Consumer Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Consumer Behavior - move ExampleTo succeed, or simply to survive, companies need a new philosophy. To win in todays commercialise place, companies moldiness be customer centred - they must deliver superior value to their send customers. The study of Consumer Behaviour helps the tradeers to study their target customers and what influences their buying decisions.Consumer Behaviour can thus be defined as, The study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they manipulation to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society.On the basis of the factors that influence consumers buying behaviour, the companies can tailor their selling programmes to the needs, and wants of narrowly defined geographic, demographic, psychographic, or behaviour segments. The ultimate form of target marketing is the customized marketing in which the company adapts its pro ducts and marketing programmes to the needs of a specific customer or buying organization.There are three study steps in target marketing. The first is the market segmentation, where the vender divides his market into distinct groups of buyers with different needs, characteristics or behaviour, who might require separate products or marketing mixes. The second step is the market targeting - evaluating each market segments attractiveness and selecting one or more market segments to enter. The third step is market positioning- setting the competitive positioning for the product and creating a detailed marketing mix. To have effect target marketing it is important to consumer behaviour and the factors which affect it . Characteristics Affecting Buyers Behaviour The major factors which influence the consumer behaviour are 1. Cultural Factors - Culture, Sub gardening, Social class2. Social Factors - Reference groups, Family, Roles and Status.3. personal Factors - Age and lifecycle sta ge, Occupation, Economic situation, Lifestyle, Personality and self concept.4. Psychological Factors - Motivation, Perception, Learning, Beliefs and Attitudes.1. Cultural Factors These exert the broadest and deepest influence on consumer behaviour. The marketer needs to understand the role played by the buyers culture, subculture and social class.Culture The child growing up in a society learns a basic set of values, perceptions, preferences and behaviours from the family and other important institutions. This forms his culture. Subculture Each culture contains smaller subcultures, or groups of people with component partd value systems based on common life experiences and situations. Subcultures allow nationalities, religions, racial groups and geographic regions. Social Class Social classes are societys relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviours. It is not not determined by a single factor, such as income, just no w is measured as a combination of occupation, income, education, wealth, and other variables.2. Social Factors A consumers behaviour is also influenced by social factors, such as the consumers reference group, family, and social roles and status.Reference groups A persons behaviour is influenced by legion(predicate) small groups. Some are primary groups with whom there is regular but informal interaction-