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MODELS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

1.1 Model of Consumer Buying

The word, market, can be used in many different aspects; one is buyers’ market which can also

be explained in terms of markets of end user. These markets can also be termed as business to

consumer markets, where the consumers purchase the products or services for their personal use.

There is a huge difference in the decision making of business markets and end user markets.

the decision taken by consumers or end users have 3 main components as described by

Armstrong and Kotler, and they are, marketing related stimuli (which can be called as

influences), black box of buyers (can be related to end users) and response of buyers ( the actual

part). These mechanisms are explained in details below.

1.2 Marketing and other stimuli

End users get influenced with many different factors present in an environment; these influences

can be called as stimulus.

Stimulus mainly can be of two types;

 The first one, which is demonstrated by the decision maker, that is, the marketer with the

help of using marketing mix which are, product, price, place and promotion;

1. Product includes: characteristics, texture, overall look of the product, designing and

packaging.

2. Price includes: worth or value of the product, its cost price and the prestige of the

product.

3. Place includes: locality and ease of access.

4. Promotion: marketing either direct or indirect, advertising and publicity, sales promotion

activities and personal selling.

Other stimulus found in the environment which can be cultural, relates with economy, political

and technological.

2. Buyer’s black box:

After the process presented by marketer to the consumers within the specific environment, then

comes the turn to deal with black box of buyers. This black box of buyer comprises of two basic

components, that is, characteristics of buyers and the decision process of buyers. The different

characteristics of buyers can be social, psychological, personal and cultural.

Figure 1: Model of Buyer Behavior

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Source: Kotler, P., Marketing Management, 11 edition, Prentice-Hall India,

2.1 Personal:

Consumers buying decision is highly influenced by his own personality and his life style, which

also includes his own job, friend circle, family, spouse, parents, siblings, his interests, activities,

economic conditions, person’s own psychological aspects etc. in the similar way, products have

personality and so does brands have and consumers gets attracted towards those brands which

are similar to their own personalities, this is the reason that marketer should not only make the

good quality products but also advertise the product well in order to target the right audience.

2.2 Psychological

Psychological aspects also play a key role in decision making process of a buyer. Buyer gets

motivated with the quality and brand of the product, that is, he will make the purchase decision
when he is in need of something or want something, and will also make the decision according to

the products’ or brand’s perceived value or the way in which a product has been positioned.

Consumer also buys a product based on their past experiences or the experience of their closed

ones; they easily get influenced with advertisements and word of mouth. Consumers also tend to

take decisions keeping in mind their beliefs about a particular brand or product and about the

products’ attitude. Rightly positioned product will bring many consumers towards the brand.

2.3 Cultural

Culture makes a huge impact on the process of decision making, the factors of culture includes,

customs, myths, knowledge, traditions and values. Culture makes a huge impact on a person’s

daily life. Culture is followed from generation to generation. There also exists sub culture in a

society which comprises of groups who follow the same values and different group follows

different values. In a society, there exists a different class, which includes upper class, middle

class and lower class. The different classes have different lifestyle based on their education, way

of living, income and other factors.

2.4 Social:

In this category of social circle, family is the major influence, which includes family, siblings,

spouse, children and other extended family members. Family life cycle also plays an important

role in the buying decision of a consumer as, different stage of life requires different things and

hence the need or priority changes. The friends, colleagues and reference groups make the major

impact on the process of decision making or on a person’s behavior, as within a group of people

one has to act according to certain standards which can change the perception of any individual.
In a group of people, there also exist the opinion leaders, who actually influence others opinions

based on their knowledge, personality and expertise.

3. Consumers’ buying decision and Stimuli

Proper research on the mentioned components will help the marketer to get the desired

knowledge about the consumers’ behavior that would surely help the marketer to come up with

perfect strategy that would prove to be effective in serving the consumers. Consumers’ buying

decision comprises of these steps:

3.1 Problem recognition:

It is that stage where a consumer finds about his need which needs to be fulfilled. This is the

stage where the need has actually arisen and the person wants to sort it out, or there might be the

situation where the consumer is having shortfall of the product and needs the same product or

replace it, this state would be called as actual state. Another state is desired state where, the

consumer feels that the product he has been using is of low quality and diverts his interest

towards the superior quality product, this is the stage where there is not a balance between the

two states that is, actual state and desired state.

Desires or need can generate due to various reasons, which includes, external or even internal

stimulus. This is the task of marketer to identify how they can fulfill or sets off various needs.

3.2 Information search: After the step of need recognition, they will proceed towards the

next step of doing information search to make the best decision about purchasing the product.

Consumer would tend to get a hold on every piece of information, like, the different categories of

products available in market, their alternatives, existence of different brands and the things like

that.
Consumers can take the information from various ways either directly or indirectly, for instance,

they can recall their experiences related to the product or services, can take views from the

people who have actually used the product or even can get the desired information by exploring

his outside environment.

There can be various ways a consumer can gather information, which includes, social circle, that

is, friends, colleagues and family, can collect information from different agencies, media,

website, advertising, marketers, and importantly they can come up to a certain decision while

recollecting their experiences and others’ experiences. All the sources play an important role and

help a consumer to make a good decision.

3.3 Evaluation of alternatives: After the above mentioned step of gathering the

information, consumer would tend to find different alternatives of the product available in the

market. The comparison can be based on many different factors, like, cost, prestige,

characteristics, packaging, emotions etc. consumers also tend to use various rules of decision to

simplify the process of decision making. After this step of evaluation of alternatives the final

decision is made.

