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What Is Consumer Buying Behavior

The document discusses consumer buying behavior, defining it as the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using products. It explores the various factors that influence consumer purchases, including personal, psychological, and social factors. The stages of the consumer buying process are also examined, from problem recognition to post-purchase evaluation.

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161 views5 pages

What Is Consumer Buying Behavior

The document discusses consumer buying behavior, defining it as the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using products. It explores the various factors that influence consumer purchases, including personal, psychological, and social factors. The stages of the consumer buying process are also examined, from problem recognition to post-purchase evaluation.

Uploaded by

kafix
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is Consumer Buying Behavior?

Definition of Buying Behavior:


Buying Behavior is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using
products.

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

Stages of the Consumer Buying Process


Six Stages to the Consumer Buying Decision Process (For complex decisions). Actual
purchasing is only one stage of the process. Not all decision processes lead to a purchase.
All consumer decisions do not always include all 6 stages, determined by the degree of
complexity...discussed next.

The 6 stages are:

1. Problem Recognition(awareness of need)--difference between the desired state and


the actual condition. Deficit in assortment of products. Hunger--Food. Hunger
stimulates your need to eat.
Can be stimulated by the marketer through product information--did not know you
were deficient? I.E., see a commercial for a new pair of shoes, stimulates your
recognition that you need a new pair of shoes.
2. Information search--
o Internal search, memory.
o External search if you need more information. Friends and relatives (word of
mouth). Marketer dominated sources; comparison shopping; public sources
etc.

A successful information search leaves a buyer with possible alternatives, the


evoked set.
Hungry, want to go out and eat, evoked set is

o chinese food
o indian food
o burger king
o klondike kates etc
3. Evaluation of Alternatives--need to establish criteria for evaluation, features the
buyer wants or does not want. Rank/weight alternatives or resume search. May
decide that you want to eat something spicy, indian gets highest rank etc.
If not satisfied with your choice then return to the search phase. Can you think of
another restaurant? Look in the yellow pages etc. Information from different sources
may be treated differently. Marketers try to influence by "framing" alternatives.
4. Purchase decision--Choose buying alternative, includes product, package, store,
method of purchase etc.
5. Purchase--May differ from decision, time lapse between 4 & 5, product availability.
6. Post-Purchase Evaluation--outcome: Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction. Cognitive
Dissonance, have you made the right decision. This can be reduced by warranties,
after sales communication etc.
After eating an indian meal, may think that really you wanted a chinese meal
instead.

Types of Consumer Buying Behavior


Types of consumer buying behavior are determined by:

 Level of Involvement in purchase decision. Importance and intensity of interest in a


product in a particular situation.
 Buyers level of involvement determines why he/she is motivated to seek
information about a certain products and brands but virtually ignores others.

High involvement purchases--Honda Motorbike, high priced goods, products visible to


others, and the higher the risk the higher the involvement. Types of risk:

 Personal risk
 Social risk
 Economic risk

The four type of consumer buying behavior are:

 Routine Response/Programmed Behavior--buying low involvement frequently


purchased low cost items; need very little search and decision effort; purchased
almost automatically. Examples include soft drinks, snack foods, milk etc.
 Limited Decision Making--buying product occasionally. When you need to obtain
information about unfamiliar brand in a familiar product category, perhaps.
Requires a moderate amount of time for information gathering. Examples include
Clothes--know product class but not the brand.
 Extensive Decision Making/Complex high involvement, unfamiliar, expensive
and/or infrequently bought products. High degree of
economic/performance/psychological risk. Examples include cars, homes,
computers, education. Spend alot of time seeking information and deciding.
Information from the companies MM; friends and relatives, store personnel etc. Go
through all six stages of the buying process.
 Impulse buying, no conscious planning.

The purchase of the same product does not always elicit the same Buying Behavior.
Product can shift from one category to the next.
For example:
Going out for dinner for one person may be extensive decision making (for someone that
does not go out often at all), but limited decision making for someone else. The reason for
the dinner, whether it is an anniversary celebration, or a meal with a couple of friends will
also determine the extent of the decision making.

Categories that Effect the Consumer Buying Decision


Process
A consumer, making a purchase decision will be affected by the following three factors:

1. Personal
2. Psychological
3. Social

The marketer must be aware of these factors in order to develop an appropriate MM for its
target market.
Return to Contents List

Personal
Unique to a particular person. Demographic Factors. Sex, Race, Age etc.
Who in the family is responsible for the decision making.
Young people purchase things for different reasons than older people.

Handout...From choices to checkout...

Highlights the differences between male and female shoppers in the supermarket.

Return to Contents List

Psychological factors
Psychological factors include:

 Motives--

A motive is an internal energizing force that orients a person's activities toward


satisfying a need or achieving a goal.
Actions are effected by a set of motives, not just one. If marketers can identify
motives then they can better develop a marketing mix.
MASLOW hierarchy of needs!!

o Physiological
o Safety
o Love and Belonging
o Esteem
o Self Actualization

Need to determine what level of the hierarchy the consumers are at to determine
what motivates their purchases.

Handout...Nutrament Debunked...

Nutrament, a product marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb originally was targeted at


consumers that needed to receive additional energy from their drinks after exercise
etc., a fitness drink. It was therefore targeted at consumers whose needs were for
either love and Belonging or esteem. The product was not selling well, and was
almost terminated. Upon extensive research it was determined that the product did
sell well in inner-city convenience stores. It was determined that the consumers for
the product were actually drug addicts who couldn't not digest a regular meal. They
would purchase Nutrament as a substitute for a meal. Their motivation to purchase
was completely different to the motivation that B-MS had originally thought. These
consumers were at the Physiological level of the hierarchy. BM-S therefore had to
redesign its MM to better meet the needs of this target market.
Motives often operate at a subconscious level therefore are difficult to measure.

 Perception--

What do you see?? Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and


interpreting information inputs to produce meaning. IE we chose what info we pay
attention to, organize it and interpret it.
Information inputs are the sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell
and touch.

Selective Exposure-select inputs to be exposed to our awareness. More likely if it is


linked to an event, satisfies current needs, intensity of input changes (sharp price
drop).
Selective Distortion-Changing/twisting current received information, inconsistent
with beliefs.

Advertisers that use comparative advertisements (pitching one product against


another), have to be very careful that consumers do not distort the facts and perceive
that the advertisement was for the competitor. A current example...MCI and
AT&T...do you ever get confused?

Selective Retention-Remember inputs that support beliefs, forgets those that don't.
Average supermarket shopper is exposed to 17,000 products in a shopping visit
lasting 30 minutes-60% of purchases are unplanned. Exposed to 1,500
advertisement per day. Can't be expected to be aware of all these inputs, and
certainly will not retain many.

Interpreting information is based on what is already familiar, on knowledge that is


stored in the memory.

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