Q. Describe requirement of studying buyer's behavior & what is the influences of consumer behaviors?
Ans.: The study of buyer's behavior is essential to marketing as to who inspire the buyers? What induces him to buy? Why does he purchase specific brand? Why does he buy from a particular shop? Why does he shift from 1 shop to other? How does he behave to a new product in the market? These all questions are of middle interest to the marketing man and above all a buyer is a riddle. His requirement and wish are frequently at a different stage of emergence & actualization. The buyer has a choosy perception and he is exposed to a variety of products and information. He may avoid certain piece of information whereas really seek out some other information while actively seek out some other information so, marketers have to fully understand the theory and reality of consumer behavior both. A consumer's buying behavior is influenced by, social, cultural & personal factors and they are a essential part of the buyer as an individual.
(1)Cultural Factors: Culture is the basic determination of a person's desire & behavior. The growing child gains a set of values perceptions, preference & Behaviors through his or her family. Each culture consist of several sub cultures that provide more particular identification .It involve s nationalities, social groups, religions & geographic regions. Every culture dictates its own sole patterns of social conduct. Along with each religion there may be various sects& sub sects, there can be cosmopolitan groups and orthodox group .The do's & don'ts listed out by culture & religion impacts the individual's lifestyle & buying behavior.
For example: Kellogg India launched cornflakes in Indian market, the response from the consumers was not so good. The company conducted a market research and get result that Indians prefer hot milk with cornflakes, while the crispiness advantage that it was claiming could be delivered only when the cornflakes were mixed with cold milk.
Indian marketer use a specific term called socio economic classification (SEC) which uses education & occupation jointly of their key wage earner of the household to classify buyers in the urban areas. This classifies all the urban households into A1, A2, B1, B2, C, D, E1, & E2 having A1 with highest purchase potential E2 is the lowest.
(2)Social Factors: Consumer's behavior is effective by social factors like as reference groups social roles, family,& status. The purchaser is living in a society, is influenced & There is a steady interaction among the individual & the groups to which he belongs. All these interactions affect him in his day to day life.
Reference Groups: A person's reference groups consist of every group that has a indirect or direct influence on his attitude. They may be family, neighbors, friend's coworker, professional, religious &trade union groups. Reference groups expose a specific all to new behaviors and lifestyles and influence attitude and self concept .Brands like, Prologue, Levi & Planet Mused teenage icon as brand Ambassadors for promotions motto.
Family: The family is the most vital buying organization in society.From parents a person gain an orientation toward religion politics & a sense of personal ambition, self worth and love .For example: In joint families, the influence of grandparents on chief purchase decisions affect the lifestyles of younger. In urban India with the growth of nuclear families and both husband and wife working the role of women in chief family decisions is prominent.
Children and teenagers are being targeted by companies by using the internet as an interactive device.
Role & Status: A person's position in each group may be defined in terms of role and status. A role consist of all activities that a person is expected toper form. Every role carries a status. A Vice President of marketing has high status than a sales manager & a sales manager has high status in comparison of an office clerk & people select those products that reflect & communicate their role & preferred status in society.
(3)Personal Factors :The personal factors include the purchaser 's age & stage in the life cycle, occupation and in economic position, personality and self intersect and lifestyle and values.
Age & Stage in the Life Cycle: People buy different type of products like, Cloths, food, furniture & this is frequently age related. Trends like delayed marriages, children migrating to distant cities, trend of professionalism has resulted in different chance for marketers at various stages in customer life cycle.
Occupation & Economic Position: Occupation also influences purchaser's behavior. A blue collar worker will purchase work clothes, lunch boxes, bus ticket & work shoes, a company president will buy dress suits, and club membership's & air travel. Marketers try to recognize the occupational groups & then create products according to their requirements and demands. Product selection is highly affected by economic circumstances of the buyer - spendable income, savings, assets and attitude towards spending and savings.
Personality & Self Concept: Each person has own personality characteristics that influence his / her buying nature. Personality means a set of distinguishing psychosomatic traits that has to response to environmental stimuli. Personality can be a useful variable in analyzing consumer brand selection. The idea is that brands also have personalities and consumers like to select those brands which match or suits their entire personality.