Krenzer 1

Marial Krenzer
MKTG 3730
Spring 2023
Mr. O’Brien
Internal and External Influences on Consumer Behavior
Influences on consumer behavior are either internal or external. Internal influences
include perception, learning, memory, motives, personality, emotions, and attitudes. On the other
hand, external influences include culture and subculture, demographics, social status, reference
groups, family, and marketing activities. Both types of influences impact a consumer’s self
concept and lifestyle and their decision making process.
I’d like to define a couple of each type of influence. First, I’d like to define perception
and motives, which are both internal influences. Perception can be best defined as a process by
which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent
picture of the world. For a textbook definition, that is pretty spot on. However, in the real world,
perception can be defined as reality- the way we interact with the world around us specifically
through our senses. The best way to define motive is a construct representing an unobservable
inner force that stimulates and compels a behavioral response and provides specific direction to
that response. In real terms, motive is the reasoning behind an action. As for external influences,
I’d like to define both culture and reference groups. Firstly, culture can be defined as all
the ways of life that are passed down from generations including arts, beliefs, and customs of a
group. Simply put, culture is the traditions and customs that separate groups of people. Secondly,
a reference group is a group whose presumed perspectives or values are being used by an
individual as the basis for his or her current behavior. In other terms, a reference group is a group
and their values of which an individual refers to as an aid in their behavior.
Each of these four influences have relations with the other influences on consumer
behavior. I think perception has the strongest relationship with memory and learning as your
perception can often be influenced by the way you learned things and your memories with
certain products or services. In my way of thinking, motives would be closely tied to attitudes
and emotions. Also, culture could relate with family and demographics. Finally, reference groups
relate to subculture and social status. Each of these influences belong in the consumer behavior
construct because they not only individually influence the way a consumer makes a decision and
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takes action, but combined, they can explain why the consumer took said action, which can aid
in the analysis of a decision especially to marketing researchers.
As a marketing professional working in advertising, I would analyze perception through
reactions to advertisements prior to posting to the general public. I think a very effective way to
analyze consumers’ perception is by physically sharing the advertisement to people on the
streets. By asking for raw opinions from a randomly selected pool of people, you can gauge the
reaction the general public would have to your advertisement. For example, if Balenciaga had
surveyed reactions to their latest ad that caused them to have that big scandal prior to sharing it
with the world, I’m certain they would have gotten the same reaction from the small group off
the streets and could have adjusted the ad accordingly to avoid such backlash. The way I’d
measure motive in context of influencing consumer behavior would be to run the numbers of the
purchases made based on which advertisement the consumer had seen. For instance, if it was
calculated that interactive Instagram ads with hyperlinks to my products resulted in double the
number of purchases of my company’s handbag because the consumer’s motive was to look like
the girl carrying the handbag, I’d push that same ad on every platform possible to increase sales
and pull back on other advertisements for the same product. As for culture, I would assess
culture’s influence on consumer behavior through surveying consumers' reaction to
advertisements that represent their culture compared to those that do not. If conclusions showed
a drastic difference in reaction, I’d better gauge the impact cultural representation has on
consumer behavior.
Finally, I’d assess the influence reference groups have on consumer behavior by
comparing the volume of sales of consumers who belong to a reference group such as brand
communities to those sales from consumers who do not. If there is a large difference, it could be
deducted that belonging to a reference group impacts consumer purchasing behavior.