Purchasing Behavior

The Sanchez family goes through a series of decision-making and purchasing processes for each of their bicycle purchases. They begin by purchasing a bike for their daughter Nadia. Eventually, their son, Miguel needs a bike too. Their last bicycle purchase was for the father in the family, Jorge.

The Sanchez family, more specially, the grandparents recognize a need for a full-sized bike for Nadia’s birthday because she has grown out of her old one. Nadia and her family both know she doesn’t need anything fancy because she will not ride the bike too often. Nadia also has no preference towards style or brand. However, after her and her mother conduct some research for information through a bike catalog, Nadia decides she wants the bike to be the color blue. Nadia’s mother, Anna evaluates alternative retailers to just catalog shopping. Anna uses the Internet to call local retailers for the best price. She finds that Kmart offers the best deal over Toys R Us and Wal-Mart. At Kmart, Anna makes the decides to make the purchase by going straight to the bicycle section and picking out the cheapest blue bike without talking to any salespeople. Later on, the Sanchez family evaluates their purchase and realizes they are unhappy with the cheapest bike because it required a lot of replacements. (Levy, Weitz, & Beitelspacher, 2012, p. 81-91)

After a year has gone by since Nadia’s bike purchase, it is time to purchase a bike for their son, Miguel. The same need is recognized is that Miguel needs a full-sized bike because he has grown out of his old one. Unlike Nadia, Miguel is sure of what he wants in this bike and has a very active lifestyle. The family did not have to conduct an extensive information search because Miguel knew all the specifics he wanted and his parents knew he needed something sturdy. After seeing an ad for a bike sale at Target, the family decides to go there without really evaluating any alternatives. While this purchasing process did have a salesperson,...