Marketing Management-22MBA15 Module-2

Analysing Consumer Behaviour.

Meaning consumer behaviour refers to the buying behaviour of final consumer individuals
and households who buy goods and services for personal consumption.
Definition consumer behaviour is defined as the process and physical activity individuals
engage when evaluating acquiring using or disposing of goods and services.
Lauden Dellabitta

Consumer behaviour is defined as the process of physical activity individuals engage in

evaluating acquiring using or disposing of good services.
Consumer behaviour is the study of the processes involved when individuals or group select,
purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas, concepts or experiences to satisfy
consumers needs and desires.

Factors influencing consumer behaviour

1. Cultural: culture is the most basic cause of a person's wounds and behaviour you and
growing up in East society each Ireland's basic valuable sections once and behaviour from the
following family and other important institutions marketers are always trying to support
cultural shifts in order to discover new products that may be wanted example culture and shift
toward greater concern about health and fitness has created a huge industry for health and
fitness services exercise Equipment and plug in more natural food and variety of diets supply

a. Subculture each culture contains smaller subculture or groups of people with shared value
systems based on common life experiences and situations, nationalities religion racial group
and geographic regions.
 Many subculture makeup important market segment and marketers often design products and
marketing programs tailored to their needs.
 Four such important subculture groups include Hispanic, African Americans, and Asian
Americans.
 The US Hispanic market American of Cuban, Mexican, Central American, South America
etc.
 They tend to buy more branded products, higher quality products. Generics don't sell well to
this group. They are very brand loyal.

interest and behaviour social factor is not measured as By single factors such as income but
is measurable as a combination of occupation income education wealth

2. Social factors
a. Groups: Person behaviour is influenced by many small groups that have direct influence
and to which a person belongs are called membership groups.
b. Reference groups: People often are influenced by a reference book to which they do not
belong example a young boy cricket player hopes to someday to become a member of Indian

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cricket team. Opinion leaders people within a reference group who because of special skills,
knowledge, Personality or other characteristics exert social influence on others.
c. Family: Family members can strongly influence buyer behaviour. The family is the most
important consumer buying organization in society. Buying roles change with a evolving
lifestyle. In the United States the wife traditionally has been main purchasing agent for the
family in the area of food household products & clothing

d. Roles and status: A person belongs to many groups’ family, club and organization. A
person's position in each group can be defined in terms of both role and status.
A role consist of the activity people are expected to perform according to the persons around
them, each role carries a status reflecting the general esteem given to it by the society.
Ex: A working mother plays the role of a brand manager in her family; she plays a role of
wife and mother as a brand manager she will buy the kind of clothing that reflect her role and
status in the company.
3. Personal factors
a. Age and life cycle stage: People change the goods and services they buy over their life
time. Buying is also shaped by the stage of the family life cycle the stages through which
families might pass, as they mature over time.
Traditional family life cycle stages include young singles and married couples with children.
b.Occupation: A person's occupation affects the goods and services bought; blue-collar
workers tend to buy more rugged clothes where as executives by more business suits
C.Economic situation: A person's economic choice will affect product choice. Marketers of
income-sensitive goods watch trends in personal income savings and interest rates. If
economic indicators point to a recession marketer can step to redesign, reposition and reprice
their products closely.
d. lifestyle : Lifestyle is a person's pattern of living as expressed in his or her psychographics.
It involves measuring consumer's major AIO dimensions - activities (work, hobbies,
shopping, sports, and social events) interest (food, fashion, family, recreation) and opinions
(about themselves, social issues, business products)
e. Personality and self-concept: Personality refers to the unique psychological characteristics
that lead to relatively consistent and lasting responses to one's own environment. Personality
is usually is described in terms of traits such as self-confidence, dominance, sociability,
autonomy, defensiveness adaptability and aggressiveness. Personality can be useful in
analyzing consumer behaviour for certain product or brand choices. Example coffee
marketers have discovered that heavy coffee drinkers tend to be high on sociability, a person
self-concept (also called self-image). The basic self-concept premise is that people's
possessions contribute to and reflect their identity that is “We are what we have”.
4. Psychological factors
a. Motivation: A person has many needs at any given time some are biological arising from
states of tension such as hunger thirst or discomfort, others are psychological arising from the
need for recognition esteem or belonging, a need becomes motive when it is aroused to a
sufficient level of intensity. A motive or drive is needed that is sufficiently pressing to direct
the person to seek satisfaction.
b. Perception is the process by which people select organize and interpret information to form a
meaningful picture of the world.
While dealing with perception it may be apt to make a reference to sensory marketing,
consumer perceives things through 5 senses. Understanding consumer behaviour thus

