CONSUMER MARKETS AND

CONSUMER BUYER BEHAVIOR

MEHNAAZ SAMANTHA KAMAL

NORT H S OU TH U NIV ER SIT Y
S EP TEM BER , 20 15

OUTLINE
Model of consumer behavior
Characteristics affecting consumer behavior
Types of buying decision behavior
The buyer decision process
The buyer decision process for new products

CHARACTERISTICS AFFECTING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Cultural Factors:
Culture: Learned values, perceptions, wants
behavior from family and other important institutions

and

Subculture: Groups of people within a culture with shared

value systems, based on common life experiences and
situations

Social Classes:
Societys relatively permanent and ordered decisions
whose members share similar values, interests and
behaviors.
Measured by combination of occupation, income,
education, wealth, and other variables.

Social Factors
Group and Social networks
Membership groups:
Groups that have a direct influence and to which a person belongs
Reference groups:
o Serves as direct or indirect points of comparison or reference in forming a
person's attitudes or behavior.
o Can expose a person to new behaviors and lifestyles, influence attitudes and
self concept
o Can create pressure to conform that may affect persons product and brand
choices
o Often identified by marketers

Word-of-mouth influence and buzz marketing

Opinion leaders:
People within a reference group, who exert social influence on others
Also known as influential or leading adopters
Identified by markers as brand ambassadors
Buzz marketing

Online Social Networks: Online communities where people socialize or

exchange information and opinions. Includes blogs, social networking sites
(Facebook), virtual worlds (second life).

Social Factors:
Family: the most important consumer buying organization
in society
Social roles and status: the groups, family clubs and
organizations that a person belongs to that can define role
and responsibilities.

Personal Factors:
Age and Lifestyle: Changes over lifetime
Occupation: affects the goods and services bought by
consumers
Economic situation includes trends in :
Personal Income
Savings
Interest rates

Personal Factors:
Lifestyle:

Pattern of living as expressed in someone's psychographic

Measures a consumers AIOs (activities, interests, opinions) to
capture information about a persons pattern of acting and interacting
in the environment

Personality: Refers to the unique psychological characteristics that

lead to consistent and lasting responses to the consumers environment

Brand Personality

Psychological Factors
Motivation
A motive is a need that is sufficiently pressing the person to
seek satisfaction
Motivation research: refers to qualitative research designed
to probe consumers hidden, subconscious motivation

Psychological Factors
Perception: The process by which people select, organize and interpret
information to form a meaningful picture of the world.
3 perceptual processes of consumers:
Selective attention: tendency to screen out most of the information to
which they are exposed
Selective distortion: tendency to interpret information in a way that
will support what they already believe.
Selective retention: consumers are likely to remember good points
made about a brand

Psychological Factors
Learning: the change in an individuals behavior
arising from experience and occurs through interplay
of:
Drive
Stimuli
Cues
Responses
Reinforcement

Psychological Factors

Belief: Descriptive thought that a person has about something

based on:
Knowledge
Opinion
Faith

Attitude: A persons relatively consistent evaluations, feelings

and tendencies toward an object or idea

TYPES OF BUYING DECISION

BEHAVIOR

THE BUYER DECISION PROCESS

Need Recognition occurs when the buyer recognizes a
problem or need triggered by:
Internal stimuli- hunger, thirst, normal need
External stimuli- tv ad, magazines, radio, etc

Information Search:
Personal sources: family and friends
Commercial sources: advertising, Internet
Public sources: mass media, consumer organizations
Experimental sources: handling, examining, using
the product

Evaluation of alternatives:
How consumer processes information to arrive at brand
choices
Depends on individuality, logical thinking, specific buying
situation, careful calculation, etc
Purchase Decision is the act by the consumer to buy the
most preferred brand.
The purchase decision can be affected by
Attitudes of others
Unexpected situation factors

POST PURCHASE DECISION

Post purchase decision: The satisfaction or dissatisfaction that the
consumer feels about the purchase. Relationship between:
Consumers expectations

Products perceived performance

The larger the gap between expectation and performance, the greater the
customer dissatisfaction
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort caused by a post purchase conflict.
Customer satisfaction: key to build profitable relationships with consumers
and reap life time value from them.

BUYER DECISION PROCESS

FOR NEW PRODUCTS
Adoption Process: the mental process an individual goes
through from first learning about an innovation to final
regular use.
The stages in the process include:
Awareness
Interest
Evaluation
Trial
Adoption