MARKETING

MANAGEMENT I

3. UNDERSTANDING BUYER
BEHAVIOR
 Consumer Behavior: Meaning
► Inherent in Marketing Concept
► The behavior that consumers display in searching
for, purchasing, evaluating and disposing of
products and services that they expect will satisfy
their needs.
► Focuses on how individuals make decisions to
spend their available resources.
► Two different types of consuming entities:
 Personal consumers: Buying for his own use
 Organizational consumers: Buying for organizational
use.
 Consumer Vs Customer
► Consumer: Consumers are individuals or
households that consume goods and services
generated within the economy. Consumers are
generally users of a variety of products. A term
with a Macro perspective.
► Customers: Customers are those who buy the
goods produced by a firm. One firms’ customers
differ from those of the others’. Buyers are
generally termed as customers. A term with a
Micro perspective.
THE CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING
PROCESS

► Problem Recognition
► Information Search
► Evaluation of Alternatives
► Purchase Decision
► Post Purchase Behaviour
 Marketer’s role in need recognition
► Marketing invokes stimuli
► Marketing helps consumers recognise an
imbalance between the present status and
preferred state
► Marketing promises to bridge the gap
thereby enabling the need to take its shape
PARTICIPANTS IN BUYING PROCESS

► Initiator
► Influencer
► Decider
► Buyer
► User
FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMER BUYING
BEHAVIOUR
► CULTURAL FACTORS
 Culture, Subculture & Social Class
► SOCIAL FACTORS
 Reference Groups, Roles & Statuses
► PSYCHOGRAPHICS
 Demographic, Lifestyle, Personality
► PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
 Motivation, Perception, Learning, Believes &
Attitudes
 A CB Model
► Input:
 Influences need recognition. Initiated by the firm and
influenced by the consumer’s social group (All external
influencers)
► Process:
 The decision-making process. Influenced by consumers’
psychological attributes.
► Output:
 Purchase behavior (Trial and repeat purchase) and post-
purchase behavior (Evaluation, re-purchase, cognitive
dissonance)
 Types of Influences
► External
 Culture
 Sub-Culture
 Cross-Culture
 Social Class
 Reference Group
► Internal
 Motivation
 Perception
 Personality
 Learning
 Attitude
Consumer Behavior

Internal Influences
 Motivation
► Driving Force within individuals that impels
them into action
► An unfulfilled need results in a tension that
acts as a driving force
► Indulges in behavior that could satisfy his
need and reduce tension
► Positive and negative motivation
 Perceptions
► Perception is defined as the process by
which an individual selects, organizes
and interprets stimuli into a meaningful
and coherent picture of the world.
► Two different persons exposed to the
same stimuli behave in different ways,
based on needs, values and
expectations.
► Based on “How we see the world
around us”.
 Personality
► Meaning: Those Inner Psychological
characteristics that both determine and
reflect how a person responds to his or her
environment – The attributes, traits, factors
and mannerisms.
► Factors: Heredity, Early childhood
influences, Social and Environmental
influences.
 Learning
► The process by which individuals acquire
the purchase and consumption knowledge
and experience that they apply to future
related behavior.
► Subject to changes with the newly acquired
knowledge.
► Learning is both intentional and incidental.
 Attitude
► Attitude is a learned predisposition to behave.
► Attitude could be favorable or unfavorable
behavior towards an object.
► “Object” in the context of consumer behavior
includes products, packages, price, retailers,
service, medium, advertisement etc.
► Researchers are object-specific when studying
about attitude.
Consumer Behavior

External Influences
 1. Reference Groups
► Direct
 Family
 Friendship groups
 Shopping Groups
 Work Groups
 Membership Groups
 Symbolic Groups
 Virtual Groups
 Brand Communities
 Consumer Action Groups
► Indirect
 Celebrities
 Employees
 Experts
 Common Man
 2. Social Class
► Lower - Lower Class (Rock Bottom)
► Upper – Lower Class (Security minded)
► Lower-Middle Class (Followers)
► Middle (Marginal)
► Upper-Middle Class (Achievers)
► Lower-Upper Class (New Wealth)
► Upper-Upper Class (Established Families)
 3. Culture
► Character of a total society
► Language, Knowledge, Laws, Religions, Food-
Customs, Music, Art, Products etc.
► Sum total of learned beliefs, values, and customs
that lead the members of a society towards a
particular buying pattern.
► Gives direction to satisfy some basic order needs.
 4. Sub-Culture
True Sub-cultures
1. Nationality
2. Religion
3. Geographic Region
4. FC/BC/MBA/OC
5. Mother Tongue
Demographics as sub-cultures
1. Age
2. Gender
 5. Cross Culture
► Studying across cultures between states /
countries / geographical boundaries.
► Understanding the similarities and differences
among people.
 Time effects (Schooling, shopping, working etc)
 Composition (Class composition)
 Acceptance to change and willingness to transform