Chapter 4 only objective

Consumer Markets
and Consumer Buyer
Behavior
Reference Books:
Marketing by Michael J. Walker, Bruce J. Walker & William J. Stanton ( 13th Edition)
Principle of Marketing by Philip Kotler (10th Edition)
Internet

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Resource Person: Tabish Shabee
 The Buyer Decision Process
 Need recognition:
 When buyer recognizes a problem or need
 Triggered by internal or external stimuli
 Must reach an intensity high enough to become a drive

 Information search:
 Memory (internal) search
 External search: personal, commercial, public, experiential
sources of information
 Word-of-mouth sources are most influential

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 Evaluation of alternatives:
 The process of evaluating information to make a decision
 Attributes and importance weights are chosen
 Alternatives compared against the criteria
 Purchase decision:
 Buyer takes decision about which brand is to be purchased
among alternatives.
 Post Purchase decision:
 Step in which buyer take further action after purchase, uses
it, gets satisfaction or dissatisfaction etc.
 Relationship between consumer expectation and perceived
performance
 Cognitive dissonance
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 Consumer Behavior
 The field of Consumer Behavior
“Studies how individuals, groups, and organizations select,
buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or
experiences to satisfy their needs and desires.”
 Consumer Buyer Behavior
The Buying Behavior of final consumers ( individuals &
households) who buy goods and services for personal
consumption.
 Consumer Market
All the final consumers who buy or acquire goods and
services for personal consumption.
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 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
 Cultural factors
 Social factors
 Personal factors
 Psychological factors

and
Households

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1. Cultural factors
 Culture
 Set of symbols and ways of doing things created by a
society and handed down from generation to generation as
determinants and regulators of human behavior.
 Symbols may be intangible (Attitude, beliefs, values,
language, perceptions, wants and behaviors)
 Symbols may be tangible ( tools, housing, clothing, works
of arts, signs)
 Culture doesn’t includes instinctive biological acts/needs
but the way people satisfy their needs
 Learned by a members of society from family & other
important institutions 6
 Subculture
 A culture within a culture
 A group of people with shared value systems based on
common life experiences and situations
 Includes religions, races, urban-rural identification,
nationalities, etc.
 Social Classes
 A group of people who have relatively equal position in
society as viewed by others.
 Society’s relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose
members share similar values, interests and behaviors.
 A social class is an indication of preferences or life styles
measured by occupation, income, education wealth etc. 7
 Social Scientists have identified 6 major social classes
I. Upper Uppers The social elite who live on inherited
wealth. They maintain more than one home, and send
their children to the finest schools. They are a market for
jewelry, antiques, homes, and vacations. They often buy
and dress conservatively rather then showing off their
wealth.
II. Lower Upper Persons, usually from the middle class,
who have earned high income or wealth through
exceptional ability in the professions or business. They
are active in social and civic affairs and to buy the
symbols of status such as expensive homes, automobiles,
jewelry etc.
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III. Upper Middle Class Composed of moderately
successful business & professionals people( corporate
managers etc) and owners of medium sizes successful
companies. Well educated, have strong desire of success
and push their children to do well. They are joiners &
highly civic minded.
IV. Middle Class Consist of office workers, managers,
teachers, technicians and owners of small successful
business. Collectively called white collar people. Strive
for respectability and buy what is popular, have well
cared homes, future oriented, self confident, willing to
take risks, try to save for education of their children &
their marriages & future needs etc., climbers. Home &
family oriented. 9
V. Upper Lower Class The Blue collar workers.
Factory workers, salaried people, skilled & semi skilled
labors. Tied closely to family for economic & emotional
support. Short term oriented and are very much
concerned about security. They often feel of being
controlled by the world.
VI. Lower Lower Class Unskilled workers/labors and
people in very low status occupation. Live in
substandard houses and neighborhood, tend to live a day
to day existence. Lowest of these groups are people
without steady employment and people who live in
severe poverty.

