What are the Factors that affect Consumer Buying Behaviour?

Not all consumer exhibit the same buying behaviour. The buyer in influenced by various variables like cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors.

1) Cultural factors – there is culture in every society. Culture forms the ideas, beliefs, values and behaviour of a person living in a particular region. People living with each other in an area are influenced by each other. A person brought up in a Hindu family will have different set of behaviour for buying meat products as compared to a person raised in a Muslim family. They both have religious restrictions on consumption of cow and pork meat. Culture has a powerful influence on individuals with guidelines and rules acceptable to them.

For example, display of nudity or partial nudity is fine with some cultures; some European cultures. Same is relaxed to an extent in America. Organisations take this as an opportunity to display intimate scenes in their advertisements, etc. In some cultures (some East Asian cultures), men don’t directly talk to women. So organisations have to be very careful when sending a delegation for a business meeting to such regions. In Japan, elders in the family are final decision makers. So in business meetings the discussion has to be done directly with the senior person. In America, views from all the people in the meeting are discussed openly and can be criticised, but some cultures don’t appreciate this.

In each culture, Sub-culturesexist which share their value system based on common life experiences and situations. They include nationalities, religions, racial groups, caste and regions. In India, within the Hindu religion in a certain subculture, the bride wears a certain colour for her wedding and in a different region a Hindu widow wears the same colour for final rites of her dead husband. The American from the west will have different values than the American from the east. In India, we have Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians as religious sub-cultures.

Organisations have to align their strategies according to the culture in which they wish to market their products.

There are further divisions based on social class. Social class refers to a group in a culture whose members have same values, lifestyles, preferences and behaviours. They depict distinct brand preferences based on quality, lifestyle, etc. This classification is not solely based on income group, but a mix of various variables like occupation, income, education, wealth, lifestyle, etc. For example, there is a certain class of people who prefer visiting golf clubs, drive luxury cars, etc.

Different cultures have different class divisions-

Upper class, middle class, working class, lower. Some thinkers have done further division like “upper upper”, Lower upper” and similarly, “upper lower” and “lower Lower” – Richard P. Coleman, “The continuing significance of Social Class to Marketing”; Journal of Consumer Research 10, Dec 1989, p 270-272.

Marketers target social class as they have similar preferences for products. Upper class people will prefer travelling abroad for leisure whereas the lower middle class would prefer a local outing with family or friends, etc.

2) Social factors – Man being a social animal, his behaviour is derived from the people he lives and interacts with. These also affect his/her thinking and preferences. These factors are reference groups, family, role and status in the society.

Reference groupis a group within the society where a person socialises and belongs.These are the source of his values, beliefs, attitude and behaviour. These are family, office staff, neighborhood, a sports club, etc. For Example, a decision making on buying a vehicle gets largely influenced by the reference group. You may come across a person saying that he wants to buy a particular vehicle because his friend also has it and he greatly recommends it. Same is the case when the youth make a choice of buying a smart phone, etc.

Family members strongly influence buyer behaviour. There is a very open and close interaction within a family. Marketing people tend to study the family behaviour most often, because for purchasing most of the products a family is involved in decision making. They try to understand the role of a family member, husband, wife, children, for purchasing a certain product. For example, groceries and household goods are generally bought by female members of the family so marketers create advertisements that appeal to housewives like nutritional and health benefits of certain products, etc. There are products that the entire family utilises such as washing machines, lawn mower, refrigerator, etc. Hence study of families with in a culture gives opportunity for organisations to create appropriate Marketing Program. To target children, fast food chains like McDonalds, have advertisements that target them. They even have counters where children can stand and give their orders and freebies like toys are given with McDonald meals, etc.

Roles and Statuses – A person being a social animal is part of a group like family, clubs, etc. In a group every person has a role and a status. In family, a person can be an elder, eldest child, youngest child, etc. Each of these persons has a role to perform and a status in the family. President of a club has more status than a Personal Relations Officer. The president will have a different choice of branded clothes, vehicle preferences, etc. than the PRO from the same club.

3) Personal Factors – personal factors include a person’s age, job and income, lifestyle, personality and self-image.

We buy different products over our lifetime with the change in age. For example, Preference for a vehicle changes with our age. A teenager would prefer health drinks over drinks for children. Similarly a person who has started working would like to settle down in life, and would opt to buy a house and products like house furniture, etc.

A personsJob and income also has great influence on the products he buys. A person working in a management role will prefer branded accessories, travel first class, etc. And a person working as a labour will buy basic products that fulfil his and his family’s day to day needs. Marketing managers keep a track of the income status and the occupation of the target market. For example, due to government policies sometimes the organisations have to move and change their region, this affects the occupation and income of the people in that region. These changes offer a marketing manager threats as well as opportunities for introducing a modified product at a lower price, etc.

