FEMALE PROFESSOR: So recently, we’ve been looking at how consumers make decisions about which products to buy. Let’s consider how consumers feel when making a big purchase...when a product they are thinking about buying is something expensive. Often, people feel that they are taking a chance...spending a lot of money on something when they aren’t really sure how good the product is. So to reduce this feeling of risk, consumers use specific strategies to help them make purchasing decisions.
One strategy to reduce the feeling of risk is doing thorough research, to find out as much information as possible about a product before buying it. By collecting information from many sources, the consumer gets a sense of whether a product is likely to perform well. For example, imagine that someone wants a new computer, but deciding which computer to buy feels risky, because they could end up with a bad computer. So by taking time to read online reviews from experts about different manufacturers, and listening to the opinions of many people who have computers, the individual will often feel safer making the decision about which computer is best.
Another strategy consumers used to reduce the feeling of risk is staying loyal to one particular brand or company. When consumers have purchased products from a company and have experienced satisfaction with those products, they will trust the company and feel confident buying from it again. For example, let’s say a family buys a new car from a particular company, and the car performs very well and lasts a long time. Well, the next time they go to buy a car, they’ll decide to use that same company, because they trust that they’ll have another positive experience.
Using points and examples from the lecture, explain two ways that consumers reduce the feeling of risk when making a purchase.
The lecture explains 2 methods for consumers to reduce the feeling of risk while making a buying decision.
The first way is thorough research. Gathering as much information as possible enables a consumer to be more certain about the decision to buy a product that performs well. For instance, when buying a computer, a consumer who feels not sure about the decision can read many online reviews and expert comments or even listen to the opinions of many people who have bought the product, so that he could be certain that the product could bring good experiences.
Another strategy is staying loyal to 1 brand or company because the previous satisfaction from buying the product of a certain company or brand will make a consumer willing to buy again for another successful experience. For instance, if a family has bought a car of a certain brand, next time when they decide to buy a new one, they probably would consider the same brand for the previous product that performs well for a long time.
