What Are the Personal Determinants of

Consumer Behavior?
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Updated April 07, 2020

The personal determinants of consumer behavior include age, occupation,

lifestyle, income level and personality. These five qualities influence the
types of products a consumer selects.

1. Consumers often choose products based on their age. A person’s taste in

music, movies and fashion may depend on their age. In addition, older people
make purchases that young people don’t, including cars, houses and
insurance policies. Age can also influence lifestyle.

2. The most prominent example of the lifestyle factor in consumer behavior is

customers who buy brand name clothing. Some consumers care about
owning designer brands, while others don’t.

3. Whether a consumer chooses products that enforce or create a specific

image is dependent on his lifestyle.

4. Consumer also shop in accordance with their occupation, which often

dictates what a consumer needs and how they should dress. This goes hand
in hand with income level. Consumers may consider price for a number of
reasons, but the first is usually their own monthly earnings. Lower-income
consumers are interested in products that ensure their survival, while
wealthier customers can afford more luxury items.
5. Lastly, consumers shop based on personality. Every individual has his own
preferences and interests that are not necessarily dependent on other factors.
Businesses market certain fitness products to fitness buffs and entertainment
products to film and television aficionados. This factor often supersedes the
others and appeals to consumers on an emotional and personal level.

What Are Important Determinants of

Consumer Behavior?
by Dan Ketchum

Published on 14 Nov 2018

Consumer businesses aren't just limited to those that sell physical products
at big-box retailers or quaint Etsy stores, or even to the hippest of vegan
cafes peddling fair-trade, all-organic meals. If your business deals in
business-to-business products or industrial, financial or professional
services, you're a consumer-oriented outfit, too. And if you're dealing with
consumers, you're also dealing with the determinants of consumer
behavior – or, to put it more plainly, the day-to-day factors that influence
consumer purchasing decisions.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR EXAMPLES ARE INFINITE

Because every person on this planet is a complex, ever-evolving
collection of the influences and experiences they've gathered over their
time on earth, consumer behavior examples are just about infinite. But
lucky for you and every other small business owner out there, we can at
least break down the individual determinants of consumer behavior into
five major categories.
PSYCHOLOGICAL OR INTERNAL FACTORS
Just like a good actor, a consumer always has a motivation. Motivations
are the psychological urges that cause a consumer to make a purchase.
These urges range from basic driving forces like the hunger that leads a
consumer to buy a five-star meal or a quick protein bar, to a desire to
boost self-esteem, which creates the feeling that you just "have" to have
that new pair of skinny jeans.
Motivation isn't quite that simple, though. Each purchase is affected by a
psychological hierarchy determined by the purchaser. Naturally, most
reasonable consumers are going to put food and rent higher on the
purchasing pecking order than video games and a new pair of Yeezys.

DEMOGRAPHIC BEHAVIOR FACTORS

Also known as social behavior factors, this particular group of
determinants is a little more clear-cut than the rest. Demographic data
might include age, gender, household size, income level, marital status,
occupation or even religion. Based on collected statistical data, certain
demographics exhibit quantifiably different buying habits – women
typically have different purchasing habits than men (products, in turn, are
often marketed to target specific genders) and a larger household is
more likely to purchase greater amounts of essentials like food and
clothes when compared to a smaller household.

CULTURAL BEHAVIOR FACTORS

Cultural or sociocultural behavior factors are similar to demographic
factors, but this determinant focuses more on highly specific individual
differences. A person's education level, amount of leisure time or status
on the family life-cycle stage – ranging from fiancés to empty-nesters –
are all examples of sociocultural behavior factors. A creative freelance
couple without kids who've just started living together might be more
likely to buy a gym membership than a couple that works full time and
has two kids, while a boomer retiree is probably more prone to purchase
a timeshare than a millennial grad student would be.
ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR FACTORS
When it comes to factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions,
economic effects break down into two basic categories.
In the big picture, the societal or socioeconomic landscape each
consumer inhabits – ranging from the buying power of a country's
currency to how purchases are taxed on a state level, for example –
influence purchasing behavior, as do factors such as supply and demand
and the overall material quality of life in any given region. On a much
more individual level, your income level (plus savings, family income and
other assets) directly affects your purchasing behavior – if you don't have
the money for a Patek Philippe watch, you won't be buying a Patek
Philippe watch.

PERSONAL BEHAVIOR FACTORS

Things here get a little more difficult for businesses to predict. Personal
behavior factors are the purely subjective views unique to each
consumer, from time-worn worldviews ("buy American") to arbitrary
opinions ("I don't want to buy this green stationary mixer because I was
wearing a green shirt that one time I got sick in Cabo."). Think of
personal behavior factors as the baggage each person carries when
approaching a purchase.
Experience is a personal behavior factor influenced by the individual
associations of the consumer, whether positive or negative, which may
be decades old. A business is often better off responding to past
experience behavior on the fly rather than trying to anticipate it.

Types of Consumers in Economics

by Catherine Capozzi

Published on 26 Sep 2017

The purchasing decisions of consumers vary depending on a variety of
factors: income, taste and preferences and personalized needs are just a
few. Despite the attempts of the best economists, pinpointing why
consumers spend is difficult. However, consumers generally fall into
specific categories. This categorization makes assessing their spending
habits easier for marketers and economists alike.

DISCRETIONARY SPENDING CONSUMERS

Groups with high amounts of discretionary spending have distinct
purchasing habits. Teenagers are a primary demographic: a 2008 Boston
Globe article outlines that even with the recession, teens account for $27
billion annually in clothing sales alone. Because teens have few or no bills
to pay, this money is spent on non-essential goods like games, activities
and snacks. Certain industries, like retail and electronics, receive a large
chunk of their business from this demographic. As such, significant
marketing dollars are spent enticing this consumer group to spend
money on their product over others. However, the purchasing power of
this group rises and falls based on the income of the parents.

LUXURY GOODS CONSUMER

Luxury goods are items consumers purchase when base needs, like food
and shelter, are met. Luxury goods include name-brand watches, fancy
cars and plasma televisions. A consumer who purchases these goods
pays more attention to the brand name than the price: for example, she
will opt for the $4 latte at a popular retail outlet instead of brewing her
coffee at home. Companies that sell luxury goods market concepts of
quality and emotional appeal, as opposed to a price. The higher the
income of the consumer, the more luxury goods they tend to purchase.
Hence, income (above a baseline amount) and luxury good consumption
are directly proportionate.

INFERIOR GOODS CONSUMER

Consumers with a low income purchase primarily inferior goods. Inferior
goods are chosen over more expensive alternatives. For instance, inferior
goods for one consumer are standard eggs instead of free-range eggs,
or store-brand cereal instead of name-brand cereal. This consumer
group uses price as the primary guide for purchasing decisions. The
Economist explains that a decrease in personal income means an
increase in the consumption of inferior goods, whereas an increase
means consumers buy fewer inferior goods and more normal goods
instead.
BUSINESSES AND CORPORATIONS
Businesses are another type of consumer. Companies are in a unique
position to buy goods due to their purchasing power: they can buy
wholesale and negotiate the price with suppliers, whereas a consumer
cannot. Industrial-grade consumers are often price-setters. An example is
health insurance companies: These groups negotiate the price of
services, like operations, and command lower costs by virtue of their
large customer base. Individuals who have to purchase health insurance
on their own are “price takers” because they must accept market value.