2. Buying Behavior
Buying behavior is the decision
processes and actions of people
involved in buying and using products.
3. Consumer Buying Behavior
Refers to the buying behavior of ultimate
consumers – those who purchase
products for personal or household use
and not for business purposes.
4. Consumer Buying Decision Process
Is a five-stage process that includes:
problem recognition, information
search, evaluation of alternatives,
purchase, and postpurchase
evaluation.
5. Step 1 – Problem Recognition
Occurs when a buyer becomes aware of a
difference between a desired state and an
actual condition.
Can be rapid or rather slow for some
Marketers use sales personnel, advertising,
and packaging to help trigger recognition of
such needs
6. Step 2 – Information Search
After recognizing the problem or need,
a buyer will decide whether to pursue
satisfying the need.
If the customer chooses to move
forward, he or she will next search for
product information to help resolve the
problem or satisfy the need.
7. Step 2 – Information Search
Information search has 2 aspects:
Internal Search – search their
memories for information that might
solve their problem
External Search – communication with
relatives, comparison of available
brands and prices, marketer-dominated
sources, and/or public sources
8. Step 3 - Evaluation of Alternatives
A successful information search within a
product category yields a group of brands that
a buyer views as possible alternatives.
This group of brands is sometimes called a
consideration set (or evoked set).
9. Step 3 - Evaluation of Alternatives
To assess the products in a consideration set,
the buyer uses an evaluative criteria:
objective characteristics and subjective
characteristics that are important to him or her.
10. Step 4 - Purchase
In this stage, the consumer chooses to
buy the product or brand yielded by the
evaluation of alternatives.
Product availability may influence which
brand is ultimately purchased.
During this stage, buyers also pick the
seller from which they will buy the
product.
11. Step 5 – Postpurchase Evaluation
After the purchase, the buyer evaluates the
product to ascertain if its actual
performance meets expected levels.
Pospurchase evaluation stage is especially
important for high-priced items.
Shortly after the purchase of an expensive
product, cognitive dissonance may
happen. It is the doubt that a buyer feels
after a purchase whether the decision was
the right one.
12. Types of Consumer Decision Making and
Level of Involvement
To acquire products that satisfy their current and future needs, consumers
engage in different types of decision-making processes that vary
depending on the nature of the product.
The amount of effort, both mental and physical, that buyers expend in
solving problems also varies considerably with the cost and type of
product.
A major determinant of the type of decision-making process employed
depends on the customer’s level of involvement, which is the degree of
interest in a product and the importance the individual places on that
product.
13. Types of Consumer Decision Making and
Level of Involvement
Level of Involvement
High involvement products tend to be those that are visible to others (e.g. real
estate, high-end electronics, automobiles) and are more expensive
Low-involvement products are much less expensive and have less associated
societal risk (e.g. grocery or drugstore items)
14. Types of Consumer Decision Making and
Level of Involvement
A person’s interest in a product or product category that is ongoing and
long-term is referred to as enduring involvement.
Most consumers have an enduring involvement with very few activities or
items, ex. Apple products a brand that inspires loyalty and trust.
Situational involvement is temporary and dynamic, and results from a
particular set of circumstances, such as the sudden need to buy a new
bathroom faucet after the current one starts leaking.
15. Types of Consumer Decision Making and
Level of Involvement
A consumer uses routinized response behavior when buying frequently
purchased, low-cost items that require very little search-and-decision effort.
Buyers engage in limited decision making when they buy products
occasionally, or unfamiliar brands in a family product category. Requires
slightly more time for information gathering and deliberation.
Extended decision making occurs with high-involvement, unfamiliar,
expensive, or infrequently purchased items – car, home, college education.
Impulse buying – unplanned buying behavior resulting from a powerful urge
to buy something immediately.
16. Situational Influences on the Buying
Decision Process
Situational influences – result from circumstances, time, and location
that affect the consumer decision process.
Situational factors can influence the buyer during any stage of the
consumer buying decision process and may cause the individual to
shorten, lengthen, or terminate the process.
Situational factors can be classified into five categories: physical
surroundings, social surroundings, time perspective, reason for purchase,
and the buyer’s momentary mood and condition.
17. Psychological Influences on the Buying
Decision Process
Psychological influences partly determine
people’s general behavior and thus influence
their behavior as consumers.
Includes perception, motives, learning,
attitudes, personality and self-concept, and
lifestyles.
