Buying roles: marketers have to go beyond the various influences on buyers and develop an understanding of how consumers actually make their buying decisions. Specifically, marketers identify who makes the buying decision, the types of the buying decisions, and the steps in the buying process.

Buying roles: a big task before the marketer is to identify the target buyers of the particular new product. The marketer has to know who makes the buying decision for the particular product category. Very often, most of the purchase decisions involve a decision making unit (DMU) comprising of more than one person. So he has to understand the role of the various people, involved in the decision making process. The person's involved can play either of these roles.

1.       Initiator: the initiator is a person who first suggests or thinks of the idea of buying the particular product. For example, publisher of a book on marketing management initiates the professor to ask the students of his class to purchase the book. Here is the publisher is the initiator, the first person to initiate the buying process.

2.       Influence: influence is a person, whose views or advice is given weight age while taking the final decision, students are influenced by the advice is given of the professor while taking a decision to purchase a book. Here professor is the influencer.

3.       Decider: the decider is a person who ultimately determines any part or whole of the buying decision, whether to buy, what to buy, how to buy, when to buy or where to buy. Children are the deciders for buying the toys, house lady for kitchen provisions, and head of the family for durable or luxury items.

4.       Buyer: the buyer is the person who actually purchase. Buyer may be the decider or he may be some other person. Children (deciders) are the deciders for purchasing the toys, but purchases are made by the parents. Thus, parents are buyers.

5.       User: user is the person who actually uses or consumers the services or the products. It will be very useful for the company, if it is able to identify the roles of the persons involved in the decision making process because this information will help them in designing the product, do allocation for the promotional budget and work out the communication media and decide on whom to direct the message also.