CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR Definition: Consumer behaviour refers to the mental and emotional process and the observable

behaviour of consumers during searching, purchasing and post consumption of a product or service. Consumer behaviour involves study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy. It blends the elements from psychology, sociology, socio psychology, anthropology and economics. It also tries to assess the influence on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups and society in general. Buyer behaviour has two aspects: the final purchase activity visible to any observer and the detailed or short decision process that may involve the interplay of a number of complex variables not visible to anyone.

Factors Affecting Consumer Buying Behaviour Consumer buying behaviour is influenced by the major three factors: 1. Social Factors 2. Psychological Factors 3. Personal Factors. A. Social Factors Social factors refer to forces that other people exert and which affect consumers purchase behaviour. These social factors can include culture and subculture, roles and family, social class and reference groups. Example: By taking into consideration Reference group, these can influence/ affect the consumer buying behaviour. Reference group refers to a group with whom an individual identifies herself/ himself and the extent to which that person assumes many values, attitudes or behaviour of group members. Reference groups can be family, school or college, work group, club membership, citizenship etc. Reference groups serve as one of the primary agents of consumer socialization and learning and can be influential enough to induce not only socially acceptable consumer behaviour but also socially unacceptable and even personal destructive behaviour. For example, if fresher student joins a college / university, he/she will meet different people and form a group, in that group there can be behaviour patterns of values, for example style of clothing, handsets which most of group member prefer or even destructive behaviour such as excessive consumption of alcohol, use of harmful and addictive drugs etc. So, according to how an individual references him / her to that particular reference group, this will influence and change his/her buying behaviour. B. Psychological Factors These are internal to an individual and generate forces within that influence her/his purchase behaviour. The major forces include motives, perception, learning, attitude and personality. Example:

Attitude, is an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of our environment. Consumer form attitude towards a brand on the basis of their beliefs about the brand. For example, consumers of Sony products might have the belief that the products offered by Sony are durable; this will influence those customers to buy Sony products due to this attitude towards the brand. C. Personal Factors These include those aspects that are unique to a person and influence purchase behaviour. These factors include demographic factors, lifestyle, and situational factors. Example: Lifestyle is an indicator of how people live and express themselves on the basis of their activities, interests, and opinions. Lifestyle dimension provide a broader view of people about how they spend their time the importance of things in their surroundings and their beliefs on broad issues associated with life and living and themselves. This is influenced by demographic factors and personality. E.g. A CEO or Manager is likely to buy more formal clothes, ties and shoes or PDAs and less informal clothes like jeans as compared to a Mechanic or Civil engineer. So according to their lifestyle and profession, the buying behaviour of people differ from one another.