Marketing Other Buyer’s Buyer’s decision Buyer’s decisions

stimuli stimuli Characteristics process

Product Economic Cultural Problem recognition Product choice
Price Technological Social Information search Brand choice
Place Political Personal Evaluation of alternatives Dealer choice
Promotion Cultural Psychological Purchase decision Purchase timing
Post-purchase behavior Purchase amount
Consumer Behavior

The consumer behavior study about how individuals, groups and organizations select, buy, use and
dispose of goods, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires. Marketing and
environmental stimuli enter the buyer’s consciousness. The buyer’s characteristics and decision
processes lead to certain purchase decisions.

Fig: Buyer’s behavior model

The firm uses the marketing mix to pursue its marketing objectives in the target market. It consists of
four broad groups that are called as the four P’s of marketing: product, price, place and promotion.
These tools affect greatly the buyer’s decisions. Beside the marketing stimuli, other stimuli also affect
the buyer’s consciousness; those are economical, technological, political and cultural stimuli.

A consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by cultural, social, personal and psychological factors.

Buyer’s characteristics
Cultural Social Personal Psychological
Culture Reference groups Age & stage in the life cycle Motivation
Subculture Family Occupation & economic circumstances Perception
Social Social roles Lifestyle Learning
class & statuses Personality & self concept Belief & attitudes
Fig: A buyer’s characteristics

a) Cultural factors: Culture is the fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior. The
growing child acquires a set of values, perceptions, preferences and behaviors through his family and
other key institutions.

Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that provide more specific identification and socialization
for their members. It includes nationalities, religions, social groups and geographic regions.

All human societies exhibit social stratification. These stratifications mean social classes which are
relatively homogeneous and enduring divisions in a society. Its members share similar values, interests
and behaviors. Social classes show distinct product and brand preferences in many areas such as
clothing, home furnishings, leisure activities etc.

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b) Social factors: A consumer’s behavior is also influenced by social factors as reference groups,
family and social roles & statuses.

A person’s reference groups consist of all the groups that have a direct and indirect influence on the
person’s attitudes or behavior. These are membership groups, primary groups, secondary groups,
aspirational groups, dissociative groups etc. people are significantly influenced by their reference
groups. They expose an individual to new behavior and lifestyle, influence his attitude & self-concepts.

The family is the most important consumer-buying organization in society. The family of orientation
consists of parents and siblings and the family of procreation consists of namely, spouse and children.
A buyer is greatly influenced by his family members in everyday buying behavior.

A person’s position in a group can be defined in terms of role & status. Role is the activities which are
expected from a person to perform and status is the social rank. People choose products that
communicate their role and status in society.

c) Personal factors: A buyer’s decisions are also influenced by personal characteristics. These are age
& stage in the life cycle, occupation & economic circumstances, lifestyle and personality & self-
concepts.

Age & stage in the life cycle: People buy different goods and services over a lifetime. They eat baby
food in the early years, most foods in the growing and mature years and special diets in the later years.
Taste in clothes, furniture and recreation is also age and life cycle related. People are influenced
differently at the each of nine stages of his life-cycle.

Occupation & economic circumstances: Product choice and consumption patterns are influenced by
the occupation and economic circumstances such as spend-able income, savings & assets, debts &
borrowing power and attitudes towards spending etc.

Lifestyle: A lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living in the world as expressed in activities, interests and
opinions. It portrays the whole person interacting with his environment.

Personality & self-concept: Personality means a set of distinguishing human psychological

characteristics such as self-confidence, dominance, autonomy, deference, sociability, defensiveness and
adaptability. These characteristics as well as self-concept affect a person’s buying behavior greatly.

d) Psychological factors: A person’s buying choices are influenced by four major psychological
factors such as motivation, perception, learning and beliefs & attitudes.

Motivation: This is the driving force that drives a person to act in a special course.

Perception: It is the process by which a person selects, organizes and interprets information to create a
picture of the world. A motivated person acts according to his perception.

Learning: It involves changes in an individual’s behavior arising from experience. Most human
behavior is learned.

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Beliefs & attitudes: Through doing and learning people acquire beliefs and attitudes. A belief is a
person’s descriptive thought about something and attitude is a person’s enduring evaluations, feelings
and action towards some object or idea.

Consumer buying process

Consumer buying process: A consumer buying process has five stages. So a consumer passes through
five stages when he wants to buy some products or services. The stages are problem recognition,
information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase behavior.

Problem Information Evaluation of Purchase Post-purchase

recognition search alternatives decision behavior

Fig: Five stage model of the Consumer Buying Process

a) Problem recognition: The buying process starts when the buyer recognizes a problem or need.
So a need for something pushes a person toward buying that product.

b) Information search: An expected customer will be inclined to search for more information. He
looks for reading materials, phoning calls to friends, visiting stores to gather information about
the product, its features, competing brands etc.

c) Evaluation of alternatives: The consumer judges each alternative to verify which is the most
relevant product and satisfy the need best. In this stage, the customer forms preferences among
the alternatives.

d) Purchase decision: The customer forms an intention to buy the most preferred brand. Two
factors may intervene his buying decision, attitude of others and unanticipated situational
factors.

e) Post-purchase behavior: After purchasing the product, the consumer will experience some
level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The marketer’s job does not end when the product is
bought. Marketers must monitor post-purchase satisfaction, post-purchase actions and post-
purchase product uses.

In executing a purchase intention, the consumer may make up some purchase sub-decisions such as
product decision (which product), brand decision (which brand), vendor decision (from which dealer),
timing decision (when to buy), quantity decision (which amount) and payment method decision (by
which method, cash or credit card) etc.