CONSUMER BEHAVIOR & MARKET RESEARCH

JANUARY 27, 2020

1. Sociological model

A consumer’s buying pattern is based on his role and influence in his society. A consumer is a part of the
society and he may be a member of many groups in a society. His buying behavior is influenced by these
groups. These groups can be classified into primary and secondary ones. Primary groups consist of close
acquaintances, friends, relatives, and family members. Secondary group consists of any members in his
society, his personality type, and requirements based on the same. Primary groups of family friends and
close associates exert a lot of influence on his buying. A consumer may be a member of a political party
where his dress norms are different. As a member of an elite organization, his dress requirements may be
different, thus he must buy things that conform to his lifestyles in different groups.

Example: A manager and an employee may have different buying behaviors given their respective roles in
the company they work for, but if they live in the same community or attend the same church, they may buy
products from the same company or brand.

2. Family-decision making

In a family decision-making model, it is important to understand how the family members interact with each
other in the context of their consumer decision-making. There are different consumption roles played by
various members of the family. These roles are as follows:

(i) Influencers: The members who influence the purchase of the product by providing information to the
family members, the son in a family may inform the members of a new fast food joint. He can influence the
family members to visit the joint for food and entertainment.

(ii) Gate keepers: These members control the flow of information for a product or brand that they favor and
influence the family to buy the product of their choice. They provide the information favorable to themselves
and, withhold information about other product which they do not favor.

(iii) Deciders: These are the people who have the power or, money and authority to buy. They play a major
role in deciding which product to buy.

(iv) Buyers: Buyers are the people who actually buy. A mother buying ration for the house etc. Father
buying crayons for his children.

Preparers: Those who prepare the product in the form it is actually consumed. Mother preparing food by
adding ingredients to the raw vegetable. Frying an egg for consumption, sewing clothes for the family, etc.

User: The person who actually uses or consumes the product. The product can be consumed individually
or jointly by all members of the family. Use of car by the family, use of refrigerator, TV, etc.

The roles that the family members play is different from product to product. Some products do not involve
the influence of family members vegetables bought by the housewife. She can play many roles of a decider,
preparer as well as the user. In limited problem solving or extensive problem solving there is usually a joint
decision by family members.
The diagram shows the predisposition of various family members, which when influenced by other factors
leads to joint or individual decisions. These factors are shown in the diagram and consist of social class,
lifestyle, role orientation, family life-cycle stage, perceived risk, product importance and time pressure.

3. Engel-Kollat-Blackwell
The model was created to describe the increasing, fast-growing body of knowledge concerning consumer
behavior. This model, like in other models, has gone through many revisions to improve its descriptive
ability of the basic relationships between components and sub-components.

The Engel Kollat Blackwell Model of Consumer Behavior or consists of four distinct stages;

4. Information Input Stage: At this stage the consumer gets information from marketing and non-
marketing sources, which also influence the problem recognition stage of the decision-making
process. If the consumer still does not arrive to a specific decision, the search for external
information will be activated in order to arrive to a choice or in some cases if the consumer
experience dissonance because the selected alternative is less satisfactory than expected.
5. Information Processing Stage: This stage consists of the consumer’s exposure, attention,
perception, acceptance, and retention of incoming information. The consumer must first be
exposed to the message, allocate space for this information, interpret the stimuli, and retain the
message by transferring the input to long-term memory.
6. Decision Process Stage: The central focus of the model is on five basic decision-process stages:
Problem recognition, search for alternatives, alternate evaluation (during which beliefs may lead to
the formation of attitudes, which in turn may result in a purchase intention) purchase, and
outcomes. But it is not necessary for every consumer to go through all these stages; it depends on
whether it is an extended or a routine problem-solving behavior.
7. Variables Influencing the Decision Process: This stage consists of individual and environmental
influences that affect all five stages of the decision process. Individual characteristics include
motives, values, lifestyle, and personality; the social influences are culture, reference groups, and
family. Situational influences, such as a consumer’s financial condition, also influence the decision
process.

It can be seen that many of the elements of the model are similar to Howard Sheth model of consumer
behavior, however the structure of presentation and relationship between the variables differs somewhat.
The Engel Kollat Blackwell Model of Consumer Behavior incorporates many items, which influence
consumer decision-making such as values, lifestyle, personality and culture. The model did not show what
factors shape these items, and why different types of personality can produce different decision-making.
How will we apply these values to cope with different personalities? Religion can explain some behavioral
characteristics of the consumer, and this will lead to better understanding of the model and will give more
comprehensive view on decision-making.

