DEFINITION:

“Buyer behaviour is all psychological,

social and physical behavior of potential
customers as they become aware of,
evaluates, purchase, consume and tell
other people about products and services.”
By Webster
 C: Economic Factor D: Personal
B: Cultural Factor •Disposable Income Factors
•Culture •Size of Family •Age & life cycle
•Sub-culture •Consumption & •Occupation &
•Social Culture saving lifestyle
•Credit Available •Personality & self
•Additional income Concept

A: Social Factors
•Reference E: Psychological
Group Factors
•Family •Motivation
•Role & status •Perception
•Learning
•Attitude
FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER BUYING
BEHAVIOUR
A) SOCIAL FACTORS:
1) REFERENCE GROUPS:
A person’s reference groups are all the groups that
have a direct or indirect influence on their behavior.
It can be divided into two categories:
• a)Group having a direct influence are called
membership groups. some of these are:
(i)Primary groups with whom the person interacts
fairly, continuously and informally such as family
friends, neighbors and coworkers.
 (ii)People also belong to secondary groups, such
as religious, professional and trade union groups
which tend to be more formal and require less
continuous interaction.
• b)People are also influenced by groups to which
they do not belong. They are as follow:
• i)Aspiration groups are those a person hopes to
join.
• (ii) Dissociative groups are those whose values and
behavior an individual rejects.
2) FAMILY:A family is defined as two or more persons
related by blood, marriage or adoption and reside
together. Family members constitute the most
influential primary reference group thus they
influence the buying decisions. We can distinguish
two families in the buyer’s life.
• a) The family of orientation consists of parents and
siblings.
• b)The family of proliferation consists of one’s
spouse and children.
• 3) ROLES AND STATUS:
A person participates in many groups - family, clubs,
organizations etc. We can define a person’s position is each
group in terms of role and status.
• a)A role consists of the activities a person is expected to
perform.
• b)Each role carries a status. People choose product that
reflect their role status in the society. For example, a
senior vice president of marketing has more status than
sales managers.
 CULTURAL FACTORS:

• Culture is considered as a set of rules, values, beliefs,

behavior and concepts that is common to and binds
together the members of a society. It is usually passed
on from one generation to another. An individual
buying pattern is largely influenced by the culture.
• For example, McDonald’s entered the Indian market in
1996. Initially it served only non vegetation meals. But
in India, due to the cultural influence most of the
population is vegetation and even-non vegetation
population does not eat beef. So Due to the effect of
Indian culture, McDonald faced lot of problems
• SUB-CULTURE:
• Every culture has its own sets of sub-cultures. A
sub-culture is a culture followed by a group of
people within a culture that is distinctly identified
within a large society. These groups have similar
habits, behavior pattern, shared value system,
buying behavior on the basis of their age, religion,
common experience or even geographic location.
• SOCIAL CLASSES:
Social classes refer to the classification of members of the society into a hierarchy of distinct classes so
that every individual in the same class has approximately the same position. Members of each social
class are free to move in an upward or downward direction within the social classes, on the basis of
their social status. In India, social classes can be divided into 4 sub categories:
a. Upper Class:
People who are rich and possess considerable wealth.
People with large businesses and wealthy corporate executives.
People live in large bungalows in posh localities.
Tend to buy expensive and branded products from exclusive shops.
b. Upper Middle Class:
Well educated people
Holding top class positions in middle size firms on professionals who are successful
Strong drive for success.
Shop for goods that speak of their social status.
c. Middle Class:
Consists of white collar workers like middle level or junior executives, sales people,
academicians, small business owners etc.
Have a conservative life style and spend moderately.
Live in apartments or reasonably smaller houses.
Seek to buy products which give more value for money.
• Lower Class:
Consists of blue collar workers like factory laborers, semi skilled and
unskilled laborers.
More family oriented and depend on family for economic and
emotional support
Families are usually male dominated.
Less or poorly educated.
Live in smaller Houser in less desirable nabourhoods.
Due to low income levels, there people tend to live in the present
and have no concept of savings.
• PERSONAL FACTORS:
AGE AND STAGE IS THE LIFE CYCLE:
Changes in the society have led to the creation of different
categories like couples marrying late in life, childless couples
and many other trends like children migrating to distant cities
or abroad for work or education, working couples acquiring
assets like automobile, house etc. in early stages of career
etc. All these changes have created new opportunities for
marketers. Choice of food, clothes, furniture and recreation is
often age related.

OCCUPATION AND LIFE STYLE/ FINANCIAL STATUS:

• Occupation and income level of a person have a major impact
on his savings and buying behavior. For example, a blue collar
worker will indulge more in purchasing clothes, shoes, etc.
which he can wear to work. Similarly, a company’s chairman
may buy shoes, clothes, accessories and other products and
services that suit his life style.
 PERSONALITY AND SELF CONCEPT:
• Each person has personality characteristics that influence his
or her buying behavior. Personality can be a useful variable in
analyzing consumer brand choice.

LIFE STYLE AND VALUES:

People from the same subculture, social class and occupation
may lead quite different life styles.
A life style is a person’s pattern of living as expressed in
activities, interests and opinions.
life styles are partly shaped by whether consumers are
money constrained or time constrained. Companies aiming to
serve money constrained consumers will create lower cost
products and services. Consumers who experience time
constraints are prone to multitasking, doing two or more
things at the same time. Companies aiming to serve them will
create convenient products and services.
• PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS:
MOTIVATION:
A motive is a strong urge that drives a person’s
activates towards unfulfilled needs and wants.
Consumers are influenced by motives or a set of
motives, when they have unfulfilled needs. Various
theories have been proposed time to time explain
the concept of motivation. Like Abraham Maslow’s
‘The Hierarchy of Needs Theory’, Frederick
Herzberg’s ‘Two Factor Theory’, etc.
• PERCEPTIONS:
Perception is defined as the process by which an individual selects,
organizes and interprets stimuli into meaningful thoughts and
pictures. Customers base their perception on their needs, wants,
part experience and something that they consider to be true.

• BELIEFS AND ATTITUDE:

• A belief is a description image or thought that an individual holds
about something. People acquire beliefs and attitude thought
experience as well as learning. A person’s attitude is a set of his
feelings and the way in which he reacts to a given idea or thought.
Attitudes can be positive, negative or neutral. The belief and
attitude held by people, in turn influence their buying behavior.

• LEARNING:
When we act, we learn. Learning induces changes in our behavior
arising from experience. A customer’s learning from time to time
affects his buying behavior.