CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR

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INTRODUCTION

Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups and organizations select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants.

Behavior that consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs

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FACTORS AFFECTING BUYER BEHAVIOR Cultural Factors Culture, subculture and social class are particularly
important influences on consumer buying behavior.

Culture & Subculture Include nationalities, religions, racial groups and geographical regions.

A child growing up in a traditional class family in India is exposed to the following values respect and care for elders, honesty and integrity, hard work, achievement and success and sacrifice.

Social Class - Indicated by a cluster of variables occupation, income, wealth, education and value orientation.

Individuals can move up or down the social class ladder during their lifetimes Those within each class tend to behave more alike than persons from two different social classes. Social class differ in dress, speech patterns, recreational preferences and media preferences. One social class prefers magazines and books for recreation while another class prefers television. Social Factors Reference groups, family and social role and statuses.

Reference groups All the groups that have a direct or indirect influence on their attitudes or behavior. Groups having a direct influence are called membership groups. 4/19/12

Primary Groups Person interacts fairly continuously and informally, such as family, friends, neighbors and coworkers. Secondary Groups More formal and require less continuous interaction, such as religious, professional and trade union groups. Aspirational groups those a person hopes to join. Dissociative groups those whose values or behavior an individual rejects.

Reference groups influence members in at least three ways

Expose an individual to new behaviors and lifestyles. Influence attitudes and self concept. Create pressures for conformity that may affect product and brand choices.

Family Most important consumer buying organization in society, and family members constitute the most influential primary reference group. Two categories of families Family of orientation consists of parents and siblings. From parents a 4/19/12 acquires an orientation toward religion, politics, and economics, and person

Personal Factors

Age and Stage in the life cycle Taste in food, clothes, furniture and recreation is often age-related. Consumption is shaped by the family life cycle. Trends like delayed marriages, children migrating to distant cities or abroad for work, tendency of working couple to acquire assets such as a house or an automobile in the early stages of career, has resulted in different opportunities for marketers at different stages in the consumer life cycle. Occupation and economic circumstances Product choice is greatly affected by economic circumstances : spendable income, savings and assets, debts, borrowing power and attitudes toward spending and saving. A company president will buy dress suits, air travel and country club memberships. If economic indicators point to a recession, marketers should re-price their products or increase the emphasis on discount brands. Personality and Self-concept Brands also have personalities and consumers are likely to choose brands whose personalities match their own. Brand personality is the specific mix of human traits that we can attribute to a particular brand. Brand personalities have traits like Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative and up-to-date) Competence (reliable, intelligent and successful) Sophistication (upper-class and charming)

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Ruggedness (outdoorsy and tough)

Consumers often choose and use brands that have a brand personality consistent with their own actual self concept(how we view ourselves), or customers ideal selfconcept( how we would like to view ourselves)or on others self concept (how we think others see us). More pronounced for publicly consumed products than for privately consumed products.

Lifestyle and values A lifestyle is a persons pattern of living in the world as expressed in activities , interests and opinions.

e.g. : LOHAS lifestyle of health and sustainability: Worried about the environment, wants products to be produced on a sustainable basis and spend money to advance their personal health like organic food, energy efficient appliances, solar panels, alternative medicines, yoga tapes, and ecotourism.

Consumers can be Money constrained Create low cost products and services. E.g. : Walmart Everyday low prices

Time constrained Convenient products.

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Buying Behavior
Consumer decision making varies with the type of buying decision. Complex and expensive purchases are likely to involve more buyer deliberations and more participants. Henry Assael distinguished four types of consumer buying behavior based on the degree of buyer involvement and the degree of differences among brands.

