Consumer Buyer Behavior

Consumer Markets and Buyer Behavior

• Consumer buyer behavior is the buying habits of final customers, individuals and households buying for personal use.
• All these final consumers comprise the consumer market.
• Learning the "whys" behind consumer buying behavior is challenging; answers are often hidden within the consumer's mind.
• Consumers themselves may not fully understand what motivates their purchases.

The Model of Buyer Behavior

• Marketing and other stimuli enter the consumer's "black box" and generate responses.
• The environment includes marketing stimuli (product, price, place, promotion) and other stimuli (economic, technological, social, cultural).
• Buyer characteristics include cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors.
• The buyer's decision process is influenced by buyer characteristics.
• Buyer responses include buying attitudes and preferences, purchase behavior (what, when, where, how much), and brand engagements and relationships.

Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior

• Cultural Factors:

  • Culture is the most fundamental determinant of a person's wants and behavior; behavior is largely learned.
  • Marketers are continuously seeking cultural shifts to identify new product opportunities.
  • Subculture consists of smaller groups with shared value systems based on common life experiences (nationalities, religions, racial groups, geographic regions). Subcultures represent important market segments, and marketers design products and programs tailored to their unique needs.
  • Total market strategy refers to integrating ethnic themes and cross-cultural perspectives into mainstream marketing. Marketing strategies may emphasize similarities across subcultures rather than differences (e.g., featuring interracial families).
  • Social classes are relatively permanent and ordered divisions in a society—members share similar values, interests, and behaviors. Social class is determined by a number of factors, including occupation, income, education, wealth, etc.

• Social Factors:

  • Groups and social networks: The influence of small groups varies, and membership groups directly affect individuals. Reference groups serve as direct or indirect points of comparison; these groups influence attitudes and behaviors (e.g., a basketball team).
  • Word-of-mouth influence, particularly from family and friends, impacts consumer buying behavior significantly. Opinion leaders (influential or leading adopters) are pivotal figures within reference groups affecting others via their characteristics/expertise/knowledge.
  • Online social networks (blogs, social media, communal shopping sites) are online communities where people socialize and exchange information—marketers leverage these networks.
  • The family is a paramount consumer buying organization. Marketers focus on the role and influence of all family members. Roles and status, encompassing activities expected of individuals within societal norms, reflect general esteem given to them by society (e.g., the diverse roles of a working mother).

• Personal Factors:

  • Occupation greatly influences the products and services purchased (e.g., executives purchasing business suits).
  • Age and life cycle stage affect buying (people change goods and services over their lifespans; family life-cycle stages influence purchases).
  • Economic situation impacts store and product choices; marketers monitor spending, income, savings, and interest rates (e.g., "Expect More, Pay Less" Target).
  • Lifestyle is a person's pattern of living expressed in psychographics—it encompasses activities, interests, and opinions (e.g., work, shopping, food, fashion, family). Lifestyle profiles a person's overall actions and interactions.
  • Personality and self-concept: Personality are unique, psychological traits distinguishing individuals (e.g., self-confidence, sociability, aggressiveness). Brand personality is a mix of human traits attributed to a particular brand (e.g., Gucci—class and sophistication). Self-concept (self-image) is another personality-related concept.

• Psychological Factors:

  • Motivation is a need that urges a person to seek satisfaction; psychologists have developed theories to explain human motivation (e.g., Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs).
  • Perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information. People can perceive the same stimulus differently. Selective attention is when people screen out much information. Selective distortion involves interpreting information to match existing beliefs. Selective retention means remembering positive aspects of preferred brands whilst forgetting or downplaying details associated with competing brands.
  • Learning describes changes in behavior due to experience (through drives, stimuli, cues, responses, and reinforcement). A drive is a strong internal stimulus prompting action. Drives transform into motives when directed towards specific stimuli (e.g., wanting a camera as a result of personal self-actualization). Cues are minor stimuli that guide responses (e.g., buyer spotting brand names in a store). Reinforcement strengthens responses (e.g., positive consumer experience enhancing continued camera purchases).
  • Beliefs and attitudes. A belief is a descriptive thought about something and possibly based on knowledge/opinion/faith and may or may not carry emotional weight. An attitude is a relatively consistent evaluation of feelings and tendencies toward a particular object or idea (e.g., creativity and self-expression).

Types of Buying Decision Behavior

• Complex buying behavior: High involvement, significant differences among brands (e.g., buying a car). This involves a learning process focusing on developing beliefs, forming attitudes, and making considered purchases.
• Dissonance-reducing buying behavior: High involvement, perceiving few differences among brands (e.g., carpeting). Buyers may experience after-sale concerns (cognitive dissonance) about product alternatives.
• Habitual buying behavior: Low consumer involvement, perceiving little brand differences (e.g., table salt). Consumers typically simply purchase a familiar brand.
• Variety-seeking buying behavior: Low consumer involvement, perceiving significant brand differences (e.g., cookies). Consumers often switch brands for variety's sake, not necessarily due to dissatisfaction.


Buyer Decision Process

• Need recognition: The buyer recognizes a problem or need (internal/external stimulus).
• Information search: The buyer seeks information about the product. Information sources include personal, commercial, public, and experiential.
• Evaluation of alternatives: The buyer evaluates possible options considering various product attributes.
• Purchase decision: The buyer decides which brand to purchase. Factors like attitudes of others or unexpected circumstances can influence final decisions (e.g., an economic downturn).
• Post-purchase behavior: The buyer assesses satisfaction with the purchase. Cognitive dissonance (post-purchase conflict) can arise, making customer satisfaction crucial for repeat business and positive word-of-mouth.

Buyer Decision Process for New Products

• Types of products (goods, services, or ideas) perceived as new.
• Stages of adoption process: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, adoption.
• Influence of product characteristics in adoption rate (e.g., relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, divisibility, and communicability). Individual differences in innovativeness manifest as innovators, early adopters, early mainstream, late mainstream, and lagging adopters.

This quiz explores key concepts of consumer buyer behavior, including cultural factors, subcultures, and psychological influences on purchasing decisions. Understand various theories such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Freud's perspectives on consumer awareness. Test your knowledge on how these factors impact marketing strategies.