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depends on knowing how consumers process the stimuli and signals that are
captured/absorbed by their senses.
c. The memory process
Memory also forms a vital part of the psychological processes underlying consumer decision-
making the information inputs plus the experience gathered by the buyer over time lead to the
buyer's memory they are all deposited in his memory, example he has memory about specific
products and brands which he has used if his experiences about them were unsatisfactory his
memory will throw up bad associations whenever their names or linkages crop up.
d. Learning describes changes in an individual's behaviour arising from experience learning
theory say that most human behaviour is learned. Learning occurs through the interplay of
drive's stimuli cues responses and reinforcement.

e. Beliefs and attitude: A belief is a descriptive thought that a person has about something;
attitude describes a person's relatively consistent evaluations feelings and tendencies toward
an object or idea.

Consumer purchase decision process

1. Need recognition: The buying starts with need recognition, the buyer recognize a problem or
need. The need can be triggered by internal stimuli persons normal need hunger, thirst rises to
high level enough to become a drive and it can also be triggered by external stimuli for
example an advertisement or a discussion with a friend might get you thinking about buying a
new car, at this stage the marketer should research.
2. Information search: An interested consumer may or may not search for more information. If
the consumer's drive is strong and satisfying product is near at hand the consumer is likely to
buy it, if not the consumer may store the need in memory or undertake an information search
related to the need. For example once you have decided you need a new car at least you will
probably pay more attention to car ads, car owned friends and car conversations or you may
actively look for reading material, phone friends.
Consumers can obtain information from any of the several sources

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 Personal sources - family, friends, neighbour.

 Commercial sources- Advertising, sales people, websites, packaging, displays.
 Public sources - mass media, consumer rating organization, internet searches.
 Experiential sources -Handling, examining, using the product.
3. Evaluation of alternatives: The marketer needs to know about the alternative evaluation that
is how the consumer processes information to arrive at decision.
The consumer arrives at attitude toward different brands through some evaluation procedure,
in some cases consumer use careful calculations and logical thinking.
At other times the same consumers do little or no evaluating instead they buy on impulse or
rely on intuition.
Sometimes consumers make buying decisions on their own; sometimes they turn to friends,
consumer guides or sales people for buying advices. Example suppose you have narrowed
your car choices to 3 brands and suppose that you are primarily interested in 4 attributes-
styling, operating economy, warranty and price by this time you have probably formed to
beliefs about how each brand rates on each attribute clearly, if one car rated best on all the
attributes we could predict that you would choose it.
4.Purchase decision: In the evaluating stage, the consumer ranks brands and forms purchase
intentions generally the consumer purchase decision will be to buy the most preferred brand
but two factors can come between the purchase intentions and purchase decision.
The first factor is the attitude of others, if someone important to you thinks that you should
buy the lowest price car then the choices of your buying a more expensive car are reduced.
The second factor is unexpected situational factor the consumer may form purchase intention
based on factors such as expected income expected price and expected product benefits.
However unexpected may change the purchase intention, for example economy might take a
turn for the worse, a close competitor might drop its price or a friend might report being
disappointed in your in your preferred car.
5. Post purchase behaviour in post purchase behaviour if the buyer is satisfied Or dissatisfied
with the purchase the answer lies in the relationship between the consumer's expectation and
the products pursue performance if the product falls short of expectations the consumer is
disappointed if it meets expectation the consumer is satisfied if it exits expectation the
consumer is delighted larger the gap between expectations and performance the greater the
consumers dissatisfaction this suggests that sellers should promise only what their brands can
deliver so that buyers are satisfied for example Boeing sales people tend to be conservative
the promise 5% savings the terms that turns out to be 8% customers are delighted with the
better than expected performance customer satisfaction is a key to build in profitable
relationship with consumer to keeping and growing consumers and ripping the customer
lifetime A dissatisfied customer response differently bad word-of-mouth often travels farther
and faster than good word-of-mouth.
Cognitive dissonance: Is discomfort caused by post purchase conflict, every purchase
involves compromise, consumers feel uneasy about acquiring the drawbacks of the chosen
brand and about losing the benefits of brands not purchased. Thus consumer feels at least
some post purchase dissonance for every purchase.

