Marketers must fully
understand the customer from their personal behavior to what is going on in
daily lives and during their lifetime.
Consumer behavior is defined as the study of how individuals, group, and
organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or
experiences to satisfy their needs and wants.
A consumer’s behavior is influenced by three factors: cultural, social, and personal.
Cultural factors exercise
the broadest and deepest influence. They
consist of things such as a person’s values, behavior, and wants. Subcultures make up cultures and consist of
nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. Social classes are part of one’s culture and
include members who share similar values, interests, and behavior.
Social factors consist of
reference groups, family, and social roles and statuses. This also affects consumer buying
behavior. Reference groups are groups
that have a direct or indirect influence on a customer’s attitudes or
behavior. They expose customers to new
behaviors and lifestyles, influence attitudes and self-concept, and create
pressures for conformity that may affect product and brand choices. Family groups are the most important consumer
buying organization in society, and family members constitute the most
influential primary reference group. A
person also has a role or status in each group they are in. A role is the activities a person is expected
to perform and this connotes a status.
Personal factors also
influence consumer behavior. These can
include age and stage in the life cycle, occupation and economic circumstances,
personality and self-concept, and lifestyle and values. Research shows that over two-thirds of teens
ages 13 to 21 make or influence family purchase decisions on audio/video equipment,
software, and vacation destinations.
Marketers must understand
what influences the psychological process of the consumers’ behavior. Five key psychological processes include
motivation, perception, learning, emotions, and memory. People have different needs, which turn into
a motive when it is stimulated to a sufficient level of intensity to drive an
action. Motivation has both direction
and intensity. When a motivated person
is ready to act it is influenced by his or her perception of the
situation. This is the process by which
information is selected, organized, and interpreted to create a meaningful
picture. The learning process brought on
when one acts. It brings changes in
behavior as a result from experience.
Emotions are a brought on as a response to the consumer’s action. Memory can be either short-term or
long-term. Memory encoding is how and
where information gets into the memory.
Memory retrieval is how information gets out of the memory. Information may be available in memory but
not be accessible for recall with out retrieval cues or reminders.
Businesses pay attention to
how consumers make purchasing decisions.
They use a five-stage model to help in understanding this process. Costumers do not always pass through all five
stages and they may skip or reverse some.
Using the model provides a good reference because it captures the full
range of considerations that arise when a consumer faces a highly involving new
purchase.
Problem recognition is the
first stage. It is when the buying
process starts because the consumer recognizes a problem or need and it is
triggered by internal or external stimuli.
The marketer needs to identify the circumstances that trigger a
particular need so they can develop strategies that spark consumer interest and
lead to the next stage in the buying process.
The second stage is
information search. Consumers learn
about competing brands and their features as they search. The most effective information about their
search comes from personal or experiential sources, or public sources that are
independent authorities.
The next is the evaluation
of alternatives. During this stage the consumer
is trying to satisfy a need, looking for certain benefits from the product
solution, and seeing each product as a bundle of attributes with varying
abilities to deliver the benefits.
Companies can segment their markets according to attributes and benefits
important to different consumer groups.
Once the alternatives are
evaluated, a decision to purchase is made.
However, two general factors can intervene between the purchase
intention and the purchase decision: the
attitudes of others and the unanticipated situational factors that may erupt to
change the purchase intention.
The final stage in the
purchase decision process is the postpurchase behavior. Once the purchase is made, marketers must
then monitor postpurchase satisfaction, postpurchase actions, and postpurchase
product uses and disposal. A satisfied
customer will most likely purchase the product again and will tend to say
positive things about it to others. A
dissatisfied customer may return the product or take public or private actions.
At times consumers may make
hasty, irrational buying decisions. They
often take “mental shortcuts” known as heuristics or rules of thumb in the
decision process. Consumers often base
their decision on how quickly and easily a particular example of an outcome
comes to mind; how representative or similar the outcome is to other examples;
and/or they arrive at an initial judgment and then adjust it based on
additional information. Consumers also
use decision framing which is the manner that choices are presented to and seen
by a decision maker.
Example:
I have two teenagers who
live with me and a 22 year old who lives out on her own. Since they use technology much more than I
do, any time I want to make a purchase or have a question about an electronic
device I go to them first. They are up
on the latest and greatest. I also ask
them where they want to go on vacation.
Their input is usually the decision I make. This shows how family is a big influence on
consumer behavior. I talk to others in
my generation and it is the same with them.
Teens have the biggest influence on the electronics, vacations, and even
styles that are around today.
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