MODULE 2 UNDERSTANDING THE CONSUMER

7.1 BUYER BEHAVIOR

To understand the buyer & to create a customer out of him, through
this understanding, is the purpose of buyer behavior study, which is a
highly complex one.
There are 2 categories of buyers the individual & the business buyer.

Studying Buyer Behavior, Basic to Marketing

What motivates the buyer?

What induces him to buy?
Why does he buy a specific brand?
Why does he buy from a particular shop?
Why does he shift from one shop to another or from one brand to another?
How does he react to a new product/
How does he react to the information addressed to him?
What are the stages before he decides to buy?

These are questions of perennial interest to the marketing man. This is

because it is around these issues that his marketing strategies &
strategies on product & promotion revolve. In his strategies & plans, he
keeps making assumptions regarding how the buyers would behave &
how they would respond to his marketing programs. Knowledge of the
buyer & his buying motives & buying habits is thus of fundamental
importance to the marketing man.

Problems in Studying Buyer Behavior

It needs to be emphasized that there is no unified, tested & universally
established theory of buyer behavior. We have today certain ideas on
buyer behavior. Some of these ideas have taken their cue from
economics, psychology & social sciences. A universally accepted theory
on the subject is yet to emerge.

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7.2 BUYER BEHAVIOR (CONTD)
Selective Perception
The buyer is exposed to a world of information about new
products/services/uses/ideas/styles. His attitude to this literal
bombardment of information is peculiar. He may ignore certain pieces
of information, whereas he may actively seek out certain other
information. He may read certain messages but not digest them.
He may merely overhear some message about some product & it may
register in his mind. He filters the information in a rather unconscious
manner. His perception is selective in the sense that he perceives &
retains only what he would normally like to. This selective perception is
actually his defense mechanism.

Buyer Not Bound by Set Rules While Deciding Buying

When the buyer takes a buying decision, no rigid rule binds him.
Sometimes, the decision is taken on the spot. That does not necessarily
mean that it is an irrational decision. Sometimes, he may decide after a
long search after evaluating the various alternatives available & after
reassuring himself with the opinion of those who have already
purchased the product.
Still, he may subsequently feel that his purchase was impulsive or even
foolish! He may go to a shop after having taken a decision to buy a
product; but he may not buy. For no apparent reasons, he may
postpone the purchase or even drop the very idea of purchasing.
The buyer is also influenced by his social environment, which consists of
his family, society, neighbors, friends, job & his colleagues. Every
component of his social environment leaves some imprint on him &
influences him in his day-today life. It influences his buying behavior
too. The buyer is not a passive being, allowing himself to be
manipulated easily by the marketing man. He is dynamic & downright
difficult.
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7.3 INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE ON BUYER BEHAVIOR
Influence of Economics
Economists describe man as a rational buyer & view the market as a
collection of homogenous buyers. Under a given set of conditions, all
buyers behave in a similar fashion & every buying decision is a logical
process with the ultimate intention of obtaining optimum value for the
money spent. Price is regarded as the strongest motivation for the
economic man. The economic mans behavior, in short, is rational.

Influence of Psychology
Psychological needs are the basic needs: they include the need to satisfy
hunger, thirst, sleep etc. For people who are well off, physiological needs
are met as a matter of routine, whereas for the poor, a major part of
their life is spent in striving to meet these needs. Safety needs include
needs relating to physical safety & economic & social security. Social
needs come next in the ladder.
They include the need for love & the need to belong. Esteem needs come
next in the hierarchy. They include the need for self-esteem, the need for
recognition by society & the need to be held in esteem by others. Selfactualization needs include the need for self-development & the need to
attain complete fruition of ones capabilities & endowments. The actions
of individuals are guided by their need structure & need level.

Influence of Sociology & Anthropology

Sociology & anthropology lent further dimensions to the subject of
buyer behavior. Group pressure is the motive force behind buying.
Sociologists 7 anthropologists have tried to establish a logical connection
between buyer behavior & the social environment of the buyer. As a
result, several new concepts like social stratification, reference groups,
role-orientation, opinion leadership etc., have come to be used for giving
casual explanation of buyer behavior.

