CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR/INDIVIDUAL BUYER BEHAVIOUR.

This is the behavior exhibited by consumers in planning,purchasing and using economic goods and
[Link] concern of a marketer is what causes the act of a purchase or a [Link]
are therefore concerned with the whowhat how and why and when of consumer behavior.

Consumer market refers to all the individulas and households who purchase goods and services for
personal use.

Organization market/behavior refers to when the goods or services bought are for production,own use
or resale e.g. government agencies,manufacurers and the wholesalers.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANISATION MARKET/BEHAVIOUR.

Demand is organizational.

Volume of transaction is higher

Few customers are involved

Usually concentrated in a particular location and not dispersed like consumers.

Direct distribution is used as opposed to indirect method.

Professional nature of buying is used.

Complex negotiations are involved.

Personal selling promotion is used.

Buying is influenced by multiple actors ieinitiators,deciders,final users and gate keepers(controls

information) ie personal secretaries and technical personnel.

REASONS FOR STUDYING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR.

The way a buyer behaves dictates a companys marketing production and other strategies which has a
great impact on success or failure of the business.

Consumer behavior is a major component of the marketing concept/customer focus ie a firm should
create a marketing mix that satisfies consumer needs and wants given the changes in their behavior.

By gaining a better understanding of factors that affect consumer behavior,a marketer is better placed
to predict how consumers will respond to the firms total marketing strategies

Exposure to external stimulus such as advertising has been known to activate the desired response in
customers.

It helps a company to be continually profitable in business.

Understanding consumer behavior decreases the level of risks especially in launching of the new
products.

Consumer benefit by knowing their own consumption pattern ie they are able to understand why they
behave the way they do.

As scholars, it helps us understand why consumers act in a certain consumption way.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR.

There are four main factors that usually influence consumer behavior ranging from;

Cultural factors.

Social factors

Personal factors

Psychological/physiological factors.

[Link] FACTORS.

It consists of;

Society culture-culture is the set of basic values, perceptions ,beleifs,norms and behviour learnt by a
member of the society from families and other important institutions. Culture influences activities
people enganging what is material comfort achievement and [Link] should always try to
identify cultural shifts inorder to discover new products that may be demanded.

Sub-cultures-this consists of smaller cultures that provides more specific identification and socialization
for its [Link] include nationalities ie Kenyans vsUgandans,racial groups ie black vswhite,religious
groups iemuslimsvsChristians,geographical regions ie western vs eastern [Link] sub-cultures make up
important market segments and marketers often design products and marketing programs tailored to
the needs of this segments.

Social class-these are the social stratification within a [Link] are relatively permanent with
members sharing similar values,intrests and behavior e.g. the upper class,middle class and lower
[Link] are interested in social class because people within a give social class tend to have
similar buying behavior and they show distinct product and planned preferences in areas such as
clothing,homefurnishing,leisure activities etc.

[Link] FACTORS.

There are three components here ie.

[Link] groups-a group refers to two or more people who interact to accomplish individual or
mutual [Link] have an influence on ones attitude and [Link] are categorized as;

Primary group-this have regular but informal interctions e.g. friends,co workers etc.

Secondary groups-they are more formal but have less regular interactions e.g. religious
groups,professional associations etc.

Aspirational groups-this refers to many kinds of membership groups iescout,ymca and they may hope to
join other aspirational groups.

Membership groups-this is one which a person actually belongs including fraternities,sororities(society

of female university/college students),social clubs and family.

A dissociative group-this is one that a person wishes to maintain a distant from because of differences in
values/behaviours.

Reference groups create pressure to conform to certain behavior and lifestyles.a marketer concern is to
identify the reference group and target them with a specific marketing programme.
[Link]- this is the most influential social group because through it one acquires orientation towards
religion,politics,sportclub,education-ie when parents are book readers the children usually ends up
doing the same,selfworth and buying behavior e.g. when making expensive purchases,a husband will
influence the wife and vice versa.

[Link] and status-this describes the position a person holds in the society to which he/she belongs.a role
consists of the activities people are expected to perform according to the people around [Link] role
carries a status which reflects the general esteem given to the role by the societ e.g. an
mp,achief,manager [Link] also influences the club or organization that one belongs.

[Link] FACTORS.

There are several variables here;

Age and life cycle stage-buying is shaped by our age and the stage of the family life cycle e.g.
young,singles and old will purchase different products from married couples with children.

Occupation-blue collar workers tend to buy more work clothes while white collar workers will buy
expensive suits.

Lifestyle-this are the activities,intrests and opinions which potray the whole [Link] are influenced
by our hobbies and intrests.

