Consumer behaviour is that the study of people, groups, or organizations and also

the processes they use to pick, secure, and eliminate merchandise, services,
experiences, or ideas to satisfy desires and also the impacts that these processes
wear the buyer and society. In today's competitive environment, marketers are faced
with informed and highly complex consumers. The consumer is becoming more
powerful and difficult to predict in their everyday purchase decisions. This has forced
marketing to pay attention to specific research techniques aiding to the success of the
performance of the organization. An ongoing need for information and examining
buying behaviour is very important to the success of an organization (Gentile, 2007).
In the marketing context, the term Consumer Behaviour refers not only to the
act of purchase itself but to any pre-purchase and post-purchase activities which are of
interest to the marketing manager. Pre-purchase activities might consist of growing
awareness of a need or want, and the search for the evaluation of information about the
product and brand that might satisfied it. The post-purchase activities include the
evaluation of information about the purchased brand in use and the reduction of any
anxiety which accompanies the purchase of expensive and infrequent bought items like,
consumer durables. Engel et al (1989) have defined consumer behaviour as act of
individual directly involved in obtaining and using economic goods and services,
including the decision process that precede and determines that acts. They add further
that, though, the word behaviour is used to include only the overt or observable actions,
it is increasingly being recognised that the overt purchasing act is only one (the
discernible) portion of the decision process. It involves the study not only of what people
consume but also when, how often and under what condition goods and services are
consumed.
The term consumer behaviour refers to the behaviour that consumers display in
searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that
they expect will satisfy their needs. In other words, consumer behaviour can be defined
as, The decision process and physical activity engaged in when evaluating, acquiring,
using or disposing of goods and services. (Kotler, 2008)
These definitions raise a few questions in our mind; what or who are consumers?
What is the decision process that they engage in? Answers to these questions help the

marketers and other interested parties in understanding the broad nature of consumer
behaviour. The study of consumer behaviour is the study of how individual makes
decision to spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption related
items. This is achieved by studying how the consumer buy a particular item, why they
buy it, when they buy it, where they buy it, how often they buy it and how often they use
it. Answering to these questions will give some insight knowledge of consumer
behaviour. However, the research on consumer behaviour goes for beyond these facets
of consumer behaviour.
Consumer is a person, a company, or a party who buys products/services. This
seller-buyer relationship has been practiced since the reign of Barter Trade, upholding
the business prophecy that emphasize customer as The King. It has been an
obligation to the manufacturers or service providers to meet, or even exceed, the
standards or expectation level of the consumer in regards with quality, quantity, time to
delivery and many more to capture the market share.
An understanding of consumer behaviour is of critical importance to all personnel
engaged in any form of marketing activity. This understanding enables the marketers to
find behaviour of consumers, to influence their behaviour and to manipulate the
influencing variables to gain advantage. The growth in the size of companies and
markets has given birth to the marketing research. The consumer behaviour, the focal
point of marketing, is being researched very widely throughout the world. The products
are designed to fit into the consumers' perceptions. The products are distributed as per
the consumers' convenience and advertised to communicate consumers and ultimately
influence their behaviour in favour of its offers. The stakes in the businesses are very
high and competition is too stiff. A business involves application of a large amount of
capital; hence the failure of a business is a very risky proposition. Therefore, it is
desirable to assess the consumers behaviour and their preferences in order to remain
competitive in the market.