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Buyer Behaviour
Effective marketing must begin with a thorough understanding of how and why
customers behave as they do (Merenski, 1998). Specifically, in order to tailor
solutions to customers particular needs and desires, the marketer requires a
grounded knowledge of buyer motivations and decision-making processes, together
with all those environmental factors which may exert influence upon them. Put
another way, the marketer is seeking to address three basic questions:-
Buyer behaviour is a huge subject and it is only possible in this course to provide a
brief introduction to the key issues. For the purposes of this session, well therefore
concentrate primarily upon consumer behaviour, then conclude by highlighting
some of the similarities and differences between this and organisational buyer
behaviour (or business-to-business purchasing). To illustrate our discussion, well
look at a subject which (love it or hate it!) we can all relate to, namely shopping.
Consumer Motivation
Personal Motives: Role Playing some shopping activities are associated with a
particular role in society (housewife, mother, student, etc).
Physical Activity for some people, a stroll around the mall can
be their main form of exercise.
Social Motives: Social Interaction people enjoy the opportunities for social
interaction with friends, strangers, sales staff, etc.
The above categories are by no means mutually exclusive. Some 70% of the
population visit a shopping mall at least once per week and they are liable to do so
for a variety of reasons at any one time. Shopping is certainly far more than merely
going to a store to buy a product one needs or wants people often go to the mall
with no intentions of spending any money at all!
What was the last item you purchased in a store? Did you go shopping specifically to
look for it? Why did you buy it? Who was involved in you purchasing decision?
Were you happy with the decision you made?
Exercise: Make a list of all the things you noticed last time you went shopping.
Include anything at all that crosses your mind, from things you actually saw or did to
things you felt. Save the list for later!
Consumer Decision-Making
Since the 1960s, the study of consumer behaviour has focused largely upon
consumer decision-making processes. Influenced by cognitive psychology, a
number of so-called modal models (or box-and-arrow models) have been
proposed, presenting the various stages the consumer goes through when choosing
a product to buy or store to shop in, presented in a flow-chart format (e.g. Nicosia,
1966; Engel et al., 1995). A rather stylised summary of these modal models might
look something like this:-
Task Orientation
Environmental
Factors
Information Search
Evaluation of Options
Purchase Decision
Post-Purchase Evaluation
In the left-hand column above, we can see that the decision process begins with the
consumer recognising that he or she needs or wants to buy an item. Attention is
then devoted to the task in hand and information gathered. The consumer evaluates
the options available, makes his or her choice and purchases the product. At any
stage in the process, events encountered at one stage may cause the consumer to
revert to a previous stage; for example, during evaluation, none of the options
available may prove satisfactory and the consumer may therefore decide to reassess
the initial need and begin the process again for a completely different alternative
solution. Conversely, with very common or repeat purchases, particular stages (e.g.
information search) may be passed through without conscious attention being
applied (i.e. may be automatised) because the information required is already
available in memory. Finally, note how the decision process doesnt end with
purchase the extent to which a purchase is deemed successful or unsuccessful will
feed back to influence future purchase decisions.
To the right of the diagram, we see environmental factors which may influence the
decision-making process at any stage. This category would include a whole array of
variables, ranging from exposure to advertising and promotional materials through to
store atmosphere, crowding and the opinions of significant others.
The diagram is a summary of the models available which, however complex they
may appear, all hypothesise the same linear decision-making process. There is no
one single universally accepted model, each having its own particular strengths and
weaknesses. In a way, this is probably a reflection of the many different consumer
motivations highlighted above particular models being stronger than others for
specific types of shopping.