4. Industrial buying model (Jagdish Sheth)

This model is similar to the Howard-Sheth model of buyer behavior in format and classification of variables.
However, there are several significant differences. First, while the Howard-Sheth model is more general
and probably more useful in consumer behavior, the model described in this article is limited to
organizational buying alone. Second, the Howard-Sheth model is limited to the individual decision-making
process, whereas this model explicitly describes the joint decision-making process. Finally, there are fewer
variables in this model than in the Howard-Sheth model of buyer behavior.

Organizational buyer behavior consists of three distinct aspects. The (1) first aspect is the psychological
world of the individuals involved in organizational buying decisions. The (2) second aspect relates to the
conditions which precipitate joint decisions among these individuals. The (3) final aspect is the process of
joint decision making with the inevitable conflict among the decision makers and its resolution by resorting
to a variety of tactics.

There are three main features in this model:

5. There are different individuals involved who have a different psychological make up.
6. Conditions leading to joint decision-making by these individuals.
7. Differences of opinion on purchases or conflicts that have to be resolved to reach a decision.

Characteristics in the model:

(1a) Different backgrounds

(1b) Different information sources

(1c) Undertake active search

(1d) They have perceptual distortion

(1e) Satisfaction with past purchase.

With these characteristics, they develop certain expectations from the product to be bought. The obvious
ones are product quality, delivery time, quantity of supply, after sales service and price. These are known
as explicit objectives. There are other objectives as well, which are the reputation of the supplier, credit
terms, location of the supplier, relationship with the supplier, technical competence and even the
personality, skill and lifestyle of the salesman. These are known as implicit objectives. Different individuals
in the purchasing committee give emphasis on different aspects of the product. Engineers look for quality
and standardization of the product.

Users think of timely delivery, proper installation and after sales service. Finance people look for maximum
price advantage. Thus, there are conflicting interests and view that have to be resolved. If autonomous
decisions are made, these issues do not surface. There are conditions leading to autonomous or joint
decisions.

(2a) Product specific factors

Perceived risk: With higher risks joint decisions are favoured.

Type of purchase: Items involving heavy investments are made jointly, routine and less costly decisions
can be made independently.

Time pressure: If goods are urgently required, individual decisions are favoured.

(2b) Company specific factors

Size of the organization: Larger the size of the organization, the more the emphasis laid on joint decision.

Organization orientation: In a manufacturing organization, the purchases are dominated by production

personnel and in a technology oriented organization, the decisions are based on engineers.The conflict that
arises for buying decision has to be resolved. The resolution can be done by:

• Problem solving
• Persuasion
• Bargaining
• Politicking

The fourth aspect is the influence of situational factors which must be considered. These are economic
conditions such as inflation, recession or boom, price contracts, rationing foreign trade, strikes or lock outs.
Organizational change such as a merger, acquisition change of key personnel, etc. Sometimes these
factors outweigh the realistic criteria of decision-making.This model explains how purchase decision are
made in an industrial organization.

All the models discussed in this chapter give us an idea of the buying behaviour in diverse situations. An
understanding of these models gives the marketer clues to formulate his strategies according to the target
audience, e.g., an individual, a family or an industry, etc.

5. Nicosia model

4 MAJOR FIELDS:
Field 1: The firm’s attributes and the consumer’s attributes. The first field is divided into two subfields.
The first subfield deals with the firm’s marketing environment and communication efforts that affect
consumer attitudes, the competitive environment, and characteristics of target market. Subfield two
specifies the consumer characteristics e.g., experience, personality, and how he perceives the
promotional idea toward the product in this stage the consumer forms his attitude toward the firm’s
product based on his interpretation of the message.

Field 2: Search and evaluation. The consumer will start to search for other firm’s brand and evaluate the
firm’s brand in comparison with alternate brands. In this case the firm motivates the consumer to
purchase its brands.

Field 3: The act of the purchase. The result of motivation will arise by convincing the consumer to
purchase the firm products from a specific retailer.

Field 4: Feedback of sales results. This model analyses the feedback of both the firm and the consumer
after purchasing the product. The firm will benefit from its sales data as a feedback, and the consumer will
use his experience with the product affects the individual's attitude and predisposition’s concerning future
messages from the firm.