Personal factors also influence buyer behaviour.

The important personal factors, which influence buyer

behaviour, are a) Age, b) Occupation, c) Income and d) Life Style a) Age Age of a person is one of the
important personal factors influencing buyer behaviour. People buy different products at their different
stages of cycle. Their taste, preference, etc also change with change in life cycle. b) Occupation
Occupation or profession of a person influences his buying behaviour. The life styles and buying
considerations and decisions differ widely according to the nature of the occupation. For instance, the
buying of a doctor can be easily differentiated from that of a lawyer, teacher, clerk businessman,
landlord, etc. So, the marketing managers have to design different marketing strategies suit the buying
motives of different occupational groups. c) Income Income level of people is another factor which can
exert influence in shaping the consumption pattern. Income is an important source of purchasing power.
So, buying pattern of people differs with different levels of income. d) Life Style Life style to a person’s
pattern or way of living as expressed in his activity, interests and opinions that portrays the “whole
person” interacting with the environment. Marketing managers have to design different marketing
strategies to suit the life styles of the consumers.

2. Social factors Man is a social animal. Hence, our behaviour patterns, likes and dislikes are influenced
by the people around us to a great extent. We always seek confirmation from the people around us and
seldom do things that are not socially acceptable. The social factors influencing consumer behaviour are
a) Family, b) Reference Groups, c) Roles and status. a) Family There are two types of families in the
buyer’s life viz. nuclear family and Joint family. Nuclear family is that where the family size is small and
individuals have higher liberty to take decisions whereas in joint families, the family size is large and
group decision-making gets more preference than individual. Family members can strongly influence the
buyer behaviour, particularly in the Indian contest. The tastes, likes, dislikes, life styles etc. of the
members are rooted in the family buying behaviour. The family influence on the buying behaviour of a
member may be found in two ways i) The family influence on the individual personality, characteristics,
attitudes and evaluation criteria and ii) The influence on the decision-making process involved in the
purchase of goods and services. In India, the head of the family may alone or jointly with his wife
decides the purchase. So marketers should study the role and the relative influence of the husband, wife
and children in the purchase of goods and services. An individual normally lives through two families
Family of orientation This is the family in which a person takes birth. The influences of parents and
individual’s upbringing have a strong effect on the buying habits. For instance, an individual coming form
an orthodox Tamil or Gujarati vegetarian family may not consume meat or egg even though she may
appreciate its nutritional values. Family of procreation This is the family formed by an individual with his
or her spouse and children. Normally, after marriage, an individual’s purchasing habits and priorities
change under the influence of spouse. As the marriage gets older, the people usually settle in certain
roles. For instance, a father normally takes decisions on investment whereas the mother takes decision
on health of children. From a marketing viewpoint, the level of demand for many products is dictated
more by the number of households than by the number of families. The relevance of families to
marketing is therefore much more about consumer behaviour than about consumer demand levels. b)
Reference group A group is two or more persons who share a set of norms and whose relationship
makes their behaviour interdependent. A reference group is a group of people with whom an individual
associates. It is a group of people who strongly influence a person’s attitudes values and behaviour
directly or indirectly. Reference groups fall into many possible grouping, which are not necessarily to be
exhaustive (i.e. non over-lapping). c) Roles and status A person participates in many groups like family,
clubs, and organizations. The person’s position in each group can be defined in tern of role and status. A
role consists of the activities that a person is expected to perform. Each role carries a status. People
choose products that communicate their role and status in society. Marketers must be aware of the
status symbol potential of products and brands. 3. Cultural factors Kotler observed that human
behaviour is largely the result of a learning process and as such individuals grow up learning a set of
values, perceptions, preferences and behaviour patterns as the result of socialisation both within the
family and a series of other key institutions. From this we develop a set of values, which determine and
drive behavioural patterns to a very large extent. According to Schiffman and Kanuk, values include
achievement, success, efficiency, progress, material comfort, practicality, individualism, freedom,
humanitarianism, youthfulness and practicality. This broad set of values is then influenced by the
subcultures like nationality groups, religious groups, racial groups and geographical areas, all of which
exhibit degrees of difference in ethnic taste, cultural preferences, taboos, attitudes and lifestyle. Cultural
factors consist of a) Culture, b) Sub culture and c) Social class. ~ 79 ~ International Journal of Applied
Research a) Culture Culture is the most fundamental determinant of a person’s want and behaviour. The
growing child acquires a set of values, perception preferences and behaviours through his or her family
and other key institutions. Culture influences considerably the pattern of consumption and the pattern
of decision-making. Marketers have to explore the cultural forces and have to frame marketing
strategies for each category of culture separately to push up the sales of their products or services. But
culture is not permanent and changes gradually and such changes are progressively assimilated within
society. Culture is a set of beliefs and values that are shared by most people within a group. The
groupings considered under culture are usually relatively large, but at least in theory a culture can be
shared by a few people. Culture is passed on from one group member to another, and in particular is
usually passed down from one generation to the next; it is learned, and is therefore both subjective and
arbitrary. For example, food is strongly linked to culture. While fish is regarded as a delicacy in Bengal,
and the Bengalis boast of several hundred different varieties, in Gujarat. Rajastan or Tamil Naru, fish is
regarded as mostly unacceptable food item. These differences in tastes are explained by the culture
rather than by some random differences in taste between individuals; the behaviours are shared by
people from a particular cultural background. Culture can change over a period of time, although such
changes tend to be slow, since culture is deeply built into people’s behaviour. From a marketing
viewpoint, therefore, it is probably much easier to work within a given culture than to try to change it. b)
Sub-Culture Each culture consists of smaller sub-cultures that provide more specific identification and
socialisation for their members. Sub-culture refers to a set of beliefs shared by a subgroup of the main
culture, which include nationalities, religions, racial groups and geographic regions. Many subCultures
make up important market segments and marketers have to design products and marketing programs
tailored to their needs. Although this subgroup will share most of the beliefs of the main culture, they
share among themselves another set of beliefs, which may be at odds with those held by the main
group. For example, Indians are normally seen as orthodox, conservative people, but rich, up-market
youths do not hesitate to enjoy night parties with liquor and women. c) Social class Consumer behaviour
is determined by the social class to which they belong. The classification of socioeconomic groups is
known as Socio-Economic Classification (SEC). Social class is relatively a permanent and ordered division
in a society whose members share similar value, interest and behaviour. Social class is not determined
by a single factor, such as income but it is measured as a combination of various factors, such as income,
occupation, education, authority, power, property, ownership, life styles, consumption, pattern etc.
There are three different social classes in our society. They are upper class, middle class and lower class.
These three social classes differ in their buying behaviour. Upper class consumers want high-class goods
to maintain their status in the society. Middle class consumers purchase carefully and collect
information to compare different producers in the same line and lower class consumers buy on impulse.
Therefore marketing managers are required to study carefully the relationship between social classes
and their consumption pattern and take appropriate measures to appeal to the people of those social
classes for whom their products are meant.

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