Traditionally“customer” was used to

define people whom the organization

dealt with externally.

though the customer is treated as a

single unit, purchases could be made
both by individuals or a groups of
people involved in decision making.
The term customer refers to the
purchaser of a product or service.
They may or my not be the ultimate
consumers.
Whereas the term consumer refers to
the end user of a product or service.
They may or may not be the
customers.
 The only thing constant in the world is
change.
 The rate pace of change was slow before
liberalization.
 After liberalization the pace of change is
galloping at a mind boggling pace.
 What is relevant today is becoming
outdated the next day.
 This can be attributed to the changes in
demographics, psychographics of the
consumers due to changes in the
environment.
 Today’s customer is very complex.
 Demanding the best at the least price.
 Every customer /individual is different with
reference to:
 Individual differences in consumer
expectations.
 preference for choice.
 not brand loyal.
 aspiring for more value for money/perceived
higher
value satisfaction.
 Itis therefore not possible to differentiate
the consumers in the traditional way.
 They need to gauged by trying to identify
the sources, timing and direction of the
changes in the consumers.
 Thereforethe priority will be to tackle the
emerging challenges in the market place.
 To meet the evolving challenges
marketers are resorting to various
strategies:

 value pricing – high quality at low

prices.
 relationship marketing.
 direct selling.
 occupation of retail shelves with
killers
instinct.
 The consumers tastes are continuously
evolving which can be seen from the fact
that:
 their spending habits have undergone
tremendous change.
 today’s consumer is spending more on
health, hygiene, food and clothing and has
become more choosy.
 Due to increase in knowledge due to
improvement in communication
technology his living style has become
fashion oriented.
 Due to the expose, double incomes, today the
consumer is more materialistic and wants to
increase his quality of life. Hence has resulted in
imitation of effluent class .
 This goes to prove that the consumer is the
primary force and the target for the marketers.
 Therefore the challenge is to develop suitable
marketing channels and consumer
psychographics to have a better understanding of
the behavioral aspects of the target market.
“Consumer behavior can be said to
be the study of how individuals make
decisions on how to spend their
available (time, money and effort)
non various consumption related
items”.
 This simple definition tells the marketer to resolve every activity
around the ultimate consumer and gauge their behavior by
specifically focusing on:
 who buys products or services ?
 How do they buy
 Where do they buy them ?
 How often do they buy them ?
 When do they buy them ?
 why do they buy them ?
 How often do they use them ?
 These questions help in understanding about factors influencing the
decision making process .
 It also helps in identifying the number of people involved in the
decision making process.
 High involvement purchase decision:
 complex decision making-high value item.
 Low involvement purchase decision:

 variety seeking purchase decision-cereals.

 In both these cases there is lot of information
search, considers brand alternatives.
 High involvement purchase decision:
 Brand Loyalty (Cigarettes, perfumes)
 Low involvement purchase decision:
 Inertia (canned vegetables, paper towels)
 In both the above cases the purchase decision is
habitual, very little information search, considers
only one brand.
the involvement of consumer in
buying decision will vary from
product to product.

Consumer decision making process

goes much beyond tangible and
intangibles.

Consumer before includes post

purchase satisfaction or
 Stimuli
|
Information processing
|
The Consumer
|
Decision making
|
Response
 Cognitive thinking processes:

“ perception”, “Attitudes”, “needs/motives”.

