QUESTION THREE

What is the impact of Age, Culture, Status and Occupation on buying behavior of
consumer with examples?
ANSWER
IMPACT OF AGE ON BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMER

Age is experience. Age is the time period a person or thing has survived till date. Age is a sign of
existence. It is usually said that age brings wisdom. Age brings knowledge. However, in this
report, we will consider every phase of life to be important since every stage of life is equally
important. Every age has its own essence. Be it a 4 year old child or a 30 year old person, it
always interesting to observe their behavior. Behavior is the way one conducts himself. Behavior
is the way one behaves. One’s behavior is influenced by several factors like age, society, culture,
tradition and others. All these various factors bring about a kind of behavior in an individual. For
instance, a 5 year old boy may have a shy kind of behavior but she may grow up to be bold in his
20’s. A girl from a village may wear less of skirts than a girl from the metropolitan cities. An
earning woman may buy more independently than a house maker. A man’s buying process is
shorter than a woman’s. thus we can see how many factors determine a buyer’s behavior.

Age is a very important factor when it comes to influencing behavior. Every age has its own state
of mind, its own perception and its own characteristics. This report will relate age and buyer
behavior. Buyer behavior is the way a buyer behaves. A buyer may or may not be a consumer
but his behavior decides it all. The way a buyer chooses his marketing place, his product, the
benefits, the post-purchasing services and everything else is the behavior of the buyer.

Shakespeare has wisely divided the ages of man into seven stages, the infant, the whining school
boy, the lover, a soldier, the justice, the lean slippered pantaloons and the last as second
childishness which is ‘sans everything’ in his piece of art, “All The World’s A Stage”. He has
showed it very well that every age has its own characteristics. In every age, people have a
different way of thinking. A child is more fickle minded than an adult. An adult buys faster than
a child. An old man buys after a lot of observation than an adult and so on. Therefore, this report
will show the factors influencing behavior in different stages of life and the decision in buying
process.
Need Recognition

Need is necessity. There is a very slight line of difference between need and want. Needs
describe basic human requirements such as food, air, water, clothing and shelter. People also
have strong needs for recreation, education, and entertainment. These needs become wants when
they are directed to specific objects that might satisfy the need. A person needs food but wants a
hamburger and a soft drink.

Need recognition is the basic step in the buying process. Need recognition is asking to oneself,
“Do I really need this?” The need for a good may be spontaneous or pre built. It may or may not
be a real necessity and thus recognizing it is a challenge. A 10 year old boy may crave for a toy
on seeing it in the supermarket. It may not be his need but it fits into the bill. A teenage girl may
just need a tee-shirt because it was referred to her by her group of friends. The society a person
lives in affects the buyer behavior to a great extent. A housewife prepares a list of items to be
bought and hardly any of her purchases are spontaneous. An old man may not be requiring a
computer screen but will buy a laptop for the sake of learning technology at his age.

Every age has a different list of needs. It depends on an individual’s age to decide whether a
product is a need or not. This process of need recognition is greatly influenced by the age factor
of the buyers.

Conclusion

Age is experience. Age is the time period a person or thing has survived till date. Age is a sign of
existence. It is usually said that age brings wisdom. Age brings knowledge. Be it a 4 year old
child or a 30 year old person, it always interesting to observe their behaviour. Behaviour is the
way one conducts himself. Behaviour is the way one behaves. One’s behaviour is influenced by
several factors like age, society, culture, tradition and others. All these various factors bring
about a kind of behaviour in an individual.

Need is necessity. There is a very slight line of difference between need and want. Needs
describe basic human requirements such as food, air, water, clothing and shelter. People also
have strong needs for recreation, education, and entertainment. These needs become wants when
they are directed to specific objects that might satisfy the need. A person needs food but wants a
hamburger and a soft drink.

Need recognition is the basic step in the buying process. Need recognition is asking to oneself,
“Do I really need this?” The need for a good may be spontaneous or pre built. It may or may not
be a real necessity and thus recognizing it is a challenge. Being aware means being informed. It
is having all the required knowledge. A buyer should always be aware of what he wants, what he
buys and everything else about his decision to buy. This is rather the most important part in the
buying process in today’s world. However much a buyer recognizes the needs, collects
information or chooses the best from the alternatives, the entire process gets wasted without this
step. After evaluating the goods, there are three possibilities, a buyer decides from where to buy,
when to buy and whether to buy or not. This is the end step which is after the task of purchasing.
It is basically the behaviour of a buyer after buying a product. It may be a comparison between
other brands and the bought product or it may be positive or negative feedback.

IMPACT OF CULTURE ON BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMER

Consumer behavior is deeply influenced by cultural factors such as: buyer culture, subculture,
and social class.

Culture

Basically, culture is the part of every society and is the important cause of person wants and
behavior. The influence of culture on buying behavior varies from country to country therefore
marketers have to be very careful in analyzing the culture of different groups, regions or even
countries.

