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behaviour is the study of consumers’ actions during searching for, purchasing, using,
evaluating and disposing of products and services they expect will satisfy their needs. It
helps marketers in understanding the consumer decision-making process.
Consumer behaviour can be defined as “activities people undertake when obtaining,
consuming, and disposing of products and services” provided and detailed.
Obtaining “activities leading up to and including the purchase or receipt of a product”.
Consuming “how, where, when, and under what circumstances consumers use products”.
Disposing “how consumers get rid of products and packaging”.
1. Cultural Factors
Culture: The set of basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviours learned by a member
of society from family and other important institutions. Consumers live in a complex social
and cultural environment. The types of products and services they buy can be influenced by
the overall cultural context in which they grow up to become individuals.
Below are some of the important cultural factors given:
Culture
Subculture
Social Class
2. Social Factors
Social factors, in turn, reflect a constant and dynamic influx through which individuals learn
different consumption meanings. Below are some of the important social factors given:
Family
Reference Groups
Roles and status
3. Personal Factors
A person’s consumption behaviour is shaped by his characteristics. Below are some of the
important personal Factors given:
Age
Income
Personality
Self-concept
Occupation
Lifestyle
Gender
4. Psychological Factors
Psychological factors also influenced consumers. Internal psychological factors also direct
the decision-making process. These factors influence the reason or ‘way’ of buying. Below
are some of the important psychological factors given:
Motivation
Learning
Attitudes and Beliefs
Perception
5. Economic Factors
Economic factor also has a significant influence on buying decision of consumer behaviour.
Below are some of the important economic factors given:
Personal and Family Income
Income Expectations
Consumer Credit
Liquid Assets
Importance of Consumer Behaviour
Marketers need to study consumer behaviour. This helps marketers to investigate and
understand how consumers behave. Below are some of the importance of consumer
behaviour is given below:
1. Manufacturing policies
2. Price policies
3. The decision regarding channels of distribution
4. The decision regarding sales promotion
5. Exploiting marketing opportunities
6. Highly diversified consumer preferences
7. New Technological product
1. Manufacturing policies
The study of consumer behaviour affects the manufacturing policies of the organisation.
Consumer behaviour helps an organisation plan and develop its products according to
consumer needs and preferences.
2. Price policies
Consumer behaviour helps the marketer to set the price in the market. Consumer prefers
optimal solution combined with production policies.
3. Decision regarding channels of distribution
Consumer prefers different channel of purchase which is influenced by many factors.
4. Decision regarding sales promotion
consumer behaviour enables the marketer to know what motive prompts consumers to
make a purchase and the same is used in the overall marketing strategy.
5. Exploiting marketing opportunities
Consumer behaviour guides the marketers to understand the consumer’s problems, needs,
wants and expectations and according to exploit marketing opportunities.
6. Highly diversified consumer preferences
The availability of more choices now has diversified consumer preferences. Therefore the
study of consumer behaviour is a crucial and challenging task for marketers.
7. New Technological product
Rapid introduction of a new product with technological advancement has made the job of
studying consumer behaviour more imperative.
Application of Consumer Behaviour in Marketing
Application of consumer behaviour in marketing are:
1. Analyzing market opportunity
2. Selecting target market
3. Marketing mix decisions
4. Use in Social and Non-profits Marketing
t is generally expressed using words It is expressed using the graphs and numbers
This method involves a process-oriented inquiry This method does not involve a process-oriented inquiry
t is one of the exploratory research type methods It is a conclusive research type method
Consumer Research Process is the type of basic research conducted to know the tastes
and preferences of the customers so that the company can market the products according
to their changing tastes and preferences. So, The Consumer Research Process
Notes include various Steps like:-
1. Identification or Formulation of problems or opportunities,
2. Establishing the Design for Market Research,
3. Choosing a Basic Techniques of Research,
4. Select the Best Sampling Procedure,
5. Collection of Data,
6. Analysis of Data,
7. Preparing the Report.
Negative or fear motivation is based on force and fear. Fear causes persons to act uncertainly because
they are afraid of the consequences if they don't.
Personality
Understanding a buyer’s needs and converting them into customers is the main purpose of
the consumer behaviour study. To understand buyer habits and priorities, it is required to
understand and know the personality of the buyer.
Personality signifies the inner psychological characteristics that reflect how a person reacts
to his environment. Personality shows individual choices for various products and brands. It
helps the marketers in deciding when and how to promote the product. Personality can be
categorized based on individual traits, likes, dislikes, etc.
Though personality is static, it can change due to major events such as death, birth or
marriage and can also change gradually with time. By connecting with the personality
characteristics of an individual, a marketer can conveniently formulate marketing strategies.
