CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR An Introduction Consumer behavior involves the psychological processes that consumers go through in recognizing needs, finding

g ways to solve these needs, making purchase decisions (e.g., whether or not to purchase a product and, if so, which brand and where), interpret information, make plans, and implement these plans (e.g., by engaging in comparison shopping or actually purchasing a product). Consumer behavior is the mental and emotional processes and the observable behavior of consumers in the research and the consumer after the purchase of a product and service (Batra & Kazmi, 2004) Sources of influence on the consumer. The consumer faces numerous sources of influence.

There are four different positions to make decisions and behavior of consumers related. It is argued that a first economic as consumers are exposed to imperfect competition and, above all, they are always assumed to make rational decisions to make assumptions that it is based are all aware, product solutions that they can reap the benefits and limitations of each to classify alternatives and be able to identify a better alternative. Second Passive View is completely contrary to economic factors and suggests that consumers are irrational and impulsive as they are subjected to self-centered interests of traders and have influenced marketing tools. Similarly, third, Emotional View obliged to consumers decision-making receive based on their association or an emotional feeling about certain products and services. For example, a person with special red pen or lose, you go to make rational decisions by evaluating alternatives (economically) neither the person is by marketing (passive view) will be affected. Rather, the person will try to use a pen as many of his favorite buying property. The fourth, and probably the best known cognitive view , where consumers are considered thinking problem solver, open-minded and are actively searching for products and services that meet their needs. Consumer behavior under this view is based on information retrieval and processing conducted under the general attributes of a target. EMOTIONS Meaning Emotion is a complex psychological and physiological phenomenon involving an individual's state of mind and how it interacts between that individual and their environment. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience". Emotion is associated with mood, temperament, personality and disposition, and motivation. The English word 'emotion' is derived from the French word mouvoir. This is based on the Latin emovere, where e- (variant of ex-) means 'out' and movere

means 'move'.

Emotions and Consumer Behaviour Consumers' emotions have a significant influence on purchase and consumption decisions for a wide variety of products. A good example of this phenomenon can be found in the candy and snack market, where consumer responses are a product of a sizable number of emotion-laden situations that may be exploited in advertising strategy. Candy is often used as a reward for appropriate behavior in childhood, as well as a gift or positive message among adults for events such as Valentine's Day, anniversaries, and birthdays. On the other hand, many consumers believe that candy and snacks have negative consequences if they are used excessively. By capitalizing on these and similar past experiences through the firm's advertising efforts, the marketer of confections can either attempt to alleviate negative, or accentuate positive emotional feelings directed toward the brand or product class. Emotions appear to play a similar role in other consumer products such as tobacco, liquor, automobiles as well as many food products. Emotional, experiential, and aesthetic behaviors that normally lie beyond the scope of traditional marketing are currently receiving extraordinary attention. Although some have argued that these aspects of consumption activity are deserving of study in their own right, practitioners have realized that understanding the dynamics of activities such as emotional experience can assist in developing marketing strategy. Although our present knowledge of buyer and consumer emotional experience is relatively limited, this article will provide some structure to what we do know, in an effort to apply it to the advertising area.

Emotions in consumer research There is wide divergence in the content of emotions studied in consumer research. Studies often use different scales to measure emotions and focus on different emotions. In spite of this, consumer researchers frequently use, or exploratory data analysis yields, a small number of dimensions. Among these, the classification of emotions in positive and negative affect appears to be the most popular conceptualization Positive and negative affect Many researchers helped to segretate emotions under 2 categories Positive and Negative. Advantages of the division in positive and negative affect are that (1) The model can be kept simple and (2) The combination of a persons positive and negative affect is indicative of his/her attitude. The disadvantage is that important distinctions among different positive and negative emotions disappear. A hierarchy of consumer emotions Shaver et al. (1987) and Storm and Storm (1987) have suggested that emotions can be grouped into clusters, yielding a hierarchical structure. The most general, super ordinate level consists of positive and negative affect. The next level is considered as the basic emotion level, and the lowest, subordinate, level consists of groups of individual emotions that form a category named after the most typical emotion of that category. The hierarchy of consumer emotions distinguishes between positive and negative affect at the super ordinate level.

