FACTORS AFFECTING
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
DEFINITION
 Consumer Behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the
processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services,
experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have
on the consumer and society
 Wikipedia the online encyclopedia
AREAS COME UNDER THE UNDERSTANDING
OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
 Psychology
 Sociology
 Anthropology
 Marketing
 Economics
WHY WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN MARKETING
 Marketing is actually a battle with the thought of a person. Marketer should know
how to make consumer’s decisions on buying. For this marketer should have a
good knowledge about how targeted consumer behaves.
 Better understanding will result absolute marketing which lead to make
consumer’s decision on buying good or service which marketer markets.
FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR
 According to the famous marketing philosopher prof. Philip Kotler, Consumer
Behavior will produce as a cooperate result of many factors. He categorizes those
factors as follows.
1.
Cultural Factors
2.
Social Factors
3.
Personal Factors
4.
Psychological Factors
SOCIAL FACTORS AFFECTING ON
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
 Humans are social animals. They learn many more things from society. Also
society have some what great influence on human behavior. This influence should
be considered as important to understand regarding consumer behavior.
SOCIAL FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMER
BUYING DECISION CAN BE CLASSIFIED AS FOLLOWS
 Reference Groups
 Immediate Family Members
 Relatives
 Role In the Society
 Status In the Society
REFERENCE GROUPS
Reference groups comprise of people that individuals compare themselves with.
These Groups again classify as follows
 Primary Group - consists of individuals one interacts with on a regular basis.
 Examples- Friends, Family, Relatives etc.
 Secondary Groups –
 Secondary groups share indirect relationship with the consumer.
 These groups are more formal and individuals do not interact with them on a regular basis.
 Example - Religious Associations, Political Parties, Clubs
ROLE IN THE SOCIETY
 Each individual plays a dual role in the society depending on the group he belongs
to.
 Example - An individual working as Chief Executive Officer with a reputed firm is also
someone’s husband and father at home. The buying tendency of individuals depends on
the role he plays in the society.
SOCIAL STATUS
 Purchase of some goods and services reflect the social status of the customer.
That means when in making a decision about choice, consumer’s social status has
a high influence.
 example – lower middle to lower class people buy food which are
cheap. They need only to suppress their feelings of hungry.
Absolutely this is for surveillance.
But when it comes to the regular role of a upper class
person he search about many brands with many wants
instead of full filling his need basically.
PERSONAL FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR
 Occupation
 The occupation of an individual plays a significant role in influencing his/her buying
decision. An individual’s nature of job has a direct influence on the products and brands
he picks for himself/herself.
 Ex- CEO of a company usually prefers a luxury goods and services, like wearing globally
reputed watch, clothes, Shoes etc.
But a person like a naturalist , who usually prefers to be with nature differs
significantly with that CEO. Most of time this like persons wear hard clothes,
Boots like shoes etc. Eating behavior like most of things show significant
difference.
AGE
 With our age, our needs and wants show some significant evolution. Persons in
different ages have different needs and wants. Therefor consumer behavior is
greatly influenced.
 A bachelor would prefer spending lavishly on items like beer, bikes, music,
clothes, parties, clubs and so on. A young single would hardly be interested in
buying a house, property, insurance policies, gold etc. An individual who has a
family, on the other hand would be more interested in buying something which
would benefit his family and make their future secure.
ECONOMIC CONDITION
 The buying tendency of an individual is directly proportional to his
income/earnings per month.
 How much an individual brings home decides how much he spends and on which
products?
 Ex- Expense for lunch , difference between a laborer and the owner of the
company varies according to their economical conditions.
LIFESTYLE
 Lifestyle, a term proposed by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in 1929, refers to
the way an individual stays in the society.
 It is really important for some people to wear branded clothes whereas some
individuals are really not brand conscious.
 An individual staying in a posh locality needs to maintain his status and image.
 An individual’s lifestyle is something to do with his style, attitude, perception, his
social relations and immediate surroundings.
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS AFFECTING
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Decision a consumer going to make is related to mind of a person. So, consumer
behavior is affected by psychological factors.
Many psychological factors can be identified.
 Motivation
This refers to which motivate individuals to purchase products and services.
Eg- Peter buy a Pepsi to drink at 12.00 clock
motivation factor - Thirsty
PERCEPTION
 What an individual thinks about a particular product or service is his/her
perception towards the same.
 For someone a Dell Laptop might be the best laptop while for others it could be just one
of the best brands available.
 Individuals with the same needs might not purchase similar products due to
difference in perception.
LEARNING
 Learning comes only through experience.
 An individual comes to know about a product and service only after he/she uses
the same.
 An individual who is satisfied with a particular product/service will show a strong
inclination towards buying the same product again.
CULTURAL FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR
 Culture tell us the basic or accepted pattern of behavior. When in marketing to
understand the particular consumer’s behavior he or she should well aware about
the culture that consumer belongs.
 Many cultural factors affects on consumer behavior. Among them below factors
are significant
 Subcultures
 Each culture further comprises of various subcultures such as religion, age, geographical
location, gender (male/female), status etc.
SUBCULTURES
 Eg1-
Religion
 Most of times religion comes with the birth. But it is a cultural factor which the
infant belongs. When this infant grows, family and other society try to teach
culture as well as religion.
 This brings many rituals, norms etc. on personal behavior.
 As a consumer he most of times don’t expect exclusions to these routine
behaviors.
 Ex- Muslims never eat pork, they prefer Halal foods
 Hindus and some Buddhists prefer Vegetarian meals
STATUS (UPPER CLASS, MIDDLE CLASS AND
LOWER CLASS)
 People from upper class generally have a tendency to spend on luxurious items
such as expensive gadgets, cars, dresses etc.
 You would hardly find an individual from a lower class spending money on highend products.
 A person who finds it difficult to make ends meet would rather prefer spending on
items necessary for survival. Individuals from middle class segment generally are
more interested in buying products which would make their future secure.
Thank you