Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior refers to the study of how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources on consumption-related items. It involves understanding the factors that influence consumers' purchasing decisions, such as psychological, social, and cultural influences. Marketers use this knowledge to develop strategies that effectively target and appeal to consumer preferences and behaviors.
8 Key excerpts on "Consumer Behavior"
eBook - ePub- Mo Willan(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Bloomsbury Business(Publisher)
...CHAPTER FOUR Consumer Behaviour As explained in the first chapter, marketing is all about identifying and satisfying the needs of consumers, so understanding customers is crucial to marketing success. The Customer is King, so it is of critical importance that organizations devote significant time and resources to understanding their customers. It is essential to gain a solid understanding of what customers buy, why they buy, how they buy and when they buy. It is also crucial to understand the differences between consumers (users of the firm’s products) and customers (buyers of the firm’s products) because it can be the case that buyers are not always the users – it can be mothers who buy clothing for their children, for example. Consumer behaviour is the study of the decision-making process that consumers go through in their purchasing decisions. Companies need to ensure that they tailor their marketing activities and efforts to match the behaviours of consumers. The study of consumer behaviour involves both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business consumer markets (B2B). Business to consumer implies that the organization sells to individual consumers and business-to-business implies that the organization sells to other organizations. The Consumer Decision-Making Process (B2C) Consumers typically go through a number of distinct stages in their buying decisions, and this is known as the consumer decision-making process. The diagram below illustrates the different stages involved: Figure 5: Consumer Decision-Making Process Need or Problem Recognition The first stage of the decision-making process implies that the potential customer has a need or problem that is to be satisfied. This need can be brought about by internal factors such as hunger for food, or by external factors such as company promotions for its products...
eBook - ePub- Zubin Sethna, Jim Blythe(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...[Recently corroborated by Papista et al., 2018.] The general model of consumer behaviour shown in Figure 1.1 shows that basic attitudes (formed of thought, emotion and intended behaviour) together with personal and environmental factors result in the creation of actual behaviour. Marketers are able to influence this process at several points – they can influence thought processes by providing relevant information at the right time, they can influence emotion by using appealing communication and imagery, and they can provide suitable environmental stimuli (for example, user-friendly websites or inviting shops) to stimulate purchase. Marketers can even encourage greater consumption of the product – good marketing does not stop at the point of sale. Academic researchers may well consider consumer behaviour as the field of study that concentrates on consumption activities. In the past the study of consumer behaviour has mainly focused on why people buy. More recently, the focus has moved to include looking at consumption behaviour – in other words, how and why people consume. Studying consumer behaviour is an interesting study not just for marketers, but even for non-marketers, because we are all consumers. Ultimately, consumers hold all the power in the business world – as Sam Walton, founder of WalMart, famously said: There is only one boss – the customer...
eBook - ePubPrinciples of Advertising
A Global Perspective, Second Edition
- Monle Lee, Carla Johnson(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...By knowing customers’ buying behaviors, marketers can create marketing mixes that satisfy customers and lead to success in the marketplace. GE found that price was a deciding factor for Japanese consumers in the market for a refrigerator. The company then emphasized that its refrigerators cost half the price of a Japanese model. Constant research on buyer behavior and the factors influencing buying behavior is definitely important for marketers of any products. Chapter 7 will focus on the important topic of research methods. The goal of advertising is to persuade the consumer to do something, usually to purchase a product. If advertising is to attract and communicate to audiences in a way that produces this desired result, advertisers must first understand their audiences. They must acquaint themselves with consumers’ ways of thinking, with those factors that motivate them, and with the environment in which they live (see Illustration 6.1). In this chapter, we will first examine the buyer decision-making process as it goes through the various stages of problem solving. We will discuss what occurs at each stage and how advertising and promotion can be used to influence buyer decision making. We will also examine the influences of various personal (such as demographic) and psychological factors (such as perception, motivation, attitudes, lifestyle, and personality) on the buyer decision process as well as the influence of external influences (such as social factors). The chapter will finally take a look at the importance of understanding Consumer Behavior. THE BUYER DECISION PROCESS All customers can be split into two general groups: business and consumer buyers. The business market consists of manufacturers, resellers, governments, and nonprofit institutions. The consumer market is made up of individuals and households who buy goods and services for personal use...
