Consumer Buying Behaviour

Markets (and those which they serve) must be understood before marketing strategies may be developed. The consumer market purchase services and goods for personal consumption. With respect to the particular in the consumer market, the behaviour of the consumer is affected by the buyer's decision procedure. Buyer characteristics involve four major factors: social, cultural, personal, and psychological. Each of these factors is explored in detail. Relationships are drawn among the factors (and factor subparts) and the consumption purchases made by consumers. Because of many these factors are deep and long lasting in their influence, the marketing manager should pay special attention to gaining information regarding them with respect to the organization's target markets. Decisions vary depend on the degree of purchaser involvement and the degree of differences amongst brands. For new products, special situations influence the consumer selection decision. It has been found that consumers respond at several rates (based on product and consumer characteristics), acquire knowledge regarding the products in several different, and become aware of "newness" along varying rates of consideration. Factors that speed the rate of accepting of new products are covered and described. Understanding consumer behaviour is hard enough for companies marketing within the borders of a single country. The difficulty is compounded while a firm attempts to market in the global environment.

a)   Consumers make various buying decisions every day.

b) A model of consumer behaviour helps managers answer questions regarding what consumers buy, how and how much they purchase, where they purchase when they purchase, and why they buy.

1). Learning regarding, where, what, when, and how much is fairly easy.

2). Learning regarding the "why" is much more hard.

c)  The central question is: How do consumers respond to many marketing efforts the company may use.

d) The stimulus-response model of purchaser behaviour shows that marketing (build-up of the four P's- price, product place, and promotion) and other stimuli (likewise the, technological, economic, political, and cultural environments) centre on the consumer's "black box" and generate certain responses.

e) Marketers ought to figure out what is "in" the consumer's "black box."

f) The "black box" contains two parts.

1). The buyer's characteristics affect how he or she perceive and react to stimuli.

2). The buyer's decision procedure itself affects the buyer's behavior.