There are major forces that shape who we are and what we buy. Variables such as age, income, and geography are important to understand consumer behavior and developing marketing plans (Blackwell et al. 2006). Internal factors have a major impact on consumer behavior. Our personal motives, attitudes, and decision-making abilities guide our consumption behavior. In addition to the internal factors, consumer behavior is also influenced to a large extent by social factors, such as culture, family relationships, the ads we see on TV, and other aspects of the external environment. Awareness of these influences can help marketers to identify groups of consumers who think, feel, or act similarly and separate them into market segments (Lempert 2002). All of these factors combine to form a model of consumer behavior that reflects the cognitive, affective, and physiological make-up of consumer decision-making.
Everyone has different wants but we all share similar needs. Physiological needs are the basic type of consumer needs that provide us with food and water. Health and safety needs are also big in today’s society. This need motivates people to exercise, therefore buying a gym membership, or purchasing firearms and other personal protection devices. Many professions and goods and services have been built around this need to maintain or improve our health, both mental and physical. The need for love and companionship is also a big part of our lives. We as humans are social creatures that require affection, touch, love, and companionship. Financial security is an example of our need for money. The bigger the paycheck the more consumers can afford. This tool, money, can satisfy almost all out needs except love. A person’s social image is another need that becomes satisfies with the purchase of consumer products such as where we live, what we drive, the clothing we wear, music listened to, etc. Tattoos for example are portrayed differently by everyone. A study showed that when asked how they would compare people with tattoos to those without, tattooed consumers, often believed that tattoos enhanced the tattoo owner: 34% thought tattoos made the owner sexier, 26% though they made the owner more attractive, and 5% thought tattoo’s made the owner more intelligent. Consumers without tattoo’s, had very different opinions: 36% thought tattoos made the tattoo owner less sexy, 42% said they made the owner less attractive, and 31% perceived the owner as less intelligent (Blackwell et al. 2006). Other needs such as pleasure, possession, giving, information, and variety also influence consumers. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a good model that depicts how various consumers prioritize their needs. His model starts with the basic physiological and safety needs, then moves up to the less critical social, esteem, and self-actualization needs.
The decision making process can be depicted by the model of consumer decision making (Zahorsky 2007). Stages of the consumer buying decision are:
1. Need recognition.
2. Information search.
3. Evaluation of alternatives.
4. Purchase and related decisions.
5. Post purchase behavior.
In this first stage consumers have unsatisfied needs as we discussed earlier. Acquiring and consuming goods and services can satisfy some of these needs. This occurs when consumers perceive a difference between what they have and what they want or may need. Need recognition is often influenced by persuasive advertising. Consumers in the second step then begin the information search process by conducting an internal search of their own knowledge structures, followed by an external search for information from friends, family members, salespeople, and advertisements (Rosenblatt 1999). This step can clarify the problem, providing criteria to use for assessing product alternatives and resulting in choices. These options are then reviewed more completely in the third stage, evaluation of alternatives. In this stage, considered products are compared with one another. Different strategies such as buying the cheapest product or a model that compensates for product strengths and weaknesses are used. After examining each alternative, consumers are ready to purchase, the fourth stage in the process. Finally, after buying, the consumers enter the post-purchase phase of the process, during which the performance of the chosen product is assessed with prior expectations. Consumers will be satisfied with the product if it meets or exceeds expectations, dissatisfied if the product does not meet expectations.
References:
Blackwell, Roger D., Miniard, Paul W., Engel, James F. Consumer Behavior, 10th ed. Canada: Thomson South-Western; 2006
Lempert, Phil. Being the Shopper: Understanding The Buyer's Choice. New York: Wiley; 2002.
Rosenblatt, Roger. Consuming Desires: Consumption, Culture, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Washington, DC: Island Press; 1999
Solomon, Michael R. Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall Press; 2003.
Zahorsky, Darrell. “Break the Resistance of Consumer Buying Behavior.”About.com. February 10, 2007. <http://sbinformation.about.com. >
