Consumer behavior

Article contents - consumer behavior: This article on consumer behavior briefly touches consumer-buying tendencies, and the models and mapping strategies used by marketers. Consumers have far more choices today compared to earlier times. The growth of any business depends on customer loyalty, because satisfied customers nearly always return for goods or services they have sampled once. However, the consumer has to be brought to the stores first. Companies are able to do this by devising effective marketing strategies, which they formulate by making a systematic study of consumer buying behavior. In common parlance, marketing strategies would merely be limited to advertising and selling. Modern marketing theory on consumer behavior, however, defines marketing as directing the flow of goods from the producer to the customer. Marketing promotional campaigns achieves this by allowing a product to reach the right consumer. The analysis of consumer behavior is considered the basis of successful marketing strategy. Some experts believe that consumer behavior consists of the mental and emotional processes a consumer displays during searching, purchasing and post consumption of a product or service.

Consumer behavior map : Perpetual mapping to map consumer behavior is one of the tools, which has been in use since the last couple of decades. It has the ability to graphically convey the complex relationships between competitors in the market, and the reasons that buyers apply when making purchasing decisions and recommendations. It provides a stimulus for strategic brainstorming at various levels in all organizations. The inter-relationships of populations, consumer goods, industrial goods and institutions can be plotted using perpetual mapping methods. Market survey companies use it to map consumer behavior for all categories of products such as cars, household appliances or institutions such as hospitals and publishing houses, or even activities like vacation spots or movies.

Consumer behavior in buying: When a consumer needs something, and is aware that a particular product is available to satisfy his or her need, he or she has to decide whether to buy the product. There are various factors, which influence this decision. The price of the product is one of the primary considerations. It is generally observed that if the product is priced at a higher level than what he or she expects, the consumer will refrain from buying it. However, if it were lower than what he or she had in mind, the consumer would purchase just what he or she requires. Consumers do not buy more than what is required, just because the price is lower than expectation. There are four major factors that influence consumer buying behavior. They are personal, social, cultural and psychological factors. They contribute to developing consumer-buying behavior for specific products and brands.

Consumer behavior models: A consumer behavior model is representative of a real phenomenon in a simplified form. Consumer behavior models can be expressed using flow charts and mathematical formulae, or can simply be explained verbally. These models are consumer behavior research tools, used by marketers in the course of collecting and interpreting data related to consumer behavior. Consumer models deal with the reasons affecting the buying decision of the consumer, and the resultant outcome. The outcome may not necessarily be positive. The consumer may reject the product or service. Consumer behavior models may be broadly classified into three types: these are black box models, personal variable models and comprehensive models. The black box model ignores the internal variables and does not take into account the mental processes related to decision making. Whereas, the personal variable model deals only with the internal psychological variables, discounting external factors. The comprehensive model, on the other hand, takes into account the variables of both the black box and personal variable models, because it aims to include all the possible variables affecting consumer behavior.

A study of consumer behavior in buying is dependant upon internal as well as external factors. Marketing companies conduct systematic studies to map consumer behavior wherein various models serve as research tools.