There are two main problems with modal models such as this when it comes to their
usefulness to the marketer. Firstly, the box-and-arrow approach is rather
descriptive. It tells us the decision-making stages the customer negotiates, but tells
us very little about how the marketer can actually influence these stages to make his
or her product/service the preferred option.The second weakness of this approach is
closely related to the first. Note how the environment is merely lumped together
to the right of the diagram. When we consider all of the factors this encompasses
(store location, layout, advertising, prevailing socio-economic conditions, etc.), this
seems woefully inadequate. Moreover, the location of the environment box separate
to the decision-making process gives the impression of the environment as simply
being something out there, divorced from the individual shopper. The reality, of
course, is that consumers are a part of the environment, interacting with
environmental factors and influencing each other. A more accurate model of
consumer decision-making would probably locate the environment box as follows:-
Task Orientation
Evaluation of Options
Purchase Decision
Post-Purchase Evaluation
As you can see, this revised model locates the decision-making process within the
environment box, recognising that the individual is part of the environment.
Environmental Psychology
To illustrate this, imagine a shopper in a fashion store looking for a new coat. The
traditional psychology model would have the shopper examining coats available in
the store (stimuli), selecting one and buying it (the response). In practice, of
course, consumers both influence and are influenced by the retail environment. If a
particular coat is a big seller, the retailer may stock more units, increase the range of
sizes/colours available, and so on. Alternatively, if the coat is a very poor seller, the
retailer may discontinue the line all together. Either way, the stimuli in the
environment will have changed as a result of consumer behaviour. So, the
relationship between consumers and the retail environment is a two-way process
with, if you like, marketing serving as the communication channel between the two.
An EP analysis of shopping (or any behaviour, for that matter) begins with selection
of an appropriate unit of analysis. If you think about it, the word environment
could mean the room you are currently in, the city, the country, the entire planet, or
whatever. Such disparate units are very difficult to manage, so the environmental
psychologist always begins by selecting a segment of the environment to investigate;
i.e. a sub-unit of the environment in which to explore all those variables effecting the
individual. Put another way, the psychologist is interested in the effective context
of the behaviour which, in the case of retail buyer behaviour, may be the retail store
in which the consumer is shopping.
One way of looking at the store is in terms of a setting in which shopping behaviour
occurs. Barker (1968) first introduced the term behaviour setting into EP to
denote an environmental context in which certain behaviours may be expected to
occur, irrespective of the individual actors present.
Take the example of a supermarket. When visiting the supermarket, we probably all
behave in pretty much the same way. We enter the store, we select a trolley or
basket, we navigate the aisles selecting products, we stand in line at the check-out,
we unload the goods, we pay for them, we pack our bags, etc., etc. In other words,
as supermarket shoppers, we follow set behavioural programmes, often with little
thought to what we are supposed to do.
The idea of the behaviour setting is very influential in retailing. Having studied how
shoppers follow certain behavioural programmes, for instance, architects can design
stores so as to better facilitate customer flow via changes in layout, aisle width,
shelving, check-out location, etc. Indeed, many store designers now refer to
themselves as architectural psychologists, drawing on techniques from two
seemingly separate disciplines in quite interesting and novel ways. From a
marketing point of view, however, the behaviour setting concept is of only limited
value. Not all attempts to influence consumer behaviour can rely merely on changes
in store design. We therefore need a slightly different unit of analysis in order to
better understand consumer behaviour, a unit which focuses less on the aggregate
behaviour of many shoppers in a store and more upon the individuals who are
actually following the behavioural programmes observed.
Seen from this perspective, then, the situation serves as an interface between the
person (e.g. fashion consumer) and the stimulus-object (garment purchased), all
those factors defining that interface constituting situational variables. Over the
years, several attempts have been made to develop appropriate typologies with
which to codify these situational variables, ranging from those which focus mainly
upon the situation as perceived by the individual (e.g. Kakkar & Lutz, 1981) to
Magnusson's (1981) distinction between the actual-objective characteristics of the
situation and person-bound properties. In terms of consumer research application,
however, perhaps the most influential taxonomic structure has been that proposed
by Belk (1975) which continues to generate empirical work (e.g. Stoltman et al.
1999; Roslow et al. 2000; Nicholson et al., 2001).
