2.

1 Individual Determinants of Consumer Behaviour

2.2 Personality and Self-Concept

2.3 Motivation and Involvement

2.4 Learning and Memory
2.5 Attitudes
Introduction
 The factors that influence consumer behavior can be classified into internal factors or
(Individual Determinants) and external environmental factors.
 External factors do not affect the decision process directly, but infect or filter through
the individual determinants; to influence the decision process.
 People wanting to look mainly will buy products with a macho appeal, which would
enhance their image and personality where as self concept develops, its role in
influencing purchase decisions and the practical relevance of the subject to the
marketer are reviewed.
 Motivation is that internal force that activates some needs and provides direction of
behavior towards fulfillment of these needs whereas Involvement refers to the personal
relevance or importance of a product or a service that a consumer perceives in a given
situation.
 What consumers learn, how they learn, and what factors govern the retention of
learned material in memory are all issues of considerable importance for understanding
consumers.
2.1 Individual Determinants of
Consumer Behaviour
The decision process itself is always at the center. The external environment into
individual determinants demonstrates that environmental stimuli do not directly
influence consumers. Instead, the stimuli are modified by internal influences such as
learning personally attitudes, information processing, and motives.

A) Major Groups of Individual Determinants:

1 Individual Determinants of
Consumer Behaviour
A) Major Groups of Individual Determinants:
1) Personality And Self-Concept:
They provide the consumer with a central theme. That is, they provide a structure for the
individual so that a consistent pattern of behavior can be developed.
2) Motivation and Involvement:
Motives are internal factors that energize behavior and provide guidance to direct the activated
behavior. Involvement describes the personal relevance or importance that the consumer
perceives in a given purchase situation, high involvement will lead to a motivated state.
3) Information Process:
The term “information processing” refers to the activities that consumers engage in when
acquiring, integrating, and evaluating information. Theyalso strongly involve
some individual factors, including motivation, learning, and attitudes.
4) Learning and Memory:
 What consumers learn, how they learn, and what factors govern the retention of learned
material in memory are all issues of considerable importance for understanding consumers .
5) Attitudes:
Attitudes guide our basic orientation toward objects, people, events, and our activities. As
such, attitudes strongly influence how consumers will act and react to products and
services, and how they will respond to communications that marketers develop to convince
them to purchase their products.
 A) Personality:
The personality of a person is the result of his individual traits he inherits and acquired as
he grows up in life. These individual traits so developed provide him with a unit personality.
This unique and inborn personality of an individual distinguishes his personality form other
human being with whom he interacts and deals with in his day-to-day life. a) Meaning:
The word ‘personality’ means not only the ‘Face Appearance’ of a person. It is an
interpretation in the narrow sense. As face, appearance is one of the aspect and not the
aspect of personality. In reality, it is a term to be interpreted in the ‘wider sense’. For
successful entrepreneurship, good or impressive personality is required. b) Definitions:
1) Gorden W. Allport:
“Personality is the dynamic organization within an individual of those psychological systems
that determine his unique adjustments to his environment” 2) Schiffman&Kanuk:
“Personality can be defined as those inner psychological characteristics that both determine
and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment.”
A) Personality:
c) Influence of Personality on Purchase Decisions:

A) Personality:
c) Influence of Personality on Purchase Decisions:
The most challenging concept in marketing deals with understanding why buyers do what
they do (or do not do). But such knowledge is critical for marketers since having a strong
understanding of buying behavior will help shed light on what is important to customer and
also suggest the important influences on customer decision making.
1) Depending on the Different Classes:
Consumers purchase products to reflect their personality. The type of house cloths furniture,
appliances, automobiles, jewelry people buy may reflect their personalities.
2) The Profession or the Occupation of Person:
Today people are very concerned about their image and the status in the society, which is a
direct outcome of their material prosperity.
3) According to Life Style:
Like the social class the human life cycle can have a significant impact on consumer behavior.
The life cycle is an orderly series of stages in which consumer attitude and behavioral
tendencies evolve and occur because of developing maturity, experience, income, and status.
4) Group Purchasing Behavior:
 Marketing interest in the personality is based on the assumption that, in spite of their
uniqueness as individuals, members of groups and aggregates may possess a given trait or
type common with each other.
B) Self Concept:
a) Meaning:
The self-concept means a person's perception of himself which includes his physical being,
other characteristics such as strength, honesty, and good humor in relation to others, and
even extending to include certain possessions and his creations.

