Consumer Behaviour

1. Introduction to
consumer behavior
Dr. Biju S K
Assistant Professor
Govt. Arts College, Thiruvananthapuram

2. Who is a Consumer ?
Any individual who purchases goods and services from the
market for his/her end-use is called a consumer. In simpler
words a consumer is one who consumes goods and services
available in the market.
Example - Irfan might purchase a tricycle for his son or Shine
might buy a shirt for himself. In the above examples, both Irfan
and Shine are consumers.

3. Who is a consumer?
Consumer is a person or an organisational unit that plays a role
in the consumption of goods and services. The term consumer
refers to both the household and the business entity.
Five main buying roles are
•The initiator – the person who decides to start the buying process
•The influencer – the person who tries to convince others that they need the product
•The decider – the person who makes the final decision to purchase
•The buyer- the person who is going to pay
•The user- the person who ends up using the product, whether she had to a say in
the buying process or not

4. What is Consumer Behaviour ?
Consumer Behaviour is a branch which deals with the
various stages a consumer goes through before
purchasing products or services for his end use.

5. Consumer Behaviour?
Engel et al – defined consumer behaviour as
“ those acts of individual directly involved in
• obtaining,
•using, and
•disposing of
•economic goods and services including the
decision process that precede and determine these
acts.

6. Important changes in the nature of the modern consumers
•Movement from collectivism to individualism
•Trade up and trade down and value vaulters
•Focus on health and fitness
•Webrooming and shorwooming

7. Important changes in the nature of the modern consumers
•Movement from collectivism to individualism
• joint family to nuclear family,
• now individuals are staying in single in
connection with work
• Students are staying in hostel are more now a
day

8. Important changes in the nature of the modern consumers
2. Trade up and trade down and value vaulters
•Trade up & Trade down: :- purchase costly when we are going
for a party or the like, but shop cheap products for wearing in
home

9. Important changes in the nature of the modern consumers
2. Trade up and trade down and value vaulters
•Value Vaulters: the economy is transformed from pyramidal
structure to a diamond structure – means middle income group is
more
•are quality products, novelty seekers, premium brand seekers
•expect discount - price discount, quantity discount, premium
discount, buy one get one free type

10. Important changes in the nature of the modern consumers
•Focus on health and fitness
• Gyms, health products etc,
• Increased consumer assertiveness towards health
and fitness
• obesity, pulmonary diseases, - swimming, Gyms,
health promoting products..cosmetic products

11. Important changes in the nature of the modern consumers
•Webrooming and shorwooming
•Search in internet – purchase form shop -
webrooming
•Find out product in-shop and purchase form
online – shoprooming

12. Consumer behavior is the study
•of individuals, groups, or
organizations and
•the processes
•they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of
• products, services, experiences, or ideas
•to satisfy needs and
•the impacts
•that these processes have
on the consumer and society.
Consumer Behavior and
Marketing Strategy

13. Different segments of Indian consumers
1. The socialites – purchase from any where, - premium brands
2. The conservatives- value vaulters
3. Working women – dish wash, ....
4. The Indian rich –
the rich,
the super rich,
the ultra rich,
the sheer rich,
the obscenely rich

14. Indian Rural consumers
Aware of different brands
Life style product
Because ......
•Increase in agriculture out put
•Growth in education
•Exposure to mass media
•Innovative pricing and non conventional distribution
•Growing interaction with the urban consumers

15. Impact of change in consumers
profile in the marketing decisions
Increase in online marketing
Increasing celebrity endorsements
More quality oriented outlets - malls
More sales promotion offers
Inclination towards eco friendly and herbal products

16. Application of Consumer Behaviour
Application of consumer behaviour - The marketer should decide
Product
 Premium product or others - high priced one or low
priced
Godrej (Chotta cool) rural refrigerators- rural for cooling
with batteries then segmented to urban during travel
Price - value voltures
Promotion
Washing machine – in punjab for lessy
Distribution channels

18. Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour
• Economic Factors
• Personal Factors
• Cultural and Social Factors
• Psychological Factors

19. Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour
Economic
• Income(Personal, discretional, disposable), Family income and
expectation about future income
• Availability of Liquid asset, Consumer credit, standard of living
Personal
• Age, Occupation, Life stage cycle, Life style, Personality,
Self Concept
Cultural &
Social
• Culture, sub culture
• Social group, Social class, opinion Leaders, Role and status
Psycholo
gical
• Motivation, Involvement, Perception, Personality, attitude

20. Economic factors
• Personal Income- Total Income of the consumer
• Discretionary Income – Income available to a consumer after
deducting taxes and basic cost of living
• Disposable income – income available with consumer to spend
according to his wishes
• Family income
• Consumer expectations regarding future income
• Availability of Liquid Assets with the consumer
• Consumer credit
• Level of Standard of Living

