Consumer Behaviour
What is consumer buying behaviour
- The decision processes and purchasing activities of people who purchase products for personal or household use and not for business purposes
- Customers’ overall opinions and attitudes toward a firm’s products have a great impact on the firm’s success
- To find out what satisfies buyers, marketers must examine the main influences on what, where, when and how consumers buy
Why is it important?
- By gaining a deeper understanding of the factors that affect buying behaviour, marketers are in a better position to predict how consumers will respond to marketing strategies
Consumer buying decision process
1) Problem recognition
- occurs when a buyer recognises a different between a desired state and an actual condition
- problem recognition can be rapid or very slow
- some consumers are unaware of their needs
- marketers use personnel, advertising and packaging to help trigger recognition of such needs or problems
What influences consumer behaviour?
2) Information Search
Internal search
- buyers search their memories for product information
- if they cannot retrieve information from memory, they then perform an external search
External search - buyers seek informaiton from outside source
- may focus on communication with friends or relatives
- can involve comparison between brands
- independent sources such as choice magazine
3) Evaluation of alternatives
Evoked set
- A group of brands that a buyer views as
alternatives for possible purchase - Consumers assign a greater value to a brand they have heard of than to one they have not
Evaluative criteria - Objective and subjective characteristics that are important to a buyer – e.g. size, weight and dimensions of a laptop computer
4) Purchase
- buyer chooses the product or brand to be bought
- buyer chooses the seller
- buyer negotiates the terms of the transaction
- buyer makes the purchase - or terminates the process
5) Post purchase evaluation
- after purchase, the buyer evaluates the product
does its actual performance meet expected levels?
cognitive dissonance - a buyer's doubts shortly after a purchase about whether the decision was the right one
- also known as 'post purchase dissonance' and 'buyer's remorse'
Psychological factors
- factors that in part determine people's general behaviour, thus influencing their behaviour as consumers
- operate on buyers internally, but are acted on by outside forces
Social factors
- the forces other people exert on one's buying behaviour
Situational factors
- influences result from the circumstances, time and location that affect the consumer buying decision process
Perception
- the process of selecting, organising and interpreting information inputs to produce meaning
- information inputs are sensations received through the sense organs (sight, taste, hearing, smell and tough)
Motives
- internal energising force that directs a person's behaviour toward satisfying needs or achieving goals
- thirst/hunger
- cold/hot
- fear
- success
Leanring
- changes in an individual's thought processes and behaviour caused by information and experience
sources of learning - behavioural consequences
- information processing
- experience
Attitude
- an individual enduring evaluation of, feelings about and behavioural tendencies toward an object or idea
Can be positive or negative
three major components - cognitive - knowledge and information
- affective - feelings a emotions
- behavioural - actions regarding the object or idea
Self-concept
- view of one's self
- can be positive or negative
Lifestyles - individual's pattern of living expresses through activities, interests and opinions
Roles
- actions and activities that a person in particular position is supposed to perform based on expectations of the individual and surrounding persons
- family role, work role, role in an organisation
Family influences
- consumer socialisation - the process through which a person acquires the knowledge and skills to function as a consumer
Reference group
- any group that positively or negatively affects a person's values, attitudes por behaviour
Types of reference groups - membership: an individual actually belongs
- aspirational: an individual aspires to belong
- dissociative: an individual does not want to belong
Opinion leaders
- a reference group member who provides information about a specific sphere that interests reference group participants
- digital networks
blogs
wikis
social networks
Culture
- the accumulation of values, knowledge, beliefs, customs, objects and concepts that a society uses to cope with its environment and passes on to future generations
- influences buying behaviour because it permeates our daily lives
- cultural changes affect product development, promotion, distribution and pricing
Sub-cultures
- groups of individuals whose characteristic values and behaviour patterns are similar, and difference from those of the surrounding culture
- youth subculture, based on a sense of belonging and a common purpose
- subcultures of consumption, based on common interests - e.g. Harley-Davidson owners group (HOGs)