Consumer Personal Characteristics

“Demographics”, “Lifestyles”, “personality

traits”.
 Understanding of the consumers crucial for
identifying business opportunities.
 Everything in business revolves around the
consumer/buyer.
 In the dynamic market place growing
concern for understanding the
customer/buyer.
 It is then that it is possible to invent right
products, at the right price and make it
available at the right place with
appropriate promotion better than the
competitors.
 Buyers can be broadly classified into two major
categories:
 Consumers:
 Household sector, who buy goods and
services for personal consumption.
 Industrial buyers:
 who purchase goods and services for
carrying out activities in the various
industrial/manufacturing units.
India is a unique case of unity in
diversity.
Several states, several languages,
several dialects, different climatic
conditions, different terrains.
Different values, attitudes, cultures,
sub-cultures, different food habits.
This diversity poses tough challenges
to the marketers
 Revolution in communication technology has
reduced the world a to a big village.
 This has severely changed the consumers from
what they were traditionally.
 Consumer now has become very dynamic, vibrant
and unpredictable.
 Therefore marketers have come out of shell and
are testing newer concepts like brand loyalty and
mass marketing.
 They are trying to understand the motives of the
consumers as well as the factors that influence
such motives.
 At the same time marketers are trying to
understand the ‘learning’ process adopted
by the consumers/buyers.
 Buyer behavior is also influenced by other
psychological concepts such as perception,
motivation and personality.
 Knowing these concepts on buying
behavior will help the marketers in
generation of new product ideas and
customization.
 Customization by adding additional
features and services to ensure customer
delight.
 Identify customer needs
 |
 through advertising & communication
 |
 Customer wants
 |
 proper distribution & sales
 |
 induce customer trial
 |
 offer individualized products & brands
 |
 Customers experience with the products
 |
 Results in customer value and delight
 Societyis a broadly inclusive social
organization that possesses both
functional and cultural autonomy and that
dominates all other types of organizations.
 Man as a social human being is member of
the society.
 Societyis created through social
interactions between its members through
the transmission of ideas or
communication.
Through such interactions over a
period of time , automatically
become participants of a social
organization and will change their
individual activities from a relatively
independent social element to
activities which are broader social
organization – society.
Men create new relationships.
The society influences the individual
tremendously.
He comes to accept the social norms,
values of the social class structure to
which he belongs.
Marketers needs to know how the
social class influences the target
market.
Social stratification:
definition/meaning.

“Social stratification is the division of

members of a society into a hierarchy
off distinct status classes, so that
members of each class have
relatively the same status and
members of all other classes have
either more or less”.
 Prestigeor value attached to the holder of
a position is referred to as status.

 Appropriate example could be doctor and a

nurse.

 Deliberate differentiating and evaluating

the roles of the individuals based on the
roles performed and status are the basis
for stratification.
 India is a stratified society.
 It is due to unequal distribution of wealth.
 Wealth concentration in few hands.
 Clear distinction between poor and rich.
 Ranking form high to low in the society.
 People belonging different strata have different
behaviors, value systems.
 People are differentiated based on:
 titles and designations.
 pay and perquisites.
 physical facilities.
 Marketers need to study the stratification
in detail.
 Shall understand the behavior of each
class based on which they can develop
products/strategies.
Authority.

Income.

Occupation and achievement.

education
 Persons within the same social class tend to
behave more alike.
 Social classis hierarchical.
 Social class is not measured by a single variable
but is measured as a weighted function of one’s
occupation, income, wealth, education, status,
prestige etc.
 Social class is continuous rather than concrete,
with individuals able to move into a higher social
class or drop into a lower class.
 UPPER UPPER:
 Are social elite who live on inherited wealth
and have well known families.
 They have more than one home and send
their children to best of the schools.
 They are in the market for jewellery,
antiques, homes and foreign vacations.
 They serve as reference groups for other and
are imitated.
 They do not believe in showy life styles.
 LOWER UPPERS:
 Are persons who have earned high income or wealth
through exceptional ability in the profession or
business.
 They usually come from the middle class.
 Tend to be active in social and civic affairs.
 Seek to buy symbols of social status for themselves
and their children.
 Their pattern of consumption is designed to impress
those below them.
 Their ambition is to be accepted in upper upper
class
 UPPER MIDDLES:
 Possess neither family status nor unusual
wealth.
 They are primarily concerned with “career”.
 They have attained positions as
professionals, independent businesspersons
and corporate managers.
 They believe in education.
 They are highly civic minded.
 MIDDLE CLASS:
 The middle class are white or blue collar
workers.
 They live on the better side of the town.
 They buy popular products to “keep up the
trends”.
 Middle class believes in spending on worth
while experiences for their children and
aiming them towards professional education.
 Better living means ‘a better home in nice
locality’ with ‘good friends’.
 WORKING CLASS:
 Working class consists of “average pay blue collar
worker and those who lead a “working – class life –
style”. Working class depends heavily on relatives
for economic and emotional support for tips on:
 Job opportunities.
 Advice on purchase.
 Assistance in times of trouble.
 Job opportunities.
 Maintain sex role division.
 Tend to have larder families.
 UPPER LOWERS:

