CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Who is a Consumer/Customer

• Person who purchases the goods/service is customer

• whereas the end users who consumes the good/service is consumer.

– E g. If you buy a chocolate for

– your son you are customer and your son is consumer.

– These terms are used Interchangeably

• Individual,Personal Consumer
• Organizational/Business/Industrial Consumer

• E.g: Furniture Purchased for Self/family- Personal Consumer

• E.g : Furniture Purchase by the office- Industrial Consumer

Buyer/User

• Buyer is the one who buys a product

• Buyer may or may not be a user of the product

• E.g: Heena purchased a wallet for her brother

• So Heena is : Buyer and
• her Brother : User

CONSUMER MARKET

All the individuals and households who buy or acquire goods and services for personal
consumption.

Behavior

• The manner in which one behaves.

• The actions or reactions of a person in response to external or internal
stimuli.

Consumer Behavior

“Study of how individuals ,groups and organisations select,buy,use and dispose of

goods,services,ideas or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants”

Belch and Belch define consumer behavior as 'the process and activities people
engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing
of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires'.'
It includes the study of:

• What they buy?

• Why they buy?
• When they buy?
• Where they buy?
• How often they buy it?
• How often they use it?

Significance Of study of CB

• To fulfill customer needs and wants profitably i.e implementing marketing

concept
• 2) Consumers do not always act and react as the theory suggests
• 3) Consumer preferences are changing and becoming highly diversified

• 4)Consumer prefer differentiated products to reflect their special

needs,personalities and lifestyles.
• 5)Meeting special needs of customers requires market segmentation which
requires understanding CB
• 6)To cope up with rapidly changing technology leading to a change in
customers needs and wants
• 7)To generate demand for efficient though not so easily sale able products
• 8)Study of CB helps to understand certain myths/fallacies:
a) Consumers are loyal to products or organization
• Customers do not patronize the best available product

Fac
Motivation

“The way urges,drives,desires,aspirations,strivings or needs direct,control or explain the

behavior of human beings”

Perception

“Perception is a process by which we become aware of changes through the senses of

sight,hearing,smell,touch and taste”

Learning

“Learning is the process by which the knowledge and experience acquired from the
purchase,consumption,use is applied to future behavior”

Beliefs and Attitude

Belief is a descriptive thought that an individual consumer has about product,service,idea

or practice”

Attitude is pre-disposed behavior, is consistent

Need Recognition
The first stage of the buyer decision process,in which the consumer recognizes a problem
or need.
Information Search
• The stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer is aroused to
search for more information .
• Information Can be collected from:
Personal Sources
Commercial Sources
Public Sources
Experiential Sources

Evaluation of Alternatives

In this stage the consumer uses information to evaluate alternative brands in choice set.

Purchase Decision

• In evaluation Stage customers ranks brands and formulates purchase intention

and purchases the product accordingly.
But purchase intention does not always gets converted into purchase decision.
• Reasons can be:
Others attitude
Unexpected situational factors

Post Purchase Behaviour

The stage in which consumers take further action after purchase,based on their
satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
It is a relationship between expected and actual performance.

Generally all purchases leads to some or another

Cognitive Dissonance i.e
Buyer discomfort caused by post purchase conflict.
PURCHASE BEHAVIOR

The decision processes and acts of people

involved in buying and using consumer products.
WHAT makes people buy

Who … Why … What … When-Where-How. Who, Why

& What are big driving issues, while you can lump the
other three (When, Where, How) together as the sort of
mechanics of purchasing.

1) WHO we are (or think we are and desire to be) deeply

influences WHAT we buy. Our “tribes” and “identities” are
wrapped in and around our buying impulses. The other
aspect of WHO is Who influences us. We care more about
the opinions of people we know than we do from some ad.
2) WHY we buy … this is the emotional stuff, Maslow’s
pyramid, our inner individual needs that drive us.

3) WHAT we buy … Buying a new car is a different

experience than buying groceries. A car is a big purchase
that in many ways is an extension of our identity.
4)When we buy … Is it an impulse buy? Is it a recurring
purchase. Is it a major purchase like a house or car that is
really a buying event that only happens a few times in a
persons life? Young people have different needs (and
buying power) than old farts (like me).
5) Where we buy … This has changed with the internet.
We go window shopping online and quite often just click
and get it. UPS and FedEx are as vital to online shopping as
Amazon.
6) How we buy … Credit cards have turned us into a retail
junky nation. Virtually anyone can get a card and spend
their life savings drinking lattes from Starbucks.