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7.4 BUYER BEHAVIOR MODELS
The influence of these social sciences has prompted marketing experts
to propound certain models for explaining buyer behavior. Broadly,
they include the economic model, the learning model, the psychoanalytic
model & the social model.

MASLOWS HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

SELFACTUALIZATION

NEEDS
(self-development,
fruition of ones
capabilities)

ESTEEM NEEDS
(recognition, status)

SOCIAL NEEDS
(sense of belonging, love)

SAFETY NEEDS
(security, protection)

PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS
(like hunger & thirst)

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7.5 BUYER BEHAVIOR MODELS

ECONOMIC MODEL
According to the economic model of buyer behavior, the buyer is a
rational man & his buying decisions are totally governed by the concept
of utility. If he has a certain amount of purchasing power, a set of needs
to be met & a set of products to choose from, he will allocate this
amount over the set of products in a very rational manner with the
intention of maximizing the utility or benefits.

LEARNING MODEL
According to the learning model, which takes its cue from the Pavlovian
stimulus-response theory, buyer behavior can be influenced by
manipulating the drives, stimuli & responses of the buyer. The model
rests on mans ability at learning, forgetting & discriminating.

PSYCHOANALYTICAL MODEL
The psychoanalytical model draws mainly from the Freudian
psychology. According to this model, the individual consumer has a
complex set of deep-seated motives that drive him towards certain
buying decisions. The buyer has a private world with all his hidden
fears, suppressed desires & totally subjective longings. His buying
action can be influenced by appealing to these desires & longings.

SOCIOLOGICAL MODEL
According to the sociological model, the individual buyer is influenced
by society by intimate groups as well as social classes. His buying
decisions are not totally governed by utility, he has a desire to emulate,
follow & fit in with his immediate environment. And, several of his
buying decisions may be governed by social compulsions.
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7.6 BUYER BEHAVIOR MODELS (CONTD)

NICOSIA MODEL
Recently, some efforts have been made by marketing scholars to build
buyer behavior model totally from the marketing mans standpoint. The
Nicosia model & the Howard & Sheth model are important ones in this
category. Both of them belong to the category called the systems model,
where the human being is analyzed as a system with stimuli as the input
to the system & behavior as the output of the system.
Francesco Nicosia, an expert in consumer motivation & behavior, put
forward his model of buyer behavior in 1966. The model tries to
establish the links between a firm & its consumer how the activities of
the firm influence the consumer & result in his decision to buy. The
message from the firm first influences the predisposition of the
consumer towards the product. Depending on the situation, he develops
a certain attitude towards the product. It may lead to a search for the
product or an evaluation of the product. If these steps have a positive
impact on him, it may result in a decision to buy. This is the sum &
substance of the activity explanations in the Nicosia model.

The Nicosia model groups these activities into 4 basic fields

FIELD ONE has 2 sub-fields the firms attitudes & the
consumers attributes. An ad from the firm reaches the consumers
attributes. Depending on the message is received by the consumer, a
certain attitude develops & this becomes the input for field two.
FIELD TWO is the area of search & evaluation of the advertised
product & other alternatives. If this process results in a motivation to
buy, it becomes the input for field three.
FIELD THREE consists of the act of purchase.
FIELD FOUR consists of the use of the purchased item. There is an
output from field four feedback of sales results to the firm.
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7.7 BUYER BEHAVIOR MODELS (CONTD)

John Howard & Jagdish Sheth put forward the Howard &
Sheth model in 1969, in their publication entitled The theory
of Buyer Behavior.
The logic of the model runs like this: There are inputs in
the form of stimuli. There are outputs beginning with attention
to a given stimulus & ending with purchase. In between the
inputs & the outputs, there are variables affecting perception
& learning. These variables are considered hypothetical since
they can not be directly measured at the time of occurrence.
Over the years, several other models have also been put
forward with the intention of explaining buyer behavior. All
these models have their associated merits & limitations.
They do not fully explain the complex subject of buyer
behavior. Nor do they establish a straight input-output
equation on buyer behavior. And, none of them provides a
precise answer to the whys or hows of buyer behavior.
They merely explain the undercurrents of human behavior
from different angles & premises. Still, these models are
helpful in gaining some insight into the intricacies of buyer
behavior.