Consumer Markets and Buyer Behavior
The field of Consumer Behavior: “studies how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires.”
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How and Why Consumers Buy
Buying behavior is influenced by:
Cultural factors Social factors Personal factors Psychological factors
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Cultural factors:
Values, perceptions, preferences etc. Determines person’s want and behavior Subculture Caste based social classes - Relatively homogeneous, hierarchically ordered, share similar value interests and behavior.
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Social Factors:
Reference groups – have direct or indirect influence on person’s attitude or behavior.
Types of Reference Group:
Membership Aspirational Disclaimant Avoidance
Family – Each stage of Life-cycle creates demand for different product. 4
Personal Factors:
Age Stage in life cycle Occupation Economic circumstances Lifestyle – way of leading life Personality – Distinguishing psychological
characteristics that lead to consistent responses to environment.
Self-concept 5
Psychological Factors:
Motivation – Need that is sufficiently pressing to drive the person to act. Perception – Process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets information inputs to create meaningful picture of the world. Learning – Involves changing in an individuals’ behavior arising from experience. Beliefs – Descriptive thought that a person holds about something. Attitudes – Set of feelings that make a person react to a given idea. 6
Buying roles
Roles that a person plays in buying or using a product. Initiator Influencer Decider Buyer User Maintainer Disposer 7
Types of Buying-Decision Behavior Difference between brands
Involvement Level High Low
Significant Differences
Complex buying behavior
Few Differences
Dissonancereducing buying behavior
Varietyseeking buying behavior Habitual
buying behavior
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How buying behavior is understood by the Marketers?
Introspective Method: How buyers will themselves act? Retrospective Method: Ask purchasers to recall the purchase event Prospective Method: How is a consumer planning to buy a particular product? Prescriptive Method: Consumers describe an ideal way to purchase the product 9
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