b) Self-Concept and Consumer Behavior:

It is an important determinant of consumer behavior, because it describes how consumers
see themselves and how they think other people see them. Consumers define their sense of
self at least partially from the products and services they consume. They attempt to support
their self-concepts by using those products that communicate particular
personal characteristics to themselves and those around them.
Example of Self-Concept:
Self-concept is the basis for why a consumer wears certain fashions, purchases particular
products, and drives special cars. Products and brands are an important part of how an
Individual defines himself.
A) Motivation:
In a society, different consumers exhibit different consumer behaviour because they are
unique and have unique sets of needs. Motivation is that internal force that activates some
needs and provides direction of behaviour towards fulfillment of these needs. a) Meaning:
Motivation can be described as the driving force within individuals that impels them to
action. This driving force is produced by a state of tension, which exists as the result of an
unfulfilled need.
b) Definitions:
1) R. M. Jones:
“Motivation is how behaviour gets started, is energized, is sustained, is directed, is stopped,
and what kind of subjective reaction is present in the organism while this is going on”.
2) Berelson and Steiner :
“Motivation is an inner state that energizes, activates, or moves and that directs or channels
behaviour towards goals”.
c) Concept of Buying Motives:
A person buys products and services due to certain motives. The motive arises from within
an individual in the form a strong desire, wish or an emotion that propels him to get into the
 action of buying. Thus, a motive is an inner stimulating influence that impels and drives a
person’s behavior towards fulfilling a need or completing a mission.
A) Motivation:
d) Types of Buying Motives
A) Motivation:
d) Types of Buying Motives:
1) Product Buying Motives:
 The customer buys a product, which can be qualified as the bundle of physical attributes. The
construction, the design, the colors, the utility to satisfy the need and the ability to give the
desired level of post-purchase massage of 'personal ego’.

i) Logical Product Buying Motives:

In consumer behaviour models, it can be seen that a customer is basically an economic
individual. A person will necessarily be taking those decisions that can benefit him/her
economically. The consumer uses the logic of obtaining the optimum benefit on account of
all the scarce resources spent by him on the buying of a product.

ii) Emotional Product Motives:

Many times a customer may like to act impulsively and take an emotional decision to buy
products or services. Such impulsive spontaneous decisions could be the result of the
emotional buying motives or the motives that relate to the decisions taken by the
customers on account of the matters that may be a little difficult to explain by any logical
man.
A) Motivation:
d) Types of Buying Motives:
2) Patronage Motives:
Patronage motives may be defined as consideration or impulses, which persuade the buyer
to patronage specific shops. Just like product motives patronage can also be grouped as
emotional and rational.

i) Emotional Patronage Motives :

They are those that persuade a customer to buy from specific shops, without any logical
reason behind this action. He may be subjective for shopping in his favorite place.

ii) Rational Patronage Motives:

They are those, which arise when selecting a place depending on the buyer satisfaction
that it offers a wide selection, it has latest models, offers good after sales service etc.
Knowledge of buyer motives of consumers is useful for marketers to anticipate market
trends and formulate effective marketing strategies.
A) Motivation:
e)Motive Hierarchy:
Motive hierarchy can be explaining with the help of Maslow Hierarchy Theory. Psychologists
have been interested in the study of human behaviour so as to understand the human needs
 or motives which influence their behaviour. Abraham H. Maslow (1908-1970) was a
behavioral scientist. He had experimented a lot in the field of motivational studies and group

