Purchasing a general ticket for public transport – A means end approach

Switzerland offers a dense network of public transport means. The Swiss General Ticket (GT) is a popular travel pass, which allows the use of most of the public transport facilities in Switzerland. The buying behavior for public transport general tickets underlies a complex decision process. Public transport customers can deal with the complexity in two ways: either one decides on choice heuristics according to ones rather emotional beliefs or decides systematically based on a rational price comparison. Judgment and decision theory creates the basis for the discussion of heuristic versus systematic decision-making in this paper.The goal of the study is the explanation of the two consumer typologies when buying a GT along the continuum from more heuristically to systematically made decisions. Drivers for a more heuristically based as opposed to a systematically based decision process, taking into consideration endogenous and exogenous factors, are evaluated.Literature provides some relevant heuristic and systematic decision factors. Primary research with railway customers in Switzerland (research panel) was conducted using an exploratory, semi-standardized approach using the laddering technique, which helps to identify relevant factors involved in the buying decision process. Functional attributes, which were put into context of higher-level personal values using the means-end approach, were detected. These functional attributes are the ones influencing a buying decision.Results show that convenience factors have a high influence when it comes to purchasing a season ticket, but price is the crucial factor behind the final purchase decision.