Subculture

Each culture contains different subcultures such as religions, nationalities, geographic regions,
racial groups etc. Marketers can use these groups by segmenting the market into various small
portions. For example marketers can design products according to the needs of a particular
geographic group. In the process of globalization of a business, one thing that stands out is the
need to connect with the customer. A consumer is more than just an asset for a company, he is a
parameter through which that company can gauge its success in a market. This is the reason
understanding consumer behavior is so important—and the factors which shape this behavior are
even more so. 

One thing that highly affects the way a consumer behaves is culture. 

A society’s culture is a reflection of its traditions, norms, values, and customs. The shopping
habits of individuals are particularly shaped by these factors. To define a consumer behavior
would be akin to defining an umbrella concept of many factors. Consumer behavior depends on
attitudes, motives, experiences, perceptions, values, self-concept, culture, family, profession, and
reference groups of society. Not surprisingly, a change in any of these would cause a change in
consumer behavior too. 

While it is a well-known fact that a marketer is able to control the consumer buying behavior, the
reality is far away from that. A marketer can indeed attract the buyers, but he cannot control
them as other factors affect the choices they make. These choices, on the other hand, are
dependent upon extrinsic factors such as culture.

Here’s a look at how the culture of a place affects the way a consumer thinks, makes choices,
and purchases: 

Effect of Culture on Consumers

To define the culture of a nation, it is imperative to first examine the belief system and values of
the people residing there. A culture can be defined as the total average of beliefs, values, and
traditions that are directly linked to the consumer behavior of members of a specific society.
Generally, both beliefs and values are mental images that affect particular attitudes which,
consequently, variates the methods a person uses to make choices in brands and services. For
example, a product category like “Audi vs Volvo” would entail customers choosing from among
these alternatives, and his preference of a brand over the other will be affected by his common
values and beliefs. In contrast to values and beliefs, traditions are habits and suitable ways of
behaving, whereas the former is just rules of behavior. An example is the addition of ketchup on
an omelet and the preference of green tea over milk tea. 
Culture determines the consumer’s experiences, beliefs, and values, which in turn is directly
linked to attitudes, emotions, social norms, intentions, and behaviors. Personal culture represents
the local area. For instance, the people residing in several states in a specific area of South
America have similar cultural habits. Religious differences or similarities, on the other hand, are
backed by aspects like common core values, personalities, and customs, etc. Groups that
influence the choice of consumers are typically sorted into workgroups, shopping groups,
friendship groups, and families.

IMPACT OF SATUTS ON BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMER

Social factors also impact the buying behavior of consumers. The important social factors are:
reference groups, family, role and status.

Reference Groups

Reference groups have potential in forming a person attitude or behavior. The impact of
reference groups varies across products and brands. For example if the product is visible such as
dress, shoes, car etc then the influence of reference groups will be high. Reference groups also
include opinion leader (a person who influences other because of his special skill, knowledge or
other characteristics).

Family

Buyer behavior is strongly influenced by the member of a family. Therefore marketers are trying
to find the roles and influence of the husband, wife and children. If the buying decision of a
particular product is influenced by wife then the marketers will try to target the women in their
advertisement. Here we should note that buying roles change with change in consumer lifestyles.

Roles and Status

Each person possesses different roles and status in the society depending upon the groups, clubs,
family, organization etc. to which he belongs. For example a woman is working in an
organization as finance manager. Now she is playing two roles, one of finance manager and
other of mother. Therefore her buying decisions will be influenced by her role and status.

3. Personal Factors

Personal factors can also affect the consumer behavior. Some of the important personal factors
that influence the buying behavior are: lifestyle, economic situation, occupation, age, personality
and self-concept.

IMPACT OF OCCUPATION ON BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMER

The occupation of a person has significant impact on his buying behavior. For example a
marketing manager of an organization will try to purchase business suits, whereas a low level
worker in the same organization will purchase rugged work clothes. ... Therefore it can greatly
influence the buying behavior of customers

Economic Situation

Consumer economic situation has great influence on his buying behavior. If the income and
savings of a customer is high then he will purchase more expensive products. On the other hand,
a person with low income and savings will purchase inexpensive products.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle of customers is another import factor affecting the consumer buying behavior. Lifestyle
refers to the way a person lives in a society and is expressed by the things in his/her
surroundings. It is determined by customer interests, opinions, activities etc and shapes his whole
pattern of acting and interacting in the world.

Personality

Personality changes from person to person, time to time and place to place. Therefore it can
greatly influence the buying behavior of customers. Actually, Personality is not what one wears;
rather it is the totality of behavior of a man in different circumstances. It has different
characteristics such as: dominance, aggressiveness, self-confidence etc. which can be useful to
determine the consumer behavior for particular product or service.