MODULE 3

• Consumer behavior refers to the decisions and actions people undertake to buy products or services for personal use. In other words, it’s the actions you take before buying a product or service.
• 4 Types of Consuming Buying Behavior:

  1. Variety-Seeking Buying Behavior
  2. Complex Buying Behavior
  3. Habitual Buying Behavior
  4. Dissonance Buying Behavior
• Complex buying behavior occurs when you make a significant or expensive purchase, like buying a new car.
• Complex Buying Behavior: It includes frequently, you’re highly involved in the buying decision, and you probably research different vehicles or talk with friends or family before reaching your decision.
• Dissonance-reducing buying behavior occurs when you’re highly involved in a purchase but see little difference among brands.
• Habitual buying behavior has low involvement in the purchase decision because it’s often a repeat buy, and you don’t perceive much brand differentiation.
• Variety-seeking buying behavior has the lowest customer involvement because brand switching is your norm.
• 5 Factors Influencing Consumer Buying Behavior

  1. Cultural
  2. Social
  3. Personal
  4. Psychological
  5. Situational
• Cultural factors comprise a set of values or ideologies of a particular community or group of individuals. These can include culture, subcultures, social class, and gender.
• Culture refers to the values, ideas, and attitudes that are learned and shared among members of a group.
• A subculture is a group of people, such as environmentalists or bodybuilders, who share a set of values.
• Social class is also an important influence on your buying behavior.
• Social factors are those factors that are prevalent in the society where the consumer lives.
• Reference groups are those groups with which you like to be associated.
• Occupation is also a significant factor in your buying behavior because you tend to purchase things that are appropriate to your profession.
• Personal factors, such as your occupation, age and life cycle stage, economic situation, lifestyle, and personality and self-concept also play a major role in your buying behavior.
• Personality is the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique.
• One of the most widely known motivation theories is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
• Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It’s the driving force behind your actions.
• 4 Psychological Factors:

  1. Motivation
  2. Perception
  3. Beliefs, Feelings and Attitudes
  4. Learning
• 5 Decision Consumer Making Process

  1. Need Recognition
  2. Search for Information
  3. Evaluation of Alternatives
  4. Purchase Decision
  5. Post-Purchase Evaluation
• Need Recognition: The buying process starts when you sense a difference between your actual state and your desired state.
• Information Search: Once the problem of need is identified, the next step is to search for more information that will help you make a choice.
• Evaluation of Alternatives: This is the stage in the process where you’ll evaluate several attributes of the product or service in making a decision on a purchase.
• Purchase Decision: This stage involves actually reaching a decision on the purchase of the product or service.
• Post-Purchase Evaluation: After purchasing the product or service, you’ll now experience either satisfaction or dissatisfaction.