Model of consumer behaviour or buyer behaviour model

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Marketing Management-22MBA15 Module-2

The Central question for marketer is how do consumers respond to various marketing efforts,
the company might use?
Marketing stimuli consist of the 4 Ps product, price, place, promotion. Other stimuli include
major forces and events in the buyer’s environment, economic, technological, political and
cultural.
All these inputs enter the buyer's black box where they're turned into a set of observable
responses product choice, brand choice, dealer choice, purchase timing and purchase amount.
The marketer wants to understand how the stimuli are changed into responses inside the
consumer black box which has 2 parts the buyer's characteristics influence how he or she
perceives and reacts to the stimuli the buyer's decision process itself affects the buyers
behaviour.
It is called the 'black box' model because we still know so little about how the human mind
works. We cannot see what goes on in the mind and we don't really know much about what
goes on in there, so it's like a black box. As far as consumer behaviour goes, we know enough
to be able to identify major internal influences and the major steps in the decision-making
process which consumers use, but we don't really know how consumers transform all these
data, together with the stimuli, to generate particular responses.

2. Economic model :The economic model of consumer behaviour mused the buyer as a
rational man and his buying decision will only be concerned with utility. Deriving maximum
utility or benefit from products using his resources will be the economic man's soul objective.
3. The learning model: the learning model states that buyer behaviour can be influenced by
manipulating the drive's stimuli and responses of the buyer.
4. The psycho analytical model: This model is founded on Freudian psychology. According
to this model the individual consumer has a complex set of deep-seated motives that drive
him towards certain buying decisions. The buyer is viewed in a world of his own, with his
hidden fierce suppressed desires and totally subjective longings.

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5. Sociological model: According to sociological model the individual buyer is influenced by

society. He is influenced by intimate groups and social classes, his buying may not be
rational when he tries to fulfil his desires to emulate, follow and fit in with his immediate
environment.
Buying motives
Buying motives can be defined as all the impulses desires and considerations which induce a
buyer to purchase a given product. Buying motives are basically of 2 kinds
1. Product motive.
2. Patronage motive.
1. Product motives are those impulses, desires and considerations that make people buy a
given product are called product motives. Product motives can be classified in several ways,
one classification is that is linked to the nature of satisfaction sought by the buyer puts them
into categories,
1. Emotional product motive.
2. Rational product motive.
Emotional product motive or those impulses that appeal to the buyer's pride or ego is urged
to imitate others or is desired to be distinctive, careful reasoning or logical analysis may not
be found behind such purchases.
Rational product motive on the contrary involves a logical analysis of the intended purchase-
the purpose expected to be served by the product the various alternatives available to the
buyer etc. relevant and valid reasons that justify their purchase characteristics of rational
product motives.
Alternative classification Operational and Socio-psychological motive products have a utility
dimension as well as a prestige dimension a buyer can gain satisfaction from the function or
physical utility of a product or the social psychological significance he attaches to the product
the former is the operational product motive and the later psychological productive.
2. Patronage motive: The influences that explain why they buy from particular shop or firms
are called patronage motive. Patronage motive also can be grouped into emotional and
rational category. Emotional patronage motive or those that persuade a buyer to buy from
specific shops without much logical reasons behind that action he may like the place for
purely subjective reason and may consider the show pass his favourite shopping Place.
A rational patronage motives are those that persuade buyer to buy from a specific shop with
a logical reason behind that action if a buyer selects a shop because he knows that it offers
wide selection or the latest models are good after sales services then is influenced by rational
patronage motive.

Buying Roles.
1. Initiator: Is a person first suggests or things of buying the particular product.
2. Influencer: Is a person who explicitly or implicitly has some influence on the final buying
decision of others.
3. Gatekeeper: Is a person who allows certain information to flow and restricts flow of some set
of information example parents in the selection of television channel.
4. The decider: Is a person who ultimately determines any part of the whole of the buying
decision that is whether to buy how to buy when to buy or where to buy head of the family
place, the role of the decider.
5. Buyer: Is the person who actually purchase and pay for the purchase.
6. User: Is the person who actually consumes or use the service or products.

