Consumer Decisions

• Factors that influence consumer choice: psychological (perception, motives, attitudes, and personality), sociocultural (family and roles, peer group, social class, culture and subculture), economic (general economic condition - income + financial conditions), government (laws, regulations - ideals)
• Perception: consumers will not normally purchase a product that they perceive as being of poor quality or inferior to similar brands.
• Motives: The main motives that influence consumer choice include comfort, health, safety, ambition, taste, pleasure, fear, amusement, cleanliness, and the approval of others.
• Attitude: Consumer attitude towards a business and its products generally influence the succes or failure of the business's marketing strategy.
• Personality: personality and interest influence the types of brands of a product someone buys. Consumers tend to be risk seekers or risk averse. Risk averse are more likely to purchase, for example, insurance. Risk takers are more likely to purchase investments.
• Family and roles: families influence our consumer decisions. The choices we make reflect the values, interests, and income of our families.
• Peer Groups: Consumer decisions are also influenced by the opinions and interests of friends and peers. E.g. teenagers are more heavily influenced by trends in an attempt to fit in with their peer group.
• Social Class: Consumer decisions are influenced by their level of wealth, thus their social class. Affluent middle class people make different decisions from less wealthy working-class people.
• Culture and subcultural: Subcultural refers to a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs, or interests at variance with those of the larger cultures. E.g. an eshay is an expression associated with an Australian urban youth subcultural that typically act hyper-masculine and dress in street wear.
• Income (economic influences): income will affect the types of products they demand. Increased income means that consumers can afford a greater range of goods and services. Decreased income means that consumers can afford less range. This can differ based on the occupation, inheritance and investment decision.
• Financial conditions (economic influences): The financial conditions of the economy can also affect a consumer's decisions. If consumer's expect conditions to worsen, they might choose to spend less on durable goods, but when the economy is performing well, consumers might feel inclined to make larger purchases.
• Government influences (government ideals): The views and ideals of the government in power will affect consumers decisions. The government might make laws around the consumption of certain goods or services or even ban a particular good.
• Marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including research and advertising.
• What are the four P's of marketing

  • Product (what's being sold)
  • Price (how much it's being sold for)
  • Place (where and how will it be sold)
  • Promotion (how will people know about this product)