buyer behaviour with respect to ice-creams
Clearly, the taste and the flavour of the ice-cream are its most important attributes. They have a mean ranking of 1.6 each on a scale of 7. The brand is rated next, with a mean ranking of 3.2 followed by type or form of the ice-cream (4.4). The price, the dealers and the colour of the ice-cream were found to be pretty low down on the priority list of the consumer.
Very often ice-creams are chosen on the brand name alone. The respondents were asked about whether they based their buying on brands. Two out of five respondents were brand-conscious, another two were undecided and one answered in the negative.
The question of favourite flavour received a large variety of responses. Vanilla, strawberry and chocolate are the dominating flavours.
Price-sensitivity is low in the results of the survey. Three out of five members replied that they were not price sensitive, and one said he was sometimes price sensitive.
Buyers use ice-cream in different ways. Some buyers said they felt that ice-creams brought people closer, whereas some others felt that ice-creams were cool and they are consumed for fun. There was a high rate of coincidence between the people who ate the ice-cream with family at home and those who thought ice-cream helped create bonds between people. There was also a high rate of coincidence between those people who ate ice-cream outdoors with their friends at shopping malls and eat-outs, and those who thought ice-cream was meant for having fun. These aspects of buyer behaviour are crucial in linking the different habits buyers have.
Buying process:
Ice creams are often an impulse purchase. As such the buying process for purchase of ice-creams takes very little time. The decisions that have to be made while buying an ice-cream are what flavour to buy, what type (form) to buy, what brand to use and what quantity or price to buy.
It is important to note that these are not sequential steps in the buying process. Often some of these steps are skipped. Often these steps happen in varying orders. The buying decision for ice-creams is not very structured. Part of the reason could be that the effect of buying an ice-cream lasts only for a very short time. The investment of money in the decision is also low. As such there is no post-purchase behaviour from the consumer here except for the fact that the experience of using one ice-cream influences his decision the next time.
An attempt has been made to come up with a time frame for the decisions made by the consumer while buying an ice-cream.
Time Steps involved in buying
1 - 5 min Deciding on flavour
1 - 2 min Deciding the type
1 min