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7. Preparer: Is the person who converts the product to usable form for consumption, example
mother in a family prepares food item.
8. Maintainer: Who service or repair the product so that it will provide continued satisfaction
9. Disposal is the person who finally disposes the package of the product example Mother place
the role of a disposer.

BtoB marketing versus consumer marketing.

1. The consumer market, there are large number of customers with varied demand; business
customers have concentrated in specific geographic areas and with huge demand for each one
of them.
2. The demand for the business market is derived demand and is subject to changes, in demand
pattern of individual customers and economic conditions of the country as a whole. The
elasticity of demand in consumer market is directly linked to the income of consumers and is
influenced by the economic and other external conditions of the country.
3. The business buyer are professional decision makers and negotiate very often through the
direct dealing with sellers, in consumer market buyers mostly slow show learned behaviour
and in many purchase situations are subject to whims and emotional buyer.
4. Under consumer market distribution through a lengthy set of intermediaries to obtain deeper
distribution. Direct marketing is the most appropriate method of selling industrial products.
5. Consumer market uses non personal form of communication like advertising sales promotion
and public relations. Business marketer uses demonstrations, seminar, sales calls and other
direct marketing methods.
6. Organizational buying behaviour is a functional involvement in which buyers a different
capacity in different functional department evaluate the options objectively the. Consumer
market behaviour is family oriented and social and psychological motives dominate purchase
decision of consumers.
7. Organizational customers have technical expertise and both buyers and sellers establish a
long-term Relationship. In consumer markets the relationship is more non personal and
through established intermediaries in the market for information dissemination and delivery
of products and services.
8. The seller has to make multiple sales calls for closing sales whereas the consumer makes a
number of trips to dealers and retailer for a purchase business buyers often select supplier and
vendors who also buy from them this is called reciprocity in business market buying and is
not often seen in consumer markets.
The psychological process underlying consumer behaviour.
The psychological factors consumer.
1.Psychological factors
d. Motivation: A person has many needs at any given time some are biological arising from
states of tension such as hunger thirst or discomfort, others are psychological arising from the
need for recognition esteem or belonging, a need becomes motive when it is aroused to a
sufficient level of intensity. A motive or drive is needed that is sufficiently pressing to direct
the person to seek satisfaction.
e. Perception is the process by which people select organize and interpret information to form a
meaningful picture of the world.
While dealing with perception it may be apt to make a reference to sensory marketing,
consumer perceives things through 5 senses. Understanding consumer behaviour thus
depends on knowing how consumers process the stimuli and signals that are
captured/absorbed by their senses.

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Marketing Management-22MBA15 Module-2

2. The memory process

Memory also forms a vital part of the psychological processes underlying consumer decision-
making the information inputs plus the experience gathered by the buyer over time lead to the
buyer's memory they are all deposited in his memory, example he has memory about specific
products and brands which he has used if his experiences about them were unsatisfactory his
memory will throw up bad associations whenever their names or linkages crop up.
3. Learning describes changes in an individual's behaviour arising from experience learning
theory say that most human behaviour is learned. Learning occurs through the interplay of
drive's stimuli cues responses and reinforcement.
4. Beliefs and attitude: A belief is a descriptive thought that a person has about something;
attitude describes a person's relatively consistent evaluations feelings and tendencies toward
an object or idea.

Types of buyer behaviour.

While making a purchase, a consumer has to take many things into consideration based on
what product he is buying. It is because there is a difference between buying a car and buying
a toffee. In simple terms, it can be seen that if a product is expensive, then the consumer will
take more time and make more effort in making its purchase; however, if a product is cheap
or ordinary, then the consumer will take no or less time and efforts in its purchase.

There are four types of buying decision behaviour; viz., Complex Buying Behaviour,
Dissonance-Reducing Buying Behaviour, Habitual Buying Behaviour, and Variety-Seeking
Buying Behaviour.

1. Complex Buying Behaviour:

Complex buying behaviour occurs when consumers face a high level of involvement in the
purchase decision and encounter significant differences among available options. This type of
behaviour is commonly observed when consumers are purchasing expensive, risky,
infrequently purchased, and highly self-expressive products, such as a house, a car, or a
computer. The decision-making process is extensive and involves thorough research,
evaluation of alternatives, and consideration of multiple factors, such as price, quality,
features, and brand reputation. Consumers engage in information gathering, consult expert
opinions, and rely on personal experiences to make informed decisions.

