Costumers' perception of prices on necessities: A Ethnography Research

A RESEARCH PAPER
Presented to the faculty of
DAVAO CITY NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
DAVAO CITY

In a partial fulfillment for the requirement in Grade 11

GRADE 11- Sardonyx

By:

Giovanne Tabigne Chan

Robert Aque

Mary Sophie Mejasco

Janceejake Manzano Cabugatan

Mr. John Neil Solas

Research Adviser

January,2023
 Introduction
The rising cost of necessities has an impact on everyone in the world since
some individuals cannot afford expensive products that people require on a
daily basis. As a result, many struggle to meet their fundamental needs. Some
people have their own distinct sense of price due to the necessity for others to
understand its origins, and certain business owners are concerned that this
will lead their business to fail since some people might not buy their product
because it is expensive. Local and international levels are also affected.
Some small businesses are unable to operate as a result of price rises
because of a lack of customers and a flood of feedback that they cannot
afford it, which has a negative impact on the economy and individuals around
the world.

Customer perception is how consumers view your brand and product. They
have developed this view as a result of each direct and indirect engagement
they have had with your business. Customer perception, according to Valarie
A. Zeithaml (2014), is more than just whether customers "like" you; it also
encompasses the emotions your company arouses in them and any evocative
terms they might use to describe it. This is crucial since every decision
costumer take is influenced by how they view your company. A favorable
customer experience can boost brand loyalty and encourage
recommendations. Consumers may employ informational signals to construct
ideas about products, according to Olson (1978), and task responses (such
as choice or rating) may be directly influenced by these mediating beliefs.
Olson claims that these beliefs can fall into one of two categories: descriptive,
which restates the original information in more abstract terms, or inferential,
which draws conclusions about information that is missing from the
environment.

The researcher's topic is important and highly questionable for a variety of

reasons in business, since it's important to know how customers perceive the
cost of their essential demands. Considering what the research revealed
about Valarie A. Zeithaml(2014), the term "customer perception" describes
how the customer feels about your company or its goods. It encapsulates how
consumers feel about your brand, taking into account all of their direct and
indirect interactions with you. Your company can identify typical user pain
points and enhance the customer experience by tracking customer
perception. For this reason, it is also helpful to realize that customer
perception is vital to discuss, regardless of whether it has a positive or
negative effect on businesses. According to research, consumers consider
price as a quality indicator more often when companies are unfamiliar than
when they are familiar (Smith and Broome 1966; Stokes 1985). Research has
also revealed that consumers choose more expensive goods when they
perceive a high danger of making a poor decision (Lambert 1972; Peterson
and Wilson 1985; Shapiro 1968, 1973).

The purpose of this study was to show how important customer perception is
to business owners and those looking to start one. It is very beneficial to
understand how understanding your customers may assist you in identifying
any shortcomings in your operations. When a consumer comes across a
similar low-priced product or service from a different brand, they may see it as
a good deal or might perceive it as not worthy of their time or money. What
consumers think about your brand’s price is just as important as the actual
price of that product. A buyer may sense a company as "upscale" and
assume that they have high prices, or they may see a brand as a discount
retailer whose prices are too high for its reputation. At times, consumers might
also see cheaper alternatives as inferior. It’s not easy for a brand to
understand its customers’ perceptions of the price vs. value it offers. Brands
need a long-term, dynamic pricing strategy that matches the demands and
trends of a global, competitive market. And in order to drive sustainable
growth, they need to make smarter pricing and promotion decisions with
insights into competitive pricing.

Base on the study provide by Valarie A. Zeithaml(2014) and Tariq, Nawaz,

and Butt (2013), The customer’s understanding of your business or products
is known as "customer perception." It summarizes how customers perceive
your brand, as well as any and all interactions they have had with your
business, either directly or indirectly. Your business can identify common user
pain points and enhance the customer journey by monitoring customer
perception. Value discernment is the apparent worth of an item or
administration in the buyer's brain. It is one of the most important factors in a
customer's decision to buy. The actual cost of production for the goods that
consumers purchase is not known to them. Instead, they decide which brands
offer them the best value and how much each product is worth to them
internally before making a purchase. Brands frequently employ marketing
strategies to alter consumer perceptions of the brand's and its products' prices
in order to maintain a higher price while maintaining competitive pricing. There
are a number of questions related to the topic that the researcher selects,
such as whether consumer perception has a positive or negative impact on
the company or product. Other questions may relate to the product's quality or
pricing. The researcher chose an interesting subject because of this, and
people from all around the world can benefit from it.