Personality and self concept-personality refers to the unique psychological characteristics that lead to
relatively consistent and lasting responses to ones own [Link] includes self
confidence,sociability,dominance,aggressiveness [Link] is useful for analyzing consumer
behavior for certain products e.g. heavy coffee drinkers are said to be very social.

This concept is well understood using the concept of the johari window ie

How we see ourselves How others see us

How we want to be seen Ideal self-dream

[Link]/physiological factors.

Motivation-a person has many needs at any given time some of which are biological e.g. hunger and
thirst while others are psychological arising from the need for recognition,self esteem or
belonging(maslows hierarchy of needs).

A need becomes a motive when it is driven to a sufficient level of [Link] directs a person to seek
satisfaction through a product or [Link] must therefore uncover the deeper motives of
consumers.

Perception-a persons actions are influenced by his/her perception of the [Link] is a

process by which people correct ,organize and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the
[Link] different perceptions of the same stimulus because of the perceptual [Link]
involves;

Selective attention-this is the tendency to scream out most of information to which they are exposed.

Selective retention-this is the tendency of people to retain information that supports their attitudes and
beleifs.

Selective distortion(change)-this is the tendency of people to interpret information in a way that will
support what they already believe.

Learning-this describes changes in an individuals behavior arising from [Link] learning concept
calls for a marketer to build up demand for a product by associating it with strong rives and providing
positive reinforcement.

Beleifs-this is a descriptive thought that a person has about something which may be based on
knowledge,opinion,faith or emotional attitude.a marketer will be interested in beleifs that people
formulate about specific products and services that if the beleifs are wrong and prevent purchase,a
marketer will launch a campgain to correct them.

Attitudes-they describe a persons relatively consistent favourable or unfavourableevaluation,feelings

and tendancies towards an object or [Link] gives rise to liking or disliking things,moving towards or
away from [Link] are difficult to change and a marketer should therefore try to fit his/her
products into existing positive atitudes of consumers.

This concept is well understood using the concept of the maslows hierachy of needs which is is a
triangular representation.

Self actualization needs;self development

Esteem needs;selesteem;recognition;status

Social needs;sense of belonging,love

Safety needs;security protection.

Physiological needs;hunger,thirst.

According to maslow;human needs are arranged in a hierarchy. Starving people will take little interest in
latest happenings in the art world. A person tries to satisfy the most important need first when that
need is satisfied,it will stop being a motivator and the person will then try to satisfy the next most
important need.

TYPES OF BUYING DECISIONS FOR CONSUMERS AND ORGANISATIONAL MARKETS.

Habitual buying behavior-this occurs under conditions of low consumer involvement and little significant
brand difference e.g. salt. Consumers have little involvement in this product category. They simply go to
store and reach a Consumers appear to have low involvement with most low cost frequently purchased
products.

Variety seeking buying behavior-consumers undertake this in situations characterized by low consumer
involvement but significant perceived brand differences. Consumers often do a lot of brand switching
e.g. when buying cookies a consumer may hold some beleifs,choose a cookie brand without much
evaluation and then evaluate the brand during consumption but next time,the consumer might pick
another brand out of boredrom or simply to try something different. This also arises even during the
incidences of purchasing a computer software enabling a website you have used to recognize you on
visiting again.

Dissonance(lack of harmony/agreement between things) –reducing buying behavior. Consumers are

highly involved with an expensive,infrequent,or risky purchase but see little difference among [Link]
[Link] shop around to learn what is available,but buy relatively quickly,responding to price or
purchase [Link],consumers experience post purchase dissonance(after sale
discomfort)when they notice certain disadvantages of carpet or her favourable things about brand not
purchased.

Complex buying behavior-highly involved in a purchase and perceive significant differences among
brands. Consumers may be highly involved when product is expensive,risky,purchasedinferequently and
highly [Link] a personal computer buyer will consider the variables
below,processor,matrixscreen,gb,R.A.M,memory etc.

New tasks-a business buying situation in which the buyer purchases a product or service for the first
time.

Straight rebuy- a business buying situation in which the buyer routinely re-orders something without any
[Link] on past buying satisfaction ie mainly done by purchasing department.

Modified rebuy-a business buying situation in which the buyer wants to modify product
specifications,price,terms or suppliers ie better offers.

ROLE PLAYERS IN THE BUYING DECISION PROCESS/CONSUMER BUYING ROLES.

This refers to the people involved in buying decision and the roles each person [Link] help a
marketer to fine tune(know when to target) marketing [Link] decision making units in consumer
buying involves.

Initiator-this is the person who first suggests or thinks of the idea of buying a particular product or
service.

Influener-this is the person whose views or advice influence the buying decision.

