3. This is what I am

For me as a customer there are two different sites. One the one hand there is a “one time decision”, that is when you buy a car, and on the other hand there are “long time decision”, when you bring your car the garage to control/fix/ ... it.
And there are also different segments as well, if you buy a car. For each model there are normally several segments, because the customer is the one who decides which car he/she needs, if it is a small one or a larger one.

So I am going to write something about general factors for a customer:

1. Personal

When you thing about personal factors, the first question is, do you really need what you are going to buy.
The second important question is, do you have enough money to buy that product or not.
So in general it can be said, that personal factors are the factors which influence yourself. You can decide all your personal needs, and what you want to buy. Furthermore this factors show something about your lifestyle.



2. Psychological


Psychological Factors are the factors about the behaviour of a person in general. Every person has different points of view, so that everyone looks for his/her personal needs.
Another point which should be mentioned is the personality of a person, which has a great influence on the buying behavior.
The third and last point I want to mention for this factor are the feelings of a person. Here it is important to have a closer look at the customer, if he just buys this product because he needs it, or does he/she really wants to have it.




3. Social


Social factors are also very important, and there are several, which are all connected to the other factors.
These factors are also very important. Here you can mention many groups around you, but they all have a different influence for your buying behaviour.
Furthermore you must thing about the follow-ups after buying a car, what will it does with your social role and your role in the society.
In general it can be said, that it is again about money and social status.

Now after describing general factors I want to describe my consumer behavior.
It began with the question, do we really need a new car in our family or can we use the old one for some years more.
After looking through the internet, there were several possibilities how to handle it. So we started to drive from one garage to another and look at the cars and after a short time it was clear, that there were not many possibilities about which model or if we should use the old one.
The next step was to talk with salesman to talk about the configuration and about the prize. We got a first offer and thought about it at home and discussed several other aspects, like what you we order or not, what is with the insurance and all other aspects.
After two weeks thinking about what to do or what not, we decided to make a test drive, so we made an appointment for that.
We got another positive impression of the car, but we still decided not to order it, because we wanted to go to another garage to check if they could make a better offer.
In the end we got nearly the same price for the same car at different garages, but one gave us a special gift, which the other did not, but that was not the turning point. The turning point was that the one garage was part of a chain and the other one was a family business.
In the end we decided to order it at the family business, because we felt much more comfortable there and we thought it would be a better service there.

So there are several stages of the buying process:

1. Thinking about the necessity of buying (psychological/personal factors (is it useful or not))
2. Getting information about the product/prize (personal (interest of getting information)/ psychological (thinking about the prize))
3. Going to the shop for more information and to have a closer look at the product and getting more information (personal/psychological/social factors)
4. Thinking about the product, a second time. (personal/psychological)
5. Making an appointment, in order to do a test drive. (Personal)
6. Thinking about the final decision. (Personal/psychological/social factors)
7. Buying the product. (Personal)
8. Waiting for the product.
9. Getting the product and use it.