Consumer Behavior(to be discussed after mid)

 (Kotler's and Armstrong)

 

Consumer Behavior

 

“Consumer behavior is a function(f) of the  interaction of interpersonal influences (I)—such as culture, friends , and relatives—and personal factors (p)—such as attitudes , learning, and perception. B= f (I,P)”

 

“Consumer behavior is the study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy.”

 

Psychology, Sociology, anthropology and economics.

 

Buying Behavior is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using products.

Need to understand:

• why consumers make the purchases that they make?
• what factors influence consumer purchases?

the changing factors in our society.

 

 

Since the consumer preferences are constantly changing, therefore , the marketing managers need to have a through knowledge of  consumer behavior.

 

 

 Consumer buying-decision Process

 

 

Recognition of need

Unsatisfied need creates tension

 

Stimulus (Any unit of input affecting one or more of the five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing). Internal stimuli (hunger , thurst). External Stimuli ( color of a car, design of package , ad, brand mentioned by friend)

 

Coping with time and money problem etc

 

 

Choice of   involvement level

 

How much efforts to put in order  to satisfy needs

High-involvement

Low-involvement

Impulse buying

 

 

 

Identification of alternatives

 

Brand alternatives  ( through little or extensive search)

 

 

Evaluation of alternatives

 

Evaluation criteria  (  taste ,speed, nutrition and price)

Past experience and feelings will count here

 

 

Purchase Decision

 

 

 

Postpurchase  Behavior

 

Cognitive dissonance:  Inner tension that a consumer experiences after recognizing an inconsistency between behavior and values or opinions.

 

Postpurchase dissonance: realizing some features in the rejected alternatives or find some drawbacks in the one availed.

 

To avoid anxieties, consumers might avoid information related to the product.

Marketing managers to reduce postpurchase dissonance ( by congratulating on wise decision etc) or the ad (says and stresses the number of  satisfied customers  etc)

 

 

Reference Groups--

Individual identifies with the group to the extent that he takes on many of the values, attitudes or behaviors of the group members.

Families, friends, sororities, civic and professional organizations.
Any group that has a positive or negative influence on a persons attitude and behavior.
Opinion leader

 

Beliefs and attitudes

 

Belief  : “an organized pattern of knowledge that an individual holds as true about his or her world.”

 

Sony Handicam    consumers believes makes the best home video, reliable, and reasonably priced

 

Attitudes :

 “ A learned tendency to respond consistently toward a given object.” “Attitudes are person’s enduring favorable or unfavorable evaluations, emotional feelings or action tendencies towards some objects or data”

                  Attitude towards purchasing on credit: American will go for it ,  Italian carries cash, German are reluctant, Japanese will only use it abroad.

 

 

Culture and Sub-culture--

 

Culture refers to the set of values, ideas, and attitudes that are accepted by a homogenous group of people and transmitted to the next generation.

 

 

Learning

 

Changes in behavior resulting from previous experiences.

 

Experiential learning: through experience (one product not satisfactory)

Reinforcement:  Yogurt (buying it), if they are fresh (so  positive reinforcement)

 

 

Motivation :

 

Motive:  A driving force that causes a person to take action to satisfy specific needs.

 

Actions are effected by a set of motives, not just one. If marketers can identify motives then they can better develop a marketing mix.

MASLOW hierarchy of needs!!

o      Physiological

o      Safety

o      Love and Belonging

o      Esteem

o      Self Actualization

Need to determine what level of the hierarchy the consumers are at to determine what motivates their purchases

 

Personality

 

“Individual’s pattern of traits that influence behavioral response”

Types of clothes, car, clothes ,jewelry  etc can reflect personality traits.

 

 

Perception

 

What do you see?? Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information inputs to produce meaning. IE we chose what info we pay attention to, organize it and interpret it.

Information inputs are the sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell and touch.

 

Selective attention

Distorted attention

Selective retention

 be edited, improved and revised.....

Keep it up folk and mid should not be a problem.

From

Qamar Riaz Mehmood Khel

Lecturer in Management Science

Bahria University

Islamabad