FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING: BUYING BEHAVIOR

Fundamentals of Marketing: Buying Behavior



Fundamentals of Marketing: Buying Behavior

Describe a major purchase you have recently made

I have recently bought a house of my own. Buying a home is the costliest investment made in a life time, for any human being. When we acquire the capacity to buy or build a home, our experience of buying, involves both emotional and rational aspects, which lead to a purchase decision. In general, behave rationally means, to strive to achieve greatest results with limited opportunities. In formulating the principles of rational consumer behavior, economists do not define the goal of rational consumer behavior, thoughts about leaving the philosophers, religious preachers, politicians, and consumers themselves. Economist interested in something else - how people behave, realizing their individual interests in a world of limited opportunities.

Obviously, the main limitation for any consumer is the size of his income. As needs are varied and endless, and income (i.e., the available amount of money the customer) is limited, the buyer is forced to constantly make choices from a huge amount of goods offered by it on the market. It is natural to assume that making this choice, the consumer tends to buy the best set of products from those available in this limited income. However, buying a house is not a decision which is made usually. It is a big decision of a person's life. In buying a house, a person would like to have a beautiful house in a peaceful area. However, he would have to go according to his pocket size. Therefore, he would have to limit his choices according to his income.

The consumer has a direct relationship with income in choosing from the alternatives and seeking the best value. The rational behavior of a consumer in buying a house would be that he would not like going beyond his pocket size. However, since it is a life time decision, a person can go to get home loans so that he can have a house of his choice and can pay back the loan later. It would also be a rational choice.

Customers buy to fill a need, but there are other influential factors. They buy something when it gives them pleasure. They buy because they have to fulfill their emotional needs and desires. If this were not so, customers would buy only what they needed and nothing more. In reality, many consumers behave emotionally while making a buying decision. Women and girls are mostly in the category of emotional customers. They have to buy some things just to satisfy their emotional needs. Very few women are rational buyers, who usually go just for their needs and requirements and nothing extra.

In the case of buying or building a home, it is not only an emotional need of woman, but, it is the emotional requirement of a man too. It is the biggest dream of every person to have a home of his own which he purchased or build through his own ...