Marketing Management/Fundamentals of Marketing

1.  
Dr. Pooja
Assistant Professor,
Dept. of Commerce
AMPGC, BHU
Buyer Behaviour
Concept
&
Factors Influencing Buyer Behaviour

2. Introduction
 In most of the markets, be it consumer market or organizational buying market,
buyers differ enormously in terms of their buying dynamics.
 So the task for the marketing manager is not only to understand these differences
in buying patterns but also to generalize them for better targeting and product offer.
 In consumer markets, for example, not only do buyers typically differ in terms of
their age, income, educational levels and geographical location, but more
fundamentally in terms of their personalities, lifestyles and their expectations from
the products and services available in the market.

3.  “Consumer behaviour refers to the actions and decision processes of people who purchase goods and
services for personal consumption.”
James F Engel, Roger D Blackwell and Paul W Miniard, “Consumer Behaviour” (Dryden Press, 1990)
 “Consumer behaviour refers to “the mental and emotional processes and the physical activities of people
who purchase and use goods and services to satisfy particular needs and wants.”
Bearden et al. “Marketing Principles and Perspectives.”
 “The behaviour that consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing off
if products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs.”
Leon G Schiffman and Leslie Lazar Kanuk, ‘Consumer Behaviour’,
Prentice-Hall of India, 4th ed. 1991

4.  Consumer behaviour refers to “the mental and emotional processes and the observable behaviour of
consumers during searching, purchasing and post consumption of a product or service.”
 Authors
How consumers make decisions to spend their available resources such as money, time and effort
on consumption and use related items is the subject of consumer behaviour study.

5.  A product or service should have a consumer to buy it. Thus, it is very necessary
to make a study on the behavioural aspect of the consumer i.e., there must be
reasonable answer to the following questions:
1. What does a consumer buy?
2. Where from does he buy?
3. When does he buy?
4. How much does he buy? and
5. Why does he buy?

6.  It is significant for regulating consumption of goods and thereby maintaining
economic stability.
 It is useful in developing ways for the more efficient utilisation of resources of
marketing. It also helps in solving marketing management problems in more effective
manner.
 Today consumers give more importance on environment friendly products. They
are concerned about health, hygiene and fitness. They prefer natural products. Hence
detailed study on upcoming groups of consumers is essential for any firm.
 The growth of consumer protection movement has created an urgent need to
understand how consumers make their consumption and buying decision.

7.  Consumers’ tastes and preferences are ever changing. Study of consumer
behaviour gives information regarding colour, design, size etc. which consumers
want. In short, consumer behaviour helps in formulating of production policy.
 For effective market segmentation and target marketing, it is essential to have an
understanding of consumers and their behaviour.

8.  Consumer behaviour refers to the selection, acquisition and consumption of goods
and services to meet their needs. There are different processes involved in consumer
behaviour. Initially, the consumer tries to find what products you would like to
consume, and then select only those products that promise greater utility. After
selecting the products, the consumer makes an estimate of available funds that can
happen.
 Finally, the consumer looks at the current prices of commodities and makes the
decision about which products to consume. Meanwhile, there are several factors that
influence consumer purchases, such as social, cultural, personal and psychological.

9. Factors Affecting Consumer Behaviour
Cultural Factors
Culture
Sub Culture
Social Class
Social Factors
Reference Group
Family
Role and Status
Personal Factors
Age
Occupation
Economic Situation
Lifestyle
Personality
Self Image
Psychological Factors
Perception
Motivation
Perception
Beliefs and
Attitudes

10. 1. Culture: Essentially, culture is the share of each company and is the major cause of the person
who wants culture and behaviour. The influence of culture on the purchasing behaviour varies from
country to country; therefore sellers have to be very careful in the analysis of the culture of different
groups, regions or even countries.
2. Subculture: Each culture has different subcultures, such as religions, nationalities, geographical
regions, racial, etc. Marketing groups may use these groups, segmenting the market in several
small portions. For example, marketers can design products according to the needs of a specific
geographical group.
3. Social Class: Every society has some kind of social class which is important for marketing
because the buying behaviour of people in a particular social class is similar. Thus marketing
activities could be adapted to different social classes. Here we should note that social class is not
only determined by income, but also there are several other factors such as wealth, education,
occupation etc.

