Consumer Behavior of an International Chinese Student

Introduction

Consumer behaviour is defined as the behaviour that consumers undertake in seeking, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their personal needs (Nayeem 2012). Different consumer may have different choices in purchase that is dependent on various influences. High involvement purchase sets the best example of engaging in consumer behaviour in various aspects as complex buying behaviour occurs when the consumer is highly involved with the purchase and when there are significant differences between brands. This behaviour can be associated with the purchase of a something significant in value and meaning to consumer which could be risky (Tanner 2012). High involvement purchase could be deduced from both emotional and rational perspective. Evidently, there are various dimensions and avenues to high involvement purchase and thus this essay to focus on that.This essay will analyse the behaviour of a consumer who is an international Chinese student who is involved in a high involvement purchase of Chinese New Year gifts. Meanwhile, the influences of purchase situation, decision making process, internal & external influences on the student’s selection between different brands of lanolin cream will also be further analyzed in this essay.

Purchase situation

The circumstance of the decision maker in this purchase situation is an international student from China, Wei, who is a final year Economics student in Adelaide University and has been in Australia for 4 years. Wei is undertaking summer school course, therefore will miss the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). Therefore, Wei intends to purchase gifts for his family in order to express his feelings and g...

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...d first, retail outlet second or retail outlet first, brand second and thirdly brand and retail outlet simultaneously. (Quester, etc, 2013, p.154) Retail outlet refers to what consumers see or hear descriptions of products in catalogues, in direct mail, in the various print media, on the internet or on the television or radio, and purchase products through mail, telephone or internet.( Quester, etc, 2013, p.155) In this case, Wei hears descriptions of lanolin cream from his friend. He chooses retail outline at first, and brand secondly. Wei goes to ‘Red Phoenix Gift Market’ in Chinatown. Compared with other retail outlets such as Chemist Warehouse and Priceline, he can find most Australian made gift products there. This is under store image which can give consumers’ perception of all the attributes suitable with retail outlet. (Quester, etc, 2013, p.158)