Chapter 5

Consumer markets and

consumer buyer behavior
Consumer buyer behavior
- Refers to the buying behavior of final consumers-individuals and households that buy
foods and services for personal consumption.
Consumer market
- All the individuals and households that buy or acquire goods and services for personal
consumption.
Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior
Cultural Factors
- Exert a broad deep influence on consumer behavior.
Culture
- The most basic cause of a persons wants and behavior.
Subculture
- Include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions.
Social Class
- Society relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar
values, interest, and behaviors.
- Not determined by a single factor, such as income, but is measured as a combination
of occupation, education, wealth and other variables.
Social Factors
- A consumer behavior also is influenced by a social factors, such as the consumers
small groups, family, and social roles and status.
Group
- Two or more people who interact to accomplish individual or mutual groups.
Opinion leader
- A person within a reference group who because of special skills, knowledge,
personality, or other characteristics, exerts social influence on others.
Family
- The most important consumer buying organization in society, and it has been
researched extensively.
Roles and Status
- A person who belong to many groups-family, clubs, organization, online
communities.
- A role consist of the activities people are expected to perform according to the people
around them.
Personal Factors
- A buyers decisions also are influenced by personal characteristics such as the buyers
age and life-cycle stage, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle, and personality and
self-concept.
Age and life-cycle stage
- People change the goods and services they buy over their lifetimes.
- Life-stage changes usually result from demographics and life-changing events-
marriage, having children, purchasing a home.
Occupation
- A persons occupation affects the goods and services bought.
Economic Situation
- It will affect his or her product choices.
Lifestyle
- A persons pattern of living as expressed in his or her activities, interest, and options.
Personality and Self-Concept
- The unique psychological characteristics that distinguish a person or group.
Psychological Factors
- A persons buying choices are further influence by four major psychological factors:
motivation, perception, learning, and beliefs and attitudes.
Motivation
Motive (drive)
- A need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction of the need.
Perception
- The process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a
meaningful picture of the world.
Learning
- Changes in an individuals behavior arising from experience.
Beliefs and Attitudes
Belief- a descriptive thought that a person holds about something.
Attitude- a persons consistently favorable or unfavorable evaluations, feelings and
tendencies toward an object or idea.
Types of Buying Decision Behavior
Complex buying behavior- consumer buying behavior in situations characterized
by high consumer involvement in a purchase and significant perceived differences
among brands.
Dissonance-Reducing Buying Behavior- consumer buying behavior in situations
characterized by high involvement but few perceived differences among brands.
Variety- seeking buying behavior- consumer behavior in situations characterized
by low consumer involvement but significant perceived brand differences.
Habitual Buying Behavior- consumer buying behavior in situations characterized
by low-consumer involvement and few significantly perceived brand differences.
The Buyer Decision Process
Need Recognition- the first stage of the buyer decision process, in which the consumer
recognizes a problem or need.
Information Search- the stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer is
aroused to search for more information; the consumer may simply have heightened
attention or may go into an active information search.
Evaluation of Alternative- the stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer
uses information to evaluate alternative brands in the choice set.
Purchase Decision- the buyers decision about which brand to purchase.
Postpurchase behavior- the stage of the buyer decision process in which consumers take
further action after purchase based on their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a purchase.
o Cognitive dissonance- buyer discomfort caused by postpurchase conflict.
The Buyer Decision Process for New Product
New product- a good, service, or idea that is perceived by some potential customer as new.
Adoption process- the mental process through which an individual passes from first hearing
about an innovation to final adoption.
Stages in the Adoption Process
o Awareness-the consumer becomes aware of the new product but lacks information
about it.
o Interest- the consumer seeks information about the new product.
o Evaluation- The consumer considers whether trying the new product make sense.
o Trial- the consumer tries the new product in a small scale to improve his or her
estimate of its value.
o Adoption- the consumer decides to make full and regular use of the new product.