A) Motivation:
e )Motive Hierarchy:
1) Physiological
Needs:
In the hierarchy of needs theory, the first and most basic level of needs is physiological. These
needs are required to sustain biological life. They include food, water, air, shelter, clothing,
sex, etc. These are the primary needs.
2) Safety Needs:
Once the first level of needs are satisfied, safety and security needs will become the driving
force behind an individual’s behavior.
3) Social Needs:
Satisfaction of physical maintenance, a feeling of reasonable safety, an individual looks
beyond himself. Man is a social animal and likes to live in society rather than on islands.
4) Esteem Need:
 When the social needs are more or less satisfied, the esteem needs gain importance. The
esteem needs are concerned with ego. They reflect an individual’s need for self respect, self
confidence, a feeling of personal worth, prestige, success, power, and control.
5) Self-Actualisation Needs:
These are the needs for realizing one’s full potential for continued self- development, for
being creative. It is the desire of becoming what one is capable of becoming. It is an infinite
and growth need. It is psychological in nature and very few persons satisfy it.
B) Involvement:
a) Meaning:
Involvement refers to the personal relevance or importance of a product or a service that a
consumer perceives in a given situation. It is related to the consumer values and self-concept,
which influence the degree of personal importance ascribed to a product or situation. b)
Definitions:
1) Schiffman:
"Involvement is a heightened state of awareness that motivates consumers to seek out, attend
to, and think about product information prior to purchase".
2) Herbert Krugman:
"Consumers approach the marketplace and the corresponding product/service offerings with
varying levels and intensity of interest and personal importance. This is referred to as consumer
involvement."
B) Involvement:
c) Dimensions of Involvement
1) Moderating Factors:
Moderating Factors are those, which may limit the opportunity and the ability to process the
information and influence the level of involvement. For Example, A consumer is planning the
purchase of a mobile phone and the commercial. A person is watching would be quite
interesting to him. Suddenly somebody knocks on the door, this distracts his attention from
the ad, and the consumer may not posses much knowledge about a particular product and
fails to understand some of the information contained in the advertisement. So this would
limit the evaluation of alternative brand in a satisfactory manner.

2) Involvement Variables:
Involvement variables are given a follows:
i) Person:
 The variable related to person refers to personal needs, values, interests, and experiences
etc. ii) Stimulus / Object:
Refers to product or stimuli that consumer perceives to be closely related to his/her values
experience and interest.
B) Involvement:
c) Dimensions of Involvement:
3) Involvement Properties:
Involvement properties are given a follows.
i) Intensity:
Involvement intensity refers to the severity of involvement as experienced by the consumer and is
generally categorized as high or low. ii) Direction:
Direction refers to the focus of involvement and involvement variables will strongly affect this focus.
The focus could be a product, service, ad or purchase decision. iii) Persistence:
Persistence describes the length of time the consumer remains involved with purchase decision.
4) Response Factors:
Involvement properties are given a follows.
i) Different Intensity:
Response factors concern how a consumer behaves under involvement condition of different intensity.
ii) Information Search:
 These factors includes different pattern of information search, information processing, evaluation of
alternatives and post decision action. iii) High And Low Involvement:
One may expect that consumer is high in enduring involvement for a Product will undertake regular,
ongoing search for information and low involvement will result in little search for information.
A) Learning:
Learning is a relatively permanent change in the behavior that occurs as a result experience of
self or others. Consumer learning is a process by which people gather and interpret information
about product and service and use this information in buying pattern. a) Meaning:
Learning is not only about classroom type. Most behavior is learned as result of external
experiences; most of what people know (and almost many of the things they are most proud
of knowing) they learned outside school.

b) Definition:
1) Sara Kasper:
“Learning is the expansion of what one may already know or perceive. It is the accumulation
of knowledge but more importantly the application of this knowledge. If one cannot use newly
acquired information for his/her own practical use or benefit than it is doubtful that he/she is
engaged in the learning process.” 2) MicheleGriffin
Learning is a stance taken by an individual that allows for the acquisition of information,
attitudes, and practices, through observation, seeking previous knowledge, searching out
guides, and looking within as well as without.
A) Learning:
c) Principal Elements of Learning:

