Running Head: A BUYER BEHAVIOR MODEL FOR AN IPHONE 1

A Buyer Behavior Model for an iPhone

University of the People

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A Buyer Behavior Model for an iPhone

Kotler and Keller (2011) categorize buyer behaviour into the ‘seven ‘Os’ of the

market place’, namely: Occupants (Who constitutes the market?), Objects (What does the

market buy?), Occasions (When does the market buy?), Organization (Who participates in the

buying?), Objectives (Why does the market buy?), Operations (How does the market buy?)

and Outlets (Where does the market buy?). Answers to these questions give a company an

added advantage over less aware competitors and enable the company to fit its product

offerings to customers more closely and satisfy customer needs better than competitors.

For the sake of this write-up, however, the simplified customer behaviour model by

William and Presky (1996), as retrieved from Winer & Dhar (2011), shall be adopted to

create a buyer behaviour model for an iPhone. This is based on five stages of customer

behaviour towards a successful product consumption. These levels are Need Recognition,

Search for Alternatives, Evaluation of Alternatives, Purchase and Use of Product and the

Evaluation of Consumption Experience. Lancaster & Massingham (2018) confirmed that

these five buyer model processes are applicable to both consumer and organizational buying.

The first step in any kind of purchasing behaviour is “Need Recognition” or reasons

why people make purchases. In this case study, the need arising for an individual is to buy a

smartphone – either for the purpose of its functional usage, as a gift to a loved one or for class

and prestige reasons. Apple iPhones offer a perfect combination of both parts – a perfectly

branded sophisticated and relatively miniature sized smartphones with apt attention to every

detail on it. This will definitely make the decision to buy an iPhone easier for the individual

in his search and analysis of alternatives when he needs to buy a phone. The value for every

dollar paid for an iPhone is almost always intact – little wonder they have been the highest

revenue generating smartphone sales in recent times.

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For an organization, however, the need recognition for the purchase of a phone can be

as work phones for staff, project completion gifts for project teams, end of the year gifts for

employees, a branded gift to some clients, e.t.c. It definitely would be an acceptable gift by

many. It is necessary to do whatever is worth doing well.

In conclusion, the buyer behaviour model for an iPhone is very similar for both the

individual and organizational customers and would be a valid purchase that would present

absolute value for every dollar paid.

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References
Kotler, P & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing Management (15th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Lancaster, G. & Massingham, L. (2018) Essentials of Marketing Management (2nd ed.). New

York: Routledge

Wells, W. D. & Prensky, D. (1996), Consumer Behavior. New York: Wiley

Winer, R. & Dhar, R. (2011). Marketing Management (4th ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.