Test Your Knowledge of Consumer Behaviour

Consumer Behaviour: A Comprehensive Overview

Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services.
Consumer behaviour emerged in the 1940s-50s as a distinct sub-discipline of marketing, but has become an interdisciplinary social science that blends elements from psychology, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, ethnology, marketing, and economics (especially behavioural economics).
The study of consumer behaviour investigates individual qualities such as demographics, personality lifestyles, and behavioural variables in an attempt to understand people's wants and consumption patterns.
Research has shown that consumer behaviour is difficult to predict, even for experts in the field; however, new research methods, such as ethnography, consumer neuroscience, and machine learning are shedding new light on how consumers make decisions.
Customer relationship management (CRM) databases have become an asset for the analysis of customer behaviour.
Consumer behaviour stands at the intersection of economic psychology and marketing science.
Understanding purchase and consumption behaviour is a key challenge for marketers.
Consumers are active decision-makers, and some purchase decisions involve long, detailed processes that include extensive information search to select between competing alternatives.
Consumers evaluate alternatives in terms of the functional (also called utilitarian) and psycho-social (also called the value-expressive or the symbolic) benefits offered.
The marketing organization needs a deep understanding of the benefits most valued by consumers and therefore which attributes are most important in terms of the consumer's purchase decision.
The relevant evaluation attributes vary according to different types of consumers and purchase contexts.
Potential patrons seeking a pleasant dining experience may be willing to travel further distances to patronise a fine-dining venue compared to those wanting a quick meal at a more utilitarian eatery.Understanding Consumer Behavior: The Purchase Decision Process and Influences

Purchase Decision Process:

The consumer evaluates alternatives and assigns a mental score or rank to each product/brand under consideration.
Purchase intent is the self-instruction to make a purchase and is a strong predictor of sales, but not always a perfect indicator.
Organizations use techniques such as easy credit, sales promotions, and call-to-action advertising messages to improve sales conversion rates.
Personal sales representatives use tactics such as social evidence and scarcity attraction to close sales.
Post-purchase evaluation is the final stage where the consumer examines and compares product features with expectations and can provide key feedback to marketers.
Post-purchase intention is the consumer's intention to purchase the same brand or from the same company in the future if their evaluation is positive.
Post-decision dissonance is the feeling of anxiety that occurs in the post-purchase stage, and consumers use strategies such as validation from peers or marketing communications to reduce this anxiety.
Purchase decisions are influenced by a wide range of internal and external factors.
Consumer awareness is formed by long-term shopping environments and purchasing activities, and it changes with life concept, consumer personality, and market competition.
Internal influences include personal and interpersonal factors such as psychological, socio-economic, demographic, and personality factors.
Motivations and emotions drive consumer action, and consumers have negative and positive purchase motivations.
Perception is where individuals receive, organize, and interpret information, and marketers are interested in consumer perceptions of brands, packaging, product formulations, labeling, and pricing.
Symbolic consumption becomes an internal influence of consumer behavior and forms a special symbol.
Prior experience with the product, category, or brand can have a major bearing on purchase decision-making.
Random factors refer to special occasions and a series of random conditions that can affect consumer purchasing behavior.

External Influences on Purchase Decision:

Culture, sub-culture, social class, reference groups, family, and situational determinants can all affect purchasing behavior.Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour
Culture is the most abstract and broad external factor that affects consumer behaviour, and it influences almost every aspect of purchasing.
Subcultures can be based on age, geographic, religious, racial, and ethnic differences, or they can be based on a shared commitment to a common brand or product.
Social class refers to relatively homogenous divisions in a society, typically based on socio-economic variables such as educational attainment, income, and occupation.
Reference groups are groups whose presumed perspectives or values are being used by an individual as the basis for his or her judgment, opinions, and actions.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers engaged in panic buying and revenge buying as coping strategies for alleviating negative responses to the pandemic.
Consumer decision styles identify fundamental decision-making styles that can be identified and are useful for market segmentation.
Before, during, and after making a purchase choice, marketers are interested in areas such as risk perception and reduction, brand switching, channel switching, brand loyalty, and post-purchase behavioural intentions and behaviours.
Perceived risk is defined as the consumer's perceptions of the uncertainty and adverse consequences of engaging in an activity.
Services marketers argue that risk perception is higher for services because they lack the search attributes of products.
New product adoption and diffusion of innovations is an area of interest within consumer behaviour, and insights about how innovations spread through groups can assist marketers in speeding up the new product adoption process.Consumer Behavior: Understanding the Psychology of Why Consumers Buy
The diffusion model developed by Everett Rogers is widely used in consumer marketing because it segments consumers into five groups, based on their rate of new product adoption.
A number of factors contribute to the rate at which innovations are diffused through a social community.
Brand-switching occurs when a consumer chooses to purchase a different brand from their regular or customary brand.
Marketers are particularly interested in understanding the factors that lead to brand-switching.
Channel-switching is the action of consumers switching to a different purchasing environment (or distribution channel) to purchase goods, such as switching from brick-and-mortar stores to the internet.
Impulse purchases are unplanned purchases.
The consumer's affective state has implications for a number of different dimensions of consumer behaviour, including information search, evaluation of alternatives, product choice, service encounters, complaining, and advertising responses.
Customers who are in a bad mood are more difficult to please.
The relationship between affect and customer satisfaction is an area that has received considerable academic attention, especially in the services marketing literature.
Emotion can play an important role in advertising.
Customer loyalty, defined as "the relationship between an individual's relative attitude and repeat patronage".
Loyalty marketing programs are built on the insight that it costs 5-20 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing customer.