A) Learning:
c) Principal Elements of Learning:
Consumer learning may be intentional, where learning is an outcome of a careful search for
information.
1) Motivation:
Consumer motives lie at the very heart of consumer behaviour. When a consumer is faced
with a need/want situation, there occurs an urge within him to act towards the fulfillment of
the need/want through the problem solving/decision making process.
2) Cues:
A cue may be defined as a weak stimulus not strong enough to arouse consumers, but able to
gives strength and direction to the motives. All the 4Ps could act as cues and give direction to
motives; e.g. the packaging of the product , price place and promotion.
3) Response:
The behaviour of a person constitutes the response; i.e. how a person reacts to a drive or a
stimulus, reflects a response. This response could take various forms:
4) Reinforcement:
An action always has a reaction; based on the reaction, the behaviour gets reinforced. In
other words, if the action (behaviour) is followed by a reaction that is positive or pleasant or
rewarding, the action (behaviour) gets positively reinforced; the likelihood of repetition of
that action (behaviour) increases.
B) Memory:
Marketing messages can be effective only if the consumer correctly understands the messages,
and remembers them when needed. Memory refers to a consumer's ability to understand the
marketing messages and assign them value and meaning. a) Meaning:
Memory is the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. Encoding
allows information that is from the outside world to reach our senses in the forms of chemical
and physical stimuli. In this first stage, we must change the information so that we may put
the memory into the encoding process.

b) Definition:
1) Daniel Siege
Memory is more than what we can consciously recall about events from the past. A broader
definition is that memory is the way past events affect fixture function.
B) Memory:

B) Memory:
c) Characteristic of Memory Systems:
1) Three Components Of Memory:
Several views exist regarding the structure of memory and its operation one termed the
multiple store approach.
2) Storage Register:
A second perspective, which has been quite popular, is that then, is only one memory and
distinct storage registers do not exist in a physical sense.
3) Activation Model of Memory:
A third conception of memory, called the activation model also makes use of the
singlememory store concept In this currently popular view, consumers are seen as having one
large memory store but at any given time only a portion of that memory can he activated into
what we might think of as "working memory" that is available for use by the consumer. i)
Recall:
Bring (a fact, event, or situation) back into one’s mind; remember,(recall someone/thing
to)bring the memory or thought of someone or something to (a person or their
mind),request all the purchasers of (a certain product) to return it, as the result of the
discovery of a fault.
A) Meaning:
An attitude means a feeling of favorableness or unfavorableness that an individual has
towards an object (be it a person, thing or situation).The tangible and intangible objects,
towards which one can form an attitude are called attitude objects. In terms of consumer
behavior, an attitude is reflective of a consistent favorable or unfavorable feeling that a
consumer or a prospect forms as a result of an evaluation about an object; the object being,
a product/service offering, brand, price, store and dealer, salesperson, advertisement,
promotion etc It is noteworthy that attitudes cannot be directly observed, the reason being
that they are impacted by psychographics like motivation, perception, and learning.

B) Definition:
1) Allport:
"A mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a
directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations
with which it is related.”
C) The Characteristics of Attitude:
Followings are the characteristics of attitude.
1) Directed towards an Object:
 Attitudes are directed towards an object (product/service offering, price, store, dealer,
promotion, advertisement etc.) about which a consumer has feelings and beliefs.

2) Direction:
Attitudes have a direction; they could be positive or negative. A consumer could possess
feelings of like/dislike, favorableness, and unfavourableness towards a product or service as
well as the mix.

