FACTORS INFLUENCING

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Consumer behavior is the study of how
individuals , groups and organizations
select , use , and dispose of goods ,
services , ideas , or experiences to
satisfy their needs and wants.
 What Influences
Consumer Behavior?

• Cultural factors
• Social factors
• Personal factors
CULTURAL FACTORS

(1)Culture
(2)Sub-culture
(3)Social class
 1. What is Culture?
Culture is the set of basic values
perceptions, wants, and behaviors
learned by a member of society from
family and other important institutions.
Culture is the most basic cause of a
person’s wants and behavior.

Every group or society has a culture, and

cultural influences on buying behavior
may vary greatly from country to country
 2.Subcultures

Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that

provide more specific identification and
socialization for their members.
• Nationalities
• Religions
• Racial groups
• Geographic regions
When subcultures grow large and affluent enough
, companies often design specialized marketing
programs to serve them
 3.Social Classes
All human societies exhibit social stratification .
Stratification sometimes takes the form of a
caste system, where the members of
different castes are reared for certain roles
and cannot change their caste membership.
• Upper uppers,Lower uppers,Upper middles
• Middle,Working ,Upper lowers,Lower lowers
 Social Factors
• Reference groups - A persons reference group are
those groups that have a direct (face to face) or indirect
influence on the person’s attitudes or behavior.
• Family – Husband – dominant: life insurance,
automobiles, television
Wife – dominant: washing machines, carpeting, non –living –
room furniture, kitchenware
Equal: Living – room furniture, vacation, Housing, outside
entertainment.
• Roles and Status -The person’s position in each
group can be defined in terms of both role and status. For
example. M & “X” plays the role of father, in his family he plays
the role of husband, in his company, he plays the role of
manager, etc. A Role consists of the activities people are
expected to perform according to the persons around them.
 Personal Factors

• Age and Life cycle stage -People changes the

goods and services they buy over their lifetimes. Tastes in
food, clothes, furniture, and recreation are often age related.
• Occupation -Blue collar workers tend to buy more
rugged work clothes, whereas white-collar workers buy more
business suits.
• Wealth - A person’s economic situation will affect product
choice

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 Personal Factors

• Personality and Self-concept

Each person’s distinct personality influence his or
her buying behavior.
• Values
• Lifestyle
Life Style is a person’s Pattern of living, understanding these
forces involves measuring consumer’s major dimensions. i.e.
activities (Work, hobbies, shopping, support etc) interest (Food,
fashion, family recreation) and opinions (about themselves,
Business, Products)

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 Brand Personality

• Sincerity – (down to earth, honest, wholesome

and Cheerful) Campbell’s
• Excitement – ( Daring, Spirited, Imaginative and
up to date) MTV
• Competence – ( Reliable, intelligent and
successful) CNN
• Sophistication – (Upper class and Charming)
Arrow
• Ruggedness – (outdoorsy and tough) Levi’s

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 Brand Personality

Brands       :      Personality

Moods      :      Sensitivity
Thumbs up   :      bravery / daring
Amul     :      humour
MTV  :      wacky
Indiakings  : Sophistication (upper class)
Woodlands  : Ruggedness & outdoorsy
Mahindra Scorpio:   Ruggedness
Marlboro   : Ruggedness
Ruff &Tuff    :   Bravery
Sona chandi Chavanprash :    Bravery
Britania little hearts :  Love & Affection

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 Model of Consumer behavior

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 Key Psychological Processes

• Motivation - Motive (drive) a need that is sufficiently

pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction of the need
• Perception- The process by which people select,
Organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture
of the world.
• Learning - Changes in an individuals behavior arising
from experience.

• Memory

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 Motivation

Maslow’s Herzberg’s
Freud’s Hierarchy Two-Factor
Theory of Needs Theory

Behavior Behavior Behavior is

is guided by is driven by guided by
subconscious lowest, motivating
motivations unmet need and hygiene
factors

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 Perception
• Selective attention - People are more likely to
notice Stimuli that relate to a current need , they anticipate and
whose deviations are large in relationship to the normal size of
the stimuli.
• Selective distortion – is the tendency to interpret information in
a way that fits our Preconceptions.
• Selective retention – We’re likely to remember
good points about a product we like and forget the good points
about the competing products.
• Subliminal perception – Consumers are not
consciously aware of them, yet they affect behavior.

