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  is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not
buy [[Product (business)|product) It blends elements from      
 


    and
. It attempts to understand the buyer decision
making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual
consumers such as  
 and behavioural variables in an attempt to
understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the 
 from
groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general.

Customer behaviour study is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer
playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an
influential asset for customer behaviour analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-
discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance
of the customer or buyer. A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention,
customer relationship management, personalisation, customisation and one-to-one
marketing. Social functions can be categorized into social choice and welfare functions.

Each method for vote counting is assumed as a social function but if Arrow¶s possibility
theorem is used for a social function, social welfare function is achieved. Some
specifications of the social functions are decisiveness, neutrality, anonymity,
monotonocity, unanimity, homogeneity and weak and strong 
  
. No
social choice function meets these requirements in an ordinal scale simultaneously. The
most important characteristic of a social function is identification of the interactive effect
of alternatives and creating a logical relation with the ranks. Marketing provides services
in order to satisfy customers. With that in mind, the productive system is considered
from its beginning at the production level, to the end of the cycle, the consumer
(Kioumarsi et al., 2009).

 

 define consumer behaviour as 'the process and activities people
engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of
products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires'.'






   
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Problem
recognition
Economic Attitudes Information Product choice
Product Technological Motivation search Brand choice
Price Political Perceptions Alternative Dealer choice
Place Cultural Personality evaluation Purchase timing
Promotion Demographic Lifestyle Purchase Purchase
Natural Knowledge decision amount
Post-purchase
behaviour

The black box model shows the interaction of stimuli, consumer characteristics, decision
process and consumer responses. It can be distinguished between interpersonal stimuli
(between people) or intrapersonal stimuli (within people). The black box model is related
to the black box theory of behaviourism, where the focus is not set on the processes
inside a consumer, but the relation between the stimuli and the response of the
consumer. The marketing stimuli are planned and processed by the companies,
whereas the environmental stimulus are given by social factors, based on the
economical, political and cultural circumstances of a society. The buyers black box
contains the buyer characteristics and the decision process, which determines the
buyers response.

The black box model considers the buyers response as a result of a conscious, rational
decision process, in which it is assumed that the buyer has recognized the problem.
However, in reality many decisions are not made in awareness of a determined problem
by the consumer.


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Once the consumer has recognised a problem, they search for information on products
and services that can solve that problem. Belch and Belch (2007) explain that
consumers undertake both an internal (memory) and an external search.


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Ô Personal sources
Ô Commercial sources
Ô Public sources
Ô Personal experience

The relevant internal psychological process that is associated with information search is
perception. Perception is defined as 'the process by which an individual receives,
selects, organises, and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world'

  
  

Stage Description

- Selective exposure consumers select which promotional messages they will expose
themselves to.
- Selective attention consumers select which promotional messages they will pay
attention to
- Selective comprehension consumer interpret messages in line with their beliefs,
attitudes, motives and experiences
- Selective retention consumers remember messages that are more meaningful or
important to them

The implications of this process help develop an effective promotional strategy, and
select which sources of information are more effective for the brand.


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At this time the consumer compares the brands and products that are in their evoked
set. How can the marketing organization increase the likelihood that their brand is part
of the consumer's evoked (consideration) set? Consumers evaluate alternatives in
terms of the functional and psychological benefits that they offer. The marketing
organization needs to understand what benefits consumers are seeking and therefore
which attributes are most important in terms of making a decision.




Once the alternatives have been evaluated, the consumer is ready to make a purchase
decision. Sometimes purchase intention does not result in an actual purchase. The
marketing organization must facilitate the consumer to act on their purchase intention.
The organisation can use variety of techniques to achieve this. The provision of credit or
payment terms may encourage purchase, or a sales promotion such as the opportunity
to receive a premium or enter a competition may provide an incentive to buy now. The
relevant internal psychological process that is associated with purchase decision is
integration.Once the integration is achieved, the organisation can influence the
purchase decisions much more easily.

  




It is common for customers to experience concerns after making a purchase decision.
This arises from a concept that is known as ³cognitive dissonance´. The customer,
having bought a product, may feel that an alternative would have been preferable. In
these circumstances that customer will not repurchase immediately, but is likely to
switch brands next time.

To manage the post-purchase stage, it is the job of the marketing team to persuade the
potential customer that the product will satisfy his or her needs. Then after having made
a purchase, the customer should be encouraged that he or she has made the right
decision.it is not effected by advertisement.





