A consumer is a person who buys goods and services that are available in the market for his personal use in the end. Every customer has a particular taste in certain products and services. The interest of consumers is usually his or her willingness to buy products and some services in relation to their pockets. A consumer buys a product with the main aim of fulfilling the particular need that they have to maintain a certain status and could be to buy a present. The propensity to buy a product or to need a service increases with the nearness to a festive season, a birthday, an anniversary, marriage or any special occasion (Tyagi, 2004). A consumer searches for information on the product or service that they need from personal sources such as friends, the commercials that advertise them, the public sources and personal experiences. In the case of advertising the consumers are exposed to the product they pa[y attention to the advert they interpret the information personally and they retain the information that they need.
This calls for a need to be proactive in terms of understanding the changing trends in terms of consumer behavior. Therefore, there is a need to understand how the consumers think and feel when they want to purchase a product. It also calls for the need to understand the reasoning opinions that the consumers could have for selecting between the various alternatives presented before him.
The reference groups who are the people, who share similar norms, have some certain implicit and explicit values. As they use the decision making process with the help of the education that they learnt in the school days (Tyagi, 2004). The status in which a certain group perceives themselves in the society hence has to behave in a certain way and try to maintain a certain status. They also have to buy products in certain places and areas as they are deemed to be of their class. The groups could be made up of peers, friends, and sports groups, women kitties, working colleagues and colleagues at work. The marketer needs to understand how to deal with them.
The culture through the help of values and norms that have been established by the society has a very big influence on the consumer behavior. Culture is usually passed on from one generation to the other through the help of family members and the religion. As the culture changes in time, there is the need to relate the benefits of the product and services with the changing culture overtime (O'Dougherty, 2007). The culture helps to satisfy a need, offer order, sense of direction, and guides the entire society in life stages hence, it is held dear by the society. The culture varies greatly from one community to another as the people belief in a certain way they are similar but different and they change gradually and continuously.
The family influences the consumer in that what the children wants greatly influence what a parent buys hence the need to appeal to them .The parents though can influence the buying behavior of the children in that they instill to them what is wrong and right hence the need to consider the parents influence on children when advertising the product. The amount of disposable income of the family also influences the buying behavior of the consumers greatly as the more the amount the more they are willing to buy (Noel, 2009). The size of the family also greatly influences their buying behavior as the more the needs the more they buy. The characteristics that are instilled by the parents to the children when they are young they carry the behavior until they are old.
The social status that the people have placed themselves at also greatly influences their buying behavior as they have to keep up with the standards they want to recognized for by the outside world. The upper class people tend to place more importance on the quality of service they are being provided with the surroundings around the business, the aftersales services on offer and availability of the products. They tend to buy highly priced goods and those that are available in small quantities. The people who are in the lower class however emphasize on the quantity they are getting, the price, as they want products that are well priced as they are usually shopping on a tight budget. The marketers have to understand this to ensure the products they sell are bought.
The advertisement has to be made in such a way that it is gender sensitive, it is morally responsive, targets the people that it is meant to pass the information to and that the viewers can understand the advertisement. They have to be precise and straight on the point that they want to drive home. These advertisements have to be cost effective and a consumer analysis has to be carried out before spending a lot of money on advertisements.
It is easy to make a product known to a wide variety of people if it is associated with the rich. In that if the people know that a certain celebrity uses the product they will want to be associated with the celebrity by at least using the same product hence more sales for the business (O'Dougherty, 2007). However, it is hard for the rich and many people to accept using a product that is associated with the poor in the society, as it carries no prestige alongside it.
There is a need to understand the geographic location you are intending to sell the products; whether it is cold of hot and whether the product you are selling shall survive in the place. The language the people that live there speak needs to be known by the marketers to ease communication when selling the product. The literacy levels of the consumers need to be understood well to ensure that they can understand the product you are selling to them and can be able to use it in their homes. The age set of the consumers need to be well understood because what is impressive in the eyes of the young does not necessarily have to impress the eyes of the old.
There are various stages involved in the decision-making process of the consumers and they include; problem recognition whereby the consumer recognizes certain need that he needs to satisfy. A marketer could influence the need when he advertises the product to the consumers. The advertisements can also induce a need for impulse buying to the customers, which is beneficial for business owners in the end (Hoyer, 2008). The next stage is the search for information on how to satisfy the need. The information can be from personal memory on how they used the product or service earlier on. The memory could also be form an instant when they saw the product or service in use earlier on. The external memory is usually from family members the friends and including the enemies through the word of mouth. The marketer can make the information available to the consumers with advertising on shops and comparison of the advantages of the products. An information search is declared a success when the customer is able to reach at a variety of alternatives that can help him or her satisfy the need.
Thirdly, this is whereby the consumer evaluates the alternatives establishes the criteria that shall help him establish what shall help satisfy the need. It helps to establish what he needs does not want and rate the alternatives and can resume search if the results are not able to satisfy the needs that he has (Noel, 2009). The marketers however can influence this by displaying the various alternatives for the consumers to make the job easy for the consumer and ensure that the consumer’s final choice is a product or service that they offer. Information from different sources is usually treated differently and can confuse the customer and this helps to solve this problem.
The purchase decision is made when a consumer has evaluated the available options and has a clearly set up goal that he wants to achieve with the purchase decision. These include the product quality and variety evaluation, the packaging of the product if it is appealing to the eyes of the consumers at all, the storage mode of the product. Moreover, finding out if the product can thrive in the conditions at home and the methods of purchase that are allowed for the consumers to use when buying the products (Peterson, 1977). The method of purchase can influence the buying behavior of the consumers as there those who prefer face to face buying, others prefer the electronic mode of purchase and others prefer the use of the internet when buying the products.
Purchase is the most important stage in the buying process and it is the ultimate goal of the marketers. This can differ greatly depending on what the consumers feel when they evaluate the alternatives and the purchase decisions that they make (Hoyer, 2008). The product availability in the market at the time of purchase also influences greatly whether the customer shall buy the products or shall be in need of the services or not.
Post purchase evaluation is usually a study on whether the customer is satisfied or dissatisfied with the product or service rendered to him or her hence, it is important for the marketers as it can determine whether there shall be any repeat purchase or not. It is a stage where the consumer checks whether the product or service satisfies the need, he or she intended for it to satisfy. The warranties, the after sale services the guarantees help to ensure that the customer fells well taken care of and that their needs take the forefront when they are being old to the product.
The brand is the core of the product and should always be the ambassador of the product. A good brand image helps to ensure that the product can thrive well in the market and remains competitive and relevant at all times.
References
Hoyer, W. D., & MacInnis, D. J. (2008). Consumer behavior. Mason, OH: South-Western.
Noel, H. (2009). Consumer behaviour. Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Academia.
O'Dougherty, D. (2007). Consumer behaviour. Cape Town: Pearson Education South Africa.
Peterson, R. A. (1977). Trends in consumer behavior research. Chicago: American Marketing Association.
Tyagi, C. L., & Kumar, A. (2004). Consumer behaviour. New Delhi: Atlantic.