Decider-this is the person who actively makes the buying decision on what to buy,when or where to buy.

Buyer-this is the person who makes the actual purchase.

User-this is the person who consumes/uses the product/service.

CONSUMER ADOPTER CATEGORIES.

Innovators-this are the first 2.5% of the buyers who adopt new [Link] comprise of the
young,netter educated and consumers who have higher [Link] are more willing to take risks.

Early adopters-these are the next 13.5% of buyers and are guided by respect and are the opinion leaders
in the [Link] adopt new ideas early but carefully e.g. preachers,musicians etc.
Early majority-these are the deliberate [Link] are the leaders but are careful in what they
[Link] represent 34% of the buyers.

Late majority-these are the skeptical or suspicious [Link] an innovation only after the early
majority has tried [Link] represent 34% of buyers.

Laggards-these are the traditionalist or conservative [Link] suspicious of changes and adopt an
innovation only when it has become something of a tradition itself. They represent 16 % of the buyers.

THE CONSUMER BUYING DECISION PROCESS/DECISION MAKING PROCESS.

The consumer buying decision starts long before the actual purchase and continues long [Link]
routine purchase some of the stages are skipped but for non-routine purchases a consumer will go
through the below five stages ie non routine purchaser.

Need recognition;

This is the first stage in which the consumer recognizes that they have a problem or [Link] consumer
senses a difference between his/her present state and some future desired [Link] need can be
triggered by internal stimuli ie normal needs such as hunger or thirst or psychological needs such as self
[Link] rise to a level higher enough to become a [Link] needs can also be triggered by external
stimuli e.g. Wilson watching a tv advert on a mobile phone.a marketer should carry out a research to
find what brought about this [Link] may have felt the need for good quality music and thought of
buying a mobile phone after seeing the advert.

By gathering such information the marketer can identify factors that triggered interest in the product
and develop marketing programmes that involves these factors.

Information search.

Depending on the consumers drive to purchase the product he/she may undertake any information
search related to the [Link] search may be;
Heightened attention(alertness).-in this case,Wilson became more receptive to any information about
mobilephones e.g. through advertisement orlistening to friends who own the mobile phone.

Active information search(actively searching information)-wilson looks for reading material on mobile
phones,asks friends to give her more information or visit outlets that sells the phones to enquire for
more [Link] of information includes;

Personal sources-this is the most effective source and it includes family,friends,colleagues etc.

Commercial sources-this includes adverts,salespeople,[Link] give the most information about

the product.

Public sources-this includes the mass media,tv,radio and newspapers.

Experiments-this involves handling,examining and using the [Link] information obtained increases
consumers awareness and help the consumer to drop certain brands from [Link]
must therefore design awareness programmes through the sources of information consumer use and
importance of each source to the consumer.

Evaluation of alternatives-this is the stage in which consumer uses the information obtained to evaluate
alternative [Link] is based on fact that:

The consumer is trying to satisfy a need e.g. music and is therefore looking for certain benefits from the
product.

The consumer sees the product as a bundle of attribute for Wilson,this could be music,internet,calling
reliability and price of the mobile phone.

The consumer attaches different degrees of importance to different attributes based on their unique
needs.

Consumers develop a set of brand belief about where each brand stands on each [Link] makes
up the brand image.

Consumers arrive at attitudes towards the various brands through an attribute evaluation
[Link] should study consumers to find out how they evaluate various brands therefore
takes step to influence the buyers decision.

Purchase decision.

This is the stage in which the consumer actually buys the product. The consumer will purchase the most
preferred brand. Two factors will influence the purchase decision.
Attitude of others-This is the extent to which another person attitude reduces ones
[Link] depends on the intensity of the other persons negative attitude,how close the
person is to the consumer and the consumers motivation to comply with the other persons
wishes/issues.

Unexpected situation factors that may come to change the purchase decision-this may be a change in
income,price increases [Link] may make a consumer modify,postpone or avoid the purchase decision
based on the perceived [Link] executing a purchase decision the consumer may make up to five
purchase subdivision ie

Brand decision e.g. nokia,motorolla and Samsung.

Vendor decision e.g. safaricomairteletc (where to buy).

Quantity (do I buy one or two).

Timing-e.g. at the age of 18 years

Payment methods e.g. loan

Post purchase decision.

This will depend on satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the [Link] is defined by the relationship
between consumers expectation and the products perceived performance. Claims made about the
product must truthfully represent the product likely performance. A marketer will be interested in
satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the consumer because a dissatisfied consumer may or return the
product.

They may seek information to confirm the products high value or may take public action by complaining
to the government or other authorities. They can also dispose off the product,rent it out or convert it to
serve another purpose.