factors

4 major factors that influence consumer buyer behaviour

Definition of Buying Behaviour:
Buying Behaviour is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using products.

Need to understand:

• Why consumers make the purchases that they make?
• What factors influence consumer purchases?
• The changing factors in our society.

Consumer Buying Behaviour refers to the buying behaviour of the ultimate consumer.

A consumer’s buyer behaviour is influenced by four major factors:

1) Cultural,

2) Social

3) Personal

4) Psychological.

These factors cause consumers to develop product and brand preferences. Although many of these factors cannot be directly controlled by marketers, understanding of their impact is essential as marketing mix strategies can be developed to appeal to the preferences of the target market.

When purchasing any product, a consumer goes through a decision process. This process consists of up to five stages:

- Stage 1: problem recognition,

- Stage 2: information search,

- Stage 3: evaluation of alternatives,

- Stage 4: purchase decision

- Stage 5: post purchase behaviour.

The length of this decision process will vary. A consumer may not act in isolation in the purchase, but rather may be influenced by any of several people in various roles. The number of people involved in the buying decision increases with the level of involvement and complexity of the buying decision behaviour.

Consumer’s buyer behaviour and the resulting purchase decision are strongly influenced by cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics. An understanding of the influence of these factors is essential for marketers in order to develop suitable marketing mixes to appeal to the target customer.

CULTURAL factors include a consumer’s culture, subculture and social class. These factors are often inherent in our values and decision processes.

SOCIAL factors include groups (reference groups, aspirational groups and member groups), family, roles and status. This explains the outside influences of others on our purchase decisions either directly or indirectly.

PERSONAL factors include such variables as age and lifecycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle (activities, interests, opinions and demographics), personality and self concept. These may explain why our preferences often change as our `situation' changes.

PSCHOLOGICAL factors affecting our purchase decision include motivation (Maslow's hierarchy of needs), perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes.

Other people often influence a consumer’s purchase decision. The marketer needs to know which people are involved in the buying decision and what role each person plays, so that marketing strategies can also be aimed at these people. (Kotler et al, 1994).

Purchase decision

Evaluation of different purchase options
So what Blu-Ray DVD player do we purchase? Will it be a Sony, Toshiba or Samsung player? Consumers often create a point system in their minds where products are scored based on how many of their features appeal to them. So for one customer, brand may be more important then price and for another customer product appearance may be important. In the case of a DVD player consumers may be reviewing sound and picture quality. An evaluation system is particularly useful when there is a large number of options. Marketing strategies will try and influence this stage of the process by highlighting product features that they think will appeal to consumers. Appealing product features will be emphasised on product packaging, promotional materials and the manufacturer's websites.

Purchase decision

After the evaluation process consumers will select the product they would like to purchase. Once product may be a clear winner or the consumer may have to reprioritise their criteria to help them select a product. The job of the seller is to ensure that the purchase process is simple and effective. Even at this stage the purchaser could change their mind and select a competitor product or cancel the purchase altogether. A long queue, impolite sales staff or complicated sales process can all dissuade consumers from buying. Even if a consumer buys on this occassion a negative buying experience could stop them buying in the future. Therefore sellers need to make the buying process as simple and enjoyable as possible to safeguard this and future purchases.

Post Purchase Behaviour

Ever have doubts about the product after you purchased it? Research shows that this feeling is a common post purchase behaviour. Manufacturers of products clearly want purchasers to feel proud of their purchase, so that they will purchase from them again and recommend them to family and friends. It is therefore just as important for manufacturer's promotions to reassure purchasers, as it is for them to attract new customers. Promotions should make puchasers feel that they have bought their product from a strong and reputable organisation with "good" products.

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PURCHASE PROCESS

PURCHASE PROCESS

Introduction

What influences consumers to purchase products or services? The consumer buying process is a complex matter as many internal and external factors have an impact on the buying decisions of consumers. Consumers do not spend much time thinking about the purchase of low value products which are bought on impulse. Manufacturers of such products will need to implement strategies that encourage consumers to buy on impulse from them instead of their competitors.When consumers purchase high value products or non impulse products, they often go through a set process. This process is discussed below. On the next page there is a discussion of what influences consumer buying behaviour and the different types of buying behaviour.

Problem or Need Recognition
How do you decide which particular product or service to purchase? It could be that your Blu-Ray DVD player stops working and you now have to look for a new one; otherwise you will not be able to play your Blu-Ray films So you have a problem or a new need. This is the first step in the consumer buying process.

Information search

So we have a problem, our Blu-Ray player no longer works and we need to buy a new one. What is the solution? Yes go out and purchase a new one, but which brand? Shall we buy the same brand as the one that blew up? Or stay clear of that just in case the new player experiences the same problems as the old one? Consumer often go on an information search to help them choose their product. Sources of information include family, friends, retail staff and in this digital age the internet. The internet contains information about products (specifications), product reviews and online product forums. Information search may involve a visit to a retail store to view products that the consumer is interested in puchasing. In our example the consumer is on an information search to solve an immediate problem; they intend to make a purchase at the end of the process. Consumers also acquire and store information for future purchases. Firms will take such consumers into account when designing their marketing strategies, in the hope that when such a consumer is ready to buy they will use the "stored" information about their product into account and buy their products.

Description

 

In the above model, marketing and other stimuli enter the customers “black box” and produce certain responses.

Marketing management must try to work out what goes on the in the mind of the customer – the “black box”. 

The Buyer’s characteristics influence how he or she perceives the stimuli; the decision-making process determines what buying behaviour is undertaken.

Characteristics that affect customer behaviour

The first stage of understanding buyer behaviour is to focus on the factors that determine he “buyer characteristics” in the “black box”.

Model

motivation

Types of consumer buying behavior

Types of consumer buying behavior are determined by:

• Level of Involvement in purchase decision. Importance and intensity of interest in a product in a particular situation.
• Buyers level of involvement determines why he/she is motivated to seek information about a certain products and brands but virtually ignores others.

High involvement purchases--Honda Motorbike, high priced goods, products visible to others, and the higher the risk the higher the involvement. Types of risk:

• Personal risk
• Social risk
• Economic risk

The four type of consumer buying behavior are:

• Routine Response/Programmed Behavior--buying low involvement frequently purchased low cost items; need very little search and decision effort; purchased almost automatically. Examples include soft drinks, snack foods, milk etc.
• Limited Decision Making--buying product occasionally. When you need to obtain information about unfamiliar brand in a familiar product category, perhaps. Requires a moderate amount of time for information gathering. Examples include Clothes--know product class but not the brand.
• Extensive Decision Making/Complex high involvement, unfamiliar, expensive and/or infrequently bought products. High degree of economic/performance/psychological risk. Examples include cars, homes, computers, education. Spend alot of time seeking information and deciding.
  Information from the companies MM; friends and relatives, store personnel etc. Go through all six stages of the buying process.
• Impulse buying, no conscious planning.

The purchase of the same product does not always elicit the same Buying Behavior. Product can shift from one category to the next.
For example:
Going out for dinner for one person may be extensive decision making (for someone that does not go out often at all), but limited decision making for someone else. The reason for the dinner, whether it is an anniversary celebration, or a meal with a couple of friends will also determine the extent of the decision making.