Consumer Behaviour

By Author: Jenifer Brown
Total Articles: 29
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Introduction
Consumer behaviour
Consumer behaviour is concerned about studying how people purchase, what they purchase, when they purchase and why they purchase. It blends aspects from psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology and socio-psychology. It tries to comprehend the purchaser decision making process, equally as an individual and also as a group. Consumer behaviour studies features of individual consumers for example demographics, behavioural variables and psychographics in an attempt to comprehend people's needs. It also attempts to analyse influences on the buyer from groups for instance family, friends, relatives, reference groups, and the society in general. Schiffman (1993) clearly defines consumer behaviour as the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires.
This research paper examines why consumers buy product for consumption, the paper will examine the main process both internal and external that a consumers undergoes before making the final decision ...
... of buying a product. The paper will answer the three outlined questions for the study; HP Company will be our company of study.

Company profile
Hewlett Packard Company also known as HP is a technological company that was established in1939; the company has its headquarters in Palo Alto in California. Currently it has operations in over 170 countries world wide. The company mainly deals in making of personal computers, business computer systems, workstations, and printers together with scans. The company is geared towards producing technological products and services that satisfy the desires and dreams of the people. The company use new ideas to come up with simple, precious and trusted technology experiences, which has continued to improve the way customers' lives and their works. Today HP is among the biggest companies in the world with a total of $97.5 billions in revenues posted in the year 2007 making the company to be the biggest technology dealer as far as sales were concerned (HP, 2008)

Question one: Cultural and sub-cultural differences - how understanding and responding to them can lead to competitive advantage

Culture
It is important for any firm that wishes to be customer oriented to understand fully the concept of culture and how this cultural environment will affect its business undertakings. To many writers culture is the central core for any marketing policy. This is because as firms thrive to increase their markets share, customers of different cultures are involved and thus the marketing policies of each and every firm has to meet the demands and desires of the diverse cultural aspects of these consumers. (Grunert, 1988)

Cultural aspect is the most basic determinant of an individual's needs and behaviour. While lower creatures are ruled by instinct, human behaviour is mostly learned. The kid growing up in a community leans a fundamental set of norms, values, perceptions, inclinations and behaviours through the process of socialization which involves the family and also other key institutions. Consequently a kid growing up for example in America is thus exposed to the values of Achievement and success, efficiency, activity and practicality, material comfort, progress, , individualism, freedom, humanitarianism, external comfort, and youthfulness. (Solomon M, et al, 2002)

Culture is a problematic issue for many marketers because it is inherently nebulous and normally difficult to understand. It is possible that marketers of our company may not underscore the importance of cultural norms of the consumers without knowing hence the potential consumers may become uncomfortable with our behaviour. Thus our markets must first understand the cultural aspects of our consumer to increase our sales.

Question two: Measuring and understanding attitudes will help us to influence customers' behaviour

Basic model showing consumer decision making
Stage Brief description Relevant inner psychological process
Problem recognition The consumer perceives a requirement and becomes motivated to solve a problem Motivation
Information search The consumer look for information required for making a purchase decision Perception
Alternative evaluation The consumer compares a range of brands and products Attitude formation
Purchase decision The consumer decides the brand to buy Integration
Post-purchase evaluation The consumer evaluates their buying decision Learning

Problem recognition
Problem recognition comes as a result of when there is a disparity between an individual's desired status and an individual's actual status. Consumers are then motivated to deal with this difference and consequently they start the buying procedure. Starting places of problem recognition consist of:
An item is exhausted
Dissatisfaction with an existing product or service
Consumer wants and needs
Associated products/purchases
Marketer-induced
New products
Motivation is the related inner psychological process which is connected with consumer problem recognition. A motive is a reason that induces action. Schiffman (1993) give a clarification of motivation on the basis of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. (Loudon, 1988)

Information Search
The moment a consumer has recognised the problem, a consumer may look for information regarding products and services which can solve the problem. Schiffman (1993) elucidate that consumers embark on both inner (memory) and also an external exploration. Information sources include:
1. Personal sources
2. Commercial sources
3. Public sources
4. Personal experience
Perception is the relevant inner psychological process which is linked with information search. Perception can be described as 'the process in which a person receives, selects, put in order, and interprets the information to generate a meaningful image of an aspect. (Loudon, 1988)
In the process of selective perception during the stage of description selective disclosure consumers choose the promotional messages that they will have to expose themselves to. Selective interest consumers choose which kind of promotional messages they will pay notice to. While, selective comprehension buyers interpret messages in according to their beliefs, attitudes, experiences and motives. Lastly, selective retention buyers remember messages which are more significant or meaningful to them. (Loudon, 1988)
A company will have to think about the implications of this progression to develop an effective promotional approach. First and foremost, know the sources of information which are more efficient for the brand or a product and secondly, what sort of communication and media strategy that will increase the probability that consumers get exposed to our company message, that the consumer will pay attention to the message, that consumer will comprehend the message, and recall our message. (Loudon, 1988)

Alternative evaluation
At this moment the consumer contrasts the brands and also products which are in consumers' evoked set. The significant point is how the marketing organisation can increase the possibility of their brand to ensure is component of the consumer's evoked (deliberation) set? Consumers assess alternatives in accordance to the functional and also psychological advantages that they provide. The marketing organisation should understand what advantages consumers are looking and thus which aspects are most vital in terms of decision making. (Grunert, 1988)

The relevant inner psychological process which is related with the alternative assessment phase is formation of attitude Schiffman (1993) observers that attitudes are learned predispositions towards an item. Attitudes encompass both cognitive and also affective elements; that is what you think and how you feel about an object.
The multi-attribute attitude concept elucidates how consumers assess alternatives on a variety of attributes. Schiffman (1993) identify several strategies which can be applied to influence the procedure (attitude modify strategies). Lastly, there is a number of ways in which consumers apply criterion in making decisions. Chisnall (1992) also explains that customers integrate information in different ways and make decisions including the use of heuristics. Thus marketing organisation ought to know how consumers assess alternatives on salient or vital attributes in making their buying decision.