18. Psychological Influences on the Buying
Decision Process
Perception – the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting
information inputs to produce meaning.
Information inputs are sensations received through sight, taste, hearing,
smell, and touch.
19. Perceptual Process
Selection-organization-interpretation
The 1st step in the perceptual process is selection.
We constantly receive pieces of information, only some reach our
awareness. We would be completely overwhelmed if we paid attention to
all sensory inputs, so we select some and ignore others.
This process is called selective exposure.
20. Perceptual Process
Selective distortion – changing or twisting of information that is
inconsistent with personal feelings or beliefs
Selective retention – remembering information inputs that support
personal feelings and beliefs and forgetting inputs that do not
21. Perceptual Process
The 2nd step in the process of perception is perceptual organization.
Information inputs that reach awareness are not received in an organized
form.
To produce meaning, an individual must organize and integrate new
information with what is already stored in memory.
Figure-ground – a portion of the information inputs that reach awareness
stand out as the figure and others become the background
Closure – occurs when a person fills in missing information in a way that
conforms to a pattern or statement
22. Perceptual Process
The 3rd step in the perceptual process, is the assignment of meaning to
what has been organized.
A person interprets information according to what he or she expects or
what is familiar.
23. Motives
A motive is and internal energizing force that directs a person’s activities
toward satisfying needs or achieving goals.
Buyers are affected by a set of motives rather than just one.
Motives can be physical feelings, states of mind, or emotions.
Motives also affect the direction and intensity of behavior.
24. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow wrote a theory on motivation
based on a hierarchy of needs.
The pyramid is known as Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs. It states that people are constantly
striving to move up the hierarchy, fulfilling one
level of needs, then aspiring to fulfill the next.
Motives that influence which establishments a
customer frequents are called patronage
motives.
25. Learning
Learning refers to changes in a person’s
thought processes and behavior caused by
information and experience.
Consequences of behavior strongly
influence the learning process. Behaviors
that result in positive consequences tend to
be repeated.
26. Attitudes
An attitude is an individual’s enduring evaluation of feelings about and
behavioral tendencies toward an object or idea.
Although attitudes can change over time, they tend to remain stable and
do not vary, particularly in the short term.
An attitude consists of three major components: cognitive, affective, and
behavioral.
27. Attitudes
The cognitive component is the person’s knowledge and information
about the object or idea.
The affective component comprises the individuals’ feelings and emotions
toward the object or idea.
Emotions relate to feelings and can create visceral responses related to
behavior.
28. Personality and Self-concept
Personality is a set of internal traits and distinct behavioral tendencies
that result in consistent patterns of behavior in certain situations.
Personality is a unique combination of hereditary characteristics and
personal experiences.
A person’s self-concept is closely linked to personality.
Self-concept (self-image) is one’s perception or view of oneself.
29. Lifestyles
A lifestyle is an individual’s pattern of living expressed through activities,
interests, and opinions.
People partially determine their own lifestyles, but lifestyle is also affected
by personality and by demographic factors.
Lifestyles have a strong impact on many aspects of the consumer buying
decision process, from problem recognition to postpurchase behavior.
31. Roles
Roles are actions and activities that a person in a particular position is
supposed to perform based on expectations of the individual and
surrounding persons.
Every person occupies numerous positions, they have many roles. Thus
multiple sets of expectations are placed on each person’s behavior.
The expectations around us affect our purchases of many different types
of products.
32. Family Influences
Parents teach children how to cope with a variety of problems, including
those that help with purchase decisions.
Consumer socialization is the process through which a person acquires
the knowledge and skills to function as a consumer.
33. Reference Groups
A reference group is a group, either large or small, with which a person
identifies so strongly that he or she adapts the values, attitudes, and
behavior of group members.
Membership – group to which one actually belongs to
Aspirational – group to which a person aspires to belong
Dissociative – a group the a person does not want to be associated with
34. Opinion Leaders
An opinion leader is a member of an informal group who provides
information about a specific topic, to other group members seeking
information.
The opinion leader is in a position, or has knowledge or expertise, that
makes him or hem a credible source of information.
35. Social Classes
A social class is an open aggregate of people with similar social rank.
36. Culture and Subcultures
Culture is the accumulation of values, knowledge, beliefs, customs,
objects, and concepts that a society uses to cope with its environment
and passes on to future generations.
A subculture is a group of individuals whose characteristics, values, and
behavioral patterns are similar within the group and different from those of
people in the surrounding culture.
