What influence Consumer Behaviour?
A consumer buying behaviour is influenced by cultural, social and personal factor
Factors which influence consumers purchase decisions?
A consumer buying behaviour is also influenced by psychological processes and consumer characteristics.
Four key Psychological Processes
- Motivation
- Perception
- Learning
- Memory
Basic psychological processes play an important role in understanding how consumer actually make their buying decisions
Motivation
Understanding the interplay between motivation and emotions is crucial for effective marketing strategies. Motivation serves as the persistent force that drives consumers toward their long-term goals, while emotions act as temporary states that reflect and influence these motivations. Together, they create a powerful dynamic that shapes consumer behavior.
As marketers, we can harness this relationship by identifying ways to evoke emotions that resonate with our target audience. By tapping into these emotional triggers, we can stimulate motivation and encourage consumers to fulfil their needs. This approach not only enhances engagement but also fosters a deeper connection with our brand.
Incorporating insights about motivation and emotion into our marketing strategies can lead to more meaningful interactions and ultimately drive consumer action. Let’s focus on creating experiences that resonate on an emotional level, guiding consumers through their buying journey with purpose and intention.
Perception
Understanding consumer perception is crucial for any business aiming to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. Perception shapes how consumers interpret the world around them, including their views on your products and services. Each individual’s perception is unique, influencing their purchasing behavior in distinct ways.
As marketers, it’s essential to recognize that perception is not just about the product itself, but how it is seen, understood, and remembered by consumers. By familiarizing ourselves with the nuances of perception, sensory thresholds, and the cognitive processes involved, we can effectively tailor our marketing strategies.
This means refining our ads, packaging, and pricing to resonate with specific consumer segments. By actively shaping the perception of our offerings, we can ensure that they are not only recognized but also valued in the minds of our target audience. Let’s commit to understanding and influencing perception to drive meaningful connections with our consumers.
Learning
Learning is relatively permanent change in knowledge or behaviour that is the result of experience. Learning process by which consumers change their behaviour after they gain information or experience. It’s the reason you don’t buy a bad product twice. Learning doesn’t just affect what you buy it affects how you shop.
Companies try to get consumers to learn about their products in different ways. Car dealerships offer test drives. Pharmaceutical reps leave samples and brochures at doctor’s offices. Other companies give consumers free samples. To promote its new line of coffees, McDonald’s offered customers free samples to try. For example – Suppose you buy a X company computer. If your experience is rewarding, your response to computer and X will be positively reinforced. Later on, when you want to buy a printer, you may assume that because X makes good computers, X also makes good printers.
Learning Theory teaches marketers that they can build demand for a product by associating it with strong drives, using motivating cues and providing positive reinforcement.
Memory
Memory influence consumer decision making shapes consumer behaviour and impacts the brand loyalty and advertising strategies with a focus on potential successful memory-based advertising campaign. Consumer memory is dynamic and influence aspect of consumer behaviour that shape how individual perceive, recall and respond to stimuli in the market place. Marketer that understands the stages of memory processing, types of memory and factors influencing memory can strategically design marketing effort to create lasting impression and build strong brand connection. For example, storytelling, jingle etc.
The Buying Decision process: The Five Stage Model
The consumer passes through five stages, clearly, the buying process starts long before the actual purchase and has consequences long afterward. But consumer do not always pass through all five stages in buying a product. They may skip or reverse some stages. For example, buying regular brand of salt goes directly from the need to the purchase decisions, skipping information search and evaluation.
Stage 1 – Problem or need recognition
- The buying process start when the buyers recognize a problem or need.
- The need can be triggered by internal or external stimulate.
- Marketer need to identify the circumstances that trigger a particular need by gathering information from a number of consumers for example advance computer.
Stage 2 – Information Search
A needy consumer will be inclined to search for more information. For example – Advance laptop. The information sources can be
- Personal – Family, friends, neighbours
- Commercial – Advertising, website, salespersons, dealers, packaging, displays
- Public – Mass media, consumer rating organizations
- Experiential – Handling, examining, using the product
Stage 3 – Evaluation of Alternatives
The features of interest to buyers vary by product for example
- Laptop – Configuration, Memory, Touchscreen, Warranty, Colours, Price
- Cameras – Picture sharpness, camera speeds, camera size, price
- Hotels – Location, cleanliness, atmosphere, price
Stage 4 – Purchase Decision
In previous stage i.e., Evaluation stage, the consumer forms preference among the brands in the choice set. In taking a purchase decision, the consumer may make up to 5 sub decisions – Brand (brand A), Dealer (dealer 2), Quantity (1 computer), Timing (weekend or weekdays) and payment method (cash or credit card).
Purchase of everyday products involves fewer decisions and less study. For example – in buying grocery (salt), a consumer gives little thought to vendor or payment method.
Stage 5 – Post purchase Behaviour
The marketer’s job does not end with the purchase. Marketers must monitor post purchase satisfaction, post purchase actions, and post purchase product uses.
- Post Purchase Satisfaction – satisfaction is a function of the closeness between expectations and the product’s perceived performance
- If performance falls short of expectations, the consumers is disappointed,
- If it meets expectations the consumers are satisfied
- If it exceeds expectations the consumer is delighted
- These feeling make a difference in whether the customer buys the product again and talks favourably or unfavourably about it to others.
- Post Purchase Actions – A satisfied consumer is normally a repeat buyer. He or she also says good things about the product to others. Marketer’s say “Our best advertisement is a satisfied customer”
- Post purchase product use – Marketer should also monitor how buyers use and dispose of the product. Key point, Sales frequency depends upon consumption rate, more quickly buyer consume a product, sooner they may be back in the market to repurchase it.