Lifestyle – people often adopt certain lifestyle depending on their goal in life. For example, educated, wealthy, happy, etc. Lifestyle refers to attitude, belief, interest, and opinion a person exhibits with respect to himself and the world around him. This is expressed in his day to day activities, thoughts, etc. Some youngsters prefer going out with friends and shop for latest accessories. And some prefer spending time serving as volunteers in an NGO. Hence, similar age groups can have different lifestyles. Families can have a lifestyle in which visiting a movie hall, partying with friends, etc. is visible. These families will spends lot of time and money on fast foods, trendy clothes, etc.

Personality and self-image – Personality refers to certain traits in a person that distinguishes him from others. A person can have a personality wherein he/she is confident, introvert and doesn’t likes to socialise much. Similarly there could be people who socialise a lot and are adaptable, open minded to discuss anything. People with a certain personality would buy products that suit their personality. An outgoing person would prefer buying trendy and attractive clothes, and prefer sitting in a coffee shop with friends, etc. Similarly an introvert person will have a different choice of colours when choosing a dress, etc.

We all have a self-image which is modified because of the situations we face, and also because of the influence of our role models. This has influence on our buying behaviour, and affects our clothing, manners, etc. This can be our own perceived image or how others perceive our image. Looking at our image and looking at ourselves from others eyes.

• How do I look?
• How will I look in the crowd with this hair style, dress, etc.?
• What would my friend think of me?

All individuals try to bring these two self-image concepts into one and create a match. Buying of watches, opening bank accounts in particular banks, high end gadgets, etc. are bough because of the self-image factor. Marketing managers need to study the self-image or self-concept factor of the target market to introduce an appealing Marketing program (4P’s). For example, Levi’s Jeans, Rolex watches, Raymond Suiting’s target to appease customers matching the self-image of their target customers.

4) Psychological factors – there are four psychological factors that influence buying behaviour – motivation, perception, learning, and beliefs and attitudes.

Motivation – it has been studied and proved by psychologists that a person under the influence of unconscious changes his consciously made decision. Various psychologists have tried to explain motivation theory differently. A need becomes a motive when it continuously encourages a person to act.

Sigmund Freud put forward a theory that psychological forces that shape a man’s behaviour are unconscious. Consumers not only look for a good product considering the price and durability, but are also influenced by emotions. For example, many consumers don’t buy vegetables that are healthy and tasty but not having a good colour, shape, etc. Ernest Dichter, a psychologist, in his study revealed that men smoke cigar as an adult version of thumb sucking.

Abraham Maslow in his Hierarchy of Needs had explained that according to importance a person’s need changes.

(1) These start with fulfillment of Basic needs (physiological needs) which are food, shelter and clothing.
(2) Once these are fulfilled, a person will try to fulfill his Safety needs -security and protection- of his family, his home, etc.
(3) Once a person has his basic needs and safety needs fulfilled, he strives to fulfill his needs in the society he lives in. These are Social Needs which are sense of belonging and love.
(4) Then a person’s importance changes to Esteem needs which are self-esteem, recognition and status in the society.
(5) After fulfilling all the above, a person strives for Self-actualization needs which are self-development and realization.

We can see that a person would not strive for esteem needs unless he has the first three needs fulfilled. This helps marketers understand the needs of their target customers, and design and produce a product that appeals to them.

Perception – once a person has a motive to make a purchase he is influenced by his perception which is the analysis of the information he has gathered. Perception can be based on knowledge, opinion or faith.

Learning – a person changes his preferences basis his experience. If a person has a good experience with a certain brand, the brand image is positively reinforced. When buying a product he may check for the same brand. Marketers influence customers based on the learning categories – drives, cues, responses and reinforcements.

Beliefs and attitudes – A belief is a feeling or a thought about something that may be rational or irrational. (“I believe in bad omen). An attituderefers to beliefs expressed in words or behaviour. (“I hate junk food”).

People form Beliefs about a product according to the benefits it provides. Belief is formation of internal feelings whether negative or positive. It can be rational or irrational. A person can have a belief about a restaurant about its ambience, menu, etc. Previous experience, recommendation from friends, and other information affects the belief system. The belief system forms the feeling of like or dislike about a product which is Attitude. Attitude is expressed in a person’s behaviour or thoughts. If a person likes or dislikes a product it depends on his belief about that product. A person can have a certain beliefs about a brand. The governments had to invest heavily in developing countries to change the attitude towards AIDS and usage of condoms.

Sometimes people have a preference for a certain brand but it changes if they come to know that the product was manufactured by child labours in developing country.

Marketers tend to study the Psychological factors to ensure that the product is based on the expectations of the market. They try to influence these factors via promotion activities.