An Introduction to Buyer Behaviour, why we study it and its importance to modern marketing

1. Introduction to Buyer Behaviour
Dr Brian Monger
Copyright February 2014
This Power Point program and the associated documents remain the intellectual property and the
copyright of the author and of The Marketing Association of Australia and New Zealand Inc.

2. MAANZ International
• MAANZ International, is a Not for Profit,
internet based professional and educational
institute which has operated for over 25
years.
• MAANZ International offers Professional
Memberships;
• Marketing Courses (Formal and Short)
• And Marketing Publications
• www.marketing.org.au
Marketing In Black and White
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3. Dr. Brian Monger
• Brian Monger is the CEO of MAANZ International and a
Professional marketer and consultant with over 40 years
experience.
Marketing In Black and White
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4. Outline
• Buyer behaviour refers to the behaviour that buyers
display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating,
and disposing of products and services that they expect
will satisfy their needs.
• The study of buyer behaviour is the study of how
individuals make decisions to spend their available
resources - time, money, effort - on consumption-related
items.
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5. Buyer behaviour includes the study of:
• What they buy,
• Why they buy it,
• When they buy it,
• Where they buy it,
• How often they buy it,
• How they use it
• How often they use it.
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6. Different products evidence different
buying motivations
• Buyer researchers are able to provide marketers with
buyer orientated information to enhance their product
and marketing communication.
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7. Personal Buyers and Organisational
Buyers
• The Personal Buyer buys goods and services for his or
her own use, or as a gift for a friend.
• The Organisational Buyer encompasses profit and notfor-profit businesses, government agencies, and
institutions.
• The marketer must take account of who is the end-user
of this consumption.
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8. Buyers and Users (Consumers)
• The person who makes a product purchase is not always
the user, or the only user, of the product in question.
• Buyers are not always the users, or the only users, of the
products they buy, nor are they necessarily the persons
who make the product selection decisions.
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9. Buyers and Users (Consumers)
• Payers, that person who pays for the purchase is not
necessarily either the buyer or buyer.
• Marketers must decide at whom to direct their
promotional efforts: the buyer, payer or the user.
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10. Buyers and Users (Consumers)
• Buyer behaviour research also considers the uses
buyers make of the goods they buy and their subsequent
post-purchase evaluations.
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11. Buyers and Users (Consumers)
• Buyer researchers are also interested in how individuals
dispose of their once-new purchases.
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12. Buyer Behaviour as an academic
discipline and an applied field
• The initial thrust of buyer research was from a
managerial perspective. Marketing managers wanted to
know the specific causes of buyer behaviour, and how
people receive, store, and use consumption-related
information, so that they could predict buyer behaviour
and influence
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13. Buyer research describes the process and
tools used to study buyer behaviour.
• The two theoretical perspectives are:
• Positivist – objective and empirical, seeking causes for
behaviour and conduct research that can be generalised
to larger populations. This provides data for strategic
managerial decisions.
• Interpretivist – qualitative, based on small samples that
seek to find common patterns of operative values,
meanings and behaviours across consumption
situations.
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14. The Interdisciplinary Nature of Buyer
Behaviour Research
• There are a number of reasons why the study of buyer
behaviour developed, such as:
• Marketers had long noted that buyers did not always act
or react as economic theory would suggest.
• Buyer preferences were changing and becoming highly
diversified.
• Other factors including: new product development, the
buyer movement, growing consumerism, public policy,
environmental concerns, non-profit marketing, and the
development of international and global markets.
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15. Buyer behaviour embraces concepts
developed in other scientific disciplines,
• Such as psychology, sociology, social psychology,
cultural anthropology, and economics.
• Buyer behaviour research enables marketers to develop
new market segments and is undertaken by various
marketing and constituted bodies.
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16. Buyer behaviour
• Buyer researchers need to ask the right questions in
order to design research that will address the needs of
the marketer.
• Buyer research provides the basis for product
development, and identifies target markets based on
customer requirements. It does not guarantee
commercial success but improves the chances of
success.
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17. Why Marketers Study Buyer Behaviour
• Marketers adopted a policy of market segmentation,
which called for the division of their total potential market
into smaller, homogeneous segments.
• Marketers also used promotional techniques to vary the
image of their products to certain target segments (now
known as positioning
• Technological advancement has resulted in the rapid
introduction of new products at an ever increasing rate,
resulting in shorter product lifecycles.
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18. Why Marketers Study Buyer Behaviour
• Buyers placed increasing importance on the
environment. Brands positioned to be environmentally
friendly are considered favourably by buyers
• The growth of the buyer movement created an urgent
need to understand how buyers make consumption
decisions. Marketers needed to understand and work
with the buyer protection laws developing at a Federal
and State level

19. Why Marketers Study Buyer Behaviour
• The growth of services marketing forced marketers to
deal with relatively intangible and perishable offerings to
the public.
• Not-for-profit organisations are increasingly using
marketing techniques, and so find the study of buyer
behaviour relevant to them.
• An increased awareness on the part of business to
market on a global basis in order to achieve major
economies of scale. Australian marketers are now aware
of the importance of international buyer research.

20. More About
Buyer Behaviour
The buyer’s goal is to obtain
goods and services that meet
their needs and wants
buyers face varying problems
associated with acquiring
products to satisfy these needs
and wants
People engage in purchase
activities for many purposes
other than consumption
buyers make specific types
of decisions in order to
obtain desired goods and
services
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21. For example, a research study may ask
buyers...
How they
use the
product
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22. Benefits of Customer Retention
Are cheaper
to service
Buy more
products
Are less price
sensitive
Loyal
customers
Spread positive
word-of-mouth
Pay less attention
to competitor's
advertising
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23. Two Broad Types of Buyers
Personal buyers
Organisational buyers
The personal buyer buys goods
and services for:
Organisational buyer includes:
His or her own use
Use by the whole household, or a
household member, or
A gift for someone else
In all contexts, the products are
bought for final use by individuals
(end-users)
Profit businesses
Not-for-profit businesses
Public sector agencies and
Institutions (e.g. schools, churches)
In all cases, they buy products to help run
their organisations
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24. Buyer Research:
Two Perspectives
POSITIVIST APPROACH
Tends to be objective and
empirical
INTERPRETIVIST
METHODOLOGY
More qualitative
Seeks causes for behaviour
Based on smaller samples
Conduct studies that can be
generalised to larger
populations
View each consumption
situation as unique and nonpredictive
Look for common patterns
across consumption situations
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25. The Interdisciplinary Nature of Buyer
Behaviour Research
Psychology
The study of
the individual
Social
Psychology
How individuals
operate in groups
Economics
An important
component of
economics is the
study of buyers
Inputs to the study of
buyer behaviour
Sociology
The study of
groups
Cultural
Anthropology
The study of
humans in
society
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26. Key Model Components
•
Input  Process  Output
•
Input =
Various firms’ marketing
activities + EXTERNAL
social/culture influences
•
Process =
Decision steps + INTERNAL
psychological factors (modified with experience)
•
Output =
Trial and repeat purchases and
post-purchase evaluation
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27. • For more information about MAANZ International and articles
about Marketing, visit:
• www.marketing.org.au
• http://smartamarketing.wordpress.com
• http://smartamarketing2.wordpress.com
• . http://www.linkedin.com/groups/MAANZSmartaMarketing-Group-2650856/about
• Email: info@marketing.org.au
• Link to this site - - http://www.slideshare.net/bmonger for
further presentations
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28. END
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