Significant differences between brands Few differences between brands 4/19/12

High involvement Complex Buying behavior E.g. Automobile, Twowheeler, consumer durables Dissonance-reducing buying behavior E.g. Carpet

Low Involvement Variety-seeking buying behavior E.g. Chocolates, cookies

Habitual buying behavior E.g. Salt

Complex buying behavior Consumers engage in complex buying behavior when they are highly involved in a purchase and aware of significant differences among brands. This is usually the case when the product is expensive, bought infrequently, risky and highly self-expressive. Involves a three step process First the buyer develops beliefs about the product, second develops attitude about the product and third makes a thoughtful purchase choice. The marketer needs to differentiate the brands features, use print media to describe the brands benefits and motivate store sales personnel and the buyers acquaintances to influence the final brand choice. For e.g. Automobile, two-wheeler, consumer durable. Dissonance-reducing buying behavior Sometimes the consumer is highly involved in a purchase but sees little difference in the brands. The high involvement is based on the fact that the purchase is expensive, infrequent and risky. In this case, the buyer will shop around to learn what is available but will buy fairly quickly, perhaps responding primarily to a good price or to purchase convenience. For example, carpet buying. After the purchase, the consumer might experience dissonance that stems from noticing certain disquieting features of the carpet or hearing favorable things about other carpets. In this eg. The consumer first acted, then acquired new beliefs, then ended up with a set of attitudes. Thus marketing communication should aim at supplying beliefs and evaluations that help the consumer feel good about his or her brand choice.

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Habitual Buying Behavior Many products are bought under conditions of low consumer involvement and the absence of significant brand differences. Consider salt. Consumers have little involvement in the product category . They go to the store and reach for the brand. If they keep reaching for the same brand, it is out of habit, not strong brand loyalty. It happens with most low-cost, frequently purchased products.
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ST ES IN BU G D ISIO PRO ESS AG YIN EC N C

ProblemRecog nition P b mR co n io ro le e g it n T buy p he ing rocess starts w hen the buy recog er nises a p roblemor need. T need can he btrig ered byinternal or ex g ternal stim uli . In the form er case, one of the p ersons norm needs al hung thirst er, rises to a threshold lev and becom a driv In the el es e. latter case, a need is aroused byex ternal stim ulus. A person passing throug a bakery and sees a freshly h baked cake w hich stim ulates her hung Marketer er. needs to identify the circum stances that trig er a g particular need. In o m t nse r f r a io a ch Purchasedecision

Inform ation search

Ev aluation of alternativ es

Post -p urchasebeha ior v

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Two levels of involvement with search. The milder search state is called heightened attention. At this level person simply becomes more receptive to information about product.At the next level is active information search. The person looks for reading material, phones friends and engages in other activities to learn more about the product.

Consumer information sources fall into four groups :

Personal sources Family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances. Commercial sources Advertising, salespersons, dealers, packaging, displays. Public sources Mass media, consumer-rating organizations. Experiential sources Handling, examining, using the product. 4/19/12

Search Dynamics
(Total set) of brands available to the consumer (Awareness set) Consumer will come to know only a subset of these brands (Considerati on set) Brands meeting initial buying criteria (Choice set) Strong contenders Decision

III. Evaluation of alternatives There 4/19/12 is no simple and single evaluation

Beliefs and Attitudes -The consumer develops a set of brand beliefs about where each brand stands on each attribute. The set of beliefs about a brand make up the brand image.Through experience and learning, people acquire beliefs and attitudes which influence buying behavior. A belief is a descriptive thought that a person holds about something.
Evaluation of alternatives 4/19/12 Purchase Attitudes are persons favorable on intention Unanticipate unfavorable evaluations, emotional d situational Attitudes of others Purchase decision

Intervening Factors

Attitudes of others

Intensity of other persons negative attitude towards our preferred alternative Our motivation to comply with the persons wishes

Role of infomediaries Like product 4/19/12 testing report, reviews of movies,

Five purchase subdecisions

Brand decision Vendor decision Quantity decision Timing decision Payment method decision

V. Post purchase behavior The marketers job does not end when the product is bought but continues into the 4/19/12

Postpurchase actions The consumers satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product will influence subsequent behavior.If the consumer is satisfied, he or she will exhibit a higher probability of purchasing the product again.The satisfied customer will also tend to say good things about the brand to others.Marketers say: Our best advertisement is a satisfied customer.

Dissatisfied customers may return the product or ,may seek information that 4/19/12 confirms its high value.They may take

Buying Roles

Initiator A person who first suggests or thinks of the idea of buying the product. Influencer Person whose view or advice influences the decision. Decider Decides on any component of a buying decision whether to buy, what to buy, how to buy and where to buy.
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Buyer who makes the actual

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