Consumer Behavior: An Overview

Sales determine profits, and consumers

actions determine sales.
Scratch the surface of any consumer and
you will find an intricate web of
complex, often conflicting needs.
What influences create these needs and
most important, how can marketers
recognize and serve them are the
subject matter of consumer behavior.

 This is the era of marketing orientation where

customers are treated as kings and queens.
In modern times, under marketing concept, the
focusing of all marketing activities is to satisfy
consumer needs and meeting these needs
requires some accurate knowledge of who the
consumer really is and what he or she really
wants.
By studying consumer behavior we can get the
answers to the above.

Consumer Decision Making

Think back for a moment and recall
the last time you bought a tube of
toothpaste.
What undoubtedly seemed at the
counter to be an instant, unthinking
decision was in reality a highly
process fraught with variables.

 The first is the cultural values

transmitted from generation to
generation. (Example: to buy pajama
and Panjabi during eid time)
---- Buying sarees for marriage
purpose.
----- Buying colorful items for marriage
with the hope that the couples life will
be colorful.

Perhaps you always buy the same brand of a product.

Sociologically buying decisions may have been influenced
by your:
Family: you may have purchased the brand because your
parents are inclined to use a particular brand.
Seeing your FRIENDS to use you may buy a particular
brand.
Even SOCIAL CLASS may influence your buying decision.
The size, the amount of attention devoted to price may
also similar to your social class.
Buying Benson and Hedges even you prefer Gold Leaf.

Your decision also took place in a

psychological context.
For purely individual reason you may
emphasize on whitening than decay
prevention.
If you are a nationalist you may buy local
brand even if you can afford expensive
foreign goods.

 Product
attributes
and
buying environment may
have affected your decision
as well.
----- Location of
the shop, display, behavior of
sales person etc.

Scope of Consumer Behavior Field

The field of consumer behavior explores:
Why people make certain purchasing
decisions?
What products and services people buy?
Where they buy them?
How they use them?
The frequency with which they buy them?
The consumer decision process in action.

Definition

Consumer behavior may be

defined as the activities of
people engaged in actual or
potential use of market items
goods, services, retail
environment, or ideas.

Consumer Behavior as an
Interdisciplinary Subject.
Consumer Behavior draws its findings from:
Anthropology: Study of man as an animal. It
contributes an understanding of the cultural
setting in which decisions are made.
Sociology
and
Social
Psychology:
Support/bolster our knowledge of how
consumers behave by pointing out the effects
of group behavior on individual decision
making. FAMILY, SOCIAL CLASS, PEER GROUPS
etc.

 Psychology: is the study of individual behavior

offers insights about consumers personal
characteristics such as LEARNING, PERCEPTION,
ATTITUDE, MOTIVATION, PERSONALITY etc.
Marketing Research: provides information about
consumer responses to product attributes such as
PRICING, PACKAGING etc. and to environment
surrounding purchasing decision.
Economics: the study of how society distributes its
scare resources, sets the larger context in which all
consumer behavior occurs.

An Overview of Consumer Behavior Shown Through

Diagram

Macro Perspective
(Cultural Influences)

Group Perspective
(Social Influences)

Individual Perspective
(Psychological Influences)

Emergence of Consumer Behavior

Field
The field is relatively new. From 1940s. But for a
young discipline, consumer behavior studies have
proliferated (quick expansion) at an almost dazzling
rate due to three factors:
The centrality of consumers in contemporary
marketing practices (Kings and Queens).
The interdisciplinary nature of the field which
permits borrowing from many older disciplines.
The growth of computer technology which has
enabled researchers to simulate behavior
electronically.

An overview of Consumer Behavior Theory and

Models

Theory is the philosophical explanation of

phenomenon.
The role of scientific theory in consumer behavior
and development of research models to test
various theories have come to overshadow more
traditional approaches to explaining what makes
consumers as they do.
The traditional theories were marketers own
opinions or expressed the views of economic
philosophers that a consumer was purely rational
creature who responded mechanistically to
economic laws.

 The newer approaches are theory based on

psychology, sociology and related fields and are
often accompanied by models.
A model is essentially a representation of some
behavioral system which is used to explain behavior
in that system.
A model is also an imitation of something on a
smaller scale.

Allport Consumer Behavior Model

Stimulu
s
objects

Socio-cultural

Social

Individual

Factors

Culture Social

Class

Factors

Factors

Product
Purchase
or
Decision

Group
Influences
Such as
Family,
Friends
Etc.

Motivation,
Personality,
Attitude,
Perception
etc.

Cognition

Service

1. Cultural Social Influences:

a. The cultural setting in which consumer behavior occurs will affect

the product or services we want, the ways in which we want them
and the methods we use to get them.
Examples: Self service, bargaining, ear ring used by men.
b. As marketing is becoming multinational, marketers are to
consider culture of his own and others.
Otherwise his actions will fail.
**** Some cultural traits are universal and some are different.
American culture is characterized by technological change and value
shifts (Example: relaxed sexual mores).
Bangladeshi culture is characterized by tradition and insularity.