Although consumer perceptions of price, quality, and value are thought to be

key determinants of shopping behavior and product choice (Bishop 1984;
Doyle 1984; Jacoby and Olson 1985; Sawyer and Dickson 1984; Schlechter
1984), research on these ideas and their connections hasn't yielded many
definitive results. The definition and conception of research projects have
received criticism for being insufficient (Monroe and Krishnan 1985; Zeithaml
1983), the measurement techniques have been condemned for being
inconsistent, and the methodology has been critiqued (Bowbrick 1982; Olson
1977; Peterson and Wilson 1985). Quality and worth are ambiguous and
elusive ideas that are frequently confused with imprecise descriptors like
"goodness, or luxury, or shininess, or weight," which poses a basic issue for
research in the field (Crosby 1979).

Value and quality are difficult to distinguish from one another and from other
comparable categories like perceived worth and utility. Purchase intention is
the implicit commitment made to oneself to repurchase the good upon
returning to the store (Fandos & Flavian, 2006; Halim & Hameed, 2005). It is
very important since businesses seek to raise sales of a particular product in
order to gain profits. The likelihood of making a purchase reflects customer
retention. Brand image, product quality, product knowledge, product
involvement, product features, and brand loyalty are some examples of brand
functions that have a significant impact on customers' buy intentions.
In addition to demonstrating how the general public is persuaded to buy
branded goods, this study will also highlight key elements that are crucial for
determining the customers' purchase intentions. This study aids in classifying
which of these elements have a substantial impact on consumers' intention to
make purchases.

This study was carried out by Tariq, Nawaz, and Butt (2013) and contains a
graph that displays Purchase Intentions and Branding. Purchase
intententions refers to a customer's willingness to purchase a specific good or
service. The dependent variable, purchase intention, is influenced by both
internal and external variables. An indicator of a participant's attitude toward
making a purchase or using a service is their purchase intentions. According
to the graph's links between purchasing intentions, each connection increases
the probability that a customer will buy the product and that their knowledge of
it will help the business.

In reality, brand loyalty is demonstrated when customers consistently buy

from a particular brand. Customer satisfaction leads to loyalty; when people
are happy with a brand's functions, they become loyal to the brand, become
unaffected by price, and express a strong desire to purchase the product at
any cost. Brand loyalty contributes to maximizing regional brand equity.
Consumers who are brand loyal exhibit particular behaviors, such as
favorable sentiments about the brand, indifference to the chosen brand's
price, negative feelings when the preferred brand abruptly disappears, and
recommendations of the brand to others. In the end, brand loyalty has a
strong positive impact on the likelihood of making a purchase; the higher the
brand loyalty, the higher the likelihood of making a buy.
Customer perception has a wide-ranging effect on all business owners and
entrepreneurs. Customers' ratings of your prices for particular items may have
an impact on your business because if the price is higher, the customer might
not be interested in buying it, and if the price is lower, the customer might be
interested in the product because people like to buy cheap stuff. Customer
impression is crucial to running a business because it does not only have
positive effects but also negative ones. Price is what is given up or sacrificed,
in the eyes of the consumer, in order to receive a good. Given that price is a
"give" rather than a "get" component of the model, this definition is consistent
with Ahtola's (1984) argument against incorporating price as a lower level
attribute in multi attribute models. The view of price as a sacrifice is congruent
with that of other pricing researchers (Monroe and Krishnan 1985; Chapman
1986; Mazumdar 1986).

Receiving consumer feedback as an entrepreneur can have either beneficial

or negative effects on the company. It may also change the entrepreneur's
perception of their ability to see things from a variety of perspectives and
determine what is best for the company. The customer should use the
appropriate word before providing feedback to the company because doing so
could make the business owner feel negatively.

The researcher confirms that the group can benefit from the study in both
capacities: as a business owner or entrepreneur and as a consumer. This is
due to the fact that the study's main focus was on customer perception, and
customers may have benefited from it as a result of the researcher asking
them about how individuals felt about the prices of a specific product and
possibly requiring their response so that they could assist the entrepreneur.

The researcher conducted several studies to fill in some of the gaps and
obtain a solid understanding of the study because there are some topics in
the study the researcher chose that the author has not yet addressed.
Because the research involves assistance from others and is a problem that
cannot be solved individually, a specific participant was chosen for the study
to respond to the researcher's question. Some restrictions must be followed
by the researcher for them to complete the study, which must be the primary
objective
 References
Muhammad Irfan Tariq , Muhammad Rafay Nawaz, Muhammad, Musarrat
Nawaz, Hashim Awais Butt (2013), Customer Perceptions about Branding
and Purchase Intention: A Study of FMCG in an Emerging Market, J. Basic.
Appl. Sci. Res., 3(2)340-347, 2013

Valarie A. Zeithaml (2014), Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality, and

Value: A Means-End Model and Synthesis of Evidence, Journal of Marketing,
Vol. 52, No. 3 (Jul., 1988), pp. 2-22, 20/11/2014 09:03

Moraga, E, T., Parraga, A, Z, v., Gonzalez, J, Z., (2008). Customer

satisfaction and loyalty: start with the product, culminate with with the brand,
jornal of consumer marketing, 25(5), 302-313.