Consumer Behavior Summary Essay Example

Consumer Behavior Summary Essay 95 percent of the thought, emotion and learning that force our consumption occur in the unconscious mind Psychological factors * Motivation * Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory * Physiological needs * Safety needs * Social needs * Esteem needs * Self actualisation needs * Perception * People can have different perceptions of the same stimulus because of three perceptual processes: * Selective exposure * Consumer’s selection of the type of advertisements they are exposed to/ impact them. As most stimuli is screened out by people * Selective distortion Stimuli that consumers do not notice not coming across to the consumer in the intended way by advertise * Describes the tendency of people to adapt information to personal meanings * Selective retention * Retention of information that supports a consumer’s attitudes and beliefs * Learning * Learning occurs through the fusion of drives, stimuli, cues, responses and reinforcement * Marketers can build demand for a prod uct by associating it with strong drives, using motivating cues and providing positive reinforcement *Beliefs and attitudes Attitudes put people into a frame of mind of liking and disliking things * Since attitudes are developed over a period of time it is usually difficult to change them * Personality and self concept * Each person’s distinct personality influences their buying behaviour * Personality is closely tied to motivation and is usually described in terms of traits. * The basic self concept remise is that people’s possessions contribute to and reflect their identities that ‘ we are what we have’ Personal factors * A buyer’s decision is also influenced by personal characteristics such as the buyer’s age and life cycle stage, occupation and economic situation * Age life cycle stage * People change the type of goods and services they buy over different periods of their lifetime *Preferences in food clothes furniture and recreation are often age related * Occupation A person’s occupation affects the goods and services bought * The type of goods and services a manual labourer would buy is way different to what a business man would buy * Economic Situation * Marketers target consumers who have lots of money and resources charging prices to match their high income * E. g. Rolex Watches * Marketers of income sensitive goods target consumers who are more modest in the way they spend their money and resources * E. g. Budget airline tickets * Culture Major influence on a person’s wants and general behaviour * Consumers develop their basic values and perceptions from their environment usually from those around them from young * Subculture * Subcultures such as Chinese, Middle eastern communities have different preferences and interest that Australian consumers *Interests of buyers in various goods and services will be influences by their sub cultural background / race etc. Or those who are around them (commu nities) Social Factors * Family and Household A person’s household and family can strongly influence buyer behaviour as these people are important to the consumer therefore he/she might consult them when purchasing a product * Groups * Social groups and reference groups can shape a person’s attitude towards a particular product Buying decision behaviours * Purchase decisions are often grouped according to the importance of the purchase to the consumer or the consumers involvement with the product * If the purchase is expensive the consumer might have higher involvement than a purchase of a cheaper product Complex buying behaviour * When purchase is high involvement and when the consumer believes that there is a significant difference between brands *Dissonance reducing buying behaviour * When purchase is high involvement with an expensive infrequent risky purchase but see little difference between brands * Consumers might shop around to learn what is available in the m arket but buy relatively quick * Habitual buying behaviour Purchase is low involvement and the consumer doesn’t think there is significant differences between brands * Consumers don’t search extensively for information * Variety seeking buying behaviour * Low involvement but significant perceived brand differences * Consumers might want to pick another brand to try something new or to switch brands to relieve boredom of the same brand