An Introduction

• Consumer buyer behavior refers to the buying behavior

of final consumers – individuals and households who
buy goods and services for personal consumption-Kotler
• Study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy
and why they buy.
• Attempts to understand the buyer decision making
process, both individually and in groups.
• Studies characteristics of individual consumers such as
demographics, psychographics, and behavioral
variables
 Why study CB?
• Because no longer can we take the customer/consumer
for granted.
• Consumer Behavior determines the economic health of a
nation
• Consumer behavior determines the success of marketing
programs
• Failure rates of new products high-Only 8% of new product
concepts offered by 112 leading companies reached the market. Out
of that 83% failed to meet marketing objectives.
• High Significance in daily lives-Much of our time is spent
directly in the market place, shopping or engaging in other activities.
• Application to decision making-Certain decisions are
significantly affected by their behavior or expected action
Consumer Behavior Determines the Economic Health of a Nation
 Consumer Organisational
influences influences

Obtaining Consuming Disposing

Consumer behavior
 Consumer Organisational
influences influences

Culture Brand
Ethnicity Product features
Personality Advertising
Family Word of mouth
Life-stage Promotions
Values Retail displays
Income Price
Available resources Quality
Attitudes Service
Opinions Store ambiance
Feelings Convenience
Motivations Loyalty programs
Past experiences Packaging
Peer groups Product availability
Knowledge
 Consumer Buying Behaviour

How do they buy? What are their When do they

choice criteria? buy?

Consumers

Who is Important? Where do they

buy?
 Consumer Buying Decision Process

Understand • Initiator
• Influencer
• Buying roles • Decider
• Buying behavior • Buyer
• Buying decision process • User
 Buying roles

– Most purchases individual – confectionary, beer, etc

– Many decisions by group/family/couple - (buying centre/decision making unit).
There are 5 roles…

Initiator – Starts process, may gather information to aid decision

Influencer – A person who by some intentional or unintentional word of action

influences the purchase decision, the actual purchase, and/or use
of the product or service
Decider – He/she who pays – ultimate power of veto

Buyer – Person who conducts transaction

User – Consumer/user of the product

 Buying Behaviour
• Complex buying Henry High
Involvement
Low
Involvement
Assael
behavior Model
• Dissonance-reducing Significant Complex Variety
difference buying seeking
buying behavior between behavior buying
brands behavior
• Habitual buying
behavior
• Variety-seeking Few Dissonance Habitual
differences reducing buying
buying behavior between buying behavior
brands behavior
Complex buying behavior

•Customers with complex buying behavior are highly involved in the

purchase of the product or service.
•The difference between the brands is also very high.
•The marketer should first develop the belief about the brand, provide the
information and differentiate the company brand from others.

Dissonance reducing buying behavior

•This is the behavior of customers when there is high involvement in

product purchase but there are very few differences between brands.
•The disadvantage of this behavior is that customer will show disagreement
after purchasing the product which is very difficult to control.
Variety seeking buying behavior
• This is the behavior of consumers when there are major differences between
the brands but the involvement in purchasing is low.
• In this situation the marketer should take following steps:
– The market leader should encourage customers to buy repeatedly.
– Make the product available and visible to customer in shopping places.
– Firms that are not market leaders should follow sales promotion
techniques to encourage customers to buy the product.

Habitual buying behavior

• It is the behavior of customers when there is low involvement in purchase and
few differences between the brands.
• In this situation the marketer should follow these strategies:
– Use price and sales promotion to encourage product trial.
– Use more visual elements than words in the advertisement.
– Television is a better media for this type of products.
 Consumer Decision-Making Process
Buying decision process

Need Recognition

Information Search
Cultural, Social,
Individual and
Psychological Evaluation
factors of Alternatives
affect
all steps
Purchase

Postpurchase
Behavior
 Need Recognition

Consumers are Stimuli

faced with an
imbalance between Internal External
present status and
preferred state

Preferred State

Present Status
 Need Recognition

A marketer’s Create wants:

objective is to get
Unfulfilled need and
consumers to Wants
determination of
recognize the
product/service to
imbalance
satisfy it

Preferred State

Present Status
 Information Search

Internal Information Search

 Recall information in memory

External Information search

 Seek information in outside environment

 Non-marketing controlled
 Marketing controlled
Extent of Information Search

Need Less Need More

Information Information
Less Risk More Risk
More knowledge Less knowledge
More prior experience Less prior experience
Low level of interest High level of interest
Evaluation of Alternatives

Evoked A narrowed down set of alternatives that the

customer is considering
Set
Evaluation of Products by attributes

 Pick specific product attributes

 Use cutoff criteria

 Rank attributes by importance

Purchase!
 Consumer Buying Decision Process

Successive Sets Involved in Consumer Decision Making

 Purchase

To buy
or not to buy... tries to determine which
attributes are most important
in influencing a
consumer’s choice
 Postpurchase Behavior

Cognitive Dissonance
occurs when there is an
inconsistency between
values and/or opinions
and behavior

Reduce dissonance by
justifying the purchase Can minimize through:
decision Follow-up
• Seek information that reinforces the decision
• Avoid negative information Guarantees
• Seek contrary information and refute it Warranties
Stimulus –Response model of CB
 Types of Consumer Buying Decisions

Routine Limited Extensive

Response Decision Decision
Behavior Making Making

Less More
Involvement Involvement
Types of Consumer Buying Decisions
Routine
Response
Behavior

• Little involvement in selection process

• Frequently purchased low cost goods
• May stick with one brand
• Quick decision
Ex: Soft drinks, snack foods, milk etc
 Types of Consumer Buying Decisions
Limited
Decision
Making

• Buying product occasionally.

• That is when you need to obtain information about unfamiliar brand in a
familiar product category.
• Previous product experience
• Low levels of involvement
• Low to moderate cost goods
• Evaluation of a few alternative brands
• Short to moderate time to decide
Example- Clothes--know product class but
not the brand.
Types of Consumer Buying Decisions
Extensive
Decision
Making

• High involvement in selection process

• High cost goods
• Evaluation of many brands
• Long time to decide
• May experience cognitive dissonance
Example-Cars, homes, computers, education
 • Impulse
Decision
Making

•No conscious planning.

• Found a shirt looking nice, immediately purchased
it!