Consumer Behaviour: Kritika Malhotra NPGC

Consumer Behaviour
Kritika Malhotra
NPGC
Meaning of Consumer Behavior
 Consumer behaviour is the study of how individual
customers, groups or organizations select, buy, use, and
dispose ideas, goods, and services to satisfy their needs
and wants. It refers to the actions of the consumers in the
marketplace and the underlying motives for those actions.
 Marketers expect that by understanding what causes the
consumers to buy particular goods and services, they will
be able to determine—which products are needed in the
marketplace, which are obsolete, and how best to present
the goods to the consumers.
Definitions
 1. According to Engel, Blackwell, and Mansard,
‘consumer behaviour is the actions and decision processes
of people who purchase goods and services for personal
consumption’
 According to Louden and Bitta, ‘consumer behaviour is
the decision process and physical activity, which
individuals engage in when evaluating, acquiring, using or
disposing of goods and services’.
Nature of Consumer Behaviour:
 1. Influenced by various factors:
 The various factors that influence the consumer
behaviour are as follows:
 a. Marketing factors such as product design, price,
promotion, packaging, positioning and distribution.
 b. Personal factors such as age, gender, education and
income level.
 c. Psychological factors such as buying motives,
perception of the product and attitudes towards the
product.
 d. Situational factors such as physical surroundings at the
time of purchase, social surroundings and time factor.
 e. Social factors such as social status, reference groups
and family.
 f. Cultural factors, such as religion, social class—caste
and sub-castes.
 Undergoes a constant change
 Consumer behaviour is not static. It undergoes a change
over a period of time depending on the nature of products.
For example, kids prefer colourful and fancy footwear, but
as they grow up as teenagers and young adults, they prefer
trendy footwear, and as middle-aged and senior citizens
they prefer more sober footwear. The change in buying
behaviour may take place due to several other factors such
as increase in income level, education level and marketing
factors.
 3. Varies from consumer to consumer:
 All consumers do not behave in the same manner. Different
consumers behave differently. The differences in consumer
behaviour are due to individual factors such as the nature of the
consumers, lifestyle and culture. For example, some consumers
are technoholics. They go on a shopping and spend beyond
their means.
 Varies from region to region and country to county:
 The consumer behaviour varies across states, regions and
countries. For example, the behaviour of the urban consumers
is different from that of the rural consumers. A good number of
rural consumers are conservative in their buying behaviours
 Information on consumer behaviour is important to the
marketers:
 Marketers need to have a good knowledge of the consumer
behaviour. They need to study the various factors that
influence the consumer behaviour of their target customers.
 The knowledge of consumer behaviour enables them to
take appropriate marketing decisions in respect of the
following factors:
 a. Product design/model
 b. Pricing of the product
 c. Promotion of the product
 d. Packaging
 e. Positioning
 Improves standard of living:
 The buying behavior of the consumers may lead to higher
standard of living. The more a person buys the goods and
services, the higher is the standard of living. But if a
person spends less on goods and services, despite having a
good income, they deprives themselves of higher standard
of living.

Consumer Buying process
 Understanding the customer’s buying process is essential
for marketing and sales.
 The buyer decision process will enable them to set a
marketing plan that convinces them to purchase the
product or service for fulfilling the buyer’s or consumer’s
problem.
 Clearly, the buying process starts long before the actual
purchase and continues long after.
 The marketer’s
job is to understand the buyer’s behavior at each stage
and the influences that are operating.
Need or Problem Recognition
 During need or problem recognition, the consumer

recognizes a problem or need that could be satisfied by a
product or service in the market.
 Problem Recognition is the first stage of the buyer
decision process.
 At this stage, the consumer recognizes a need or problem.
The buyer feels a difference between his or her actual
state and some desired state.
 This could be a simple as “I’m hungry, I need food.”
 The need may have been triggered by internal stimuli
(such as hunger or thirst) or external stimuli (such as
advertising or word of mouth).
Information Search
 Once the need is recognized, the consumer is aroused to seek more
information and moves into the information search stage.
 The second stage of the purchasing process is searching for information.
 After the recognition of needs, the consumers try to find goods for
satisfying such needs. They search for information about the goods they
want.
 Consumers can get information about goods from different sources.
 Personal sources: This includes family, friends, neighbors, acquaintance,
etc.
 Commercial source: This includes advertising, salespeople, dealers,
packaging, display, etc.
 Public sources: This includes mass media, consumer rating organizations,
etc. they also become confidential to provide information.
 Experimental sources: This includes handling, examining, using, etc.
Such information becomes decisive and confidential.
 Evaluation of Alternatives
 With the information in hand, the consumer proceeds to
alternative evaluation, during which the information is used to
evaluate” brands in the choice set.
 Evaluation of alternatives is the third stage of the buying
process. Various points of information collected from different
sources are used in evaluating different alternatives and their
attractiveness.
 While evaluating goods and services, different consumers use
different bases.
 Generally, the consumers evaluate the alternatives on the basis
of attributes of the product, the degree of importance, belief in
the brand, satisfaction, etc. to choose correctly.
 Purchase Decision
 After the alternatives have been evaluated, consumers decide
to purchase products and services. They decide to buy the best
brand.
 But their decision is influenced by others’ attitudes and
situational factors.
 Post-Purchase Evaluation
 In the final stage of the buyer decision process, postpurchase
behavior, the consumer takes action based on satisfaction or
dissatisfaction.
 In this stage, the consumer determines if they are satisfied or
dissatisfied with the purchasing outcome. Here is where
cognitive dissonance occurs, “Did I make the right decision.

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 During need or problem recognition, the consumer

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