monitoring, public complaints and information services, human resource management, education and training, development planning, budgeting, supplier profiles, accounting and integrated inventory management . Intra-Agency Services. These services include research, communication, planning, formulation and implementation of policies, project management, human resource management, finance and support services. 6.3.4Pilot Projects The implementation of EG will be undertaken in phases beginning with the implementation of five pilot applications before it is expanded to comprehensively cover the Federal, state and district levels. For the initial phase, five applications have been identitied as pilot projects: 1. Driver and Vehicle Registration, Licensing & Summons Services, Utility Bill Payments and Ministry of Health On-Line Information The objective of this project is to enhance public access to Government services and to further improve the quality of services. Among the services planned in this pilot project is thc issuance and renewal of driving licence/road tax, vehicle registration, payment of Road Transport Department summons, Tenaga Nasional Bhd. and Telekom Malaysia Bhd. utility bills and on-line access to information from the Ministry of Health. Multiple service delivery channels will be made available namely electronic kiosks located in public places (such as shopping complexes), person computers, telephones, facsimile, interactive television, one-stop service windows and others. This project to be undertaken from February 1998 to May 1999 will in the initial phase be confined to the Klang Valley before it is extended nationwide. 2. Electronic Procurement The objective of this pilot is to enable on-line Goverment procurement. When fully implemented it will transform the current procurement process by making it a faster and cheaper process. Electronic procurement enables the Government to become a smart buyer procuring quality goods and services at reasonable prices. Suppliers in turn will reap benefits through more expeditious and error-free payments. In the initial phase, the project is lirnited to the procurement of Central Contract goods and services involving the automation of the procurement process and establishing connectivity between buyers and suppliers. The project will then be extended to the other proculement processes, namely direct purchases, quotations and tenders. Two agencies have been identified to implement this project. They are the Administration Division and the Government Procurement Division of the Ministry of Finance and the Management Services Division of MAMPU. Pilot implementation will begin in early 1998 before full rollout to all Government agencies in subsequent phases. 3. Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) – Generic Office Environment The objective of this pilot is to develop the various components required to create a generic office environment based on information technology and multimedia. Pilot agencies will be equipped with state of the art equipment and civil servants will have online access to accurate, timely, current and reliable information. In addition, the new environment will facilitate interaction and communication among civil servants. The pilot project will be implemented in early 1998 at five agencies namely the Prime Minister's Of'f'ice, the Deputy Prime Minister's Office, the Office of the Chief Secretary to the Government, MAMPU and the Cabinet Division. In the subsequent phases, the project will be implemented in other Government agencies particularly those moving to the new administrative centre at Putrajaya. 4. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) This system provides an efficient, effective and integrated human resource management information system for the Civil Service. The scope of HRMIS includes recruitment, selection, creation of posts, design of organisational structures, performance appraisal and training. This system supports the human resource management processes such as organisational development, formulation of schemes of service and salary policies, manpower planning, skills management, rightsizing policies, staffing policies and training programmes. This project is scheduled to begin in early 1998 at the Public Service Department, the Prime Minister's Office (Chief Executive Management Information Systems Unit or SMPKE) and the Administration Division, Prime Minister's Department. It will then be extended to all agencies in subsequent phases. 5. Project Monitoring System (PMS) The objective of PMS is to provide a mechanism to monitor the implementation of development projects more efficiently and effectively. In terms of scope, PMS provides three categories of services namely, application services, data services and communication services to improve project management. The pilot project will initially involve monitoring the implementation of development projects under the Seventh Malaysia Plan for the Ministry of Education and three of its agencies, namely the State Education Departments in Negeri Sembilan, Pahang and Sarawak as well as the five EG pilot projects. The pilot phase is scheduled for implementation in early 1998. This system will then be extended to encompass all development projects under the Seventh Malaysia Plan. References Ariba,Inc.2000.B2B Marketplaces in the New Economy. Mountain View, CA: Ariba, Inc. 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