Purchase decision
After the alternatives have been assessed, the consumer is now ready to make a buying decision. At times purchase intent does not lead in an actual purchasing. HP Company has to facilitate a consumer to take action on their purchase intent. Providing credit or better payment terms might encourage the customer to make a purchase, or a sales promotion for instance the opportunity to be given a premium or entering a competition can provide an enticement to buy at that moment. Integration is the relevant inner psychological process which is linked with purchase decision.
(Peter, Olson and Grunert, 1999)

Post purchase evaluation
After a consumer has made a purchase and has used the purchased product, he/she will evaluate his/her purchasing decision. The consumer compares the product's performance with his/her expectations. When the product purchased does not perform to the expectation of the consumer he/she will experience post purchase discontent. When consumers buy high involvement products, which are more costly products for which consumers exert high purchasing efforts in terms of search and time, they generally experience a level of discomfort following the purchase. This is to say, they undergo some uncertainty that they undertook the right selection. This condition is termed as cognitive dissonance (thinking disharmony). HP organisation should think about the outcomes of post purchase behaviour. How it can minimise the possibility of post purchase discontent and/or cognitive dissonance. According to Peter, Olson and Grunert, (1999) Learning is the relevant inner psychological process which is related with post purchase assessment.

Question three: Understanding the process of perception we can promote our products and services more effectively

Characteristics of consumer shopping behaviour
Today, the market is being driven by consumers are more informed and have more money spend than previous. Customers currently are shopping for quality and luxuries so that they can enhance their quality of life. With improved purchasing power consumers are turning way from purchasing material things to experimental consumerism. Thus, customers will purchase a product because of one or more reasons underlined below. (Loudon, 1988)

Experimenting marketing behaviour
Currently the society has become more affluent, many consumers have got all the material products and goods they really need. Due to this many consumers who go to shop in the store are hardly ever motivated by the need to buy anything in the shop. On the contra, the consumers are purchasing products based on desire to have an experience with the product or a feeling of the product. (Loudon, 1988)

Satisfy need and desire
Consumers have different needs and desires that they wish to satisfy when buying a product. Many people have different anticipations and dreams when they buy a product. Thus, a person will buy a product so that the product can satisfy his/her needs and wants. However, the market offers a lot of different but similar products to the consumer who ends up not knowing exactly what is perfect for his/her specific needs, it is this availability of varieties that as seen many consumers buying products that at fail to satisfy their needs and desires. (Stern, & El-Ansary, 1992)

Purchasing to acquire
Basically, a person may want to acquire or own a product, thus some consumers buys products because their want to acquire and own a product. Many studies reveal that many people purchase products so that their can own them, this gives them a sense of power and achievement. Even though the product may not be that important or useful to the consumer but having it becomes a priority. (Stern, & El-Ansary, 1992) by understanding the above process of why consumers by HP can then be able to promote its products effectively to its consumers on the basis of their needs, preferences, and desires.

Conclusion
Consumer behaviour is basically concerned about studying how people purchase, what they purchase, when they purchase and why they purchase. People undergo five main stages before and after making a purchase these stages are important aspects for any organization to analyse and be able to successful attract consumers to their products and also satisfy their expectations. As Grunert (1988) points out it is clear that people will buy a product for various reasons such as to experiment, acquire or satisfy their needs or wants. When making such purchases a customer is highly influenced by his cultural aspects, class, and family and reference group. Thus it is important and vital that companies studies different aspects of consumer behaviour to formulate successful marketing strategies

Reference:
Chisnall, P.M. (1992): Marketing: A Behavioural Analysis, McGraw-Hill, London.
Grunert, K.C. (1988): Research in Consumer Behaviour: Beyond Attitudes and Decision Making, European Research, Vol. 16.
Hoyer W and MacInnis D (2000): Consumer Behaviour, 2nd Ed Houghton Mifflin
Loudon, D.L. (1988): Consumer Behaviour; Concepts and Applications, McGraw Hill, London.
Peter J.P., Olson J.C. and Grunert K.G. (1999): Consumer Behaviour and Marketing
Strategy, European Edition McGraw Hill.
Schiffman, L.G. (1993): Consumer Behaviour, Prentice Hall International, London.
Schwartz, B. (2004): The Paradox of Choice; Why More Is Less, Ecco, New York, NY.
Solomon, M.R. (1994): Consumer Behaviour, Allyn & Bacon, London.
Solomon M, et al (2002): Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective, 2e, Prentice Hall Europe.
Stern, L.W., El-Ansary, A.I. (1992): Consumer Behaviour; an Information Processing Perspective, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

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