21. Personal Factors
• Age
• Occupation
• Life Cycle Stage- Newly born, Teenager, Bachelor, Married,
Parent, Grand Parent
• Life Style – Achievers, Strugglers, Strivers, Experiencers,
believers and Makers
• Personality – Aggressive, Shy, Introvert, Extrovert,
Conservative, Experimental
• Self Concept – One’s Perceptions towards themselves

24. • Lifestyle – A person’s lifestyle is made up of his activities,
opinions and interests. Lifestyle of a person also depends upon
his position in the life cycle stage ie. Teenager, Bachelor,
Married etc.
– Eg;- while teenagers or children are free and majorly spend on
recreation activates and parents are more money conscious and
majorly spend on consumer durables.

25. Cultural Factors
• Culture – is basically the way of living and thinking pattern that
is followed from generation to generation in a society. It
includes knowledge, belief, traditions, morals, values, customs,
and other such habits that are acquired by people as members
of a society
– Example – Indian culture is entirely different from cultures of other
Asian, Arabic and western countries

26. • Sub culture – sub culture is a segment of culture which helps a
marketer to know another person’s culture either
psychologically, socially or through mass identification. Sub
culture consist of a group of people within a culture who
exhibit similar buying behaviours and have similar believes.
– With in India, buying behaviour of Muslims of the north India can be
differentiated from the Muslims of the south India

29. Culture cannot be isolated

30. Culture transmitted across Generations

31. Culture take years to form

32. Culture is essential
Culture changes

33. Culture is learned
Culture changes

34. Social Factors
• Social Group- A group is any collection of individual with
similar interests, opinions and activities. An individual draws
cues regarding consumption and disposal of products from
various social groups he belongs to. The various social groups
an individual forms a part of are
– Reference Group
– Contractual Group
– Avoidance Group
– Aspirational Group

35. • Opinion Leaders- It refers to a key individual in a group which
influences the behaviour of members of the group by
providing them relevant information about new trends and
products in the market

37. CEO of a company would prefer to buy branded
products from big stores, while a worker in the same
company may prefer value for money products from
near by stores.
• Role and status- every person plays many roles in the
society ie. Employees to his boss, parent to his children,
referee for young ones, advisor to peers etc.. People also
select and buy products according to their status in the
society. Social status of a person refers to his/her position
in the society depending upon his income, occupation,
education etc..

38. Social Class

39. Psychological factors
• Customers behave differently towards the same marketing mix
(product) due to their respective psychological makeup. The
psychological factors that effect consumer behavour are
• Motivation
• Involvement
• Perception
• Learning, Personality, Attitude

40. Psychological factors
• Customers behave differently towards the same marketing mix (product) due to their respective
psychological makeup. The psychological factors that effect consumer behavour are
– Motivation- a motive is an internal force that drives a person
to do something ie fulfilled a need, achieve a goal, solve a
problem. Different motives of a consumer can be
understood through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. All
consumers react differently towards a product depending
upon their position in the hierarchy. Ie an individual will first
satisfy his basic needs and then move upward in the
hierarchy with satisfaction of each want

41. Motivation
Positive
Negative

42. • Involvement – It refers to the amount of interest or
importance a consumers shows towards a product, A
consumer may have high or low involvement in a product. Eg.
A cricketer will give very high importance and will be highly
involved while purchasing a cricket but while he may have very
low involvement and interest which purchasing luggage bags.

43. • Perception- it is a process of selecting, organising, and
interpreting information from our internal and external
environment to form a meaningful picture. All consumers
perceive the same product differently according to their own
perceptions
• Eg:- Wrestling is perceived differently by different people,
some perceive it a meaning less fighting while some consider it
a sport.

46. • Learning – it is a process which brings a permanent change in
the behaviour of a person. People generally learn through past
experiences and develop a certain behaviour towards a
product or service.
• Personality – it refers to the total of all physical, mental and
moral characteristics of a person. Customers buy products that
suit their personality, for example some people prefer wearing
formal clothes some like to wear casual clothes depending
upon what suits their personality.

47. • Attitude – attitude is a person’s
predisposition to act favourably or
unfavourably towards a product,
service, event, people etc. It is the
way a person thins or feels about an
object.
• Consumers develop a positive or negative attitude towards a product or
service due to a marketing stimuli, situational variables, experience or
advertising and then decide upon an intended action for that product or
service.

49. • Individual determinants
– Motivation
– Perception
– Attitude
– Personality & Self concept
– Learning & Memory
• External determinants
– Culture
– Sub culture
– Social Class
– Social group
– Family & other influences

50. Thank You