3.4 Purchase decision: In this step, the consumers choose a brand to make the purchase,

consumer might be thinking to do the trial or he is the first time purchaser, or might be doing the

repeat purchase. The consumer might actually think about the 5Ws, that is what, which, where,

whom and how to purchase and make payment of the product.

3.5 Post purchase behavior: In this step, after buying the product, consumers tend to re

evaluate and examine the benefits he is getting out of the product and will compare that to the

different alternatives. In other words, consumer would re valuate the perceived value or the

expectations related to the product with the actual performance or the quality of the product.
There might be various feelings of the consumer after using the product, that is, neutral, satisfied,

dissatisfied. This step his highly important as this will get saved in the memory based on the

consumers’ experience which will affect the purchase decisions in the future and works as a

feedback for the consumers.

3.6 Buyer responses: An end user also makes his thinking or takes decision based on

products and services, cost, dealers, timing and brands.

4. Consumers Perception and marketing Stimuli

is a significant relationship between marketing stimuli and consumer perception, the process of

perception starts when an individual makes selection, categorize and understand stimuli and give

importance to those stimuli by converting it into a real world picture. Marketers need to make

strategies because consumers make purchasing decision based on perception rather then the

reality.

The minimum level of perceiving particular stimuli is the beginning level of the consumers,

which can also be termed as just noticeable difference. There are few stimuli which consumers

perceive way above their conscious awareness and weak stimulus are perceived below conscious

responsiveness. Researchers have shown that stimulus affects the purchasing decisions of

consumers. Consumers make the purchasing decisions and get affected with stimulus based on

their expectations. Consumers would like to perceive the things they need and ignore the

negatives related to that perception. Consumers do selective perception which includes,

perceptual blocking, selective exposure and selective attention.

Gestalt presented a psychology of consumers while making perception, the psychology says that

consumers tend to make perception based on opinions, groups and conclusion. Consumers

interpret stimuli based on their past experience about the products or services, consumers make

different perceptions based on their interests and motives. They interpret their perception based

on appearance, first impression and different effects like halo effect.

It can be explained that, as every individual has his own perception about himself, in a similar

way, every product is perceived differently by every individual. Infect the perceived value or the

position of the product is actually more significant that its original features and characteristics.

There is no doubt that the products or services which have been perceived positively will attract

more consumers rather than the products which are not clearly positioned. When the products

and services are compared against each other that which is more difficult to be positioned, the

research revealed that it is more difficult to position services as compared to products. The

reason behind is that the services are perishable and intangible. It is also said that positioning is a

continuous effort by marketers and it should be repositioned time to time in ever changing

competitive environment and according to the varied needs of the consumers.

Consumers make their judgments about the quality of products based on intrinsic and extrinsic

features, which includes, store and brand image, environment, cost or price, characteristics,

colors and size of the product. If a consumer is purchasing for the first time and have not

experienced the product previously then he will make his judgment about the quality of the
product based on its price. Even though, perception about the price influences consumers to

make the purchase decision. Consumers critically judge the prices based on internal and external

influences. People tend to perceive about the reputation of retail outlet and associate the good

quality products with good and reputed store, this is the reason that manufacturers try to sell their

products at good store so that consumers readily accept their products.

Customers also think about the risks associated with the products and hence this becomes the

part of their decision making process. There are various kinds of risk one can perceive, which

are, time risk, physical risk, social risk, functional risk, financial risk and psychological risk.

People try and reduce their risk while collecting more information, think to buy a branded

product, go to the reputed retail outlet, go for the money back guarantee schemes or warranties.

It is recommended for the marketers to make strategies while focusing this aspect of reducing the

risks, which emerge in the minds of the customers while making purchase decision.

5. Gillette Marketing Stimuli

In this fast paced era, the demand of every consumer is changing with the rapid pace and so does

the demands of men’s products are changing with their new lifestyle. Men are becoming more

conscious about their presence, health and daily routine; they are adopting healthy lifestyle and

like going to the gym and hence increasing the demand for men’s toiletries. Their daily demands

and needs are changing according to their lifestyle, this is the reason hat nowadays men’s

magazines are getting published and have high demand in the markets. This market initiated in

the end of 1980s which became one of the important sources to target the male consumers
through advertisements and campaigns. Though, the sector of men’s toiletries started declining

due to the less emphasis on its publicity and advertisement.

Gillette is the company which came up with good marketing campaigns for men. They came up

with a guide named, Gillette grooming guide that is a complete guideline for men about shaving.

Gillette targeted the complete and overall lifestyle of men including their sports activities and

made marketing campaigns keeping in mind the growing demand of men’s products. Gillette was

of the view that spending in company’s R&D is a worthwhile investment, which means that it

can bring immense profit within the company. Gillette always made sure that it would bring

something new with their product offerings. They adapt cause and effect way of advertising that

is, giving the details about shaving and its benefits. Gillette came up with strong strategy and

made sure that they implemented it successfully.

Gillette remained loyal since the very beginning and fulfilled their promise of delivering the best

and unusual products. Infect, Gillette is the company which has remained successful throughout

because they believed in using the latest technologies and innovations. They came up with

improved razors like Mach3, Mach3 turbo and now the very latest is Fusion. They made

different products keeping in mind the needs and requirements of their consumers worldwide and

this has become their reason of success for above 100 years. The company helped the males

worldwide to groom their personality and enjoy a new lifestyle.