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2. Social Factors
A consumer behavior is also influenced by reference
groups, family and social role and status.
 Reference Group
 A persons reference group consists of all the groups that
have a direct (face to face) or indirect influence on the
person’s attitudes or behavior.
 Group having a direct influence on a person are called
membership group
 Group of family, friends, neighbors & co-workers etc.
with whom a person interacts frequently and informally
called primary group.
 Religious, professional & trade-union groups with whom
a person interacts less frequently and are more formal
called secondary groups. 11
 People are also influenced by the groups to which the don't
belong.
 A group with which a person hopes to belong called
inspiration group.
 Dissociative group are those whose values or behavior are
rejected/disliked by a person.
 Person within a reference group who, because of special
skills, knowledge, personality, position or other
characteristics can influences the behavior of others is called
opinion leader.
 Roles & Status
 A role consists of the activities people are expected to
perform according to the person around them.
 Each role carries a status reflecting the general esteem
given to it by society. People often choose products that
show their status in society.
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 Family and Households
 A family is a group of two or more people related by blood,
marriage or adoption.
 A buyer life consist of two distinguish families.
 The family of orientation (birth family) consists of
parents and siblings. Birth family primary determines core
values & attitudes of a person.
 Family of procreation (marriage family) consists of one’s
spouse and children. It has a more direct influence one
buying behavior of individual.
 A household consists of a single person, a family, or any
group of related/unrelated persons who occupy a housing
unit. 13
3. Personal Factors
Consist of buyer age and stage in life cycle, occupation,
economic circumstances, life style, personality and self
concept.
 Age and stage in Life Cycle
 There are nine distinct life cycle stages
I. Bachelor Stage: Young, single people
II. Newly married young couples: Couple with no children
III. Full nest 1: Married couple with youngest child under 6
IV. Full nest 2: Youngest child six or over
V. Full nest 3: older married couple with dependant
children.
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VI. Unmarried/ divorced living alone:
VII. Empty nest 1: older married couple with no children
living with them.
VIII. Empty nest 2: Older married couple. with no children
living with them. Head of household retired.
IX. Solitary Survivor: Pension, GP fund. Special need for
attention.
 Occupation & Economic Circumstances
Blue collar, white collar, executive class & people of
different occupations have different purchasing behavior
according to their economic conditions.

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 Lifestyle
A lifestyle is the person’s pattern of living in the world as expressed in
activities, interests, and opinions (AOI). Life style portrays the “whole
person” interacting with his/her environment.
VALS typology is widely used method of classifying life styles
• Take VALS Survey: http://www.sric-bi.com/VALS/presurvey.shtml
 Personality & Self Concept
Distinguishing psychological characteristics that lead to relatively
consistent and enduring responses to environment.
 Self concept- One’s thinking about his/her self
 Ideal Self concept- how would a person like to view himself.
 Others Self concept- how other thinks about one’s self.

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4. Psychological Factors
Description of consumers on the basis of their psychological
and behavioral characteristics.
 Motivation
The set of forces that causes people to behave in certain
ways
 A willingness to expand energy to achieve goal or a reward.
 According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of need
 “People have five group of needs in a hierarchical order &
until one need is not satisfied individual can’t move on the
next need.”

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 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Need (1943)

1. Physiological needs- Hunger, thirst, shelter & other

bodily needs.
2. Security/Safety needs- Security & protection from
physical & emotional harm.
3. Belongingness/Social needs- Affection,
belongingness, acceptance and friendship needs.
4. Esteem needs- Self-respect, autonomy, achievement,
status, recognition & attention.
5. Self-actualization needs- Drive to become what one
is capable of becoming includes growth, achievements
and self-fulfillment. 19
 Perception
It’s the process of receiving, organizing and assigning
meaning to information or stimuli detected by our 5 senses.
 Selective attention- We pay attention to only those stimuli
which have potential of being perceived.
• People are more likely to notice stimuli that relate to a
current need.
 Selective Distortion- Tendency to interpret information in a
way that will fit out our preconception.
 Selective Retention- People retain points about products
we like and forget points about competing products.

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 Learning
Changes in human behavior resulting from
experiences and observations.
 Belief
A descriptive thought that a person holds about
some thing
 Attitude
A person’s consistently favorable or unfavorable
evaluation, feelings and tendencies toward an object
or idea.
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Four Types of Buying Decision Behavior

High Involvement Low Involvement

Significant Differences Complex buying Variety-seeking

between Brands behavior buying behavior

Few Differences between Dissonance-reducing Habitual buying

Brands buying behavior behavior

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Successive Sets Involved in Customer Decision Making

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 Adoption of New Product Innovations
 The mental process by which an individual passes from 1st
hearing about an innovation to final adoption.

 Stages in the adoption process:

1. Awareness-
2. Interest
3. Evaluation
4. Trail
5. Adoption

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 Buying Roles
 Five roles people might play in buying decision.
1. Initiator- A person who 1st suggest the idea of
buying product or service.
2. Influencer- A person whose view or advice
influences the decision.
3. Decider- A person/authority who decides whether
to buy, what to buy, how to buy or where to buy
etc.
4. Buyer- The person who makes purchasing.
5. User- A person who uses the products
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