3) Consistent:
Attitudes are consistent in nature, particularly with respect to the third component, i.e.
behavior. Consumers are consistent with respect to their behavior. However, they are not
entirely permanent and may change if the cognitive or the component is changed.
C) The Characteristics of Attitude:
4) Learned Pre Disposition:
Attitudes are learned; they are formed as a result of
a) self-experiences with the product/service offering and the mix;
b) interaction with other people, be it family, friends, peers and colleagues;
 c) Information obtained from the marketer through promotion particularly advertisements
as well as dealers and salespeople.

5) Observed Directly:
While attitudes are comprised of three components, behaviour is just one of them. It is only
this component that can be seen; the cognitive and affect components cannot be seen.

6) Not Synonymous To Behaviour:

While attitudes can be inferred from our behavior, it is not synonymous to behaviour; it has
two other components, and reflects a learned predisposition to act favorable or unfavorable
towards a product and service offering and the mix.

7) Situation Specific:
They occur within a situation. Sometimes depending upon the situation, a consumer may
exhibit a behaviour that may be inconsistent with his/her attitude.
D) Intension (Behaviors):
 This component is the behavior (intentions) component of consumer attitudes, as with the
feeling component. The intentions component is sometimes a logical consequence
representing action. However, it can sometimes reflect other circumstances as well.
a) The Strategies for Changing Attitude, Intention and Behaviour:

D) Intension (Behaviors):
a) The Strategies for Changing Attitude, Intention and Behaviour:
Much of is true about attitude formation is also true about attitude change. Attitude changes are
learned and influenced by personal experience, sources of information, and personality.
1) Changing the Consumers Basic Motivational Function:
An effective strategy of changing consumer attitudes towards a product is to make particular needs
prominent.
i) Utilitarian Function:
Certain brand attitudes are held because of utility. When a product has been useful and helpful
for us in the past, our attitude towards it tends to be favorable.
ii)Ego-Defensive Function:
Most people want to protect their self images from inner feelings of doubt they want to replace
their uncertainty with a sense of security and personal confidence.
 iii)Value Expressive Function:
Attitudes are an expression of consumers' general values, lifestyle, and outlook. By knowing, the
target consumers' attitudes marketers can anticipate their values, lifestyles, or outlook and can
reflect these characteristics in their advertising and direct marketing efforts
iv) Knowledge Function:
Consumers generally have a strong need to know, the people and things with whom they come
in contact. It is important for marketers to give product and brand to satisfy consumer's need.
D) Intension (Behaviors):
a) The Strategies for Changing Attitude, Intention and Behaviour:
2 )Associating the Product with Admired Group or Events:
Associating the product with admired group attitudes are related at least in part to special
groups, events, or causes. It is possible to alter attitudes towards companies and their
products, services and brands by pointing put their relationships to particular social groups,
events or causes.

3) Resolving two Conflicting Attribute:

 Attitude change strategies sometimes resolve actual or potential conflict between two
attitudes. If the consumers may be made to see that, their negative attitude towards a
product or a specific brand or attributes is not in conflict with another attitude.

4) Altering Components:
Multi attribute models portray consumers' attitudes with regard to an attitude object
(product, service, etc...) as a function of consumers' perceptions and assessments of the key
attributes or beliefs held with regards to a particular attitude object
D) Intension (Behaviors):
a) The Strategies for Changing Attitude, Intention and Behaviour:
5) Changing the Relative Evaluation:
The overall market for many consumer products is set out so that different consumer
segments are offered different brands with different features. If detergent powder is a
product category then one brand may stress potency and the other brand may stress
gentleness.
i) Adding an Attribute:
 This strategy can be accomplished by adding an attribute that previously has been ignored
or one that represents improvement or technological advancement. ii) Changing Brand
Rating:
Another cognitive oriented strategy that attempts to alter consumers' overall rating of a
brand directly, without attempting to change their evaluation of any single brand attribute.
iii) Changing Consumer's Belief:
This approach emphasizes the attitude strategy to change the consumers' beliefs about the
attributes of competitive brands. This may be done through comparative advertising in
which the brand is compared with other brand