Internal And External Factors Influencing Consumer Decision Making Process

Various Factors that Influence the Consumer Behavior

Analyse the internal and external factors influencing the consumer decision making process for a major purchase.

The buyer’s behavior refers to a study of customer, groups and organizational behavior while buying, goods and services to fulfill their needs and requirement. It relates to the actions of consumers while making the purchasing decision and the underlying motives for it. Marketers have the explicit understanding about consumer buying behavior and  which products have high demand in the market and how they can cater the product to the customer to serve their purpose. The consumers are the leading player in the decision making process in respect of providing information, from the perspective of a user, payer and to disposer of the product (Nandonde and Kuada 2016).

So it highlights the buying behavior of the end customer the characteristics that influences and controls an individual’s purchasing decision it includes culture, social factors, friends, psychological factors and cultural trends. The report analyzes the buyers behavior while purchasing the Christmas clothing in Christmas and the internal, external influences which affect their decision making process.

Various factors that influence the consumer behavior

a.A marketing strategy that is product design, price, product promotion and packaging product positioning and distribution

b.Psychological factors such as the age old belief and perception about the product and attitudes of consumers toward the product

c.Situational factors such as social surrounding and time factor at the date of purchase.

e.Social issues like social status, groups and family.

f.Cultural factors like value and belief (Stulec and Petljak 2013)

The internal factors are as follows perception, learning, motivation, personality and attitude whereas the external factors include culture and group influence.

Nature varies from person to person who is affected by time and place. So it can change the buyers behavior in a significant way. It has various traits like dominance, self-confidence and intenseness to determine the customer’s behavior for a particular product. As far as the festival Christmas is concerned it is celebrated worldwide has religious as well as social significance. All the visitors are driven by the same passion for purchasing clothes in the occasion for celebrating the festival (Niezgoda 2013).

Perception helps to form ideas about a product that guide the consumer buying behavior to some extent. Perception means selecting, organizing and interpreting information in such a way to produce meaningful experience. There are three types of perception process one is selective attention, selective processes, and selective retention. In particular attention marketers try to draw the customers attention, the focus depends on the individual activity and the number of another stimulant  in the environment, they are likely to respond to the stimulant that is new and related to need.  In selective distortions, customers give detail information to support their belief. By selective retention, the customer tends to remember a particular purchasing experience that serves their needs and as per their beliefs and perceptions.  While buying commodities in Christmas event, the consumers are guided by selective attention to attract to new products in Christmas Eve (Solomon et al. 2013).

Personality

A belief is a deep-rooted conviction of an individual gained through experience, learning, and influences of friend and family which affected the buying behavior. The customer is directed to purchase a particular product based on the beliefs and attitudes that have been gained from the experience that the client has with the product and the brand name associated with it thus it controls consumers buying behavior. Marketers can impact the customers buying behavior by adding unique features and variety to the products. As the Christmas festival is concerned it full of color and glory which is celebrated with grandeur. People decorate themselves and surrounding to celebrate the occasion. Since it is in their value system, so everybody indulges in the fun and enjoys the festival (Vicente-Molina et al.2013).

Motivation drives the consumers to control the buyer behavior and the need that dictates the individuals buying behavior. It acts at a subconscious level and difficult to measure. Every individual has different needs such as physiological, biological and social needs. Thus, the person’s buying behavior varies depending on the nature and level of requirements. The need becomes so compelling to a person to meet the purpose that they  are dictated by purchasing decision to fulfill the requirement. Sometimes the seller creates an impression in customers mind by displaying the brand value and quality and reinforce them to make the purchasing decision.  Hence, consumers will be more interested in purchasing a product having good brand name and required quality standard. The seller often segments the market for a target customer and gives the better solution to a client as per their need and preference and motivates the customers to get the right product for them (Jensen 2015).

Group comprises of reference groups, aspirational groups, and member groups. They explain how the outsiders influence the individuals purchase decision directly or indirectly.  The membership group of a person is a social group to which he belongs and which controls him while making purchasing decisions.  The membership group refers to a person’s social origin, age, locality, workplace, leisure activity, and interest. Reference group helps in forming a person’s attitude and behavior (Salazar et al. 2013).  Therefore, reference group has impacted people’s motivation differently as per the brands and the quality of the product. Moreover, reference groups are those that provide some comparison more or less related to consumer behavior, lifestyle, and habits. Whether it is membership group or nonmembership group, it influences the individual and its behavior. It includes a person can be controlled by a group to which the person is not related to the panel but willing to become a part of it called aspirational group.  The group influences those consumers who want to become a part of it. Christmas is festival celebrated by the majority of people so purchasing the clothes for Christmas is a common trend of individuals irrespective of class and social group. Every person is influenced by other behave in the same way that dictates their purchasing decision. The reference group acts as an initiator who recommends buying the product, the influencer whose point of view influences the buying decision. It works as a decision maker a person who will select which product to buy, or buyer who buys the product the end customer (Solomon 2014).

It is the culture of an individual that dictates the way the consumer will behave. Culture is associated with people value system that a person inherit from his parents and relatives. Cultural factors have a substantial role on a person’s buying behavior. Every person has the different set of value, beliefs, and moral standard that the individual develops from the family, and that becomes a part of person’s culture (Ozmen et al. 2013).

 Cultural trend refers to the pattern, which is widely followed by individuals and inspires other to follow it. Christmas is the festival that is celebrated nationwide, and it has become a cultural trend that overwhelmed people to indulge in festivity even people from other culture and race also indulge in the spirit of the festival. Religion, age, geographical location, gender are the various subcultures. Celebrating Christmas is associated with the cultural  background of people that is profoundly rooted in their society and value system, so the culture influences the buyer purchasing decision in a significant way (Lawan and Zanna 2013).

Reference List

Jensen, M., 2015. Prosocial Signalling-How Do Pricing Strategy, Incentives and People’s Motivation interact in the Area of Environmental Policy and Economics?.

Lawan, L.A. and Zanna, R., 2013. Evaluation of socio-cultural factors influencing consumer buying behaviour of clothes in Borno State, Nigeria.Scope of Journal, 1(3), pp.519-29.

Nandonde, F.A. and Kuada, J., 2016. Modern food retailing buying behavior in Africa: the case of Tanzania. British Food Journal, 118(5), pp.1163-1178..

Niezgoda, A., 2013. Prosumers in the tourism market: the characteristics and determinants of their behaviour. The Poznan University of Economics Review, 13(4), p.130.

Ozmen, E.S., Oner, M.A., Khosrowshahi, F. and Underwood, J., 2013. SME buying behaviour: Literature review and an application agenda. The Marketing Review, 13(2), pp.207-227.

Salazar, H.A., Oerlemans, L. and van Stroeâ€ÂBiezen, S., 2013. Social influence on sustainable consumption: evidence from a behavioural experiment. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 37(2), pp.172-180.

Solomon, M.R., 2014. Consumer behavior: buying, having, and being. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Solomon, M.R., Russell-Bennett, R. and Previte, J., 2013. Consumer behaviour: Buying, having, being. Pearson Australia.

Stulec, I. and Petljak, K., 2013. The research on buying behaviour among group buyers: the case of Croatia. International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 4(4), pp.382-401.

Vicente-Molina, M.A., Fernández-Sáinz, A. and Izagirre-Olaizola, J., 2013. Environmental knowledge and other variables affecting pro-environmental behaviour: comparison of university students from emerging and advanced countries. Journal of Cleaner Production, 61, pp.130-138.