Consumer Markets and

Buyer Behavior

 The field of Consumer Behavior:

“studies how individuals, groups, and
organizations select, buy, use, and
dispose of goods, services, ideas, or
experiences to satisfy their needs and
desires.”

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 How and Why
Consumers Buy

 Buying behavior is influenced by:

 Cultural factors
 Social factors
 Personal factors
 Psychological factors

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 Cultural factors:

 Values, perceptions, preferences etc.

 Determines person’s want and
behavior
 Subculture
 Caste based social classes - Relatively
homogeneous, hierarchically ordered, share
similar value interests and behavior.

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 Social Factors:
 Reference groups – have direct or indirect
influence on person’s attitude or behavior.
 Types of Reference Group:
 Membership
 Aspirational
 Disclaimant
 Avoidance
 Family – Each stage of Life-cycle creates
demand for different product.
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 Personal Factors:
 Age
 Stage in life cycle
 Occupation
 Economic circumstances
 Lifestyle – way of leading life
 Personality – Distinguishing psychological
characteristics that lead to consistent responses
to environment.
 Self-concept

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 Psychological Factors:

 Motivation – Need that is sufficiently pressing to

drive the person to act.
 Perception – Process by which an individual selects,
organizes and interprets information inputs to create
meaningful picture of the world.
 Learning – Involves changing in an individuals’
behavior arising from experience.
 Beliefs – Descriptive thought that a person holds
about something.
 Attitudes – Set of feelings that make a person react
to a given idea. 6
 Buying roles

 Roles that a person plays in buying or using a

product.
 Initiator

 Influencer

 Decider

 Buyer

 User

 Maintainer

 Disposer

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 Types of Buying-Decision
Behavior

Difference Involvement Level

between High Low
brands
Significant
Complex Variety-
Differences buying seeking
behavior buying
Dissonance- behavior
Habitual
Few reducing
Differences buying buying
behavior behavior
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 How buying behavior is
understood by the Marketers?
 Introspective Method: How buyers will
themselves act?
 Retrospective Method: Ask purchasers to
recall the purchase event
 Prospective Method: How is a consumer
planning to buy a particular product?
 Prescriptive Method: Consumers describe
an ideal way to purchase the product
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