МОНГОЛЫН ХҮН АМЫН СЭТГҮҮЛ Дугаар (367) 20, 2011
79
MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS AND
CONCLUSIONS
The study presented herein attempted to offer
insights into the housing market of Mongolia,
and into the related services and sources of
information. It attempted to illustrate how
consumers approach information sources,
related services, and decision making related
to house ownership. An attempt was made to
uncover the sources of information consulted
in the process of purchasing a home –
friends, television advertisements, newspaper
advertisements, street poster, or consulting
with real estate services. They were then
asked to indicate the extent to which price,
location, neighborhood, bank loan interest,
reputation of the building company, apartment
quality, construction, and the design of the
apartment, the structure and plan of the rooms,
the demand for apartments, and the supply
of apartments influenced their decision to
purchase an apartment.
The study found that the type of the current
dwelling of the respondent and the number of
rooms of the respective dwelling constituted
important determinants of whether price was
an important consideration in the consumer
decision making. However, the type of
dwelling that one had appeared to have only
a minimal relationship to the sources an
individual used for information on housing.
On the other hand, the number of rooms one
owned in his/her current dwelling appeared
to determine the sources of information
individuals consulted. That is, the more rooms
individuals had in their current dwelling,
the more sources of information – other
than friends – they were likely to consult.
In particular, they were likely to consult
newspapers, television advertising, and real
estate services and information. Also, the
more rooms individuals had in their current
dwelling, the less they were likely to consider
price as an important variable, and the more
they appeared to take into consideration the
construction and design of the apartment.
This finding is relevant, as buyers are
more likely to pay attention to company
communication in the form of television
advertisements, magazine and newspaper
ads, and billboards, and to publicity. These
consumers are less likely to rely on price as a
key decision variable. Rather, they are more
likely to respond well to branding strategies
that focus on company reputation and design.
An important finding of this exploratory
study is that the reputation of the building
company, although deemed important, did
not particularly stand out as an important
determinant of purchase in general. As the
Mongolian market matures and consumers
have more choices with regard to builders, the
builder brand will clearly become an important
consideration. Similarly, the respondents
appeared not consider real estate services as
important in their decision process. This too is
an issue related to the fact that such services
are relatively new in the Mongolian market
and individuals have yet to learn that they
provide an important service to consumers in
their process of searching for a new home.
This was primarily an exploratory study
of housing purchase behavior; future
longitudinal studies or studies with post-hoc
debriefing should attempt to capture more
comprehensively the processes involved in the
home purchasing decision-making process of
the Mongolian consumer.
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