Personal Factors

Personal factors also influence buyer behavior. The important personal factors, which

influence buyer behaviour, are age, occupation, income and lifestyle.

Age of a person is one of the important personal factors influencing buyer behavior.

People buy different products at their different stages of cycle. Their taste, preference, etc. also

change with change in life cycle.

Occupation or profession of a person influences his buying behavior. The life styles and

buying considerations and decisions differ widely according to the nature of the occupation. For

instance, the buying of a doctor can be easily differentiated from that of a lawyer, teacher, clerk

businessman, landlord, etc. So, the marketing managers have to design different marketing

strategies suit the buying motives of different occupational groups.

Income level of people is another factor which can exert influence in shaping the

consumption pattern. Income is an important source of purchasing power. So, buying pattern of

people differs with different levels of income.

Lifestyle to a person’s pattern or way of living as expressed in his activity, interests and

opinions that portrays the “whole person” interacting with the environment. Marketing managers

have to design different marketing strategies to suit the life styles of the consumers.

(Chandan,2019)

Chandan, A. (2019) Factors Affecting Consumer Buying Behavior

https://www.journalijar.com/uploads/545_IJAR-25967.pdf
 People change the goods and services they buy over their lifetimes. Tastes in food,

clothes, furniture, and recreation are often age-related. Buying is also shaped by the stage of the

family lifecycle -- the stages through which families might pass as they mature over time.

Marketers often define their target markets in terms of life-cycle stage and develop appropriate

products and marketing plans for each stage.

Also, a person’s occupation affects the goods and services bought. Blue-collar workers

tend to buy more rugged work clothes, whereas executives buy more business suits. Marketers

try to identify the occupational groups that have an above-average interest in their products and

services. People coming from the same subculture, social class, and occupation may have quite

different lifestyles.

Moreover, lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living as expressed in his or her

psychographics. Each person’s distinct personality influences his or her buying behavior.

Personality refers to the unique psychological characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and

lasting responses to one’s own environment. (Pemani, et al., 2017)

Pemani, P., et al. (2017) The Effect of Personal Factors on Consumer Purchase Decision
https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/140591-EN-the-effect-of-personal-factors-on-
consum.pdf

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.

Age and life-cycle have potential impact on the consumer buying behavior. It is obvious

that the consumers change the purchase of goods and services with the passage of time. Family
life-cycle consists of different stages such young singles, married couples, unmarried couples

etc. which help marketers to develop appropriate products for each stage.

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.

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 of customers is another important 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. (Agarwal & Guirat, 2017)

Agrwal S. & Guirat R. (2017) An Empirical Study of Various Factors, Influencing the Behavior

of Consumers Towards Fast Food Joints in Indian Market

https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/4495/449553639011.pdf