Consumer Buying Behavior

Introduction

In this era of rapid changing business and competition of survival in the market, the importance of customer behavior is also increasing in the field of market. With the increase in the growth of technology, globalization, involvement of socio-economic business in foreign market and rise of interference of politics in business, the competition among the organizations are increasing so as to develop and manage the company (Castello and Ozawa., 1999). To survive in the market, the company have to propose many strategies for utilization of resources, cost minimization with increased revenue. But to accomplish the objectives completely, the company cannot afford to have an emaciated marketing strategy. And when question arises about the marketing strategies, customers come to as the base of the strategy. For a company customers are like Gods as they play a special role in the way of success. Customers are the people who buys, uses and promotes others about the services of the company (Calloway., 2005).

The above is the viewpoint of the company, now comes the buyers’ point of view. In today’s world of varieties, difficulty is arising for the customers in deciding the purchases and comparing. Due to the increased competitions, it has become difficult for the consumers to decide the thing on which they will be happy to spend their time, money, effort and energy. There are several factors influencing the decision of the customers (Gilmore, and Pine., 2007).

This paper will show the details about the customer buying behavior which includes its importance along with the factors affecting the buying behavior.

Consumer Buying Behaviour

Buying Behavior is the process and acts of people for taking decision to buy and use any product. To know about the buying behavior, the marketing managers need to understand the reasons for the purchase, factors influencing the purchases and the change of factors (Minaee., 2014). Next comes the Customer Buying Behavior which indicates the ultimate customer’s buying behavior.

Consumer Buying Process

It is an intricate matter which deals with many external and internal factors influencing the consumer buying decisions. In this time saving world no one have the time to think about the low value products (Puccinelli, et al., 2009). So the manufacturers have to decide a strategy which will be able to attract the customers and make them but the products on impulse. This will prevent them from going to the rival companies. But there are also some customers who don’t go for the buying on impulse and for them there is a set of processes (Chandio., 2013).

Problem or Need Recognition

In this process the customers need to decide what product and services they have to choose to buy.

Information Search

When a customer decides to make a purchase then, searching information about the product and its brand comes to the priority. Customers searches about the product and their sources are mostly family members, friends, internet and retailing staff.

Evaluation of Options

If the customer wants to purchase a thing, then there are a number of options available in the market. It’s the work of the managers to apply such strategies so that the customers will get attracted towards the products. And the customer has to analyze between different brands and types of products so as to purchase the correct one.

Purchase Decision

In this process one brand will be the winner of all or the customer will choose one by filtering many priorities.

Post Purchase Behavior

Till the above stages the customer has chances to change his mind or cancel the product but in this process the deal is final and nothing can be changed. Even after purchasing the product most of the customers have doubts about the products and this is a common post purchase behavior.

Factors Affecting Customer Buying Behavior

There are many factors affecting the purchasing decisions of the customer. Some of them are:

• Cultural Factors
• Social Factors
• Ethical Factors
• Legal Factors

Cultural factors

Culture is a very important aspects of marketing which affects the buying nature to the deepest and for that the marketing managers have to divide their markets centered on customer’s cultural needs and wants (Silayoi and Speece., 2004). Cultural concept has two main effects on the marketing which are:

• It has values which have the capacity to influence the pattern of costumer behavior.
• This is also used to differentiate the subcultures.

The process of engrossing the culture and all its aspects in someone’s life is called socialization and when this is done for marketing it is called consumer socialization. This affects mostly the preferences of the consumers in shopping, choosing services and interactions. Cultural factors include:

• Buyer culture: Culturally differentiated people have different choices and views about the products and services. According to this the customers choose the products which are suitable for their culture.
• Subculture: There are also many subculture prevailing in different cultures which also plays a role in affecting the choices.
• Social class: Based on the income and status of the customers, choices also differs.

Social Factors

The Social Factors affecting the buying behavior of the customer are: Reference groups, role of family and status. The choice of the customers depends on the suggestions and dependence of the family, relations with the social people and the status they are living in (Webster Jr and Wind., 1972).

Ethical Factors

Many people have their own beliefs and principles in their life and lifestyle which also reflects on their use products. So ethical factors also influence the behavior.

Legal Factors

There are many products which failed in the test of their purity but are sold illegally. There are many customers who doesn’t mind about the legal or illegal commodities but some people are there who are very much concerned about the laws and tests. Hence this also affects the buying behavior.

Apart from all the factors, there are many theories about the buying behavior of the customers. One of them is the Consumer Culture Theory.

Conclusion

Knowing the behavior of the customers is very important as they are important for the marketing strategies. This is a very vast sector as there are many factors influencing the choices and decision of the customers. To develop new and attractive products the managers have to deeply study the factors and behavior of the customers. This will help the company to make high revenue and achieve the highest level of success.

References

Calloway, J. (2005). Indispensable: How to Become the Company that Your Customers Can't Live Without. John Wiley & Sons.

Castello, S. A., & Ozawa, T. (1999). Globalization of small economies as a strategic behavior in international business. Taylor & Francis.

Chandio, J. A. (2013). Preferential Attributes In Consumer Buying Behavior At Retail Megastores In Karachi. Research Journal Of The Institute Of Business Administration Karachi-Pakistan, 8(2), 72.

Gilmore, J. H., & Pine, B. J. (2007). Authenticity: What consumers really want. Harvard Business Press.

Minaee, R. (2014). Influencing factors on consumer behavior in online purchases. Scientific Journal of Review, 3(4), 210-223.

Puccinelli, N. M., Goodstein, R. C., Grewal, D., Price, R., Raghubir, P., & Stewart, D. (2009). Customer experience management in retailing: understanding the buying process. Journal of retailing, 85(1), 15-30.

Silayoi, P., & Speece, M. (2004). Packaging and purchase decisions: An exploratory study on the impact of involvement level and time pressure. British food journal, 106(8), 607-628.

Webster Jr, F. E., & Wind, Y. (1972). A general model for understanding organizational buying behavior. The Journal of Marketing, 12-19.

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