According to Belk, situational variables are all those factors particular to a time and
place of observation which do not follow from a knowledge of personal (intra-
individual) and stimulus (choice alternative) attributes (Belk, 1974). Such
attributes range from store location and layout, to time of day and presence (or
absence) of others, classifiable according to five distinct dimensions of situational
influence: physical setting, social setting, temporal perspective, task definition and
antecedent states. It is a robust typology of variables which, on the whole, appear
relatively comprehensive and cross-cultural.
The physical setting begins with the geographical and institutional location of the
retail store (Bucklin, 1967), but might equally be seen in terms of the environment in
which the consumer reads a catalogue, or accesses a Web site, together with any
complicating factors arising from the intervening technologies. It also subsumes:
influences on behaviour resulting from environmental conditions, such as weather or
climate; visible configurations of merchandise and information provision in a store,
catalogue or Web site; and all those variables Kotler (1973) classified as store
atmospherics, such as the effects of background music or colour scheme. In respect
of these latter influences in particular, there are obvious parallels in catalogue
shopping, such as illustrations accompanying products designed to invoke the
consumers imagination, and there may well be equivalents in virtual shopping
environments also.
The social setting focuses on the presence or absence of others, together with their
social roles, role attributes and opportunities for interaction. It is therefore a
dimension which encapsulates everything from awareness of security staff in the mall
and opportunities for interaction with in-store sales staff, through to the presence of
those accompanying the consumer on the shopping trip and even proximity to total
strangers. This can easily be extended to analysis of remote shopping situations; e.g.
the often solitary nature of catalogue shopping, interactions with telesales staff,
online consumer communities, etc.
Taken in sum, Belks taxonomic structure seems to accommodate the vast majority
of situational variables typically explored within a consumer research context.
Moreover, there is no reason to presuppose that the five dimensions hypothesised
are only applicable to the in-store shopping situations normally subjected to a
Belkian analysis. Indeed, many of the variables highlighted by researchers adopting
a Belkian perspective, such as ambience of surroundings and time of day, appear
equally characteristic of remote shopping situations also whether physical or
electronic/virtual. Most importantly of all, perhaps, the taxonomy is highlighting
variables which, in the main, are often under the marketers control to some degree,
making it a useful tool to with which to analyse the effectiveness of the retail or
service provision in influencing consumer decision-making.
Exercise: Go back to the list you made earlier of things you noticed last time you
went shopping. Now, try to classify them according to Belks five categories of
situational influence. Which category seems the most important in explaining
influences on your own shopping behaviour? Which category has least influence?
What does this tell you about the way you shopped on that occasion?
The most obvious difference between consumer and organisational buying is that the
underlying motivation is different; i.e. personal consumption versus business usage.
There are other contrasts, however:-
Setting for Buying: For consumers, the buying unit is within the household,
whereas for the organisational buyer, the setting is within the firm. This means that
the industrial marketer targeting the organisational buyer must take account of
factors such as buying procedures, levels of authority, and so on, factors not relevant
in consumer marketing.
Reciprocal Demand: Sometimes, a buyer can also be a seller at the same time. A
software company producing a package for an insurance company, for instance,
might also purchase its insurance services from what is effectively one of its own
customers. Both companies want to sell to each other, affecting each others eventual
buying decisions to a varying degree.
There are no.of reasons that can be identified to differentiate the process of
buying for an individual consumer and Industrial consumer.
More people are involved any organisation buying. There may be wide range of
influences in the decision making process which could be from the various levels
in the organisation. In consumer buying behaviour also they exists many roles
played by different individuals. However, the extent or degree of people
participation is very less in individual buying process.
The poor performance of a product might cause annoyance to a customer & may
not result in the repurchase of the same product. But in case of business buyer it
could need to financial loss non achievement of goals.
Since the organisational is more formal, therefore the complexity of the process
also increases. It could be a time consumer product & lot of people & various
level & departments could be involved in the organisational purchase. However
this is not the case in individual purchase.