Hewlett-Packard

HEWLETT PACKARD UNDER CARLY FIORINA, AND AFTER HER
Name:
Grade Course:
Tutor’s Name:
(10 July 2011)
Questions
1. How do you judge the quality of product whether a computer of something else? Is it mostly by Price? Discuss your precepition of price and quality as well as any ramifications.
The quality of a commodity which in this case is a computer can be judged by the performance of the product this includes its durability, speed, efficiency and performance. There have been a lot of misconceptions stating that the highest price of a commodity indicates the best quality of the product; in this case is I tend to disagree with. I tend to believe that the price of a commodity shouldn’t be used to determine the quality of a product this is because the two variables are independent from each other (Hartley, 2011). For a long time it has been observed by many researchers on consumers perception regarding product price and quality that majority of consumer tend to perceive the price of a product as an indicatory of its quality. This rational for customer to chose price of a product as an indicator of its quality is considered as a common belief that has been held my many that markets are essential efficient. Also another belief is that higher costs that are associated high quality should be reflected by a higher price of the product. This belief has led to conclusion that consumer preferences must therefore depend on product and that consumers tends to judge price by quality by its price especially if the consumer is uncertain about the quality of the product and this makes serve to imply that consumer’s expectations are price dependent(Hartley, 2010).
Based on recent studies most people tend to judge the quality of products by its products especially is someone else bought it but when it comes to buying such products by themselves the usually judge the quality of the products by its attributes. It’s more likely that a consumer usually assesses the quality of the products based on their price or attributes which in most cases is determined by the factor of distance which can either be psychological or temporal. This is what makes many consumers of certain products to make the inference that products of low prices are always attributed to their low quality as opposed if they bought the product themselves.
In most case the influence that price has on decisions made my consumer of certain products is often greater when such judgments are made from someone else’s purchase as opposed to when they themselves make the purchase and the reverse is always true as it regards to the attributes of the product. Research has revealed that majority of people tend to rely on abstract thinking when they are forming their judgments especially when events are removed psychologically and this is evident when it has to do with distant future or has to do with other people. Consumers are willing to part more for products if it is not yet available in the market but such great will tend to fade when the intended product is launched.
Such consumer perception regarding to price of a product and its quality has several ramifications especially for retailers as well as the sales people who seek to influence the perceptions of product quality. Therefore if one is intending to employ the commonly used strategy of signaling high quality through high price, they must attempt to increase the psychological distance that exist between the targeted products and the consumers. In addition to there, advising consumers to think of using such products in a relatively distant future or equally the same having the consideration especially as it pertains to how friends might feel about such product.
It’s therefore possible that given the fact that the consumer in most cases rarely knows the products exact quality before its purchase its obvious that use of the quality indicators is more prevalent as opposed to the implications of the traditional theory. Hence if consumer’s expectations and preferences depends on price which tradition propert...