Buying behaviour is fascinating subject area, and every individual - including all of us - has a vested interest in understanding the factors that guide and influence behaviours and attitudes.
Who are buyers? There are two customer types: private consumers who purchase for personal need; and organisational customers who buy for the use of an organisation or business.
To understand a little more about buying behaviour it is best to understand WHO your customers are.
Who are buyers? There are two customer types: private consumers who purchase for personal need; and organisational customers who buy for the use of an organisation or business.
To understand a little more about buying behaviour it is best to understand WHO your customers are.
How do customers buy?
When we buy we start a decision making process:
Problem Awareness/need recognition
Information Search
When we buy we start a decision making process:
Problem Awareness/need recognition
- Problem awareness occurs when a buyer becomes aware that there is a difference between a desired state and an actual condition
- Sometimes the consumer is unaware of a need
- Marketers uses sales personnel, advertising, sales promotion and packaging to help trigger recognition of such needs or problems
Information Search
- Information search is concerned with the sources of information used to help arrive at a decision
- There are two aspects to an information search:
- Internal search - buyers search their memory for information about products that might solve the problem
- External search - is used where there is insufficient information in the memory
- Information search may yield a group of brands that a buyer views as possible alternatives
- Group of alternative products is called the buyer’s evoked set
- A buyer uses criteria for comparing the alternative products or services
- Criteria are the characteristics or features that the buyer wants (or does not want)
- Using criteria, a buyer rates and eventually ranks the brands in the evoked set
- Purchase - The stage when the consumer buys the product
- Post-purchase & evaluation - The stage when the buyer evaluates the product against the criteria used in selection
- Sometimes cognitive dissonance occurs - this is when doubts arise about whether the right purchase has been made
The process of consumer buying involves three distinct stages.
"The process stage of the model focuses on how consumers make decisions. The psychological factors inherent in each individual (motivation, perception, learning, personality and attitudes) affect how the external inputs from the input stage influence the consumer’s recognition of a need, pre-purchase search for information, and evaluation of alternatives."
(Schiffman and Kanuk (2004 p19)
External factors can influence buying and include the marketing mix offered by a business as well as dynamic uncontrollable factors such as social, cultural and economic change.
‘The output stage’, say Schiffman and Kanuk, ‘of the consumer decision making model consists of two closely related post-decision activities: purchase behaviour and post-purchase evaluation.’
Purchase behaviour might involve repeat buying, especially if encouraged by good customer service or a money-off coupon and evaluation will look at whether the purchase is suitable. How many times have you questioned your purchasing of goods and wished that maybe you had got something different? If you do think that you have made the wrong decision this is called cognitive dissonance.
"According to cognitive dissonance theory, discomfort or dissonance occurs when a consumer holds conflicting thoughts about a belief or an attitude object."
(Schiffman and Kanuk 2004 p280)
For instance when a consumer buys a car or a new mobile phone, and starts to wonder whether the other benefits and qualities of the other brands might be more suitable.
Possible Research Questions:
"The process stage of the model focuses on how consumers make decisions. The psychological factors inherent in each individual (motivation, perception, learning, personality and attitudes) affect how the external inputs from the input stage influence the consumer’s recognition of a need, pre-purchase search for information, and evaluation of alternatives."
(Schiffman and Kanuk (2004 p19)
External factors can influence buying and include the marketing mix offered by a business as well as dynamic uncontrollable factors such as social, cultural and economic change.
‘The output stage’, say Schiffman and Kanuk, ‘of the consumer decision making model consists of two closely related post-decision activities: purchase behaviour and post-purchase evaluation.’
Purchase behaviour might involve repeat buying, especially if encouraged by good customer service or a money-off coupon and evaluation will look at whether the purchase is suitable. How many times have you questioned your purchasing of goods and wished that maybe you had got something different? If you do think that you have made the wrong decision this is called cognitive dissonance.
"According to cognitive dissonance theory, discomfort or dissonance occurs when a consumer holds conflicting thoughts about a belief or an attitude object."
(Schiffman and Kanuk 2004 p280)
For instance when a consumer buys a car or a new mobile phone, and starts to wonder whether the other benefits and qualities of the other brands might be more suitable.
Possible Research Questions:
- How was the need for this product identified?
- Who else was involved in the process and what roles did they take on?
- How important was it to make the right choice? What affected your level of involvement?
- Explain how you went about the search for information to make the purchase decision. Did you have enough information from your internal search or did you have to collect information from external sources? List the external sources of information and decide which source was most reliable and of most value to you in the decision process.
- What criteria did you use to help you evaluate the alternative products?
- Were there any other factors that you considered at the purchase stage?
- After you had made the purchase, were you satisfied with the product? Did it satisfy the criteria you used when evaluating the alternatives?