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Consumer behaviour is influenced by: demographics, psychographics (lifestyle),
personality, motivation, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. consumerbehaviour
concern with consumer need consumer actions in the direction of satisfying needs leads
to his behaviour of every individuals depend on thinking process




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Consumer behaviour is influenced by: culture,sub-culture, locality, royalty, ethnicity,
family, social class, reference groups, lifestyle, and market mix factors.

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Consumer behaviour is affected by many uncontrollable factors. Just think, what
influences you before you buy a product or service? Your friends, your upbringing, your
culture, the media, a role model or influences from certain groups?

Culture is one factor that influences behaviour. Simply culture is defined as our attitudes
and beliefs. But how are these attitudes and beliefs developed? As an individual
growing up, a child is influenced by their parents, brothers, sister and other family
member who may teach them what is wrong or right. They learn about their religion and
culture, which helps them develop these opinions, attitudes and beliefs (AIO) . These
factors will influence their purchase behaviour however other factors like groups of
friends, or people they look up to may influence their choices of purchasing a particular
product or service. Reference groups are particular groups of people some people may
look up towards to that have an impact on consumer behaviour. So they can be simply
a band like the Spice Girls or your immediate family members. Opinion leaders are
those people that you look up to because your respect their views and judgements and
these views may influence consumer decisions. So it maybe a friend who works with the
IT trade who may influence your decision on what computer to buy. The economical
environment also has an impact on consumer behaviour; do consumers have a secure
job and a regular income to spend on goods? Marketing and advertising obviously
influence consumers in trying to evoke them to purchase a particular product or service.

Peoples social status will also impact their behaviour. What is their role within society?
Are they Actors? Doctors?Office worker?and mothers and fathers also? Clearly being
parents affects your buying habits depending on the age of the children, the type of job
may mean you need to purchase formal clothes, the income which is earned has an
impact. The lifestyle of someone who earns £250000 would clearly be different from
someone who earns £25000. Also characters have an influence on buying decision.
Whether the person is extrovert (out going and spends on entertainment) or introvert
(keeps to themselves and purchases via online or mail order) again has an impact on
the types of purchases made.

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Abraham Maslow hierarchy of needs theory sets out to explain what motivated
individuals in life to achieve. He set out his answer in a form of a hierarchy. He suggests
individuals aim to meet basic psychological needs of hunger and thirst. When this has
been met they then move up to the next stage of the hierarchy, safety needs, where the
priority lay with job security and the knowing that an income will be available to them
regularly. Social needs come in the next level of the hierarchy, the need to belong or be
loved is a natural human desire and people do strive for this belonging. Esteem need is
the need for status and recognition within society, status sometimes drives people, the
need to have a good job title and be recognised or the need to wear branded clothes as
a symbol of status.
Self-actualisation the realisation that an individual has reached their potential in life. The
point of self-actualisation is down to the individual, when do you know you have reached
your point of self-fulfilment?

But how does this concept help an organisation trying to market a product or service?
Well as we have established earlier within this website, marketing is about meeting
needs and providing benefits, Maslows concept suggests that needs change as we go
along our path of striving for self-actualisation. Supermarket firms develop value brands
to meet the psychological needs of hunger and thirst. Harrods develops products and
services for those who want have met their esteem needs. So Maslows concept is
useful for marketers as it can help them understand and develop consumer needs and
wants.


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There are four typical types of buying behaviour based on the type of products that
intends to be purchased. Complex buying behaviour is where the individual purchases a
high value brand and seeks a lot of information before the purchase is made. Habitual
buying behaviour is where the individual buys a product out of habit e.g. a daily
newspaper, sugar or salt. Variety seeking buying behaviour is where the individual likes
to shop around and experiment with different products. So an individual may shop
around for different breakfast cereals because he/she wants variety in the mornings!
Dissonance reducing buying behaviour is when buyer are highly involved with the
purchase of the product, because the purchase is expensive or infrequent. There is little
difference between existing brands an example would be buying a diamond ring, there
is perceived little difference between existing diamond brand manufacturers.


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‡ There are five stages of consumer purchase behaviour

‡ Problem/Need Recognition
‡ Information search.
‡ Evaluation of purchases.
‡ Purchase decision.
‡ Post purchase behaviour.
‡ Culture has an impact on the company.
‡ Marketers should take into account Maslows hierarchy of needs.