Emotions sell advertising that may not sell anything else. The advertising industry is struggling because it has become a victim of its own success. After years of making great advertising the end result of itself, consumers have naturally come to embrace ads as entertainment. A new study says that messages in advertising are irrelevant anyway. Advertisements with lots of emotional content improve how people feel about brands, even when the ads don't communicate anything in particular. On the other hand, ads with little emotion don't do beans for their brands, even if they are chock full of useful news and information. Some experts say entertainingly emotional ads open the dialogue with consumers. Maybe. But even so, people are still more likely to make buying decisions based on real-world needs, hard data and validations from sources they trust. Sure, theyll walk into a big box store and think well of the Sony, Compaq and Mac computers thanks to their edgy ad campaigns. But theyll walk out with an unadvertised eMachine because the

research they did on the Internet told them it was the best buy for their money.

MOOD The word mood has a wide range of usages and meaning. One might use the term to describe a phenomenological property of an individuals subjectively perceived affective state; e.g., someone may be in a cheerful mood or a hostile mood. One might also use mood to describe a property of an inanimate object, - e.g., a point-of-purchase display may have a sophisticated mood or a fun mood. As such, moods are a subcategory of feeling states. Mood will refer to feeling states that are transient; such states are particularized to specific times and situations and may be contrasted with those that arc relatively stable and permanent. Moods may be distinguished from emotions, which, in contrast, are usually more intense, attention-getting, and tied to a specific behavior. Different types of positive moods (e.g., cheeriness, peacefulness, and sexual warmth) and negative moods (e.g., anxiety, guilt, and depression) can be readily identified.

The link between mod states and affective responses and judgments may be viewed as both direct and in- direct. Effects of Mood States on Recall In some models, constructs may be conceptualized as nodes, and relationships between constructs as links. From this perspective, mood may be viewed as stored with, or linked to a set of constructs or experiences in memory. Re- call may be affected by the consumers mood at the time of exposure or retrieval: or by a match between exposure and retrieval moods.

Unaided recall is enhanced when mood at the time of retrieval matches mood at the time of encoding and when the encoding mood can serve as a retrieval cue. If such a cue is unnecessary~ because of the properties of the task or of the stimulus, recall does not appear to be enhanced by a match between encoding and retrieval moods. Analogous findings have been reported for other variables that affect an individuals psychological or physical state such as alcohol, drugs, or underwater submersion. Exposure mood may affect a consumers subsequent recall of a service encounter or its results by enhancing the consumers recall of mood-congruent items. For example, customers who arc in a good mood when they open bank accounts may be more likely to recall positive information about their accounts later. Mood may affect the recall/retrieval of past service encounters by enhancing recall of mood-congruent items, which, in turn, may be associated with biased assessments of the likelihood of mood-congruent events. For example, patients admitted to hospitals in bad moods may retrieve more negative information about past hospital experiences than those in good moods and may be more likely to presume the worst about an impending hospital stay. Mood Effects at Point-of-Purchase Positive mood states at the point-of-purchase may both increase shoppers willingness to perform tasks with positive expected outcomes, and decrease their willingness to perform behaviors with negative expected outcomes. For example, trying on clothing may be associated with positive outcomes for some shoppers and with negative outcomes for others. Information acquisition at the point-of-purchase may have important effects on subsequent brand evaluation. The consumers mood at the time of initial exposure to a product may affect the valence of product features readily accessible to

subsequent recall. This effect may be particularly important in family buying: i.e., exposure effects may influence the valence of stored information brought home by information gatherers and used to make purchase decisions. If the mood created by a brands advertising matches the mood induced at the point-of-purchase, message recall may be enhanced as the result of state-dependent memory effects. To induce such effects, manufacturers may select appropriate retail outlets or influence in- store settings near their merchandise by using special personnel, events, colors, and lighting. Mood Induction at Point-of-Purchase Consumers mood states at the point-of-purchase may be influenced by physical settings and interactions with sales personnel. Kotler (1974) has suggested that store atmospherics may be especially important when stores carry similar product lines and are equally convenient (which is often the case in retailing today). There are indications that environmental factors can significantly influence evaluations. Example Maslow and Mintz (1956) found that evaluations made in a beautiful room were significantly higher than those made in either an average room or an ugly room. A second way in which in-store mood maybe induced involves interactions with sales personnel. On an aggregate level, the tone set the salespeople may induce appropriate moods, e.g., an upbeat mood in a disco boutique. On a more personal level, salespeople may develop relationships with specific customers and adjust their selling tactics to an individuals moods.

CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT Consumer involvement incorporates the consumer perspective into the process of planning and decision making. Consumer involvement refers to degree of information processing or extent of importance that a consumer attaches to a product. The degree of involvement has a very significant effect on consumer behaviour. When more expensive products are to be purchased, the consumer gets more involved in purchase process but he may not be equally involved in a product, which is just a rupee or two priced It is "a process, or processes by which interested and affected individuals are consulted and included in the decision making of an agency, planning group or collaborative entity". What that process looks like may vary greatly, but ultimately a key result of consumer involvement is that consumers' views and experiences are directly included in the planning and decision making processes. Examples CAR- As it is a expensive product so consumer will get highly involved resulting in higher involvement.

BOOK- The book purchased by a student for preparing competitive exam may not be as expensive as car, yet the customer gets highly involved because it is a important product.

MEDICINE- When a medicine is being purchased, which may not be very expensive, yet the customer may be highly involved in checking that it shouldnt react him

Consumer involvement Theory CIT - is one way to understand the psychology and behavior of your target audience. There are others. But none quite so simple and insightful. Involvement refers to how much time, thought, energy and other resources people devote to the purchase process.

There are four general categories. > High involvement / emotional > High involvement / rational > Low involvement / emotional > Low involvement / rational

High involvement / rational In this category you find expensive business purchases: anything relating to the technological infrastructure, the office location and lease, as well as the company health insurance plan. On the consumer side, high involvement / rational purchases tend to be linked to high cost. This category can include financial services and products, the purchase of a home or car, as well as major appliances and electronics. That said, high involvement consumer purchases can vary significantly on the rational / emotional scale from individual to individual. High involvement / emotional Business purchases that fall into this category might include such things as office design, advertising, and perhaps the hiring of certain employees. For individuals, high involvement / emotional purchases can include jewelry, weddings, and holiday travel plans. In some societies the selection of a husband or wife will fall into group. As can the purchase of a home or car. Again, depends on the culture, person, and how much purchasing power she has. Advertising in this category tends to focus on visual and emotional appeals. Give people visual details, with music. Low involvement / rational These are the things we buy out of habit, without much thought. Here the typical role for advertising is to get people to sample or switch. To break the automatic habit of spending their money with the competitor. So consider coupons and other incentives. As well as ways to differentiate or re-position the product.

Over the counter medicines tend to fall into this category. But pain relievers, cough medicines and the like, especially those for children, can be more emotionally driven. Low involvement / emotional The gratification we get from these products is emotional or sensual. But fleeting; it doesn't last a long time. So we dont spend a lot of time thinking about the purchase. Movies, candy, an entertaining magazine, or a birthday card. Perhaps selecting a restaurant for a special occasion. The advertising challenge here tends to be the flash promise of plesure, of gratification, the promise of a benefit. Strong positioning can help, especially in a crowded product category.

CONCLUSION Understanding consumer behaviour is vital for marketing success because, by knowing whom the product users are, when, and how they will use it, and in what contexts they use it, marketers can match relevant products to satisfy consumers needs or desires. It is generally agreed that although individual differences and product attributes play a role in determining consumer behaviour, situational influences present in a consumption context tend to override in most instances. This accordingly validates the context-driven nature of consumer behaviour. In addition, this context-driven relationship has proven to be fairly coherent rather than randomised, as there often exists a consistent pattern of behaviour that is elicited by a specific situation. In this respect, marketing tactics such as personsituation segmentation and the use of psychographics have helped marketers to capture such situationbehaviour patterns under different contexts. Moreover, with the understanding of the relationship between purchase motives and consumption contexts, marketers can develop marketing strategies to capture the set of behaviours driven by the same motive or goal even when the actual consumption context is unknown to them. In the final analysis, the context argument does not reduce consumer behaviour into random chance. Whilst such context argument could be an excuse used by marketers for their poor marketing performance, the other justification for this poor performance is that the interaction between consumers and situations has not been properly captured. A market segmentation model geared towards consumption context plus purchase motivation, instead of towards groups of consumers, is recommended.