Consumer Behaviour Case

Can we trust e-bay was the hot topic during tea-time discussions in one of the top rural management institutes of India. But its the deal of the week said Mr. Kashif Raza who wants to buy laptop and hence he initiated the discussion. As soon as he came to the Rural Management Institute, he was asked to buy a laptop but he brushed aside the request thinking he can manage without one as he did in B. Tech. But seeing the number of assignments he has already submitted and need for internet made him realise the need of his own laptop more so when all of his friends need it at the same time because of the eleventh hour working of all of them. He decides to either buy a laptop or a desktop. Seniors advise him to go for a laptop because of the three fieldwork segments which require mobility. Finally he is sure to buy a laptop. Kashif notices that most of his batch-mates have Dell Laptops. Dell Laptops, he found, were indeed having a great performance, sturdy looks, with range of colours availability and with door step servicing. The users were also all ga-ga about the services of Dell but at the same time faintly he also heard that minor glitches always crops up unlike other brands. Although Kashif had not set any criteria for his product but he would like his laptop to be below Rs. 40,000 and having a graphic card and graphic card accelerator for gaming would definitely be on the cards. Dell was somewhere not clicking for Kashif because he knows that even though Dell has doorstep services, it would not be his cup of tea to call the service centre promptly. He will be too lazy to do that. Also, absence of graphic card made him look for another option. Kashif have some soft corner for HP because his room-mates from engineering days had HP systems. He also enquired about Compaq, but although he got good reviews about the brand, he still did not want to settle with a poor cousin of HP when he can very well buy the original. Acer laptops are being advertised by Hrithik Roshan which is heavily appealing him. Sumita, Kashifs friend, is using an Acer Laptop which has around 8hours of battery back-up to which Kashif jokes that she is using the battery meant for a truck. Her laptop has sturdy looks, good performance, all the desire features like i3 processor, 500 GB HDD, 2GB DDR3 memory which makes it a good deal in Rs. 26000. Even though this being a cost- effective product, Kashifs pre-conceived notions of Acer not being a good computer brand making him a little hesitant to buy it.

Sony Vaio is also very popular but to Kashif it is a very feminine laptop. He even added that a Vaio to me has never justified its price- tag. He was still dicey about an Acer or an HP. After the classes in the afternoon while browsing through some of websites for laptop specifications, he got a deal on E-bay, a famous web-store. He was getting an HP laptop with i3 processor, 4GB RAM, 640 GB HDD and Window 7 professional edition in just Rs. 24000. He never thought of buying the laptop from a website, but this deal was the deal of the week with 5 stars (good feedback). This was giving any other deal of retailer a run for their money. But Kashif was still not convinced of buying it online. He thought if there is any problem he can always have the age-old trustworthy retailer there for him, but what about an online website. Kashif decides to visit a retailer, where he saw a Toshiba Laptop. Toshibas electronic items were excellent but he cannot associate it to a laptop brand. He thought of it more as a Television Brand. Among so many brands, his eyes were fix on HP Pavilion dv6. This is the same model he had seen the deal on e-bay, but it has Windows 7 Home edition and also it is for Rs. 26,000. He told the salesman about e-bay to which he laughed and said Sir, dont go after such deals! They are hoax. Confused with so many brands and where to buy, he came to his friend Sumita. She says that e-bay is a reputed website and they are giving a one year on-site warranty as well. After few hours of desk- research Kashif is convinced and has now placed the order for HP Pavillion dv6 which will be delivered in two days.

Submitted By: Group No.10 Prateek Parimal (32029) Ayan Roy (32061) Jay Singh (32072) Salman Haider (32089) Shweta Singh (32094)