Analyzing Consumer markets & Buying Behavior CHAPTER 6

KOTLER

Major Factors influencing Buying Behaviour Cultural Factors Social Factors Personal FactorsPsychological Factors

Cultural Factors Culture : values, perceptions, preferences and behaviours.Subculture : nationalities, religions, racial grps & geographic regions.Social Class : homogeneous & enduring divisions, hierarchically ordered, members share common values. Indicated by occupation, income, education, etc.

Social Factors Reference

Groups

Direct

Primary

Family of Orientation

Family of Procreation

Secondary

Indirect

Aspirational Dissociative

The person‘s position in each group can be defined in terms of role and status.

A role consists of the activities that a person is expected to perform.

Each role carries a status.

Personal FactorsAge Stage in the life cycle Occupation Economic circumstances

Psychological Factors1. Motivation: A person has many needs at a given time –

•Biogenic Needs – Arising from psychological states of tension such as hunger, thirst, discomfort.

•Psychogenic needs – Arising from psychological states of tension such as need for recognition, esteem or belonging.

•Motive: A need becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient level of intensity causing a person to act.

Psychological FactorsTheories related to Motivation:

Freud‘s Theory:

•Psychological forces shaping a persons behaviour are largely unconscious.

•Laddering can be used to trace a person‘s motivations from the stated instrumental ones to the more terminal ones.

•This helps the marketer decide at what level the message/appeal is to be developed.

Psychological FactorsMaslow‘s theory:

Self Actualization

Needs

Esteem Needs

Social Needs

Safety Needs

Physiological Needs

Psychological FactorsHerzberg‘s Theory: Two-factor theory

•Dissatisfiers – Factors that cause dissatisfaction.

•Satisfiers – Factors that cause satisfaction.

•The Seller should do his best to avoid dissatisfiers.

•The manufacturers should identify the major satisfiers

Psychological Factors2. Perception: Perception is the process by which an individual selects organizes and interprets information inputs to create a meaningful picture of the world.

Selective Attention:

•People are more likely to notice stimuli that relate to current need

•People are more likely to notice stimuli that they anticipate

•People are more likely to notice stimuli whose deviations are large in relation to the normal size of the stimuli

Psychological FactorsSelective Distortion: It is the tendency to twist information into personal; meanings and interpret information in a way that will fit a persons preconceptions. Marketers cannot do much about this.

Selective Retention: People tend to forget much that they learn but tend to retain information that supports their attitudes and beliefs.

Subliminal Perception:

Psychological Factors3. Learning: Learning involves changes in an individuals behaviour arising from experience.

Learning is produced through interplay of:

i. Drives – A strong internal stimulus impelling action

ii. Stimuli

iii. Cues – Minor stimuli that determine when, where and how a person responds

iv. Responses

v. Reinforcement

Memory

Emotions

Psychological Factors4. Beliefs and Attitudes: A belief is a descriptive thought that a person holds about something.

Beliefs may be based on knowledge, opinion or faith. They may or may not carry emotional charge.

An attitude is a person‘s enduring favourable or unfavourable evaluations, emotional feelings, and action tendencies towards some object or idea

Buying BehaviourBuying Roles:

Initiator – Influencer – Decider – Buyer – User

High Involvement Low Involvement

Significant differences between brands

Complex buying behaviour

Variety seeking buying behaviour

Few differences between brands

Dissonance reducing buying behaviour

Habitual buying behaviour

Stages Buying Decision ProcessIntrospective Method: they would think how they would behave

Retrospective Method: Ask people to recall their buying decision process

Prospective process: Ask prospective customers to think aloud

Prescriptive process: Ask customers the ideal way to buy the product

Process of Consumer Buying Decision

Problem Recognition

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

Purchase Decision

Postpurchase Behaviour

Information SearchHeightened attention

Active information search

Sources of information for the customer:

•Personal Sources: family, friends

•Commercial sources: Ads, sales people

•Public sources: Mass media

•Experimental sources: Handling, examining

Search Dynamics

Total Set• All the

possible choices

Awareness Set• The brands

that the consumer is aware of

Consideration Set• Some initial

brands that meet basic requirements

Choice Set• Strong

Contenders

Decision• ????

Evaluation of AlternativesSome methods which can help change the consumers perception of the product

1) Real repositioning: redesign the product

2) Psychological repositioning: Alter the belief of the brand

3) Competitive repositioning: Alter belief about the competitor‘s brand

Postpurchase behaviourPostpurchase Satisfaction: the customer may either be satisfied, delighted or dissatisfied after the purchase. these feelings make a lot of difference to the customers perception and behaviour towards the company.

Postpurchase actions: the customer may take different actions depending upon his satisfaction level. The dissatisfied customer may stop buying ( exit option) or the customer may be tell his friends not to buy the product ( voice option)

Postpurchase use and disposal: Marketers need to monitor what the consumer does with the product after purchase and how it is disposed off to maintain environmental friendliness of the product.