Fundamentals of Marketing

Chapter: 03 – Identifying the Consumer Behavior

Sanjaya Jayasinghe

MCIM, Dip M (UK), MBA (PIM-SJP)

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Learning Outcome

Explain the consumer behavior in different buying situations

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 Consumer Behavior…

How individuals, groups and organizations select, buy, use, and

dispose of goods, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy their
needs and desires.

 Knowing the customer “black box “ is really important .

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 Importance of Knowing Consumer Behavior

 To satisfy customers

 To earn profit

 To be the market leader

 To face for the competition

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Buyers Characteristics

 Cultural Factors
 Determinant of person’s wants and behavior

 Social Factors
 Reference Groups
 Social Classes
 Roles And Status

 Personal Factors
 Psychological factors

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Buyers Characteristics

 Cultural Factors
 Determinant of person’s wants and behavior

 Social Factors
 Reference Groups
 Social Classes
 Roles And Status

 Personal Factors
 Psychological factors

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 Basic consumer behavior model

Consumer
Psychology

1. Motivation Buying Decision Purchase Decision

2. Perception Process Process
Marketing Stimuli Other Stimuli 3. Learning
4. Memory 1. Problem 1. Product choice
1. Communication 1. Economic recognition 2. Brand choice
2. Product & Services 2. Technological 2. Information search 3. Dealer choice
3. Price 3. Cultural 3. Evaluation of 4. Purchase timing
Consumer
4. Distribution 4. Political alternatives 5. Purchase amount
Characteristics
4. Post purchase 6. Payment methods
1. Cultural evaluation
2. Social
3. Personal

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Buying decision process

 Problem Recognition
 Triggered internally or externally
 Information Search
 Heightened attention (simply becoming more receptive)
 Active information search (asking people)
 Evaluation of Alternatives
 In evaluation, the consumer sees each product as a bundle of attributes with
varying abilities for delivering the benefits sought to satisfy this need

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Buying decision process

 Purchase Decision
 Intervening factors
 Attitude of others
 Consumer reports
 Unanticipated situational factor
 Post Purchase Use and Disposal
 Monitoring how buyers use and dispose of the product can help to
increase the frequency of purchase by
 Tying the act of replacing the product to a certain holiday
 To provide better information as to either
 When the product was first used or would need to be replaced
 The current level of performance

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Type of buying decisions

Involvement
High Low

Complex buying behavior Variety-seeking buying

Significant

behavior
Brand differences

Dissonance-reducing Habitual buying

buying behavior behavior
Few
 Complex buying behavior

 Consumers undertake complex buying behavior when they are highly

involved in a purchase and perceive significant differences among
brands
 Consumers may be highly involved when the product is expensive,
self-expressive risky, purchased infrequently and highly
 Typically , the consumer has much to learn about the category and will
pass through a learning process
 Should help buyers learn about product class attributes. They may
motivate sales people to influence the final brand choice

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 Variety seeking buying behavior

 Consumers undertake variety seeking buying behavior when they are

not much involved in a purchase and perceive high differences among
brands.
 Consumers may be not be involved when the product is inexpensive,
less risky, purchased frequently and so on.
 Consumers often do a lot of brand switching.
 Brand switching occurs for the sake of variety rather than
dissatisfaction.

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 Dissonance reducing buying behavior

 Consumers undertake dissonance reducing behavior when they are

highly involved in a purchase and perceive few differences among
brands .
 Consumers may be highly involved when the product is expensive,
risky, purchased infrequently and highly self expressive .
 Buyers may consider most brands (in a category) in a given price range
to be the same. They may respond primarily to a good price or
convenience.
 After the purchase, consumers might experience post purchase
dissonance

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 Habitual buying behavior

 Consumers undertake habitual buying behavior when they are not

much involved in a purchase and perceive few differences among
brands
 Consumers may be not be involved when the product is inexpensive,
less risky, purchased frequently and so on.
 As buyers have little involvement, they simply go to the store and
reach for a brand. If they keep on buying the same brand, its out of
habit rather than strong brand loyalty.
 Consumer do not search extensively and passively receive information.
Ad repetition creates brand familiarity rather than conviction.

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Adaptation curve

 Innovators: Willing to try new ideas at some risk.

 Early Adopters: Guided by respect, are opinion
leaders, and adopt new ideas early, but carefully.
 Early Majority: Deliberate and adopt new ideas
before the average person although they rarely
are leaders.
 Late Majority: Doubtful. They adopt an
innovation only after a majority of people has
tried it.
 Laggards: Traditionally bound. They are
suspicious of changes, mix with other tradition-
bound people, and adopt the innovation only
because it has now taken on a measure of
tradition itself

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 Buyer roles

 Initiator
A person who first suggests the idea of buying the particular product or service.
 Influencer
A person whose view or advise influences the decision .
 Decider
A person who decides on any component of a buying decision; whether to buy, what
to buy, how to buy, or where to buy .
 Buyer
The person who makes the actual purchase.
 User
A person who consumes or uses the product or service

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