Determinants of Consumer Behavior

Consumer motivation - Consumer motivation is an internal state that drives people to identify and buy
products or services that fulfill conscious and unconscious needs or desires. The fulfillment of those
needs can then motivate them to make a repeat purchase or to find different goods and services to
better fulfill those needs.

Hierarchy of Needs
Consumer motivation is linked to Maslow's "hierarchy of needs.” According to this model, motivational
drivers have different levels of importance. The most common needs are physiological and concern basic
survival--the need for food, shelter and safety. Higher-level needs include social ones (for relationships
and love), esteem needs (recognition and status) and self-actualization needs (fulfillment of self).
According to Maslow, an individual must meet lower-level needs before being motivated to fulfill
higher-level needs.

Motivational Levels
Depending on how important a purchase is to an individual, his motivational levels may vary from low to
high. Influences include familiarity with the purchase, status factors and overall expense and value.
Where fulfillment rewards are low, as with groceries, motivation levels are also relatively low and
involve little decision-making behavior. Conversely, with a complex, risky and emotionally-charged
process such as buying a new house, the drive to achieve the “right” result is high.

Motivational Behavior
The behavioral aspect of consumer motivation concerns the actions someone takes before purchasing
and consuming goods or services. A person might do a lot of research--evaluating alternatives, testing
and sampling--before making a selection. She might decide to buy something based on which goods or
services most closely meet and satisfy motivational wants and needs. Marketers aim to gain the most
impact and eventual sales by linking their products and services to clearly defined consumer needs and
by understanding what motivates people to buy.

Motivational Influences
Motivational levels differ greatly between individuals and are influenced by many external variables.
These include the social value of making the “right” decision, beliefs about brands and alignment of
brand values and personal values. If other people are involved in the decision, their motivation also
affects the behavior of the primary consumer.

Accessing Motivation
Companies and marketers use a number of different tools to help them understand consumer
motivation in relation to their products and services. This may help them orient their markets according
to different buyer motivation. Marketers use pre-purchase and post-purchase focus groups, one-to-one
interviews and online or postal surveys to develop their understanding of consumers’ motivational
drivers.
Personality
To understand a buyer needs and convert them into customers is the main purpose of the consumer
behavior study. To understand the buyer habits and his priorities, it is required to understand and know
the personality of the buyer.

Personality signifies the inner psychological characteristics that reflect how a person reacts to his
environment. Personality shows the individual choices for various products and brands. It helps the
marketers in deciding when and how to promote the product. Personality can be categorized on the
basis of individual traits, likes, dislikes etc.

Though personality is static, it can change due to major events such as death, birth or marriage and can
also change gradually with time. By connecting with the personality characteristics of an individual, a
marketer can conveniently formulate marketing strategies.

We will discuss in this chapter the various theories of personality.

Trait Theory
Traits are the features of an individual or tendency of an individual in a particular manner. Traits help in
defining the behavior of consumers. According to the Trait theorists, an individual’s personality make-up
stems out of the traits that he possesses, and the identification of traits is important.

Following are the few of the most common traits −

 Sad
 Stable
 Serious
 Happy go lucky
 Relaxed
 Self assured
 Practical
 Imaginative
 Trait theory is representative of multi-personality theories. Trait theory is based on certain
assumptions, such as traits which are certainly stable in nature and a limited number of traits
are common to most of the people.

According to the Trait theorists, an individual’s personality make-up stems out of the traits that he
possesses, and the identification of traits is important. The trait theories can be of two broad categories,
viz., Simple trait theories and general trait theories.
Self Concept
Self concept is defined as the way, in which we think, our preferences, our beliefs, our attitudes, our
opinions arranged in a systematic manner and also how we should behave and react in various roles of
life. Self concept is a complex subject as we know the understanding of someone’s psychology, traits,
abilities sometimes are really difficult. Consumers buy and use products and services and patronize
retailers whose personalities or images relate in some way or other to their own self-images

Traditionally, individuals are considered to be having a single self-image which they normally exhibit.
Such type of consumers are interested in those products and services which match or satisfy these single
selves. However, as the world became more and more complex, it has become more appropriate to
think of consumers as having multiple selves.