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 1. Selective Attention
• Selective attention means that marketers
must work hard to attract customer’s notice…
Some conclusion for selective attention is given
below
1. People are more likely to notice stimuli that
relate to a current need.
2. People are more likely to notice stimuli they
anticipate
3. People are more likely to notice stimuli
whose deviations are large in relationship to
the normal size of the stimuli.
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 2. Selective Distortions

• It is the tendency to interpret

information in a way that fits our
perceptions.
• Consumers will often distort information
to be consistent with prior brand and
product beliefs and expectations

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 3. Selective retention

• Most of us don’t remember much of the

information to which we have exposed,
but we do retain information that
supports our attitudes and beliefs.
• We are likely to remember good points
about a product we like and forget
good points about competing products.

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 4. Subliminal Perception

• Subliminal perceptions, also known

as subliminal messages, are
messages, either visual or auditory,
that are presented just beyond the
threshold of human perception.
A subliminal perception may not be
audible enough that the conscious mind
might register it but be audible enough
for the subconscious mind
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 Learning
• Drives : is a strong internal stimulus
impelling action
• Cues: are minor stimuli that determine
when, where, and how a person
responds.
• Discriminations: differences is stimuli
• Hedonic Bias: people have tendency to
attribute success to themselves and
failure to external causes.
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 MEMORY
• Memory is a very constructive process,
because we don’t remember information
and events completely and accurately.
• Short-term memory and Long-term
memory
• Memory encoding: how and where
information gets into memory
• Memory retrieval: Is the way information
gets out of memory
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 Figure 6.4 Consumer Buying Process

• Problem
recognition
• Information
search
• Evaluation
• Purchase
decision
• Post purchase
behavior
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 1. Problem Recognition

• This is often identified as the first and

most important step in the customer’s
decision process. A purchase cannot
take place without the recognition of the
need. The need may have been
triggered by internal stimuli (such as
hunger or thirst) or external stimuli
(such as advertising or word of mouth).

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 2. Information Search
This is the buyer’s effort to search internal and external business
environments, in order to identify and evaluate information
sources related to the central buying decision. Your customer may
rely on print, visual, online media or word of mouth for obtaining
information.

Sources of Information
• Personal (Family, Friends, neighbors etc)
• Commercial (Advertising, Websites , Salespersons,
dealers, Packaging , display)
• Public (Mass media, Consumer rating)
• Experiential (Handling , Examining ,using the product )

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 3. Evaluation of alternatives

Some concepts which are used in understanding

customer evaluation process are as follows
1.The consumer is trying to satisfy a need
2.The consumer is looking for certain benefits from the
product solution.
3.The consumer sees each product as bundle of
attributes with varying abilities for delivering the
benefits sought to satisfy this need.

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 • Beliefs and attitudes
• Expectancy value model

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 4. Purchase Decision

• In executing a purchase intention, the

consumer may make up to five sub
decisions
1.Brand
2.Dealer
3.Quantity
4.Timing
5.Payment method
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 Non-Compensatory Models of Choice:
consumers often take mental
shortcuts in decision making
“Heuristics
• Conjunctive – the consumer sets a minimum
acceptable cutoff level for each attribute and choose
the first alternative that meets minimum standard for
all attributes.
• Lexicographic – Consumer chooses the best
brand on the basis of its perceived most important
attribute.
• Elimination-by-aspects - Consumer chooses
the best brand on the basis of probability.

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 Perceived Risk

• Functional
• Physical
• Financial
• Social
• Psychological
• Time

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 5. Post-Purchase Behavior
• Post-purchase satisfaction
• Post-purchase actions
• Post purchase use and disposal

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 Other Theories of
Consumer Decision Making

Involvement Decision Heuristics

• Elaboration • Availability
Likelihood Model • Representativeness
• Low-involvement • Anchoring and
marketing adjustment
strategies
• Variety-seeking
buying behavior

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 Mental Accounting

• Consumers tend to…

• Segregate gains
• Integrate losses
• Integrate smaller losses with larger gains
• Segregate small gains from large losses

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