Factors influencing consumers Behaviour

The buying
behavior of ultimate consumers can be examined using a five- part model: the
buying-decision process, information, social and group forces, psychological forces and situational
factors.

The buying
decision process is composed of six stages consumers go through in making
purchases The stages are needed recognition, choice of involvement level,
identification of alternatives, evaluation and post-purchase behaviour.
Information fuels the buying — decision process. Without it there would be no
decisions. There are two categories of information sources: commercial and
social. Commercial sources include advertising, personal selling, selling by
phone, and personal involvement with a product. owned by someone else social
sources.

Social and
group forces are composed of culture, subculture, social class, reference
groups, family and households. Culture has the broadest and most general
influence on buying behaviour while a person and group forces have a direct
impact on individual purchase decisions as well as a person’s psychological makeup.

Psychological forces that impact
buying decisions are motivation, perception, learning, and personality need.
Perception is the way we interpret the world around us and is subject to three
types of selectivity: attention, distorting, and retention. Learning is a
change in behaviour as a result of experience. Stimulus-response learning involves drives, cues, responses,
reinforcement, and punishment. Continued reinforcement leads to habitual buying
and brand loyalty

Personality is the sum of an individual’s traits that
influence behavioral responses. The Freudian psychoanalytic theory of
personality has had a significant impact on marketing, it has caused
marketers to realize that the true motives for behavior are often hidden. The
self-concept is related to realize that the true motives for behavior are often
hidden. The self-concept is
related to personality. Because purchasing and consumption are very expressive actions,
they allow us to communicate to the world our actual ideal self concepts

Attitudes are
learned predisposition to respond to an object or class of objects in a
consistent fashion. Besides
being learned, all attitudes are difficult to change.

Situational influences deals with
when, where how and why consumers buy, and the consumer’s personal condition at
the time of purchase. Situational influences are often so powerful that they
can override all of the other forces in the buying-decision process.