Consumer Buying Behaviour

Marketing Management - 1

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 Understanding the Consumer Market
• Consumer market: all of the individuals and households who
buy or acquire goods and services for personal consumption.

Product
Price
Buyer’s
Place Buyer Responses
Promotion
Decision
Marketing and
other stimuli Process Product choice
Brand choice
Economic Dealer choice
Technological Purchase timing
Political Purchase amount
Cultural

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Source: Hawkins, CB
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 Consumer Buying Roles
• Initiator
• Influencer
• Decider
• Buyer
• User
• Disposer

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 Theoretical Foundation
• Sigmund Freud – Unconscious
Id, Ego, Super Ego
• Abraham Maslow –Hierarchy of Needs
Basic-Security-Social-Esteem- Self Actualisation
• McGuire – Psychological Motives
Cognitive / Affective & Preservation / Growth
• Carl Jung – Collective Consciousness
Archetypes

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 Decision Making
• Complex Decision Making
• Brand Loyalty
• Need Arousal
Past Experience
Characteristics
Motives
Environmental Influences
Marketing Stimuli

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 Types of Buying Behaviour
• High Involvement Vs Low Involvement
• Extensive Problem Solving
– Belief – Attitudes – Planned Decision
• Variety Seeking Behaviour
• Habitual Decision making (Routine)
• Impulse Buying

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 Information and purchase decisions

• Two sources:
• Commercial information environment.
– Includes manufacturers, retailers, advertisers
and sales people.
• Social information environment.
– Family, friends and acquaintances.

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 Psychological influences

• Buying motives:

– Buyer recognises motives for purchase.

– Buyer aware of reason for purchase but does
not admit to themself.
– Buyer does not know the real factor for
motivation.

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 Social influences
• Families and Households (Lifecycle)
– Core values, attitudes and beliefs.
– Family as a buying unit (Information Sharing)
• Culture.
• Changing gender roles.
• Social class.
• Reference groups.
Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 Stages in Consumer
Buying Decision Process

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 CONSUMERS GO THROUGH A FIVE-
STAGE BUYING -DECISION PROCESS

• Need recognition
• Identification of alternatives
• Evaluation of alternatives
• Decision
• Post-purchase behaviour

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
STAGE 1—NEED RECOGNITION, WHEN AN
UNSATISFIED NEED (MOTIVE) CREATES
TENSION OR DISCOMFORT IN THE
CONSUMER

• A biogenic need (hunger)

• Arousal by external stimulus
(advertising)
• Dissatisfaction with current product
(tension)

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 STAGE 2—IDENTIFICATION OF
ALTERNATIVES, INCLUDING BOTH
PRODUCTS AND BRANDS

INFLUENCED BY:

• The costs of collecting

more information.
• The ability to recall past experiences.
• The consumer’s confidence in recalled
information.
• The time and level of perceived risk.
Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 STAGE 3 - EVALUATION OF
ALTERNATIVES, INCLUDING
ESTABLISHING CRITERIA WITH WHICH
TO MAKE THE EVALUATION
• Evaluation involves:
• The criteria used:
– Price, convenience, prestige and taste.
• The various sources used to make the decision:
– Past experience, attitude towards brand, opinions by
others.
• Sets
Total –Awareness—Consideration—Choice--Product

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
STAGE 4—PURCHASE DECISION, WHICH IS
ACTUALLY A SERIES OF DECISIONS
INCLUDING
• Patronage buying motives (friendly staff,
convenience).
• Decisions regarding brand, price, store.
• Product features and benefits.
• Where and when to make the purchase.
• Method of payment.

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore
 STAGE 5—POST-PURCHASE BEHAVIOR,
OR COGNITITVE DISSONANCE

• Consumers strive for internal harmony and

consistency among their cognitions (knowledge,
attitudes, beliefs, values) any inconsistency in
these cognitions will result in anxiety—cognitive
dissonance.
• Consumers will experience post-purchase,
cognitive dissonance when alternatives have both
advantages and limitations.

Dr Omkumar Krishnan
Faculty, IBS Bangalore