The Impact On Consumer Buying Behaviour: Cognitive Dissonance
The Impact On Consumer Buying Behaviour: Cognitive Dissonance
The Impact On Consumer Buying Behaviour: Cognitive Dissonance
Abstract
The theory of cognitive dissonance is of great importance in
consumer behavior and marketers have lots of interest in analyzing the
post purchase behavior of consumers experienced by them. This paper
has explored the factors that create cognitive dissonance in consumer
buying decision making particularly among the consumer goods
purchaser in the city area. Some of these are family status, religious
value, customs, belief etc. the study also reveals the problems and
identified probable solutions to overcome these problems.This article
explores the implications of cognitive dissonance on varied aspects of
consumer buying behaviour.Some of the factors leading to dissonance
post purchase.
Keywords: consumer-behaviour, marketing,consumer dissonance,
Product involvement.
1. Introduction
(1)Definition of Buying Behavior
Buying Behavior is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and
using products.
(2) What Is Cognitive Dissonance?
People tend to seek consistency in their beliefs and perceptions. So what happens when
one of our beliefs conflicts with another previously held belief? The term cognitive
dissonance is used to describe the feeling of discomfort that results from holding two
conflicting beliefs. When there is a discrepancy between beliefs and behaviors,
something must change in order to eliminate or reduce the dissonance.
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(3)Need to Understand
Why consumers make the purchases that they make?
What factors influence consumer purchases?
The changing factors in our society.
Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the buying behavior of the ultimate
consumer. A firm needs to analyze buying behavior for:
Buyers reactions to a firms marketing strategy has a great impact on the firms
success.
The marketing concept stresses that a firm should create a Marketing Mix
(MM) that satisfies (gives utility to) customers, therefore need to analyze the
what, where, when and how consumers buy.
Marketers can better predict how consumers will respond to marketing
strategies.
(4)Dissonance in Consumer Behaviour
In dynamic business environment, marketers have always been trying to not only
acquire new customer base but also retain the existing one by providing value,
satisfying customers exchange expectations. It has been found that customer retention
is highly associated with customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction not only
retains the customer with the company but also affects revenue, earning per share and
stock price (Williams and Naumann, 2011).
Since consumer behaviour and its extensive study has been a backbone of the
marketing strategy of every firm, a detailed and comprehensive study of all its aspects
become imperative for the success of an organisation. And, hence, the concept of
cognitive dissonance and its effect on the consumer behaviour has been a part of
various significant research studies as well. One author even termed it one of social
psychologys greatest theories (Aronson 1969).Sweeney, Hausknecht and Soutar
(2000) noted, dissonance includes both cognitive aspects, as the title cognitive
dissonance implies, as well as an emotional dimension, as many definitions, including
Festingers original definition,imply.
The resulting dissonance motivates the individual to bring harmony to inconsistent
elements and thereby reduce psychological tension.Dissonance is known to arise
mainly in three ways First, any logical inconsistency can create dissonance. Second,
dissonance can be created when a person experiences an inconsistency either between
his attitude and his behaviour or between two of his behaviours. Third, dissonance can
occur when a strongly held expectation is disconfirmed, notes Loudon & Della Bitta
(2002). Further, dissonance occurs once a decision has been made as prior to making a
decision an individual had an option of adjusting to any attitude or behaviour which he
deemed right as per his choice but once a decision is being made, a commitment has
been established between the buyer and the consumer, where he cannot further adjust
himself and is liable to stick to his decision.
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2. Previous Research
Once the purchase has been made, a human mind starts assessing the pros and cons of
the purchase transaction made. This activity leads to emanation of myriad of
conflicting thoughts in the mind of the buyer. The positive aspects of a choice forgone
and the negative as pects of the decision made create ascending strain in Cognitive
Dissonance And Its Impact On Consumer Buying Behaviour| the human mind and
make the buyer rethink about the decision made, notes Kassarjian and Cohen
(1965).Dissonance though is a psychological concept but has a great bearing on the
way consumers plan their purchase and effect of the purchase made on their future
alliance with the organisation.In an era of marketing, where a consumer is spoilt with a
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3. Conclusion
This study also has suggested some strategy which service organization might reduce
cognitive dissonance. Today with the rapid growth of service industry marketers of
different service organizations are facing huge challenges to meet up customers
expectations. Therefore it is important for the service organization to reduce
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dissonance related to purchasing and thus survive in the competition in the local as
well as in the global markets. After analyzing the outcome of the survey analysis the
study has recommended some of the strategies which might be effective in reducing
cognitive dissonance. These are:
1. Focus on more encouraging beliefs that offset the dissonant belief or behavior.
2. Reduce the importance of the contradictory belief.
3. Change the conflicting belief so that it is consistent with other beliefs or
behaviors.
4. Focus on more encouraging beliefs that offset the dissonant belief or behavior.
5. Change the conflicting belief so that it is consistent with other beliefs or
behaviors.
6. Looking for credible source which the target consumers trust. At the same time
word-of-mouth communications need to be increased.
7. Emphasize on selecting a likeable source.
8. Finding out the sources which match customers previous belief.
9. Unexpected source sometimes may have more impact on consumers attitudes.
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