Effective marketing requires an understanding of the prospective buyers’ buying process (i.e., purchase decision process). Choose a recent purchase decision you made to use as an example. Distinguish the stages of the buying process and explain the key issues of each stage as they relate to your experience.

Buyers experience many situational influences during the buying process. Using the same experience you chose for Question 1, analyze the types of situational influences you experienced and explain how those factors affected your buying process and ultimate purchase decision.

• Marketers use several segmentation categories and various variables within each category when segmenting prospective markets. Thinking about the buying experience you described in Questions 1 and 2, which segmentation categories and variables may have been relevant for the marketing organization’s segmentation? Identify the specific categories and variables and construct a target audience profile (one that may approximate how that organization described you and others in your segment).
• Of the segmentation categories (i.e., segmentation bases), compare their relative value for marketing organizations. Which do you believe to be most valuable for marketers now and in the future? Explain.
• Consumer advocates criticize marketers’ reliance on segmentation because segmentation analyses utilize personal data and represent an abuse of personal privacy. Considering both your concerns as an individual and the value of this data for marketing, where do you stand on this issue? Discuss your position and propose guidelines marketers could use to benefit from segmentation analyses while protecting and respecting consumer privacy