Model of consumer behaviour

Consumers make various buying decisions every day. Most of the large company's research consumer buying decisions in large detail to answer questions regarding what consumers buys, how and how much they buy, where they buy, why they buy and when they buy. Marketers may study actual consumer purchases to determine what they buy, how much, and where. But learning regarding the whys of consumer buying behaviour is not so simple to the answers is frequently locked deep within the consumer's head.

Central question for marketers is: How do consumers respond to many marketing efforts the company may use?  The  company  that  in fact  understands  how  the consumers  will  respond  to different  product  features, advertising  appeals ,  and  prices has  a  big  advantage  over  its competitors. The initial point is the stimulus-response model of buyer behaviour as shown in Figure. This figure indicates that marketing and other stimuli enter consumer's "black box" and produce definite responses. Marketers have to figure out what is in buyer's black box.3

Model of consumer behaviour

Marketing stimuli consist of four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. Other stimuli include chief forces and events in buyer's environment: technological, economic, cultural and political. All of these inputs enter buyer's black box, where they are turned into a set of observable buyer responses:, brand choice, product choice , purchase timing, dealer choice and purchase amount.

The marketer desires to understand how stimuli are changed into responses inside consumer's black box, which contain two parts. Primary, the buyer's characteristics affect how he or she perceives and reacts to stimuli. Second, buyer's decision procedure itself affects the buyer's behaviour. This chapter looks first at buyer characteristics as they influence buying behaviour, and then discusses buyer decision procedure.

 Consumer purchases are affected strongly by, social, cultural, psychological and personal characteristics, as indicate in Figure for most part, marketers can't control such type of factors, but they have to take them into account.