Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the buying behavior of final

consumers -individuals & households who buy goods and services for
personal consumption.
All these consumers make up the consumer market.
Model of Buyer Behavior
Marketing and Buyer’s Black Box Buyer Responses
Other Stimuli

Marketing Buyer Characteristics Product Choice

Product Buyer Decision Process Brand Choice
Price Dealer Choice
Place
Promotion
Other Purchase Timing
Economic Purchase Amount
Technological
Political
Cultural
(1/3) Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior: A consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by
cultural, social, personal factors, & Psychological. Of these, cultural factors exert the broadest and
deepest influence. 1)Cultural Factors: culture is the Most Basic Cause of a Person's Wants and
Behavior. It is the fundamental determinant of a person’s wants & behavior. This is a set of values
norms, attitudes, & other meaningful symbols that shape human behavior and the artifacts, or
products, of that behavior as they are transmitted from one generation to the next. -Subculture
Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that provide more specific identification &
socialization for their members. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, &
geographic regions. When subcultures grow large, companies often design specialized marketing
programs to serve them. - Social class: A group of people in a society who are considered nearly
equal in status or community esteem, who regularly socialize among themselves both formally &
informally, & who share behavioral norms. Society’s relatively permanent & ordered divisions
whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors. Measured by: Occupation, Income,
Education, Wealth & Other Variables. 2)Social Factors: social factors are such as reference groups,
family, & social roles & statuses affect our buying behavior. -Reference Group: A group in society
that influences an individual’s purchasing behavior. Implications of Reference Groups: - They
serve as information sources. - they affect an individual’s aspiration levels. - Their norms either
constrain or stimulate consumer behavior.
(2/3)Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior: 3)Personal: -AGE AND LIFE CYCLE STAGE: Our taste in
food, clothes, furniture, and recreation is often related to our age. Consumption is also shaped by
the family life cycle and the number, age, and gender of people in the household at any point in
time. -OCCUPATION: Occupation also influences consumption patterns. Marketers try to identify
the occupational groups that have above-average interest in their products and services and even
products for certain occupational groups: Computer software companies, for example, design
different products for brand managers, engineers, lawyers. -Economic Situation: As the recent
recession clearly indicated, both product and brand choice are greatly affected by economic
circumstances: spendable, savings and assets debts, borrowing power, and attitudes toward
spending and saving. - Personality & Self-Concept: Each person has personality characteristics
that influence his or her buying behavior. Personality can be a useful variable in analyzing
consumer brand choices. Brands also have personalities, and consumers are likely to choose
brands whose personalities match their own. And self-concept is how we view ourselves.
Consumers often choose and use brands with a brand personality consistent with their actual
self-concept. - Lifestyle Identification: A lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living in the world as
expressed in activities, interests, and opinions. These are shaped partly by whether consumers
are money constrained or time constrained. Companies aiming to serve money-constrained
consumers will create lower-cost products and services.

Personal Influences

Age and Life Occupation Economic Personality &

Cycle Stage Situation Self-Concept
Lifestyle Identification

Interests 3
Activities Opinions
(3/3)Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior: 4) Psychological: Four key psychological
processes—motivation, perception, learning, and Beliefs and Attitudes. -Motivation:
need becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient level of intensity to drive us
to act. Three of the best-known theories of human motivation, those of Sigmund
Freud, Abraham Maslow, and Frederick Herzberg. - Perception: Perception is the
process by which we select, organize, and interpret information inputs to create a
meaningful picture of the world. - Learning: Learning induces changes in our behavior
arising from experience. -Beliefs and Attitudes: Consumer response is not all cognitive
and rational; much may be emotional and invoke different kinds of feelings.

Motivation

Psychological
Factors Affecting
Beliefs and Buyers Perception
Attitudes Choices

Learning 4
Maslow’s Hiearchy of Needs

Hiararchy: Self Actualization - Esteem Needs (self-esteem) - Social Needs (sense of

belonging, love) - Safety Needs (security, protection) - Physiological Needs (hunger, thirst)

Physiological : Products: - Limited in the United States. Generic foods, medicines, special
drinks, and foods for athletes. Specific themes: Campbell’s Soup : “Soup is good food,” with
advertising copy that stresses the nutritional benefits of soup. - Raisins : “Thank goodness I
found a snack kids will sit for. And mothers will stand for.”
Safety: Products: Smoke detectors, preventive medicines, insurance, social security, seat
belts, safes. Specific themes: - Sleep Safe : “We’ve designed a travel alarm that might wake
you in the middle of the night. You see, ours is a smoke alarm as well as an alarm clock”. -
Alka Seltzer : “Will it be there when you need it?”
Social/Belongingness: Products: Personal grooming, foods, entertainment, clothing, and
many others. Specific themes: Oil of Olay - “When was the last time you and your husband
met for lunch?”
Esteem: Products: Clothing, furniture, liquors, hobbies, stores, cars, and many others
Specific themes: - Sheaffer : “Your hand should look as contemporary as the rest of you”
- St. Pauli Girl : “People who know the difference in fine things know the difference between
imported beer and St. Pauli Girl
Self-Actualization: Products: Education, hobbies, sports, some vacations, gourmet foods,
museums. Specific themes: - U.S. Army: “Be all you can be” - U.S. Home : “Make the rest of
your life the best of your life”
Types of Buying Decision Behavior
High versus Low Involvement : High Involvement purchase occasions can be 1) expensive, have
serious personal consequences, 2) and/or reflect one’s social image. 3) These occasions typically
involve extensive information search, consideration of several product attributes and brands,
the formation of attitudes, and word-of-mouth communication. 4) An example would be the
purchase of an automobile or stereo system. 5) extensive promotion to target market and good
advertisement
Low Involvement purchase occasions typically involve : 1) little information search 2) or
consideration of various brands, except on the basis of price. 3)They usually don’t involve any
personal consequences. They tend to be privately consumed. 4) An example would be the
purchase of soap or toothpaste. 5) In-store promotion and eye-catching package design

High Involvement Low Involvement

Complex Buying Behavior: PC/Laptop
Significant Expensive, risky,
differences Purchased infrequent and highly self expressive.
Learning, beliefs, attitudes, and making a
between thoughtful purchase choice. Salespeople
brands
should influence the final brand choice.
Variety-Seeking Behavior: Cookie purchase.
Do a lot of brand switching. First hold a belief,
choose a brand, consume and Evaluate.
Brand switch occur for the sake of variety.
Encourage through lower price, coupons, free
samples and advertising.

