Overview of Consumer Psychology

By:
M.Arslan Ayub
Saqib Khan
Biwargh Ahmed
Faqia Tariq
Saim Shah
Aqib Ateeq
Arsalan Majeed

Abstract

Consumer psychology basically is a combination of several

mental and behavioral factors that could influence a
consumers decision.
Our research primarily focuses on the psychological factors
that lead a consumer to his final decisions.
Our research tells us that among all psychological and nonpsychological factors,
Income and advertisement were the two dominant factors
that influence priorities of a consumer while purchasing.
This analysis was done by taking the random sample of fifty
people

Introduction

Consumer Psychology is the study of human responses to product

and service related information and experiences.
A broad range of product and service related information is
relevant to consumer psychology, including marketer initiated
stimuli (e.g. advertisements, websites, package labels, coupons,
point-of purchase displays),
Our research aims to find the reason between different purchasing
patterns of people.
.We conducted this research on consumer psychology to get to
know about those factors that make a person buy any product or
leave that product.
We came across to a fact that interestingly people buy or dont
buy certain commodities mostly due to the effect of psychological
factors and most of the times they are oblivious from this thing.

Methadology

We have used both types of researches, primary and secondary.

Interviews and questionnaires were the two main components of
our primary research.
We questioned fifty people about their purchasing manner and
conducted interviews .
Coming towards secondary research, a very helpful journal of Mr.
McGuirre
This contained pretty relevant data that suited us because it had
several factors that influence on a consumers mind.
These factors were further categorized under the category of
social and psychological factors and were explained in detail.
we also used some statistical approach for transforming our
theoretical result into mathematical in order to interpret data for
analysis from it.

Literature reviews

Factors Afffecting Consumer

Behaviour
Motivation
Social class
Family
Role and status
Age and lifecycle
Perception
Tastes and fashion
Personality
Culture And religion
Advertising
Lifestyle

Motivation

The motivation is the drive that leads the consumer towards buying a
product or service.
. If the motivation is high, meaning the need or perception of need is high,
the individual will actively seek to satisfy that need
Every person has different needs.
Therefore a need becomes a motive when it is more pressing to direct the
person to seek satisfaction.
Maslow also describes motivation as a need that derives a person to seek
satisfaction.

Social Class

Human beings are social animals.

Every society possesses some form of social class which is important to the
marketers because the buying behavior of people in a given social class is
similar.
Most of the societies have three broad social classes i-e upper class,
middle class and lower class.
People belonging to one particular class move to other classes willingly or
unwillingly in an open society.
People from upper class generally have a tendency to spend on luxurious
items such as expensive gadgets, cars, dresses etc.
Whereas people from lower class tend to buy necessities of life.
A person who finds it difficult to make ends meet would rather prefer
spending on items necessary for survival.
If we see individuals from middle class segment, they generally are more
interested in buying products which would make their future secure.
Social class is an important factor considering marketing.

Family

Consumer behavior is influenced not only by consumer personalities and

motivations, but also by the relationships within families.
Family plays an important role in influencing the buying decisions of the
individuals.
The family is such a familiar social unit that, it is difficult to discuss it
without appearing to discuss the obvious.
Family members can strongly influence buyer behavior.From the marketing
point of view
The family differs from larger reference groups in that the members must
satisfy their individual and shared needs by drawing on a common and
shared,
relatively fixed supply of sources.
And for the individual, the family is the strongest, most immediate, and
most pervasive influence on decision-making.
Each life cycle stage differs from the previous stages in terms of family
structure, financial position, consumption patterns, and product needs and
preferences.

Roles and status

Each person possesses different roles and status in the society depending
upon the groups, clubs, family, organization etc. to which he belongs.
People usually choose products appropriate to their roles and status.
As people play different roles in the society, every person has his own
status in the society depending on the class they belong to.
People who belong to upper-class have higher status than the people
belonging to a lower-class. People who have high status tend to buy
luxurious and expensive products whereas low status people buy
necessities of life. Then there are status conscious people who tend to
keep their status on a same level, they use to buy status conscious goods
such as branded clothes, perfumes, etc.
Role and status work side by side. Every individual possesses different
roles and status, and buy product keeping in mind these two factors.

Age and life cycle

People change the goods or services they buy over their life-times.
Tastes in food, clothes, furniture and recreation are often age related.
Buying is also shaped by the stage of the life cycle, the stage through which
families might pass as they mature over time
Marketers often define their target markets in terms of life-cycle stage and
develop appropriate products and marketing plans for each stage.
As people age, they experience psychological changes which, in turn, can
affect the way they interact with the consumer environment and also their
buying decision.
Increasingly, business, governmental agencies and researchers are
recognizing that older consumer comprises a segment that is generally
substantial,
identifiable and accessible-key requirements for selecting target segments.
Researchers take old age as completely different segment for marketing
the product as in old age we have completely different perspective and
preferences over things.

perception

Perceptionis the organization, identification and interpretation ofsensory

informationin order to represent and understand the environment.
People use these senses in order to analyze all of their activities and through these
senses they detect the type of product that they want and which product they desire.
Because of this reason perception becomes a vital factor to understand consumer
psychology.

Successful marketers use those senses to stimulate consumers to examine a

product.
In marketing, the role of perception in consumer behavior is all about recognizing
how consumers view a companys product or service
A consumer will only buy a product if he finds the product appealing that is one
of his senses sight helps him to make this decision if he perceives
The product he sees to be appealing he will purchase and thus a consumer's
motivation for buying a particular product or service often comes down to image.
This research aims to find the relationship between perceptions being one of the
factors of consumer behavior of how much it influences ones decision during
purchasing.

Tastes and fashion

Tastes and fashion play an important role for consumer decision.

We live in a society where fashion changes rapidly and every individual has
his or her own tastes making it difficult for manufacturers to categorize the
type of product they are making.
Fashion being a form of identity every marketer and producers focuses on
the current trends because those products which are in fashion will be
bought by the consumers whereas oppose to those which are not.
Since every ones personality is different so is their tastes which means
every ones choice is different but even though their choice about a product
is different manufacturers try to make similarities of these choices and try
to make single product and for that reason information about the tastes of
individual is important to producers.

personality

An individuals personality relates to perceived personal characteristics

that are consistently exhibited, especially when one acts in the presence of
others
personality is the sum of sensory experiences others get from experiencing
a person (i.e., how one talks, reacts).

Culture and religion

Cultural factors that influence a consumer's purchasing include basic

values, behaviors and ideals.
Cultural influences on purchasing vary from country to country
Culture is the most basic reason for an individual's wants, and specific
behavior in satisfying those wants
Culture too changes with time

Advertising

Advertising is targeted messages that communicate information from a

company to individual and groups of consumers
Consumers' choices are influenced by product and brand image and how
they perceive them
Advertising plays a role in determining which alternative brands the
consumer's mind will evoke, and in what order.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle is a common word to explain complicated consumer behaviors

Lifestyle is a way to segment people into groups based on three things:
opinions, attitudes and activities
Our life styles are reflected in our personalities and self-concepts, same is
the case with any consumer

Analysis of questions

Q1) what made you buy the shirt that you

are wearing?

Q2) In your opinion which factor influences a

consumer choice the most?

Q3) how much does your income level influence

youre purchasing?

Q4) How far your motivation of buying a certain

product does help you in purchasing?

Q5) Does advertisement influence

your purchasing decision?

Conclusion