An Article on Consumer Behaviour

8/9/2019 An Article on Consumer Behaviour

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CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Effective marketing requires insight into consumers’ mind. It ensures that the right

product are conceived, produced & offered to the right consumer in the right way.

What influence consumer behavior: - There are 3 factors that influence consumer

behavior:

1. Cultural factors: - Culture: It is the fundamental determinant of a person’s want &

behavior. Ex. - American child > Material comfort, achieve & success, freedom,

activity, external comfort, individualism, youthfulness AND Indian middle class

child, Respect & care the elders, Honesty, integrity, hard work, achievements &

success, sacrifice etc.

Sub-culture: Each culture consists of smaller sub-culture that provides more specific

identification & socialization for their members. Subcultures include nationalities,

religious, racial group and demographic region. Multicultural marketing came from thisconcept.

Social life: All of the human societies have any social life. Social classes have several

characteristics. First one social class differs in dress, speech pattern, and many other

characteristics. Second one, persons are perceived as occupying inferior or superior positions according to social classes. Third, social classes indicated by a cluster of

variable for example, occupation, income, wealth, education & value system etc. And

fourth one individual can move up and down the social-class ladder during the lifetime.

Social classes show distinct product & brand preferences in many areas includingclothing, home furnishing, leisure activities and automobiles. For example

KELLOGG INDIA: Kellogg cornflakes: Indian consumer use hot milk {firstly failed.}

GE FINANCIAL: Hispanic community (from Spain): 2 years research, Spanish language

call center, launches web-site, tapped bilingual agents in key cities to sell GE product.

2. Social factors: - Reference group: A person’s reference consists of all the group that

have a direct (face to face) or indirect influence on his/her attitude and behavior.

There are 3 type of Reference group (a.) Membership group: Groups having a direct

influence on person. Some membership groups are primary group such as family,friend, neighbors, colleagues, etc. People also belong to secondary group like

religious, professional and trade unions etc. (b.) Aspirational groups: People are also

influence by groups they do not belong & hopes to belong. (c.) Dissociative group:These are those whose values or behavior an individual rejects.

Family: The family is the imp. Consumer buying organization. In society and family

members constitute the most influential primary reference group? Family members

influence buying decisions. In the traditional joint family grand parents. Nuclear family husband & wife both. Children & teenagers are targeted by internet.

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CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

The Porvogue Website is targeted at the youth market.

A person participates in many groups – Family, clubs, and organization etc. The persons’

position in each group can be defined in terms personal roles & status.

ROLES: A role consists of the activities a person is expected to perform.STATUS: Each role carries a status.

People choose product that reflect & communicate their roles & actual status in the

society. For ex.-

Mercedes, BMW etc.

3. Personal factors: - A buyer’s decision also influence by personal characteristics,

following:

Age & stage in life cycle: People buy different goods and services over a life time.

Marketers should also consider life events like marriage, childbirth, illness, divorce,

widowhood etc. as giving rise to new needs. Ex.-BANK OF AMERICA (BOA): Client manager : for help the person’s help

Occupation & economic circumstances: Blue caller workers: Work clothe, work shoes,

lunchboxes. President: Dress suit, air travel, country club membership. Economic

circumstances: Spendable income (level, stability, time pattern), saving, assets, debts,

borrowing power etc.

Personality & self-concept: Each person has personality characteristics that influence his

or her buying behavior. Personality: Self-confidence, dominance, sociability, autonomy,adaptability etc. Personality is a useful variable to analyzing customer brand & choice.

Self-concept: 1. Actual self-concept: - How one views oneself? 2. Ideal self-concept: -

How one would like to view oneself? 3. Others’ self-concept: - How one thinks other seeone?

Lifestyle & values: - Lifestyle: It is a persons’ pattern of living in the world as expressed

in activities, interests & opinions.

People from the same subculture, social class & occupation may lead quite different lifestyle. Consumer decisions are also influenced by core values, the belief systems that

underlie consumer attitudes & behaviors.

Key psychological process: -

Motivation: A motive is a need that is sufficient pressing to drive the person to act.

Three of the best known theories of human motivation: -• FREUD’S T heory : - Sigmund Freud assumed that the psychological shaping people’s

behavior is largely unconscious and that a person can’t fully understand his or her own

motivation. A technique is called ‘laddering’ can be used to trace a person’s motivationfrom the stated instrumental ones to the more terminal ones. Then the marketer can decide

at what level to develop the message & appeal.

• MASLOW’S ’T heory : - Abraham Maslow sought to explain ‘why people are driven by

particular need at particular time. Why does one person spend considerable time & energy

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CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

on personal safety?’ This theory helps marketers understand how various products fit into

the plans, goals & lives of consumers.

• HERZBERG’S Theory: - Fredrick Herzberg developed a two factor theory that tells between

‘Dissatisfiers’ (factor that cause dissatisfaction) & ‘Satisfier’ (factor that cause satisfaction). Theabsence of ‘Dissatisfiers’ is not enough; ‘Satisfier’ must be present to motivate a purchase. Ex.-

A Computer without warranty is dissatisfier and with warranty is satisfier or motivator.

This theory has two implications. First, seller should do their best to avoid dissatisfiers & second,

the sellers should identify the major satisfier or motivator of purchase in the market & supply them.