eBook - ePubApplied Behavior Science in Organizations
Consilience of Historical and Emerging Trends in Organizational Behavior Management
- Ramona A. Houmanfar, Mitch Fryling, Mark P. Alavosius, Ramona A. Houmanfar, Mitch Fryling, Mark P. Alavosius(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...7 Consumer Behavior Analysis Meets the Marketing Firm 1 Gordon R. Foxall DOI: 10.4324/9781003198949-7 Ludwig von Mises has commented, speaking of production, that it is not something physical, material, and external; it is a spiritual and intellectual phenomenon. Its essential requisites are not human labor and external natural forces and things, but the decision of the mind to use these factors as means for the attainment of ends. What produces the product are not toil and trouble themselves, but the fact that the toiling is guided by reason. (von Mises, 1949, pp. 141–142) If this is true of production, how much more so of marketing! 2 WHY? Consumer Behavior analysis brings together behavior analysis, microeconomics, and marketing science in a quest to better understand economic and social behavior (Foxall, 2016). It has been applied to such aspects of consumer choice as product and brand selection, store preference, the sensitivity of the quantity consumers purchase of a product to its price and the pattern of reinforcement it presents, and the determination of what it is that consumers actually purchase. The field is now attracting considerable research attention in fields such as food purchasing, healthy consumption, online Consumer Behavior, and travel (Foxall, 2017; see also, e.g., Fagerstrøm et al., 2017; Menon et al., 2019; Oliveira-Castro & Foxall, 2017). But the analysis of Consumer Behavior gives only one half of the picture. The firms and other marketing providers who supply consumers with products and services, retail outlets, and online shopping opportunities are also responsible for a large proportion of human economic and social behavior in affluent economies. A great deal of work has been done on this aspect of economic choice and has resulted in an account of the marketing firm, which complements the research on consumer choice...
eBook - ePub- Kenneth M. Eades, Timothy M. Laseter, Ian Skurnik, Peter L. Rodriguez, Lynn A. Isabella, Paul J. Simko(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
...11 Consumer Behavior Successful firms do well at many aspects of business practice, from finance to marketing to accounting to human resources. If you ask managers at successful firms about the key to their success, they often answer that the single most important component of their business is external to the firm: their customers. As Peter Drucker said, “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.” 1 Because firms try to provide value to consumers, understanding their consumers is essential. Business strategy requires a definition of what customers the firm should serve and how it should serve them. Positioning against competition in the marketplace, designing valued products and brands, and communicating their value all require knowledge of what customers think and do. Ideally, a firm should have a fine-grained understanding of how its final customers make purchase decisions. There are many influences on purchase decisions, from internal attitudes and knowledge held by each individual customer to external social groups that surround a customer and may have a stake in the final purchase decision. Understanding what consumers do and why they do it involves answering many types of questions using many different methods and disciplines. Exhibit 11.1 shows a simplified overview of the forces that affect consumer decision making. For any given decision, a consumer can be influenced by a variety of internal and external factors, which may operate singly or in combination. The exhibit gives an overview of cultural, environmental, and psychological processes in individual decisions, along with examples of each general kind of influence. Of course the levels of influence are not wholly separate—a consumer’s age can affect what family members are influential and which subcultures are open for membership, for example...