 Culture is changing --- The products and services desired

have been modified somewhat (example: introduction of
flowers.)
Value system is changing --- using credit cards instead of cash
purchase.
Band music now is more liked than classical music.
The existence of subculture --- Example: Dry fish is liked by
people of some part of the country.
Urban people like eating out, instant food.

2. Sociocultural influences
Sociocultural influences upon consumer
behavior are just as pervasive as cultural
influences.
Consumer buying patterns are affected by
how people learn acceptable life style in
society, how reference groups such as family,
peer groups, and other relationships
determine individual behavior.
Social change such as emancipation of
women influence product and service needs.

 Example: Use of disposable diapers, feeding powder milk to

babies etc.

c. The family as a social unit wields influence over

individual behavior.
Examples: Some decisions are made jointly and some
individually.
It depends on the nature of the product and the stage of the
family life cycle.
Just married take joint decisions.
Product needs also relates to life cycle stage. Different
products are needed at different stage.

3. Individual Influences:
a. Consumer behavior patterns are learned.
Buying habits and loyalties are learned through
experiences.
For quick consumer learning to occur intensity of ads
should be increased.
b. The role of perception.
Different people perceive differently.
They also perceive selectively.
So, ads should be prepared in an outstanding manner
for the target consumers to perceive positively.

 C. Motivation and Personality also influence consumer

purchase decisions.
Some people are motivated by price where some are
motivated by quality or style.
People of different personalities see the same thing
differently.
D. Attitude is also very important determinant of consumer
purchase decision.
Attitude is difficult to change.
It can be changed through persuasive communication.

4. Consumer Information Processing and

Decision Making
The consumer enters into each purchasing situation
with a unique set of environmental and individual
variables influencing his or her behavior.
Buying decisions are affected by media
communications.
Interpersonal communications also enter into
consumer buying decisions.
Opinion leaders can influence buying decisions
significantly.

Marketing Applications of Consumer Behavior Theory and

Knowledge

The study of consumer behavior offers vast

potential for real world application.
And the possibilities open to people trained in
this field range from positions in market
research firms to jobs in government
regulatory agencies investigating consumer
fraud.

Micromarketing Areas of Application

The most common uses of consumer behavior
theory and research remain in the realm of
micromarketing, better known as business
marketing.
Here the applications are: (i) managerial, (ii) research
oriented, and (iii) creative to manage marketing
operations effectively, provide research inputs for
meeting consumer demands, and devise strategies
for persuasive communications.

Managerial Application (anticipating

new markets)

This aspect of marketing concept challenges business

people to regard every nuance (delicate difference in shade
of meaning) of social change as a potential market
development.
In a rapidly changing economy the challenge become
particularly acute.
Improved educational opportunities helped to create a new
breed of consumers, more aware, more demanding and
more skeptical of advertising claims.

 Widespread affluence has prompted demand for

new and different leisure products, expanded travel
services etc.
In Bangladesh, demand for mineral water due to
increased health consciousness which is related to
increased educations.
Demand for packed products in Bangladesh has
increased.

Research oriented (Market

segmentation)

No marketers could hope to interest every existing

consumer in the specific product or service
offered.
Thus markets are segmented.
Markets can be segmented in many different ways.
Research in consumer behavior most often focuses
on areas that would facilitate segmentation.

Creative (Developing Strategies)

Strategy is a plan or scheme for deceiving enemy.

Contemporary business rely increasingly on strategy
formation at all levels of marketing effort from product
development to retailing.
This phenomenon becomes rapidly apparent in persuasive
communication: advertising, promotion, and selling.
One impetus for careful planning of strategy is the sheer
volume of products on the market.

 Another is the fact that many are parity products

with different brand names and packaging but no
real product difference. Ex. Gasoline, detergent,
aspirin.
Consider the clutter of TV commercials and it is
understandable why viewers can recall so few
advertising messages.
Here it becomes necessary to position products in
consumers frame of reference.

Macro-marketing Areas of
Applications
The application of an understanding of consumer
behavior are not restricted to the realm of business
and profit.
Practitioners concerned with urban planning,
administering social services, and economic policy
require information about consumers to perform
their role effectively.

Public policy decisions

Government agencies have recently taken a more activist

role in regulating business practices.
Some of their efforts are generally accepted by consumers.
Virtually everyone stands against deceptive advertising.
Ban on the polythene bags is an example.
To alleviate atmospheric pollution, drastic measures like
gasoline rationing, and even outright automobiles bans in
urban areas seemed called for.

 The process of drawing people gradually away

from their cars to mass urban transit must be
well researched and thoughtfully planned
effort to succeed.
Convenience package such as beer to check
pollution, but consumers will be reluctant to
return bottles.

Contributions to behavioral
sciences

Research into consumer learning, attitudes and

influences upon decision making often overlaps
with psychological and sociological investigation.
Finding concerning consumer perception,
motivation and conditioning add to the body of
knowledge about individual behavior.

 Studies exploring the relationship between

reference groups and consumer decision making
contribute to sociological theory and practice.
So the study of consumer behavior is useful to
anyone who will deal with the interests, activities,
and purchasing patterns of consumer in business,
government or academic pursuits.