This provides an overview of consumer behavior with a focus on the factors that influence it.

1. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
By Sarah Reigelsperger

2. The Steps of The Consumer Decision
Process
1. Need Recognition
2. Information Search
3. Alternative Evaluation
4. Purchase and Consumption
5. Post-Purchase Evaluation

3. Factors that Influence The Consumer
Decision Process
There are four main factors that influence the consumer decision process:
• Psycological Factors
• Social Factors
• Marketing Mix
• Situational Factors

4. Psychological Factors
There are multiple different psychological factors that affect how people receive the
messages that marketers are sending. These include:
•Motives
•Attitudes
•Perceptions
•Learning and Memory
•Lifestyle

5. Motives
A motive in this context is a necessity or desire that is strong enough for a person to
act upon it and seek satisfaction. There are five different groups of motives defined by
what is known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and they must be met in the following
order:
•Physiological – the basic requirements for life like food and water
•Safety – physical well-being
•Love – the needs related to our interactions with other people
•esteem – the needs that allow people to grow or be happy
•Self-Actualization – a person arrives at this stage by feeling completely satisfied with
life

6. Attitudes
A person’s attitude refers to his/her long-standing assessment of or feelings about
and propensities regarding an object or concept. There are three parts of a person’s
attitude:
•cognitive component – a person’s belief system or what they know
•affective component - emotional feelings toward a given issue
•behavioral component – a person’s actions he or she takes based on his or her
feelings and beliefs about the issue at hand

7. Learning and Memory
•Learning is the change in a person’s thought process or actions that result from
experience, and it takes place throughout each consumer’s decision process.
•Memories are made up of the information consumers have acquired and stored in
their brains.
•Learning and memory work in concert to inform each consumer’s decision process.

8. Perception
Perception is how a person selects, organizes, and interprets information to form a
view of the world.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle refers to how consumers spend their time and money during their lives.

9. Social Factors
The social factors that influence consumer behavior include the following:
• Family – families often consider the needs of all of the people in the house to when
making purchasing decisions, and sometimes different members of a household have
different purchasing responsibilities. For instance, a father and son may be in charge
of buying groceries while the mother may be in charge of buying gifts.
• Reference Groups – A reference group is a person or a group of people that one
person uses as a basis for comparison for beliefs, feelings, and behaviors. For example,
a consumer may buy a specific lipstick to be like a specific celebrity.
• Culture – Culture is the shared meanings, beliefs, values, and customs of a group of
people. Basically, these common values and customs influence purchasing behavior.

10. Situational Factors
Situational factors are factors that are specific to circumstances, and they have the
ability to override psychological or social factors.
• Purchase Situation – When a consumer is in a particular situation (like buying a gift),
he or she may deviate from typical purchasing habits.
• Sensory Situation – Visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and/or taste sensations can
influence consumer decisions.
• Temporal State – A person’s or state of mind can influence purchases.

11. Involvement
There are two different types of purchasing decisions consumers make, and they
depend on a consumer’s involvement:
•Extended Problem Solving – When a consumer recognizes he or she has an unmet
need, the consumer may spend a lot of time doing research and analyzing alternatives
before making a purchase. This is known as extended problem solving, and it is quite
common when the need requires a risky purchase.
•Limited Problem Solving – Limited problem solving happens when a purchase
decision requires little to moderate amount of effort and time. This buying process is
typical when customers have prior experience with the product or service and the
perceived risk is moderate. However, impulse buying also involves limited problem
solving.

12. WORK CITED
Grewal, Dhruv, and Michael Levy. Marketing. McGraw-Hill Education, 2022.