We will discuss in this chapter the various theories of personality.
Trait Theory
Traits are the features of an individual or tendencies of an individual in a particular manner.
Traits help in defining the behaviour of consumers. According to the Trait theorists, an
individual’s personality makeup stems from the traits that he possesses, and the
identification of traits is important. Following are a few of the most common traits −
Outgoing
Sad
Stable
Serious
Happy go lucky
Relaxed
Self-assured
Practical
Imaginative
Trait theory is representative of multi-personality theories. Trait theory is based on certain
assumptions, such as traits that are certainly stable in nature and a limited number of traits
are common to most people.
According to the Trait theorists, an individual’s personality makeup stems from the traits
that he possesses, and the identification of traits is important. The trait theories can be of
two broad categories, viz., Simple trait theories, and general trait theories.
Self-Concept
Self-concept is defined as the way, in which we think, our preferences, our beliefs, our
attitudes, and our opinions are arranged systematically, as also how we should behave and
react in various roles of life. Self-concept is a complex subject as we know that
understanding someone’s psychology, traits, and abilities sometimes are really difficult.
Consumers buy and use products and services and patronize retailers whose personalities
or images relate in some way or other to their self-images
Traditionally, individuals are considered to be having a single self-image which they
normally exhibit. Such types of consumers are interested in those products and services
which match or satisfy these single selves. However, as the world became more and more
complex, it has become more appropriate to think of consumers as having multiple selves.
Below are some of the major aspects of Self-concept
Self-Concept is Organized
We all have various views about ourselves. We all may think we are kind, calm, patient,
selfish, rude and whatnot. It doesn’t matter what perception you have about yourself, but
the one perception that facilitates all these insights is an organized self-concept. When a
person believes in something that matches his self-concept he sticks to his view and does
not agree to change the same and even if it does, it takes a lot of time.
Self Concept is Learned
It is believed that self-concept is learned and no person is born with a self-concept. It
develops as and when we grow old. Our self-concept is built when we meet people socially
and interact with them. We are the ones who shape or alter our self-concept and it’s quite
natural that we may have a self-concept different for ourselves as compared to what people
think about us.
For example − If an individual thinks, he is very generous and helpful, it may not necessarily
be the case with others. Others may see him as a selfish person.
Self Concept is Dynamic
Our self-concept in life is not constant and it may change with instances that take place in
our lives. When we face different situations and new challenges in life, our insight towards
things may change. We see and behave according to things and situations.
Thus, it is observed that self-concept is a continuous development where we let go of things
that don’t match our self-concept and hold on to those things that we think help build our
favourable perception.
Self-concept is the composite of ideas, feelings, emotions, and attitudes that a person has
about their identity and capabilities.
Lifestyle
Another aspect of social identity is a lifestyle. Your lifestyle is simply your way of living,
including how you spend your time and money. Some factors that affect your lifestyle are as
follows:
Internal
Motivations
Needs
Wants
External
Culture
Family
Social Class
Lifestyles are extremely valuable to marketers as they can predict consumer purchase
patterns. Marketers use psychographics, or quantitative data to investigate and develop
consumer lifestyle profiles. One data collection method is AIO, which generates
psychographic profiles from survey questions. This information gives marketers insight into
consumers’ activities, interests, and opinions.
Marketers may elect to define their lifestyle segments, or they can opt to use a lifestyle
segmenting tool. Two popular lifestyle segmenting tools include VALS and PRIZM. VALS
divides consumers based on resources and consumer behaviour motivations. In contrast,
PRIZM combines consumer expenditure data with socioeconomic variables with geographic
information to identify similarities in household consumption patterns in various regions.
Having taken both these assessments personally, I can honestly say that although they do
not hit the mark exactly (you will not fit me into a box!!) the broad generalizations are fairly
accurate. Therefore, both VALS and PRIZM have proven to be useful tools to use for lifestyle
segmenting.
Lifestyle segmenting allows marketers to narrow in on their target audience, figure out
what motivates them, where to find them and determine their demographics and interests.
Marketers use this information to construct and deliver the right marketing mix to the right
target at the right place and time.
Consumer attitude may be defined as a feeling of favourableness or unfavourableness that
an individual has towards an object. As we, all know that an individual with a positive
attitude is more likely to buy a product and this results in the possibility of liking or disliking
a product.
COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE
Psychologists such as Rosenberg, Eagley and Hovland have given a three components model
of Attitude. According to this model, an attitude has the following three components:
Cognitive Component
Affective Component
Behavioral Component