MARKETING MANAGEMENT

COURSE: BUS 5112 – 01

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT UNIT 2

TOPIC:

UNDERSTANDING COSTUMER BEHAVIOR

INSTRUCTOR:

DR. HARSHA LALWANI.

DATE:

23/11/2022.
 The Buyer Behavior Model

The buyer behavior model is a structured step-by-step process that a person due when

deciding to buy an item. (Sydorenko N, 2022). Bright Minds offers interdisciplinary

therapy (speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, applied behavior therapy,

and counseling) for kids with special needs based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

First of all Bright Minds recognized the need for therapeutic services in Cambodia,

since currently, they don´t have any professionals that can provide these types of

therapies. They are a few companies that aren´t recognized that provide the services.

Before opening Bright Minds, I worked directly with international schools, who helped

in the process of describing the children´s needs. This helped Bright Minds to expand its

services by providing the service of diagnosis, shadow teachers, early intervention,

playgroups, social skills groups, and school readiness program. After I evaluate the

decision, I decided to start with Bright Minds. I evaluated the market I was going to

work with, and look at the prices of other small companies or physiotherapy companies

to set a price. To start the business, I start working with therapists that were already in

Cambodia and I paid them per session, to see if it would work out. After three months I

rent a bigger space and hire a therapist from abroad offering a full-time job.

I looked for furniture and educational toys in stores as my first option, which was a big

mistake. After that, I used Facebook, that in Cambodia is the most effective way to

promote your business. I need to preorder most of it since they need to import it from

China. Even though it was a small business, we ask for a discount because of buying in

a “large quantity”, most of them give a small discount (10% - 15%), but it was fair

enough. The only bad thing about buying it as a preorder was that we couldn´t see the

physical product. I selected multiple suppliers since the products I needed aren´t
common in Cambodia. I focused on having good quality furniture for the sensory room,

which will satisfy the needs of the children. The order was made online, given a deposit

fee, and waited between 1 week and one month for the delivery to take place. In

Cambodia, they don´t ask for a post-purchase evaluation but we did go back to get more

products in the different retail centers we bought the stuff.

An individual buyer buys directly the service from the provider. In this example Bright

Minds uses this model, it sells directly therapy services to the clients. After two years of

working directly with clients, we decided to offer our therapeutic services directly to

schools, so they could provide the services to their students. This can be an example of

business-to-business. I know that usually is better to sell your service or product to

another business due to the number of services they will require, but you also need to

reduce the price. At Bright Minds, we make more profit from business to consumer than

business to business. This is due to reducing the price when offering our services to

schools, even though they require more hours, the rates will drastically reduce so it is

still worth it for them. We also have a way of business to business market, we buy oral

motor tools and sell them to our customers.

A customer could go through the same process to find adequate therapeutical services

for their children. First of all, they will recognize the need and then research the services

provided in Cambodia. They could read reviews, ask in Facebook groups or ask family

or friends. After having a couple of options (there are three therapeutical providers

here), they will compare their services, their facility, their professionals, and overall

what they can expect from them. After making the comparison, they will take a decision

and choose which clinic they prefer. Finally, they will decide if the service meets their

expectation.
Currently, most of the things that you buy are in the business-to-business market,

however, you can still find some business-to-consumer markets. The people need to get

their products from a bigger company that will provide them, for example, Walmart.

Business to business market is convenient for big companies, however, it is difficult for

smaller companies.
Reference,

Sydorenko , N. (2022, January 5). What is buyer behavior: Definition, types, patterns,
and analysis. Sales Glossary. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from
https://snov.io/glossary/buyer-behavior/

University of Minnesota. (2015). Defining Marketing. In Principles of Marketing (pp.

16–20). essay, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition.