CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
What products and services do we buy?
Why do we buy?
How often do we buy?
From where do we buy etc?
Are the issues which are dealt with in the discipline of Consumer behavior
DEFINITION:-
Consumer behavior can be defined as these acts of individuals (consumers) directly involved in obtaining, using and disposing of economic goods and services including the decision processes that precede and determine these acts.
IMPORTANCE OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR FOR
MARKETERS
- Consumer behavior is helpful in understanding the purchase behavior and preferences of different consumers. As consumers we differ in terms of our sex, age, education, income, occupation, family set-up, religion, nationality, social status.
- To successfully market to different market segments, the market needs appropriate marketing strategies which we can be design only when he understands the factors which account for these differences in consumer behavior and tastes.
- In today’s world of rapidly changing technology, consumer tastes are also characterized by fast changes. Consumer behavior provides invaluable clues and guidelines for marketers on new technological frontiers which they should explore. For example- CTV in lieu of B/W TV
- Consumer behavior is a process and purchase forms one part of this process. There are various psychological and environmental factors which influence this process, to the extent that the marketer can understand and manipulate the influencing factors, he can predict the behavior of consumers.
Thus the importance of consumer behavior lies in the fact that the behavior can be understood and influenced to ensure a positive purchase decision. The marketing manager’s interest lies exactly here i.e. to ensure that his marketing strategy results in purchase of the product.
TYPES OF CONSUMERS
All consumers can be classified as
- Personal
- Organizational
All individuals fall into the category of personal consumer.
All business organizations, government agencies and bodies, non business organizations such as hospitals, temples, and trusts are organizational consumers of goods and services purchased for running the organizations.
BUYER VERSUS USER
Often the person who purchases the product is not the person who actually consumes or uses the product.
Question – Who should be the subject of study in consumer behavior?
Should we study buyer or consumer?
Many companies play safe and focus their promotion at both the user and the buyer. For example- Maggi Noodles- Mother and Children
A SIMPLE MODEL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
I N P U T | External Influences Marketing Stimuli Other Stimuli
|
Process | Consumer Decision Making Buyer Characteristics Buyer Decision
|
O U T P U T | Consumer Decisions & Actions
|
EXAMPLE- “A SIMPLE MODEL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR”
You are on your way ‘home’ from work after a hot, long, tiring day.
- On the way you see a hoarding/ kiosk for a cola drink which promises to be cool, refreshing and tasteful.
- This hoarding/kiosk provides you a stimulus to stop at the nearest cold drink shop and drink a cola.
- All three brands (Pepsi, Coke and Thums Up) are available at the shop at a certain price.
- You can recall some association with each of the three brands from the advertisements. You have seen on media viz T.V., hoardings, newspapers, magazines.
- You buy a particular brand of cola and consume.
- The initial stimulus for this purchase and consumption was provided by the hoarding.
- This was further backed-up by other stimuli such as product display in the shop, watching other consumers buy a particular brand, a pop material, earlier satisfaction with a given brand etc.
- Your response to these stimuli results in the purchase of a particular brand.
- In between the process of receiving these stimuli and responding to them, you went through a decision making process.
- The stimuli, the process of decision making and response constitute a simple model of consumer behavior.
DETAILED MODEL OF FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
MOTIVE
When a need is sufficiently pressing, it directs the person to seek its satisfaction, it is known as motive.
Primary Needs or motives
These are physiological needs which we are born with. For example- need for air, water, clothing & shelter.
Secondary Needs
These are our acquired needs, which we have developed in response to the society & environment we live in. for example- need for power, prestige, esteem, affection, learning, status etc.
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
Same product- Many segments- example- Bicycle
One- for community
Second- Recreational/Leisure Need
Third- Need of a health aid
Fourth- for converting into rickshaw/cart
Example- Generally consumers tend to perceive the quality of perfumes on the basis of
- Package
- Brand name
- Price &
- Manufacturer’s image
PERCEPTION
It can be described as “how we see the world around us”
The different sights, sounds, smells, tastes & sensations that we feel are known as stimuli. Each person recognizes, selects, organizes & interprets these stimuli in his own individual manner based on his needs, values & expectations and this is known as perception since each individual’s needs, motives and expectations are unique. Therefore each individual perception is unique.
Perception helps to explain the phenomenon of why different individuals respond differently to the same stimulus under the same condition.
As a marketing manager you are providing stimulus to your consumers through the physical shape, color, size, fragrance, feel, product taste, packaging, ads/commercials.
But we all have an in built, screening system which helps us to ‘select’ & ‘recognize’ only the relevant stimuli & ignore all the others.
There are three aspects of perception:-
- Selective exposure
- Selective distortion
- Selective retention
SELECTIVE EXPOSURE
People are more likely to notice stimuli which relate to their immediate needs.
For the marketer, the implication is that he has to carefully and accurately identify his potential customers since other customers are not at all likely to notice the stimuli having identified the potential customers, the marketer has to ensure that the stimuli are interesting enough to attract and hold their attention.
SELECTIVE DISTORTION
When you attempt to fit information to suit your own ideas or personal meaning the process is known as Selective Distortion. Thus a marketer may find that his message is often not received in the intended manner but it is twisted in different ways by different consumers.
For example- Washing machines (Punjab), hair dye (goat- Rajasthan), Refrigerator (for storing goods & services)
SELECTIVE RETENTION
People forget much of the stimuli which they receive and only retain that information which reinforces their values and decision.
LEARNING
New Born- instinctive behavior
Adult- learned behavior
For example- housewife has need for cutting down cooking time- Pressure Cooker
Influencing stimuli-
- Various advertisements
- Positive feedback (friend)
- Window display
- Discount
She buys and is satisfied with its performance her response to pressure cooker is reinforced. Satisfied housewife may settle for another product of same company (say oven) i.e. generalization of response.
Consumers can be made to learn the desired behavior through an interplay of motives, stimuli cues, responses and reinforcements.
BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES
A person’s belief- cooking oil ‘X’ has lowest fat content. Belief based on real facts or notion or opinion- the person has.
A belief is a ‘descriptive’ thought that a person has about something. The belief that the customer has about a brand is important. Therefore it determine his behavior towards buying and using the belief constitute the brand image and if the customer has the wrong belief he is likely to generate negative image about the brand.
The marketer must ensure that consumer have all relevant and correct information about the brand to facilitate formation of a positive image.
Attitude is defined as a mental, emotional or rational predisposition with regard to a fact, state, person or an object. In the context of consumer behavior we are studying the attitude of buyers towards all the relevant attributes of a product or services as well as the marketer and markets.
Attitude is formed on the basis of learning, knowledge, information, education, upbringing, thinking, lifestyle, experience, predisposition, belief, faith, outlook, communication, observation, etc. It can be good or bad, optimistic or pessimistic, positive or negative, broad or narrow friendly or unfriendly & so on. It may be consistent, may change with several external factors like time or environment, may be influenced or even can influence another attitude.