What is Self-Concept?
The below are some of the major aspects of Self-concept

Self-Concept is Organized
We all have various views about ourselves. We all may think we are kind, calm, patient, selfish, rude and
what not. It doesn’t matter what perception you have about yourself, but the one perception that
facilitates all these insights is organized self concept. When a person believes in something that matches
his self concept he sticks to his view and does not agree to change the same and even if does, it takes a
lot of time.

Self Concept is Learned

It is believed that self concept is learned and no person is born with a self concept. It develops as and
when we grow old. Our self concept is built when we meet people socially and interact with them. We
are the ones who shape or alter our self concept and its quite natural that we may have a self concept
different for ourselves as compared to what people think about us.

For example − If an individual thinks, he is very generous and helpful, it may not necessarily be the case
with others. Others may see him as a selfish person.

Self Concept is Dynamic

Our self concept in life is not constant and it may change with instances that take place in our lives.
When we face different situations and new challenges in life, our insight towards things may change. We
see and behave according to the things and situations.

Thus, it is observed that self concept is a continuous development where we let go things that don’t
match our self concept and hold on those things that we think are helpful in building our favorable
perception.

Self concept is the composite of ideas, feelings, emotions and attitudes that a person has about their
identity and capabilities.
Consumer Behavior - Perception
Perception
Our human brain attempts to make sense out of the stimuli to which we are exposed and our perception
is an approximation of reality.

Perception Influencers
The following are the factors/theories, which can influence our perception

Exposure
Exposure is the extent to which it encounters stimulus. Exposure is not enough to significantly impact
the individual.

For example, in our daily life, we come across a number of hoardings, advertisements, banners etc.
However, we don’t pay much attention to them or tend to seek it out, but, if we want to purchase
something, say, a motorbike, we may deliberately take effort and seek out such advertisements.
Attention is a matter of degree. Our attention may be quite high when we read the directions mentioned
on a road map and quite low when a commercial comes on the T.V.

Elements of Perception
Sensation
Sensation is the immediate and direct response of the sensory organs to stimuli. A stimulus may be any
unit of input to any of these senses.

Examples of stimuli include products, packages, brand names, advertisements and commercials. Sensory
receptors are the human organs that receive sensory inputs. Their sensory functions are to see, hear,
smell, taste and feel. All of these functions are called into play, either singly or in combinations, in the
evaluation and use of most consumer products.

The Absolute Threshold

The lowest level at which an individual can experience a sensation is called the absolute threshold. The
point at which a person can detect a difference between “something” and “nothing” is that person’s
absolute threshold for that stimulus.

The Differential Threshold

The minimal difference that can be detected between two similar stimuli is called the differential
threshold or the just noticeable difference.

Subliminal Perception
People are motivated below their level of conscious awareness. People are also stimulated below their
level of conscious awareness; that is, they can perceive stimuli without being consciously aware that
they are doing so. Stimuli that are too weak or too brief to be consciously seen or heard may
nevertheless be strong enough to be perceived by one or more receptor cells. This process is called
subliminal perception because the stimulus is beneath the threshold, or “limen” of conscious awareness,
though obviously not beneath the absolute threshold of the receptors involved.

Consumer Behavior - Learning

According to Kotler’s Definition, learning involves changes in an individual’s behavior arising out of the
experience. Most of the human behavior is learned over time, out of the experience.

Following are the features of consumer learning

Consumer learning is a process. A process which continually changes and acquires new knowledge.
This knowledge can be obtained from reading, discussing, observing, thinking, etc.
Newly acquired knowledge or personal experience, both serve as feedback.

Elements of Consumer Learning

Motivation is the driving force of all important things to be learnt. Motives allow individuals to increase
their readiness to respond to learning. It also helps in activating the energy to do so. Thus the degree of
involvement usually determines the motivation to search information about a product.

For example, showing advertisements for summer products just before summer season or for winter
clothes before winters.

Motives encourage learning and cues stimulate the direction to these motives. Cues are not strong as
motives, but their influence in which the consumer responds to these motives.

For example, in a market, the styling, packaging, the store display, prices all serve as cues to help
consumers to decide on a particular product, but this can happen only if the consumer has the motive to
buy. Thus, marketers need to be careful while providing cues, especially to consumers who have
expectations driven by motives.

