Topic 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Topic 3 - Essay Example Consumer behavior is what the whole marketing theory and concepts are based on. By studying consumer behavior, marketers hope to find the reason why the consumer wants to buy a certain product. It aims to help and identify how people make their buying decisions and also the factors that influence those decisions. There are usually two kinds of buyers, organizational buyers and consumers. We are only concerned with the consumers who are the ones who buy services and products for use by themselves. They buy things that serve their need for living and the basic requirements of life. They also buy products to make the world know about their personalities and reveal their attitudes and their roles in the society. In other words they not only cater to the physiological needs but also the psychological aspect as well. Individuality is a characteristic that a man develops due to the nature and the surrounding environment he spends that life in. the behavior of a person towards buying a certain product will therefore be different for everybody. They might have different tastes, likes and dislikes, attitudes and values and their decision making process will differ according to that. The three major things that influence the consumer's social environment are individual circumstances, personal psychology and the social environment. All these above mentioned factors have a lasting impact on the individuals buying behavior. Factors Social environment in which an individual lives his or her life helps greatly in shaping the life of people and their preferences. The culture that they are prevailing in, the reference groups to which they belong and cater too and the social class they exist in or the one in which they want to exist in. There can be an informational influence over them for example when they are told about the authenticity of a certain product's working. A customer can also be influenced by the type of reference groups that he or she relates too. A marketer needs to identify the needs and influences of the reference groups of his target market in order to understand their consumer behavior and plan out their offer in such a way that coincides with the needs and wants of the customer and caters to his or her influence. A customer can be influenced by the 'family of orientation' which is the basic family or the parental family that a customer has; a daughter might end up using the same washing detergen t her mother uses. Another kind of reference group is the family of procreation that is more of the extended family; a customer's buying decision might be influenced with the house of his or her in-laws and he or she might to carry out different tasks and buy certain kinds of products in the presence of their extended family. Secondary groups are the less formal groups which the customer doesn't end up meeting everyday and therefore they don't pose a lot of influence over the buying decision behavior of the customer. Individual characteristics tend to stem from demographics characteristics. The gender of the person, the age group with which he or she is belonging to, the stage of the lifecycle the customer is catering to and the customer's