Few Habitual Buying Behavior: Salt purchase.

differences Dissonance- Reducing Buying Behavior:
Carpet buying. Expensive, risky and
between Infrequent purchase and post purchase
brands communication can reduce this
Passively received information through TV
and magazine to create brand familiarity.
Passive learning through Purchase and may
not followed Evaluation. Price and sales
Promotions to enhance trial.
 Buyer Decision Process : Step 1. Need Recognition Actual State
Desired State Needs Arising From:
Buyer Recognizes a
State Where the Buyer’s Needs are Problem or a Need. Internal Stimuli – Hunger
Fulfilled and the Buyer is Satisfied.
External Stimuli- Friends
Step 2. Information Search •Family, friends, neighbors
Personal Sources •Most effective source of information
Commercial Sources •Advertising, salespeople
Public Sources •Receives most information from these sources
Experiential Sources •Mass Media •Handling the product
•Consumer-rating groups •Examining the product
Step 3. Evaluation of Alternatives
•Using the product
Consumer May Use Careful Calculations & Logical Thinking
Consumers May Buy on Impulse and Rely on Intuition
Step 2.
Consumers MayInformation Search
Make Buying Decisions on Their Own.
Consumers May Make Buying Decisions Only After Consulting Others.

Step 4. Purchase Decision Step 5. Post purchase Behavior

7

Cognitive Dissonance
Purchase Intention Satisfied Customer!
Desire to buy the most preferred brand
Attitudes Unexpected Consumer’s Expectations of Product’s Performance.
of Others Situational Factors Product’s Perceived Performance.

Purchase Decision Dissatisfied Customer

Distribution Channel: A set of interdependent organizations (intermediaries) involved in the
process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or
business user. Marketing Channel decisions are among the most important decisions that
management faces and will directly affect every other marketing decision.
Why are Marketing Intermediaries Used? The use of intermediaries results from their greater
efficiency in making goods available to target markets. Offer the firm more than it can achieve on
it’s own through the intermediaries: - Contacts, - Experience, - Specialization, - Scale of operation.
Purpose: match supply from producers to demand from consumers.
Distribution Channel Functions: These Functions Should be Assigned to the Channel Member
Who Can Perform Them Most Efficiently and Effectively to Provide Satisfactory Assortments of
Goods and Services to Target Customers.
1) Risk Taking: Assume risks connected with carrying out channel work.
2) Information: Gather information about potential and current customers, competitors, and
other actors and forces in the marketing environment.
3) Financing: Acquire the funds to finance inventories at different levels in the marketing channel.
4) Promotion: 5) Physical Distribution:
6) Contact: Develop and disseminate persuasive communications to stimulate purchasing.
7) Negotiation: Negotiate and reach agreements on price and other terms so that transfer of
ownership or possession can be affected. 8) Matching:
Transportation Modes : 1) Rail: Nation’s largest carrier, cost-effective for shipping bulk products,
piggyback. 2) Truck: Flexible in routing & time schedules, efficient for short-hauls of high value
goods. 3) Water: Low cost for shipping bulky, low-value, non perishable goods, slowest form
4) Pipeline: Ship petroleum, natural gas, and chemicals from sources to markets
5) Air: High cost, ideal when speed is needed or distance markets have to be reached
Changing Channel Organization
A Major Trend is Toward Disintermediation Which Means that Product and Service Producers
are Bypassing Intermediaries and Going Directly to Final Buyers or That New Types of Channel
Intermediaries are Emerging to Displace Traditional Ones.
Channel Design Decisions: To design a marketing channel system, marketers analyze customer
needs and wants, establish channel objectives and constraints, and identify and evaluate major
channel alternatives. Analyzing Consumer Service Needs: As with products, segmentation
exists, and marketers must be aware that different consumers have different needs during the
purchase process. Setting Channel Objectives & Constraints: Marketers must adopt their
channel objectives to the larger environment. Channel objectives vary with products
characteristics. Identifying Major Alternatives: Channel alternatives differ in three ways:
1) Intensive Distribution: places the goods or services in as many outlets as possible. This
strategy serves well for snack foods, soft drinks, newspapers, candies, and gum—products
consumers buy frequently or in a variety of locations. 2) Selective Distribution: relies on only
some of the intermediaries willing to carry a particular product. Whether established or new,
the company does not need to worry about having too many outlets; it can gain adequate
market coverage with more control and less cost than intensive distribution.
3) Exclusive Distribution: Exclusive distribution means severely limiting the number of
intermediaries. when the producer wants to maintain control over the service level and outputs
offered by the resellers, and it often includes exclusive dealing arrangements.
Evaluating the Major Alternatives: Each channel alternative needs to be evaluated against
economic, control, and adaptive criteria. Designing International Distribution Channels:
International markets pose distinct challenges, including variations in customers’ shopping
habits, but opportunities at the same time. The first step in global channel planning, as is often
the case in marketing, is to get close to customers and make a channel for distribution.