eBook - ePubStrategic Marketing
An Introduction
- Tony Proctor(Author)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...chapter eight ANALYSING THE CUSTOMER IN THE MARKET PLACE INTRODUCTION The markets that are seen through strategic windows are not abstract concepts—they contain people. In order to understand how changes in the market occur, not only does an organization have to understand the broader issues in the business environment and the views of the market perceived by competitors, but it also has to understand the buying behaviour of the people themselves. In studying buyer behaviour, a distinction is made between complex decision-making situations and those in which little consideration is given to the purchase being made. Where a product is relatively expensive and possibly technologically complex, prospective purchasers often go through a complex search and evaluation process prior to making a purchase. Various models of consumer behaviour have been developed over the years. The models reflect the different buying situations in which consumers find themselves. Factors influencing consumer behaviour must be considered as well as similar factors influencing the buying decisions in business to business transactions. An understanding of these factors and how they influence the buying decision are extremely important when putting together a selling strategy...
eBook - ePubMarketing Communications
Integrating Online and Offline, Customer Engagement and Digital Technologies
- PR Smith, Ze Zook(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Kogan Page(Publisher)
...This chapter considers some of the theories and models that the marketing professional can use to help to communicate with and influence the buyer at various stages before, during and after purchasing. Buying behaviour is often more complex than it appears. Individuals are generally not very predictable, but, in the aggregate, groups of customers (or percentages of markets) can be more predictable. Whether in the industrial or consumer market, or whether they are buying products or services, buyers respond in different ways to the barrage of marketing communications that are constantly aimed at them. Theoretical frameworks borrowed from psychology, sociology, social psychology, cultural anthropology and economics are now added to by both commercial and academic market research into consumer and business-to-business buyer behaviour. All of this contributes to a better understanding of customers. It is this understanding that helps to reveal what kind of marketing communications work best. This chapter can provide only an outline of the vast amount of work written in this area. The complex burger buyer example below is used to open up some of the types of questions that need to be considered. The chapter then looks at types of purchases and the buying process (including some buying models) and then considers how the ‘intervening variables’ of perception, motivation, learning, memory, attitudes, beliefs, personality and group influence can influence the communication process and, ultimately, buying behaviour. Three key questions There are three key groups of questions that have to be answered before any marketing communications can be carried out: Who is the buyer (target market profiles and decision-making units)? Why do they buy (or not buy) a particular brand or product? How do they buy (how, when and where do they buy)? The second question, ‘Why do they buy?’, is the most difficult to answer...
eBook - ePubConsumer Behavior Analysis
(A) Rational Approach to Consumer Choice
- Donald A. Hantula, Victoria K. Wells, Donald A. Hantula, Victoria K. Wells(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...An article by Foxall (1998b) offered a radical behaviorist interpretation of Consumer Behavior called the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM). A chapter by Hantula, DiClemente, and Rajala (2001) introduced the Behavioral Ecology of Consumption and brought concepts and methods from work in Foraging Theory (Stephens & Krebs, 1986) and matching theory into the analysis of Consumer Behavior. Further theoretical grounding was also provided in an inaugural essay at the beginning of the Millennium (Foxall, 2001), and research to that point was extensively reviewed in the three volumes of Consumer Behaviour Analysis : Critical Perspectives in Business and Management (Foxall, 2002). These initial forays into CBA were then followed by a number of articles expanding the scope of the area (for example see Foxall & James, 2001, 2003 ; DiClemente and Hantula, 2003 ; Romero, Foxall, James, & Schrezenmaier, 2006 ; Foxall, Oliveira-Castro, James, & Schrezenmaier, 2006, 2007). These supplied a solid conceptual foundation for the more complex empirical and theoretical analyses presented in these pages. While the synthesis of OBM and Consumer Behavior noted above has touched upon some aspects of marketing science it covers only a small range of its applications theories and approaches. Consumer Behavior Analysis has sought to explore and explain a much wider range of marketing theory and strategy. Marketing uses the analogy of the 4Ps or the marketing mix (first developed by McCarthy, 1960): Product, Price, Place and Promotion to highlight the four key controllable factors that marketers have at their disposal and which must be determined taking into account the uncontrollable factors such as the existing business situation and external influences (for example: government policy and social and cultural elements). Consumer Behavior Analysis has explored all 4Ps, to differing extents...
