Model of business buyer behavior and consumer buyer behavior

Consumer Buying Behavior

• Refers to the buying behavior of people who buy goods and services
for personal use.
• These people make up the consumer market.
• The central question for marketers is:
“How do consumers respond to various marketing efforts the
company might use?”
Model of Buyer Behavior
Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
• Culture is the most basic cause of a person's wants and behavior.
– Culture is learned.
– Culture reflects basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors.
– Cultural shifts create opportunities for new products or may otherwise
influence consumer behavior.
– Subcultures are of interest to marketers.
– Social class
• Society’s relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share
similar values, interests, and behaviors.
• Measured by a combination of: occupation, income, education, wealth, and
other variables.
 Personal Factors

• Lifestyle:
– Pattern of living as expressed via a person’s activities,
interests, and opinions.
• Personality refers to the unique psychological characteristics
that lead to relatively consistent and lasting responses to one’s
own environment.
• Generally defined in terms of traits.
• Self-concept suggests that people’s possessions contribute to
and reflect their identities.
Buyer Decision Process
Model of Business Buyer Behavior
Stages in buying process
Market Research techniques
 Secondary Research
Information already collected for another purpose

• Internal
• Company Accounts
• Internal Reports and Analysis
• Previous company research
• Retail data - loyalty cards, purchase data, etc.
• Customer feedback
• Salespeople feedback

• External
• Government Statistics
• Trade publications
• Magazine surveys
• Other firms’ research
• Published research documents – publications, journals, etc.
 Primary Research
• Qualitative Research
– Discovery/identification of new ideas, thoughts, feelings
– Preliminary insights/understanding of ideas
– Open-ended questions
– Results cannot be generalized
• Types:
– Customer Interviews
– Focus Groups
– Observation
 Market Research

• Advantages of Market Research

– Helps focus attention on objectives
– Aids forecasting, planning and strategic development
– May help to reduce risk of new product development
– Communicates image, vision, etc.
– Globalisation makes market information valuable (HSBC adverts!!)
 Exploratory Research
• Initial research conducted to clarify and
define the nature of a problem
• Does not provide conclusive evidence
• Subsequent research expected
 Descriptive Research
• Describes characteristics of a population
or phenomenon
• Some understanding of the nature of the
problem