An Introduction to Buyer Behaviour

Nishan Navaratne
Outline

Buyer behaviour refers to the behaviour that buyers

display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating,
and disposing of products and services that they expect
will satisfy their needs.

The study of buyer behaviour is the study of how

individuals make decisions to spend their available
resources - time, money, effort - on consumption-related
items.
Buyer behaviour includes the study of:

What they buy,

Why they buy it,
When they buy it,
Where they buy it,
How often they buy it,
How they use it
How often they use it.
Different products evidence different
buying motivations

Buyer researchers are able to provide marketers with

buyer orientated information to enhance their product and
marketing communication.
Personal Buyers and Organisational
Buyers
The Personal Buyer buys goods and services for his or
her own use, or as a gift for a friend.

The Organisational Buyer encompasses profit and not-

for-profit businesses, government agencies, and
institutions.

The marketer must take account of who is the end-user

of this consumption.
Buyers and Users (Consumers)

The person who makes a product purchase is not always

the user, or the only user, of the product in question.

Buyers are not always the users, or the only users, of the
products they buy, nor are they necessarily the persons
who make the product selection decisions.
Buyers and Users (Consumers)

Payers, that person who pays for the purchase is not

necessarily either the buyer or buyer.

Marketers must decide at whom to direct their

promotional efforts: the buyer, payer or the user.
Buyers and Users (Consumers)

Buyer behaviour research also considers the uses buyers

make of the goods they buy and their subsequent post-
purchase evaluations.
Buyers and Users (Consumers)

Buyer researchers are also interested in how individuals

dispose of their once-new purchases.
Buyer Behaviour as an academic
discipline and an applied field
The initial thrust of buyer research was from a managerial
perspective. Marketing managers wanted to know the
specific causes of buyer behaviour, and how people
receive, store, and use consumption-related information,
so that they could predict buyer behaviour and influence
Buyer research describes the process and
tools used to study buyer behaviour.
The two theoretical perspectives are:

Positivist objective and empirical, seeking causes for

behaviour and conduct research that can be generalised
to larger populations. This provides data for strategic
managerial decisions.

Interpretivist qualitative, based on small samples that

seek to find common patterns of operative values,
meanings and behaviours across consumption situations.
The Interdisciplinary Nature of Buyer
Behaviour Research
There are a number of reasons why the study of buyer
behaviour developed, such as:
Marketers had long noted that buyers did not always act
or react as economic theory would suggest.
Buyer preferences were changing and becoming highly
diversified.
Other factors including: new product development, the
buyer movement, growing consumerism, public policy,
environmental concerns, non-profit marketing, and the
development of international and global markets.
Buyer behaviour embraces concepts
developed in other scientific disciplines,
Such as psychology, sociology, social psychology, cultural
anthropology, and economics.

Buyer behaviour research enables marketers to develop

new market segments and is undertaken by various
marketing and constituted bodies.
Buyer behaviour

Buyer researchers need to ask the right questions in

order to design research that will address the needs of
the marketer.

Buyer research provides the basis for product

development, and identifies target markets based on
customer requirements. It does not guarantee
commercial success but improves the chances of
success.
Why Marketers Study Buyer Behaviour

Marketers adopted a policy of market segmentation,

which called for the division of their total potential market
into smaller, homogeneous segments.

Marketers also used promotional techniques to vary the

image of their products to certain target segments (now
known as positioning

Technological advancement has resulted in the rapid

introduction of new products at an ever increasing rate,
resulting in shorter product lifecycles.
Why Marketers Study Buyer Behaviour

Buyers placed increasing importance on the environment.

Brands positioned to be environmentally friendly are
considered favourably by buyers

The growth of the buyer movement created an urgent

need to understand how buyers make consumption
decisions. Marketers needed to understand and work with
the buyer protection laws developing at a Federal and
State level
Why Marketers Study Buyer Behaviour

The growth of services marketing forced marketers to deal

with relatively intangible and perishable offerings to the
public.

Not-for-profit organisations are increasingly using

marketing techniques, and so find the study of buyer
behaviour relevant to them.

An increased awareness on the part of business to market

on a global basis in order to achieve major economies of
scale. Australian marketers are now aware of the
importance of international buyer research.
More About
Buyer Behaviour

The buyers goal is to obtain People engage in purchase

goods and services that meet activities for many purposes
their needs and wants other than consumption

buyers face varying problems buyers make specific types of

associated with acquiring decisions in order to obtain
products to satisfy these needs desired goods and services
and wants
For example, a research study may
ask buyers...

How they
use the
product
Benefits of Customer Retention

Are cheaper to
Buy more
service
products

Loyal
customers
Are less price
sensitive Spread positive
word-of-mouth

Pay less attention

to competitor's
advertising
 Two Broad Types of Buyers

Personal buyers Organisational buyers

The personal buyer buys Organisational buyer includes:
goods and services for:
Profit businesses
His or her own use
Not-for-profit businesses
Use by the whole
household, or a household Public sector agencies and
member, or Institutions (e.g. schools, churches)
A gift for someone else In all cases, they buy products to
In all contexts, the products help run their organisations
are bought for final use by
individuals (end-users)
 Buyer Research:
Two Perspectives

POSITIVIST APPROACH INTERPRETIVIST

Tends to be objective and METHODOLOGY
empirical More qualitative
Seeks causes for Based on smaller samples
behaviour
View each consumption
Conduct studies that can situation as unique and
be generalised to larger non-predictive
populations
Look for common patterns
across consumption
situations
The Interdisciplinary Nature of Buyer
Behaviour Research
Economics
Psychology
An important
The study of component of
the individual economics is the
Social study of buyers
Psychology Inputs to the study of
How individuals buyer behaviour
operate in groups
Cultural
Sociology Anthropology
The study of The study of
groups humans in society
Thank You