Perception: A motivated person is ready to act. Perception is the process by which

individual selects, organizes & interprets information inputs to create a meaningful picture

of the world. Perception not only depends on the physical stimuli but also on the stimuli’srelation to the surrounding field and on conditions within the individuals.

In marketing, perceptions are more important than the reality. It will affect consumer’s

actual behavior. It has three processes:• Selective attention: It means that marketer have to work hard to attract the

consumer’s notice. People like following types of stimuli:

1. That relate to a current need (Which thing want to buy that ad’s attract consumer.)2. That they anticipate (Radios in the computer stores.) 3.

Whose deviation are large in the relation to the normal size of stimuli (5 Rs. off or

100 Rs. off)

• Selective distortion: It is the tendency to interpret inf. in a way that will fit our

preconceptions. It can work to the advantage of marketers with strong brand when

consumers distort neutral brand inferior to the it is more positive.

• Selective retention: People will fail to register much inf. to which they are exposed

in memory but will tend to retain inf. that supports their attitudes & beliefs Becauseof selective retention. It means we are like to remember goods points about a product

which we like & forgot good points about the competitors.

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Buying decision

process

-Problem

recognition- Inf. search

-Evaluation of

alternatives

-Purchasedecision

-Post purchase

behavior



CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

MODEL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Learning: Learning involves change in an individual behavior arising from experience.Learning is produce through the interplay of drives, cues & reinforcement.A drive is a strong internal stimulus impelling action. Cues are minor stimuli that

determine when, where & how a person responds. For Ex.-

Dell computers : computer good : printer also good (Hypothetical thinking)

Learning theory teaches marketer that they can build demand for a product by usingmotivating cues & providing +ve reinforcement.

Memory: Long term memory & Short term memory.

Memory process:1. Encoding: It refers to that how & where inf. gets into memory Form contents and

situations of the market or consumer.

2. Retrieval: It refers to how information gets into the mind.

Buying decision process: It is a five stage model:

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Marketingstimuli-Product &

services- Price

-Distribution

&

Communicati-

on

Other stimuli

-Economic

-Tech.-Political

- Cultural

Consumer

Psychology

-Motivation-Perception

-Learning

-Memory

Consumer

Characteristics

-Cultural

-Social

- Personal

Purchase decision

-Product choice

-Brand choice-Dealer choice

-Purchase amt.

-Purchase

timing



CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Five stage model of consumer buying process

Problem recognition: The buying process starts from the problem recognition. The can

be triggered by the internal or external stimuli. For ex –

A London’s Restaurant: HOT NOW: Sign that hot food everytime.

Marketers need to identify the circumstances that trigger a particular need by gathering

inf. from a no. of consumer.

Information search: - We can search the inf. from various path :

• Personal: Family, Friends, neighbor etc.

• Commercial: Advertising, Web-sites, Salesperson, Dealers, Display.

• Public: Mass media, Consumer rating orgn.

• Experimental: Handling, examining, using the product.

Evaluation of alternatives: No single process is used by all consumers or by one

consumer in all buying situation.

Some basic concepts will help us understand consumer evaluation process: First, the

consumer is trying to satisfy need. Second, the consumer is looking for certain benefitsfrom the product solution & third one consumer sees each product like a need satisfier.

Now the question is that what things reflect evaluation.

• Beliefs & attitudes: Through experience & learning, people acquire beliefs &attitudes. These influence buying behavior. A belief is a thought that a person hold

about something. And an attitude is person’s enduring favorable or nonfavorable

evaluation, emotion feeling, Action tendency towards some action & idea.

• Expectancy value model: Which brand consumer like he expect that the satisfaction

of that particular brand which he/she like. for ex. –

SONY Computer (like): Purchase: Satisfy: again buy SONY product.

Purchase decision: In the decision making to purchase a product from market the

consumer has five sub-decisions: Brand, Dealer, Quantity, Timing and payment method.

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ProblemRecognition

Information

search

Evaluation

of

alternatives

Purchase

decision

Post

purchase

behavior

Purchase

decision



CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Steps between evaluation of alternatives and a purchase decision

A consumer’s decision to modify, postpone, or avoid a purchase decision is heavily

influenced by risks, they are following

• Functional risk : The product does not perform up to expectation.

• Physical Risk : The product’s negative affect on the consumer’s or other’s health.

• Financial risk : The product is not worth the price which paid.

• Social risk : The product results in embarrassment from others.

• Psychological risk : The product affects the mental well-being of the user.

• Time risk : The failure of the product in an opportunity cost of finding another

satisfactory product. (The TATA’s Lakhtakia car)

Post purchase behavior: After the purchase the consumer might experience about the

marketing strategies. Marketing communication should supply beliefs & evaluations thatsupport the consumer’s choice & help him or her feel good about the brand.

• Post purchase satisfaction: Satisfaction is a function of the closeness between

expectation & the product performance.

• Post purchase action: It depends on the consumer’s satisfaction. If he/she

• Post purchase use & disposal: marketers should also monitor how buyers use &

dispose of the product.

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Evaluation of alternatives

Purchase

intention

Attitudesof others Unanticipatedsituational factor



CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

09-11-2009



CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Hypothetical dole mental map

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Colou

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Singles

Nutriti

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Healthy

Fresh-ness

Pinea-

pple

Escape Refres

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Useful

Innov-

ative

Contem

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Female

Fruits

Fun

Sunshi

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Upbeat

DOLE

An Article on Consumer Behaviour

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