CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Consumer Behaviour



Table of Contents

Introduction1

Group influence and purchase decision1

Purchase decision2

Influence of Peers2

Influence of Families3

Influence of Colleagues3

Motivation and benefits received by customers4

Conclusion7

References8

Consumer Behaviour

Introduction

The changes in the global market scenario presents a sharp contrast in the consumer behaviour from what it was a couple of years ago. This is because the changes in the marketing, economic, political, cultural and societal factors have led to changes in consumer dynamics not only in the UK and US but in countries across the world. The paper discusses important concepts in consumer behaviour that shall help marketers in developing a better understanding of the current market as well as in the designing of appropriate market strategy for business success.

Group influence and purchase decision

Purchase intention is a very important concept in both marketing and consumer behaviour. The many studies on the topic have concentrated on purchase intention as relates to packaged food, food products, apparel, online buying, automobiles and capital equipment. Studying purchase intention is so important for the companies as it aids them with their resource allocation decisions. Marketers need to predict purchase intentions so that they can predict the forecasts for new and existing products (Gronroos 2006, p 191). The prediction whether a consumer will purchase a product or service or not is dependent on whether he intends to purchase it or not. This has been proved and reinforced by many theories on consumer buying behaviour.

In this context, it is imperative to understand what is purchase decision and how does it relate to the pressure from various influence groups.

Purchase decision

Purchase intention refers to a plan of a person who wants to buy a certain product or service in the future. This purchase intention may be the product of any of the multiple stages in the consumer buying process. Consumer buying behaviour involves all the behaviours of a person and the decision processes that are involved in buying a certain product or service and using it (Waldez, 2010, p. 42). These include the recognition of the problem, information search, evaluation of alternatives, the final decision to but the product which is also the purchase intent and the behaviour after the purchase.

Influence of Peers

Peers have a very strong influence on the purchasing decisions of a person. This is specifically true for people who are young. If a certain teenager carries a certain handheld device which is in fashion than all teenagers have to have the same. It is the pressure from our peers that makes a luxury a necessity or a must have. Each one of us may be filled with possessions that are there only for us to belong in the company of our friends. The closer we are to a certain friends, the more influence he or she can have on our purchases. This must be understood in the light of word of mouth and the concept of opinion leaders. Some of our friends become the opinion leaders of certain product categories (Bearden, 2002, ...