NEED OR IMPORTANCE OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

The modern marketing management tries to solve the basic problems of consumers in the area of consumption. To survive in the market, a firm has to be constantly innovating and understand the latest consumer needs and tastes. It will be extremely useful in exploiting marketing opportunities and in meeting the challenges that the Indian market offers. It is important for the marketers to understand the buyer behaviour due to the following reasons. The study of consumer behaviour for any product is of vital importance to marketers in shaping the fortunes of their organisations. It is significant for regulating consumption of goods and thereby maintaining economic stability. It is useful in developing ways for the more efficient utilisation of resources of marketing. It also helps in solving marketing management problems in more effective manner. Today consumers give more importance on environment friendly products. They are concerned about health, hygiene and fitness. They prefer natural products. Hence detailed study on upcoming groups of consumers is essential for any firm. The growth of consumer protection movement has created an urgent need to understand how consumers make their consumption and buying decision. Consumers tastes and preferences are ever changing. Study of consumer behaviour gives information regarding colour, design,

size etc. which consumers want. In short, consumer behaviour helps in formulating of production policy. For effective market segmentation and target marketing, it is essential to have an understanding of consumers and their behaviour.
Consumer behaviour deals with the psychological process of decision making by consumers in a social context which also exerts group pressures on them. According to Walter and Paul, consumer behaviour is the process whereby individuals decide whether, what, when, where, how and from whom to purchase goods and services. In this process, the consumer deliberates within himself before he makes any purchase decisions. The buying behaviour involves several psychological factors like: individual thinking process (motivation, personality, perception and attitude), decision making process in marketing, interaction of the consumer with several groups like friends, family and colleagues (group oriented concepts) and selection of the brand and outlet depending on price and features and emotional appeal (marketing mix elements in a given environment). Consumer behaviour may be influenced by both internal and external influences. Internal influences are: demographics, psychographics (lifestyle), personality, motivation, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. Again external influences are: culture, ethnicity, family, social class, reference groups, and market mix factors. The basic elements of consumer behaviour what the consumer buys, how, when and where buys etc. is understood by the interaction of different factors associated with consumer behaviour. These are shown in the diagram below:

Variables of consumer behaviour: Consumers decisions are generally influenced by different variables, such as Culture: The most important determinant of consumer behaviour is culture. When

a child grows, he is normally influenced by his surrounding culture. Marketers try to spot cultural variances, so that they can target their customers according to their cultural preferences. Subculture: Within a cultural group, there is a smaller group, which has been termed as subculture. For example, north Indian, south Indian, communal groups, linguistic, etc are some of the examples of Indian subculture. For example, assamese sub-culture emphasizes the purchasing of new dresses on Rongali Bihu, so, there will be great demand of clothes on the eve of Bihu. These are variables within the cultural aspect of consumer behaviour. Social Class: It refers to several homogeneous groups that exist in the society. Different caste group, different income group, etc constitute different social classes. Personal Factors: According to Philip Kotler, personal factors also influence buying decision of the consumers. Personal characteristics such as age, income, occupation, life style and personality also count. Preference for any product varies depending on the age and income level of an individual. The term consumer is generally used to describe three different kinds of consuming entities: the personal or household consumer, institutional consumer and industrial consumer. The personal consumer buys goods and services for their own use. For example, we purchase shaving cream or toothpaste etc for our own consumption. The Institutional consumers are those who purchases goods and services for particular institutes like hotels, educational institutes, hospitals etc. The Industrial consumers include profit and non profit business, government agencies (local, state and national) etc. All these industries should buy goods and services in order to run their organization. Manufacturing companies must buy the raw materials and other components needed to manufacture and sell their own products. Likewise, service companies must buy the office products needed to operate their agencies. The marketer should decide at whom to direct their promotional efforts, the buyer or the user. For some products they must identify the most influential person. Importance of consumer Behaviour The study of consumer behaviour enables us to become a better consumer. It will help consumer to take more precise consumption related decisions. (ii) It helps marketers to understand consumer buying behaviour and make better marketing decisions. (iii) The size of the consumer market is constantly expanding and their preferences were also changing and becoming highly diversified. So without studying it, marketers cannot predict the future of their business. Marketing managers regarded consumer behaviour discipline as an applied marketing science, if they could predict consumer behaviour, they could influence it. This approach has come to be known as positivism and the consumer researcher

who are primarily concerned with predicting consumer behaviour are known as positivists. As the marketing research began to study the buying behaviour of consumers, they soon realized that many consumers rebelled at using the identical products everyone else used, for example in case of purchase of house, interiors, car, and dress material etc. people prefers unique products. Consumer preferred differential products that they felt reflected their own special needs, personalities and lifestyles. To meet the need of consumers, marketers adopt market segmentation policy. They use promotional techniques to vary the image of their products so that they would be perceived as better fulfilling the specific needs of certain target segments. Other reasons for the development of consumer behaviour includes the rate of new product development, growth of consumer movement, public policy concerns, environmental concerns and the growth of both nonprofit marketing and international marketing.