 Upper lowers are working.

 Their living standard just above poverty .
 They perform unskilled work and are poorly
paid.
 Lack of education.
 Maintain some effort at cleanliness.
LOWERLOWER:

Visiblypoverty stricken.
Usually out of work.
Tendency to depend on charity.
Their homes, clothes and possessions
are “dirty”, “broken down”.
Cultureis an underlying determinant
of human behavior.

Psychology explains how human

beings behave in a particular way.

The study of culture a²€nthropology

explains how they behave.
 Definition as per Howard and Sheth:
 “ as a selective, manmade way of responding to
experience, a set of behavior pattern”.
 Thus culture consists of traditional ideas and in
particular the values which are attached to these
ideas.
 It includes knowledge, art, morale, law, customs
and all other habits acquired by man as a
member of a society
An accepted concept about culture is
that it
includes a set of learned beliefs,
values,
attitudes, habits and forms of behavior
that
are shared by a society and are
transmitted
from generation to generation within
that
 in India we have several states, languages.
 Each state has its own culture.
 Each has its own shared beliefs, values, customs.
 This distinguishes us from rest of the world.
 The uniqueness of our culture can be seen from
the joint family system, caste system, the living
styles, customs, rituals etc.
 These are being followed down from centuries
 Culture also includes strong cultural norms like
respect for elders.
 If these norms are violated one meets with
cirticism.
 Violation of cultural expectations will have
an adverse impact on product success.

 Consumption values to be researched before

products are marketed in specific cultures.

 advertisements based on mythological

figures or popular themes will be easy for
consumers to understand and relate to.
 Rituals can be used to marketing advantage
 Example, Christmas and birthday presents.
 Items which are sacred take on a value that far
exceeds their worth and therefore present a good
marketing opportunity.
 Using advertisements directed at minority groups
could be beneficial where the product is of
interest to them and advertisements are placed in
appropriate media.
 Cultural change can indicate important new
marketing opportunities.
 For example nuclear and double income families.
 Acceptance of ready meals, fast foods.

 Cultural changes change the values of different

generations which needs to be taken into account
while devising strategies and campaigns.
 Culture is a learned experience:
 as a human being living in the society, the consumer is
required to behave in a particular way as desired by the socio
economic environment.
 Consumers learn through experience.
 The cultural field represents a set of stimuli and a set of
responses appropriate to the stimuli.
 The individual will be rewarded or punished depending on his
responses.
 Culture includes inculcated values:
 Cultural norms and values are inculcated
and passed on from generations to
generations by specific groups or
institutions.
 There are various institutions, one’s own
family, religious organizations, customs,
traditions etc.
 These help in transmitting cultural values ,
beliefs, traditions and customs over the
generations.
 Culture is a social phenomenon:
 An individuals way of thinking and behaving is
governed by the society and the group he interacts
with.
 The society punishes individuals with deviant
behavior and non conformers.
 Thus more than an individuals way of thinking and
behaving, it is the group behavior which constitutes
culture.
 Culture as gratifying responses:
 The society rewards those people whose responses are
gratifying for its members.
 For example, in India people have lot of faith in the
preaching of various religious heads.
 They convey the customs, traditions, values, beliefs through
discourse.
 Such people are given due importance and recognition for
contributing to the welfare of the society.
Thank you