What is Consumer Behaviour?

Marketers are constantly accused of changing wants into needs.

Consumers range from babies to old people

Introductory remarks about a typical consumer:

1. Demographics (the study of population)

E.g. Ageing population – demand for younger people’s products might decrease as time goes by since less babies are being born (lower birth rate).

Demand for old people’s homes might increase in the future.

2. Psychographics (the study of lifestyles)

This is a more fast-moving criterion than demographics; life styles tend to change a lot nowadays. They are studied in peculiar ways in many different sections.

3. Consumption Communities

Different communities purchase different products/services. Nowadays, with globalisation and increased communication, consumption is less different than it used to be before.

4. Cultural Values
5. Subcultures

Smaller culture groups within the larger culture. These groups demand different types of products/services.

6. Market Segmentation strategies – dividing the market/buying into specific sections.
7. Target Market – studying the market thoroughly and then target it with the right product.
8. Brand Loyalty – a percentage of consumers who are very loyal to the brand. (Owners can alter prices/style – these people won’t change the brand)  

Segmenting Consumers

• Market Segmentation
• Demographics

• Age
• Gender
• Family Structure
• Social Class and Income (social class can also be related to wealth and education)
• Race and ethnicity
• Lifestyle
• Geography

Marketing’s Impact on Consumers

The meaning of consumption

• Examples of relationships with products

• Self-Concept Attachment (to project one’s image and identity) e.g. wearing clothes of a high-class brand to belong more to a group.
• Nostalgic Attachment (buying products to make you remember your youthful years)
• Interdependence – You cannot do without certain products (e.g. travelling at least once a year)
• Love – Giving emotional wants like passion, sentiments, etc.

• Consumption Typology
• Intangible and Tangible Objects

(E.g. tangibility of food and the intangibility of a service in a restaurant)

4 Types of Consumption Activities:

• Consuming as experience – the fun of shopping! E.g. buying cheap products just for the sake of buying a lot of items, even though you will not find them worth it.
• Consuming as Integration – the feeling of belonging to any group of your choice.
• Consuming as Classification – the image you want to give through the clothes you wear, the mobile you have, etc.
• Consuming as play – buying products to belong to a club (e.g. buying an old car)

- The Global Consumer

• Global consumer culture

- Blurred Boundaries

• Marketing and Reality (the use of internal selling)

Marketing Ethics and Public Policy

• Public Policy and Consumerism (laws /acts/regulations related to consumers’ rights)

• Declaration of Consumer Rights Act in 1962 (Right to be informed e.g. expiry dates, right for a good product e.g. value for money)
• Green Marketing (Socially accepted products; not damaging the consumer and the environment)
• Social Marketing (Products should not harm society and the environment)

• Needs and Wants: Do marketers manipulate Consumers?

• Welcome to the Consumer place.  
• Do marketers create artificial needs?

• A Response

• A need
• A want

The Dark side of Consumer behaviour

• Consumed Consumer

• Examples:

• Prostitutes,
• Organ, blood and hair donors,
• Babies for sale

• Illegal Activities

• Consumer theft
• Shrinkage

• Anti-Consumption

• Culture jamming (stopping non-desirable use of products)