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Introduction
Understanding consumer behavior is a critical aspect of success for marketers in all sectors of the economy. Studying consumer behavior furnishes companies with information about consumers’ demands, perceptions, and their spending habits.
Understanding consumer behavior enables companies compete effectively, stay in business, improve sales, and develop better and effective marketing strategies. Many factors affect consumer behavior. They are classified into three groups namely internal, external, and situational factors. Internal and external factors are intertwined.
However, they affect consumer behavior in different ways. Many factors that affect consumer behavior are beyond the control and manipulation. Factors that influence consumer behavior include motivation, perception, learning, feelings, personal preferences, thinking, social norms, cultural values, trends, group influence, family influence, cultural influence, sub-cultural influence, environment, economy, culture, marketing, age, prevailing circumstances, and personal life.
Internal factors
Internal factors that influence consumer behavior include motivation, perception, learning, feelings, personal preferences, and thinking. These factors are also referred to as personal factors. A consumer’s motivation to purchase a certain product or service mainly depends on an urge to fulfill a certain desire or attain a certain goal. Consumers’ perceptions largely affect their behaviors. They determine how they value certain products or services based on their perceived outcomes or benefits.
Perception can be influenced by factors such as education, marketing, and advertising. Many consumer behaviors are adapted from learning. People learn to like or dislike certain products depending on the information they get form materials such as books, magazines, and online sources. Personal preferences affect consumer behaviors because they determine consumer attitudes and perceptions.
For example, some consumers prefer high heel shoes to flat shoes. This influences how they make decisions on the type of shoes to purchase. Consumer behaviors are also influenced by feelings and thinking. Emotions play a critical role in determining whether consumers purchase certain products or not. Through thinking, consumers analyze products, compare them with others, and decide which products and services best suit their needs.
External factors
External factors that influence consumer behavior include social norms, cultural values, trends, group influence, family influence, cultural and sub-cultural influence, and environment. Social norms are strong determinants of consumer purchasing behaviors. In many societies, certain social norms restrict individuals of certain genders to certain ways of dressing or doing social things.
For example, women only purchase certain types of clothing that does not contradict their norms. This greatly affects their purchasing behaviors. Group influences includes informational influence, comparative influences, and comparative influences. Informational influences take place in situations where consumers seek information from families or friends.
Comparative influences take place when a consumer bases his/her decision on the identity of the group to which they belong. For example, a young person will buy the type of shoes that his/her peers buy. Finally, normative influences involves establishment of rules regarding the behavior of group members. These aspects determine what consumers purchase. Trends have significant influence on consumers especially young people.
They dress in the latest fashion in order to look relevant and knowledgeable. Older people are less attracted to trends and fashion. They mostly dress for comfort. Families also affect the process of decision making by consumers. For example, purchasing trends change when a single individual starts a family. Single people purchase products that suit their lives as single individuals.
In contrast, married people purchase products that fulfill the needs of all their family members. As such, they purchase more products. I addition, families influence decision making. Unlike in the case of single individuals that make personal decisions, married individuals make joint decisions that take into account the preferences of other family members. Cultural and sub-cultural factors include social norms and beliefs.
In certain cultures, modes of dressing, feeding, and communication are determined by norms, traditions, and beliefs. Therefore, consumers are very selective on what they purchase. Collectivist cultures differ from individualistic cultures. In collectivist cultures, decisions are made collectively. As such, consumer behaviors are determined by the collective decision made. In contrast, the consumer habits observed in individualistic societies depend on personal tastes and preferences.
Situational factors
One of the most important aspects of business is the consumer market. An important skill is needed for businesses to understand the needs of customers. In addition, they should understand the factors that affect their behaviors. Examples of situational factors that affect consumer behavior include economy, culture, marketing, age, prevailing circumstances, and personal life.
These factors that affect consumer spending have different effects in varying degrees. Some have stronger effects than others do depending on the status of the consumer. Economy is the main and most important factor. This is because it determines the financial status of consumers, the amount of money they are willing to spend, and the amount available to spend. If the state of the economy is worse, then consumers will have little to spend and will therefore shun spending.
However, if the economy is thriving, consumers possess a lot of money and they therefore spend it on buying goods and services. In addition, the economy also affects the job markets. High rates of employment mean that consumers have more money to send while low rates of employment means that the economy is unstable and therefore little money to spend. Culture is also an important factor. Culture determines the beliefs, attitudes, and prejudices that people harbor. This in turn affects their purchasing tendencies.
People’s attitude and beliefs are largely influenced by their families and friends. It is important to study the effect of culture on consumers’’ spending tendencies. Marketing is a very effective tool that is used to control and influence consumers’ spending tendencies. It influences consumes by telling them what to buy and why to buy. Age is also a determinant of consumer behaviors. People of different ages have different needs and preferences.
Therefore, consumer behaviors depend on age and the suitability of certain goods and services to certain ages. For example, movies attract more young people compared to old people. Finally, personal life and prevailing circumstances influences consumer behaviors significantly. For example, the spending habits of married people are different from sending habits of single people. The wants and needs of married people are more. Therefore, they spend more.
Conclusion
Many factors affect the purchasing decisions that consumers make. These decisions are influenced by a wide range of factors that are grouped in three classes. They include internal, external, and situational factors. Factors in each group influence consumer behavior differently in varying degrees. Examples of internal factors include motivation, feelings, perception, and attitude.
External factors include group influence, family, environment, culture, and sub-culture influences. Situational factors include economy, personal life, age, and prevailing circumstances. Study of consumer behavior is important because it furnishes companies with information about consumers’ demands, preferences, perceptions, and spending habits. In addition, it helps businesses improve sales and develop better and effective marketing strategies.
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