For example, suppose a consumer wants to buy a new laptop. He would likely spend time
researching different brands, comparing specifications/features, reading customer reviews,
and seeking recommendations from friends or technology experts before finalising their
purchase.

Simply put, in complex buying behaviour, the consumer will go through different learning
phases. Firstly, he will learn and develop a belief regarding the product that he wants to
purchase. The belief of the consumer creates his attitude based on which he will make the
final purchase decision. Therefore, the marketers of the high involvement products must
ensure that they understand the information-gathering and evaluation behaviour of these
customers and help them learn about the attributes of the product along with their relative

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Marketing Management-22MBA15 Module-2

importance. They can also take the help of advertisements so the customers can get answers
to basic questions.

2. Dissonance-Reducing Buying Behaviour:

Dissonance-Reducing Buying Behaviour occurs when consumers face a high level of

involvement in the purchase decision but encounter little difference among brands. This type
of behaviour is commonly observed when consumers are purchasing expensive, infrequent,
or risky products; such as furniture, curtain material, or sofa covers/upholstery. These
products face high involvement of the consumer as they are expensive and self-expressive.
Also, as the perceived brand difference is not large in this case, the consumers would
purchase easily and readily available products.

For example, suppose a consumer wants to buy a portable tent for camping. For this, he will
have to make a quick decision from the limited options available to him. He will make the
purchase decision without doing enough research and inquiring about information from
different sources about it.

Once the purchase is made, the consumers might experience postpurchase

dissonance or after-sale discomfort. It happens when the consumer notices some
disadvantages of the purchased brand or hears some good things about the other brand. For
such dissonance, it is essential for the marketer to provide the consumers with after-sale
communications and help them feel good about their brand choices.

3. Habitual Buying Behaviour:

Habitual Buying Behaviour occurs when consumers face a low level of involvement in the
purchase decision along with little significant brand differences. This type of behaviour is
commonly observed when consumers are purchasing products like salt, etc. Low involvement
of consumers means that they simply reach the store and go for a brand to buy a product. If
the consumer is buying a product from the same brand, it does not mean that they are loyal to
the brand. It just means that the consumer is buying the product out of habit.

For example, buying a specific brand of toothpaste, snack items, or toiletries from a particular
store without much thought or consideration falls under habitual buying behaviour.
Consumers may choose these products based on familiarity, past positive experiences, or
simply because it is part of their routine.

The consumer behaviour, in this case, does not pass through the usual belief attitude
behaviour sequence. Before purchasing a product, these consumers do not extensively search
for information regarding the brand, evaluate the characteristics of the brand, and make
weighty decisions on which brand to purchase. Instead, they just passively receive the
information while watching television or reading newspapers or magazines. Also, Ad
repetitions instead of creating brand conviction create brand familiarity in the minds of
consumers. Because of this, consumers do not form strong attitudes towards a brand; they just
select the brand because they are familiar with it. Therefore, the marketers take help of
repetitive marketing campaigns, so that consumers can remember their brand.

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4. Variety-Seeking Buying Behaviour:

Variety-Seeking Buying Behaviour occurs when consumers exhibit a desire for new
experiences, change, and novelty in their purchases. It means that when consumers face a low
level of involvement but significant perceived brand differences, they undertake variety-
seeking buying behaviour. In such cases, the consumers switch brands more often.

For example, a consumer chooses a namkeen brand without doing much evaluation, and then
after consuming the product, evaluates it. But the consumer might pick another brand when
making a purchase the next time. The reason behind this can be his urge to try something new
or just out of boredom.

Consumers engaging in variety-seeking behaviour may not have strong brand loyalty and
actively seek alternatives, even if they are satisfied with their current choices. They enjoy
exploring different options, experimenting with new products, and deviating from their
routine purchases. This behaviour is more prevalent in product categories where there are
numerous options and alternatives available. Besides, the marketing strategy of the products,
in this case, may differ for the minor brands and the market leader. Market leaders try to
encourage the habitual buying behaviour of consumers by dominating shelf space, keeping
the shelves fully stocked with goods, and running advertisements frequently as a reminder.
However, the challenger firms encourage the variety-seeking behaviour of consumers by
offering them coupons, free samples, and goods at lower prices and encouraging them
through advertisements to buy something new.

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