Informed purchase decisions fueled by social media conversations

I remember the days when I bought my first motor bike – a Yamaha RX 100 in 1995. I had already taken a few test drives and was enamored with the RX 100. So I decided to do some research before I positioned it as a ‘Turning Eighteen’ Birthday gift for me to my dad. Back then, there were less than 10 models of motorbikes available. I was quite happy to get my hands on an ‘Auto India’ magazine that talked about the RX 100 and ran a comparison test with other bikes. That was the only source I had for my research. There were no opinions available elsewhere and if the magazine had rigged the results in favor of a certain brand, no one would ever know.

Circa 2006, I wanted to buy a home entertainment system for my home. So I first scouted around the hi-fi stores in Bangalore, zeroed in on some speakers and amplifiers that I liked. I then tried to look for magazines that reviewed the products that I had shortlisted. There were a couple of entertainment magazines back then. Both didn’t cover what I had just selected. I looked at some ‘Foreign’ magazines’ web sites for reviews of similar models. I finally decided to go with my ear and the manufacturer’s reputation and went for the Denon.

Fast forward all the way to early 2010. I was in the market for a new car. I didn’t have a fixed budget or a specific car type in mind. There were more than 100 variants available and I was quite confused. If you are reading this still, you have probably guessed that I always research before I buy a product. I decided to become a member of a forum called team-bhp.com. A ‘Forum’ – is a web 2.0 term for on online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. And there were thousands of posts there that talked about everything I wanted to know – From car technicals to brand image, cost of spare parts to mods that you could enable on each car and so many more – this was paradise. I spent the next 4 months researching the strength and weaknesses of various manufacturers, car models right down to dealer efficiencies with the help of this forum and test drove the cars I had shortlisted before taking the plunge with my current car. In short the advent of Web 2.0 with multiple sources of information had helped me make my decisions.

Today I look at a healthy blend of independent web sites, publications and social media sources for my significant buying decisions. This brings me to the point of this blog. And to my mind this is the most significant development in the last few years – I now have at my disposal, sources that have been built upon the experience of thousands of users and I would like to think this makes these sources independent and unbiased. I believe that this is a Win-Win situation. The manufacturers and service providers can listen to what consumers are saying on these Social Media sources and make suitable decisions that would help them address consumer needs. For the consumer, his voice is heard – a single disgruntled consumer can impact the buying decision of hundreds – hence a quantum shift in how providers perceives their consumers is underway which is excellent for the consumer.

By Avinash Pai