Instructions -

1. As an individual consumer or as a member of a household, you engage in a variety of buying decisions on a regular basis. Select any purchase that you have made recently, either personally, or one in which you played a major role.
Write a report that addresses each task that is outlined below. Answer all of the following questions and follow the structure given below. Please note that your answers should be based on your understanding of the theory applied to your chosen brand and company. You are expected to use concrete examples from your research. If you use (quote or paraphrase) information taken from any sources (especially the company website) you are required to reference appropriately.

2. You are required to research information about your focus brand and the company to answer the assignment questions. You may want to use a combination of the following secondary data sources

• company website;
• company promotional material;
• magazine or newspaper articles;
• industry reports;
• scholarly articles / business databases in the library;
• internee
• personal observation

3. Presentation of assignment. Presentation is a key aspect of professional marketing hence the quality of your assignment is very important. The following criteria will be considered to assess the quality of your work: presentation - clear structure and following of instructions; signs of effort given to this assignment; correct referencing; correct language, grammar and spelling.

Tasks -

I. Introduction: Purchase context

Briefly identify your purchase's product category, the brand, the company that produces and markets this brand, and describe a context (where, when, with whom, sales situation) in which the purchase occurred.

II. Buyer Decision-Making Process: Model

Apply the model of consumer decision-making process to explain in detail the various stages of your decision process:

a. problem recognition
b. information search
c. evaluation of alternatives
d. store choice and purchase
e. post-purchase processes

III. Buyer Decision-Making Process: Level of Involvement

1. Was your type of purchase decision extended, limited or routine in nature? How would you characterise your level of involvement? With reference to some current literature, defend your characterisation of involvement.

2. If your purchase was extended, identify conditions in which the same purchase would be considered routine. If it was routine, then identify conditions in which the same purchase would be considered extended. If it is limited, then examine situations in which the same purchase would become either routine or extensive.

IV. Buyer Decision-Making Process: Situational Influences

1. Explain how situational influences affected your purchase behaviour. Identify at least one factor from the following categories and provide a brief anaIysis of its influence:

a. physical surroundings
b. social surroundings
c. temporal perspective
d. task definition
e. antecedent states

V. Internal Influences

Explain and clarify how the following factors influenced your decision:

a. perception
b. learning
c. memory

VII. Marketing Strategy Implications

Reflecting on your answers to Task V, explain how the company could improve its marketing strategy taking into the account the effect of the following internal influencers:

a. perception
b. learning and memory.