Purchase profile

In this essay, I would like to cite my recent involvement with my father’s recent purchase of a car. The purchase was considered high involvement because it took too much time, consideration and resources from my father. It was a purchase that he made not out of impulse but rather he took the time before buying the car and involved the family in the process.
There are several internal and external factors that finally made him decide to buy that particular brand of automobile. The winning brand after so much deliberation was a Hyundai Santa Fe.
The five process that he went through begun with the identification of the need. His previous car was almost ten years old and is already showing signs of tear and beginning to give him the headache and additional cost of repair. Initially, the internal emotional appeal of buying a nice sporty car was on his list. Especially when his friends talk about how this brand performed and how handsome a particular brand looks. But as he spent more time pondering, the emotional appeal loses its weight and his focus is now turned to logical appeals. He begun browsing the internet for the specification of the cars, its performance, fuel consumption, etch related to cost. The recent increase in gasoline pump prices also made him think about his options seriously.
During the process of logical consideration, external influences played in. He realized that it is not practical to have a sports car and concluded he needs a larger car that could fit the whole family for car pooling, outing etch. This is the Household Life Cycle factor at play where consumer’s choices reflect what particular life stage the consumer is. In the case of my father, he is a family man and that segment usually prefers big cars, houses etch. His motivation of buying a new car was practical. It will save him the inconvenience and cost of going to the repair shop which became more frequent. He also realized that he incurs opportunity cost every time he sends the car for repair.
Culture and values also came into factor in deciding to buy a new car. Private vehicles are a necessity and public commuting is not in vogue in America. It could be attributed to impracticality also because there a lot of areas in the US which are not accessible by public transport. Emotional appeals in advertisements may hold sway in my dad’s decision making process but ultimately, it will be the logical appeal that will prevail because of his stage in the household life cycle where he is a family man, who needs a larger car that performs well and does not cost that much to purchase and maintain.
Finally, the strongest influence in my dad’s decision making process of what particular car and brand to buy is the word of mouth. He did not take the car companies advertising at face value but rather asked around how this particular perform, whether it is reliable, fuel efficient and drives well. When his friends and colleagues unanimously endorsed that it is a good buy, that sealed his decision to buy the Hyundai Santa Fe.