Define Consumer Behavior?
Consumer Behavior may be defined as the interplay of forces that takes place during a consumption process, within a consumers self and his environment.
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this interaction takes place between three elements viz. cogntion, affect and behavior;
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it continues through pre-purchase activity to the post purchase experience;
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it includes the stages of evaluating, acquiring, using and disposing of goods and services”.
List out the individual determinants and environmental influences that affect consumption behavior?
These are listed as follows:
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Individual Determinants:
- Personal motivation and involvement
- Perception
- Attitudes
- Learning and memory
- Self-concept and personality
- Decision making.
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External Environment:
- Family
- Social Group
- Reference Groups
- Social Class
- Culture
- Sub-culture
- Cross-culture
- National and regional influences
Scope of Consumer Behavior:
The study of consumer behavior deals with understanding consumption patterns and behavior. It includes within its ambit the answers to the following:
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‘What’ the consumers buy: goods and services
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‘Why’ they buy it: need and want
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‘When’ do they buy it: time: day, week, month, year, occasions etc.
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‘Where’ they buy it: place
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‘How often they buy’ it: time interval
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‘How often they use’ it: frequency of use
The scope of consumer behavior includes not only the actual buyer but also the various roles played by him/ different individuals.
Buying Roles
A child goes to a kindergarten school. She comes back home and asks her parents to buy her a set of color pencils and crayons. Now the roles played are: 1. Initiator: the child in nursery school
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Influencer: a fellow classmate
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Decider: the father or the mother
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Buyer: the father or the mother
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User: the child
Market research may be defined as:
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an organized effort to gather information about the market and the customers.
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systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data related to the market and the surrounding environment.
The environment surrounding a Company may be grouped as the “micro-environment” and the “macro environment”. The micro-environment comprises forces in the environment that are close to the company and affect the company directly; for example, the company’s internal environment, the founder/leader and his vision and mission, the customers, competitors, suppliers, and channel intermediaries. The macro- environment on the other hand,comprises forces in the environment that first affect the micro environment and through that they affect the company; in other words they affect the company indirectly; examples are the demographic factors, socio-economic factors, political factors, technological factors, cultural factors, natural factors etc. The forces in the macro environment affect all the companies operating in a same industry in a similar manner.
The micro-environment is studied in terms of strengths (S) and weaknesses (W), while the macro-environment is studied in terms of opportunities (O) and threats(T). The analysis of both of these put together comprises the SWOT analysis.
(Resource: Great Notes for Studying: http://www.nptel.ac.in/courses/110105029/)