11. 1. Reference groups: Reference groups have the potential for the formation of an attitude or
behaviour of an individual. The impact of reference groups vary across products and brands. For
example, if the product is visible as clothing, shoes, car etc. The influence of reference groups will
be higher. Reference groups also include opinion leader (a person who influences others by his
special skill, knowledge or other characteristics).
2. Family: Buyer behaviour is strongly influenced by a family member. So vendors are trying to find
the roles and influence of the husband, wife and children. If the decision to purchase a particular
product is influenced by the wife of a buyer then sellers will try to target women in their
advertisements. Here we should note that the purchase of roles change with changing lifestyles of
consumers.
3. Roles and Status: Each person has different roles and status in society in terms of groups, clubs,
family, etc. organization to which it belongs. For example, a woman working in an organization as
manager of finance. Now she is playing two roles. One is the chief financial officer and the other
one is mother. Therefore, purchasing decisions will be influenced by their role and status.

12. 1. Age: Age and life-cycle have a potential impact on the purchasing behaviour of consumers.
It is obvious that consumers change the purchase of goods and services over time. Family
life cycle consists of different stages as young, singles, married couples, and unmarried
couples etc. that help marketers develop suitable products for each stage.
2. Occupation: The occupation of a person has a significant impact on their buying behaviour.
For example, a marketing manager of an organization is trying to buy business suits, while a
low level worker in the same organization buy – resistant clothing works.
3. Economic Situation: Economic situation of the consumer has a greater influence on their
buying behaviour. If income and savings a customer is high, then going to buy more
expensive products. Moreover, a person with low income and savings buy cheap products.

13. 4. Lifestyle: Lifestyle clients are another factor affecting import purchasing behaviour of
consumers. Lifestyle refers to the way a person lives in a society and express things in their
environment. It is determined by the client’s interests, opinions, etc. and activities shape
their whole pattern of acting and interacting in the world.
5. Personality: Personality varies from person to person, time to time and place to place.
Therefore, it can greatly influence the buying behaviour of customers. In fact, personality is
not what one has, but is the totality of the conduct of a man in different circumstances. He
has a different characteristic, such as dominance, aggression, confidence etc. that may be
useful to determine the behaviour of consumers to the product or service.
6. Self-Image: A person’s self-image will also tend to influence what he or she will buy an
upwardly mobile manager may buy a flashy car to project an image of success.

14. 1. Perception: Studying consumer behavior helps marketers understand consumer
perceptions about a particular product or range of products. Uncovering and correcting
erroneous perceptions about a particular product may give marketers an additional
competitive advantage over competitors.
2. Motivation: The level of motivation also affects the purchasing behaviour of customers.
Each person has different needs, such as physiological needs, biological needs, social
needs, etc. The nature of the requirements is that some are more urgent, while others are
less pressing. Therefore, a need becomes a motive when it is most urgent to lead the
individual to seek satisfaction.

15. 3. Observation: Select, organize and interpret information in a way to produce a meaningful
experience of the world is called perception. There are three different perceptual processes
which are selective attention, selective distortion and selective retention. In case of selective
attention, sellers try to attract the attention of the customer, whereas, in case of selective
distortion, customers try to interpret the information in a way that supports what customers
already believe. Similarly, in case of selective retention, marketers try to retain information
that supports their beliefs.
4. Beliefs and Attitudes: Client has specific beliefs and attitudes towards different products.
Because such beliefs and attitudes shape the brand image and affect consumer buying
behaviour so traders are interested in them. Marketers can change beliefs and attitudes of
customers with special campaigns in this regard.