Consumer Choice or Influential Factors in Purchasing Products

When a consumer walks into a store, they know what products they want to buy, whether it be an item that is a needed or a product that is just a want. If

In this section, I will break down the common consumer in attempt to understand what sways him/her into purchasing certain goods—especially those that “they do not need” In addition, I will discuss how consumers determine a certain product to be “worth it”

Consumer behaviour is defined as the behaviour that consumers undertake in seeking, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their personal needs (Nayeem 2012). Different consumer may have different choices in purchase that is dependent on various influences. High involvement purchase sets the best example of engaging in consumer behaviour in various aspects as complex buying behaviour occurs when the consumer is highly involved with the purchase and when there are significant differences between brands. This behaviour can be associated with the purchase of a something significant in value and meaning to consumer which could be risky (Tanner 2012). High

Understanding consumer buying behavior entails marketing, relationships, and consumer behavior. Consumer behavior comprises all the consumer decisions and activities connected with the choosing, buying, using and disposing of goods and services. Marketers must pay very close attention to consumer behavior that occurs before the purchase and after the particular product has been used. Studying consumer habits is one of the steps in marketing search and analysis. In addition to other basic principles of consumer buying habits, marketers also need to study the decision and actions of real people. Until recent history the study of consumer behavior was focused on generalized consumer decisions. With

Studies in consumer behavior focus on consumer psychology to determine how people reason, feel and think; and choose between alternative products, brands and sellers (Gummesson, 2012). While consumers purchasing decisions are often influenced by culture, family and environmental factors, consumer knowledge is of great significance in informing decisions and in making actual purchases (Gummesson, 2015). The Consumer

Consumer motivation is an internal state that drives people to identify and buy products or services that fulfill conscious and unconscious needs or desires. The fulfillment of those needs can then motivate them to make a repeat purchase or to find different goods and services to better fulfill those needs (Peter & Donnelly, 2004). The behavioral aspect of consumer motivation concerns the actions someone takes before purchasing and consuming goods or services. A person might do a lot of research--evaluating alternatives, testing and sampling--before making a selection. Consumer might decide to buy something based on which goods or services most

why do consumers make the choices they do? Their state of mind, lifestyle and purchasing patterns.

Consumer behavior is defined as the behavior that consumers display in searching for purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. Consumer behavior focuses on how individual make decisions to spend their available resources on consumption related items. That includes what they buy, why they buy it, when they buy it, where they buy it, how often they use it, how they use evaluate it after the purchase and the impact of such evaluations on future purchases and how they dispose of it. As individuals all differ in many ways in likes, dislikes, attitudes, cultural background, income level, etc. Despite such differences, there is a common factor among all of

According to our text, consumer behavior is defined as “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”. This means that companies are using this knowledge to influence consumer’s decisions not only about which product to purchase but also about which college to attend, which charities to support, how much recycling to do, whether to seek help for an addiction and much more. Since the beginning of this course I have been able to see that what I buy is not just a random occurrence, everything I purchase from gasoline for my car to the makeup I wear can be tracked using consumer behavior.

As the need for new arrays of consumption increases, so do manufacturers make efforts to understand purchaser behavior, with a more nuanced understanding beginning to appear based on shared insights from an enormous number of disciplines – including psychology, sociology, marketing, economics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology to name but a few. The idea of understanding consumer behavior as a sequential decision-making process is common in marketing (Kotler, 2010). The decision process itself is presented as a logical flow of activities, working from problem recognition to purchase and then to post-purchase evaluation. This decision-making process is affected by some more sophisticated influences. Some of these influences relay on the

The value of influence is also a crucial element in understanding consumer purchase decision. Brown and Hayes (2008) interpret influence as ‘the action of creating a conductive environment which shapes other consumers’ perspective on a particular matter’ and ‘the ability to alter a person, item or route’.

Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants. Consumer buying behavior is influenced by four key set of buyer characteristics: cultural, social, personal, and psychological (Kotler). In other words it is the interplay of forces that takes place during consumption process within the consumer self and his environment. The interaction takes place between three elements knowledge, affect and behavior. It starts from pre-purchase activities and continues till post purchase experience.

The consumer decision making process deals with need recognition, information search, and evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase behavior. Marketers use these five steps as a guide to study the way consumers, in their target market, make decisions. Marketing managers have realized over the years that consumers’ decisions usually don’t follow all these steps in order. Consumer behavior will always be a critical aspect to a company’s marketing plan because when understanding it, marketers will create a proper marketing mix and a more precise target market for the marketing plan.

Problem recognition – a consumer may have an actual problem or desire needing attention or may be guided to a created need via marketing.

It may happen that not all needs cause “action”, sometimes the intensity is too low the means for its fulfillment are lacking. The next step is to search for alternatives. When the consumer feels the need to purchase a product or service, he stands in front of the necessity of searching for goods and services. By means of which a need is met. At this step there are two levels of consumer involvement in the process of finding information on the product, resulting in breakdown: consumer cognitively engaged (characterized by high involvement) and consumer not involved (characterized by low involvement). According to marketing researchers seeking alternatives is the most important step in making decisions, because at this point the consumer makes a choice of product and a particular brand. The customer can look for information about the product through the media such as newspapers, radio, television, mail, direct mail, as well as advertising and promotions, and on the advice of friends, neighbors and family. The last step before making a purchase is to judge alternatives. The consumer after the stage of looking and selecting all available alternatives, analyzes them, and determines the criteria that will be used in the selection. When a consumer judges the various alternatives according to selected criteria, they must make the integration of these assessments