Summary

Internal Influencers of Consumer Decision-Making

Apart from the external factors, there are also internal factors that can influence the buying decision of a consumer.
These include their motivation behind a purchase, perception of a product, learning, attitudes, and beliefs.

Motivation
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It is extremely important to understand the process of how a consumer is motivated to purchase. According to
Pardee and R. L., motivation is the reason behind people's actions, desires, and needs. For example, hunger
motivates a person to purchase a sandwich and eat it.

There are two different types of motivation — intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation refers to the kind that
caters to the need for achievement driven by oneself, either for self-recognition or to prove a point to oneself. For
example, Bajaj V motivated people by creating an internal desire to be patriotic.

Extrinsic motivation is the motivation that caters to the need for achievement, driven by family, friends, or a need
for status. The Pulsar bike has its design driven by the external motivation of trying to impress the opposite sex.

To classify motivational needs, Abraham Maslow proposed Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs is a set of needs that are arranged in a pyramid structure, where the levels of hierarchy start at the bottom,
progressing from the most basic needs to other needs.

The five levels of needs are classified as physiological, safety, social, self-esteem, and self-actualisation. Physiological
needs refer to the need for shelter, food, water, and sex. For example, Water.org, a nonprofit organisation, wanted
to use donations to set up sustainable water supply systems to satisfy the basic human need to have water.

Safety needs include security and safety. For example, LIC emphasises the need for safety and security.

Social needs include relationships and friends. For example, Closeup aims to satisfy the social need for belonging by
positioning itself as a brand that enables an individual to get close to someone of the opposite sex confidently.

Self-esteem needs include the feeling of prestige and accomplishment. For example, Dove conveys that people are
more beautiful than they think they are. This aims to increase the self-worth of an individual and helps build
confidence.

Self-actualisation includes achieving one’s full potential through creative activities. For example, the Indian Army’s
TV commercial focuses on joining the Indian Army, which gives people a chance to be everything they have ever
wanted to be, that is to fulfil their potential.
 Perception

Sensation & perception are the processes that are involved in making sense of the surroundings.

Sensation is the process by which the brain receives information about various objects and events that are
happening around. On the other hand, perception is the process by which the brain interprets the sensation and
makes meaning out of it.

Perception is often described as a process by which its target consumer identifies, organises, and interprets stimuli
or information to create meaning out of it. The perceptual process comprises three important steps:

1. Selection: Perceptual selection is the conscious and unconscious screening of stimuli or information. The
three mechanisms through which surroundings are screened are selective attention, perceptual defence,
and perceptual blocking.

a. Selective attention: Let’s consider an example where someone sees a Renault Duster ad and, thereafter,
starts noticing the car on the roads. This is a case of selective attention.

b. Perceptual defence: Suppose that a smoker tends to crack jokes against the harmful effects of smoking,
as a defence mechanism, on seeing an anti-smoking infomercial in a theatre. This would be an example
of perpetual defence.

c. Perceptual blocking: People turning a blind eye to ads that are displayed on websites and in search
results is a case of perpetual blocking.

2. Organisation: Having talked about selection, the second type of perception is perceptual organization, which
is the process of visual grouping of elements together so that one can easily determine the meaning of the
visual as a whole (perception). For example, if five rings of different colours are shown, our mind groups
those individual rings together to associate them with the logo of the Olympics. This is a result of perceptual
organisation.

3. Interpretation: Interpretation involves making meaning out of different sensory inputs by pre-learned and
existing knowledge structures. For instance, in a supermarket, if a shelf full of blue packaged products is
seen, people usually tend to consider it to be the detergent section.

Learning
Learning is a process by which individuals acquire the knowledge and experience of purchase and consumption and
apply that to behavior expected in the future. For example, Colgate informs its target audience about the fact that
every second child suffers from cavities. Coming from a toothpaste brand, and with such a contextual messaging, its
promotion as the number one anti-cavity toothpaste comes out very strongly. It enforces this learning in customers.

There are two ways in which individuals learn — first is intentional, and the second is incidental.

Intentional learning is the learning that is acquired by a careful search for information. For example, when you
search for iPhone X specifications and get informed about it, this falls under intentional learning.
On the other hand, incidental learning is the learning that is acquired unintentionally or by accident, without much
effort. For example, when your friend says that iPhone X has the face unlock feature and is a 4.8-inch phone with
64GB memory, your brain somehow registers the face unlock feature and you remember it later.

There are three learning models:

1. Cognitive learning (thinking): In the cognitive learning process, consumers learn through information
processing and problem solving.

2. Behavioral learning (conditioning): In this learning process, consumers learn from their past associations or
experiences or through reinforcements.

3. Modeling processes (modelling): Learning by modelling processes is based on observation of outcomes and
consequences experienced by others.

For example, L'Oréal’s Total Repair shampoo has utilised the learning influencer effectively and has, therefore,
etched in its consumers’ minds the solution it offers to five kinds of hair problems.

Attitude and Beliefs

Beliefs are the way people think and believe about a particular subject or product. Attitude is the learned way to
behave in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner concerning a given object.

The attitudes and beliefs of a consumer help them form perception of a particular product. The attitude and beliefs
may be difficult to change because they derive their roots from the individual's personality and lifestyle.

Attitude can be developed in three ways, as follows:

1. Classical conditioning: This kind of attitude is developed through past associations, such as associations with
people, places, teams, products, company, etc. For example, people owning Apple products will prefer
buying an Apple watch because of their association with the brand.

2. Operant conditioning: This attitude is formed because of reinforcement, through reward or a pleasant
experience, or discouragement through punishment or an unpleasant experience. For example, Jio provided
its users with free 1 GB of mobile data per day in its initial days. To build its credibility, it then launched a
range of free schemes. Thus, Jio encouraged its potential customers to try out its services for the first time
and get used to them, and, in the process, it also reinforced its products and services.

3. Cognitive learning: Cognitive theories of attitude formation use reasoned, informational approaches to
forming an attitude. For instance, Big Bazaar utilised the attitude of price consciousness of consumers and
marketed itself through the campaign “Saste Se Bhi Sasta” to influence them.