Response signifies how a consumer reacts to the motives or even cues. The response can be shown or
hidden, but in either of the cases learning takes place. Often marketers may not succeed in stimulating a
purchase but the learning takes place over a period of time and then they may succeed in forming a
particular image of the brand or product in the consumer’s mind.

Reinforcement is very important as it increases the probability of a particular response in the future
driven by motives and cues.

Consumer Behavioral Learning Theories

There are various theories which are developed to explain the learning theories. The below are the
major theories related to consumer behavior.
Classical Conditioning theory refers to learning through repetition. This is referred to as a spontaneous
response to particular situation achieved by repetitive exposure. It is such a kind of a behavioral theory
which says, when a stimulus is connected to or paired with another stimulus, it serves to produce the
same response even when used alone.

For example, if you usually listen news at 9 pm and have dinner too at 9 pm while watching the news
then eventually the sound of news at 9pm may make you hungry even though you are not actually
hungry or even if the dinner is not ready.

Instrumental Theory is developed by B F SKINNER, an American psychologist, he was the first to develop
this model of learning. Instrumental theory suggests that human beings learn by trial and error method
and then find out a particular stimulus that can yield best results. Then, this is subsequently formed as a
habit

This theory is very important and applies to many common situations in the context of consumer
behavior. It suggests that consumers learn by means of trial-and-error method in which some purchase
behaviors result in a more favorable outcome.

Memory- Consumers have prior learning experiences, which are accumulated in their minds. The total
accumulation of past experiences are known as memory. Memory can be divided intoshort-term
memory or long-term memory.

Information Processing in Consumer Behaviour

Consumers process information from the stimulus they receive in various forms. This processing helps to
buy products of their need and liking. The 5 major ways they use for information derived from their
environment. These are:

 They stand and evaluate products and services.

 They attempt to justify previous product choices.
 To decide whether to buy or postpone the decision.
 To satisfy a need from the products available from the market.
 To serve as a reminder to purchase products which must be replenished (soap,beverage and
other consumable items.)
Information processing is not the end result but a process which is followed by the consumers. The basic
components of information processing is shown in a framework. The basic components can be arranged
into 4 groupings or the 4S:
 Stimuli that serves as a raw material to be processed the receptors are hunger.
 Pangs and the 5 senses of test, touch, smell, vision and hearing.
 Stages of processing activities as shown in the diagram exposure, sensory processes and
attention.
 Situation and consumer characteristics that which can influence the nature of these activities.
Consumer Behavior - Attitude
Consumer attitude may be defined as a feeling of favorableness or unfavorableness that an individual
has towards an object. As we, all know that an individual with a positive attitude is more likely to buy a
product and this results in the possibility of liking or disliking a product.
Consumer attitude basically comprises of beliefs towards, feelings towards and behavioral intentions
towards some objects.

Belief plays a vital role for consumers because, it can be either positive or negative towards an object.
For example, some may say tea is good and relieves tension, others may say too much of tea is not
good for health. Human beliefs are not accurate and can change according to situations.
Consumers have certain specific feelings towards some products or brands. Sometimes these feelings
are based on certain beliefs and sometimes they are not. For example, an individual feels uneasy when
he thinks about cheese burst pizza, because of the tremendous amount of cheese or fat it has.
Behavioral intentions show the plans of consumers with respect to the products. This is sometimes a
logical result of beliefs or feelings, but not always. For example, an individual personally might not like
a restaurant, but may visit it because it is the hangout place for his friends.

Functions of Attitudes
The following are the functions of attitudes
 Adjustment Function − Attitudes helps people to adjust to different situations and
circumstances.
 Ego Defensive Function − Attitudes are formed to protect the ego. We all are bothered about
our self-esteem and image so the product boosting our ego is the target of such a kind of
attitude.
 Value Expression Function − Attitudes usually represent the values the individual posses. We
gain values, though our upbringing and training. Our value system encourages or discourages
us to buy certain products. For example, our value system allows or disallows us to purchase
products such as cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, etc.
 Knowledge Function − Individuals’ continuously seeks knowledge and information. When an
individual gets information about a particular product, he creates and modifies his attitude
towards that product.