Consumer Behavior For Psychological And Economic Behavior

Situational Influences

Discuss about the Consumer Behavior for Psychological and Economic Behavior.

Consumer behavior is study of individuals or a group and the methodology they use to dispose of product to the relevant person. The idea behind studying consumer behavior is to satisfy the needs of the relevant consumer. Consumer behavior is concerned with the social, psychological, economic behavior of an individual. It examines the role of economics in influencing an individual consumer behavior. Moreover individual buying traits are studied in order to establish relationship in between personality lifestyle and behavioral variables. The study is concerned with all the aspects related to purchasing and consumer behavior that involves purchasing decisions and consumption activities.  Consumer behavior is very difficult to predict as it consists of various parameters, moreover every individual behaves in a different manner (Juster, 2015).  It varies from situation to situation depending upon the individual consumer behavior. The voluminous data related to individual consumer behavior is kept in the books in order to find out the details related to consumer and their behavior. It contributes towards individual consumer behavior that contributes toward the intention of an individual buyer. A large amount of data is being kept which help in assisting market especially in term of behavioral segmentation. These customized consumer behavior strategy helps in analyzing the market behavior (Solomon, 2014).

Situational influences are those temporary conditions that affect consumer behavior related to a product or a service. It consists of physical factors, social factors, buyer’s mood, the reason behind purchases etc. these are the basic factors that influences customer to make buying decision. These are the temporary conditions that affect consumer behavior whether they actually want to buy the product or not. Every individual buyer is affected by the situation while making decisions about any product or services. Businesses try to control certain situation in order to influence overall revenue.

Consumers physical situation affect their buying decision.  It is necessary to consider the physical surrounding of an individual that affects the purchasing power. Marketing professionals are considering physical factors as one of the most important factor considered while studying consumer behavior. It is one of the most important factors considered while designing store or a facility. It is assumed by the marketing professional that longer the consumer wanders around; more is the money they will spend.  It is the tendency of the grocery store owner to keep bread and milk at the last place so that buyer walk around the entire store and buy other items as well. Another feature is the store location which affects the impulsive buying nature of an individual. Starbuck has its facility store in almost every place. They have placed their products at different grocery stores and airports which have excess footfall. This has helped them to gain customers and reduces the chances to lose them to other café house (Kardes, Cronley, & Cline, 2014).

Physical Factors

The consumer behavior is affected by the psychological needs. Every individual has a different set of preferences and choices while making any future decision related to purchases.  Perception of the customers towards a particular product affects the buying pattern of an individual (Ho, Lim and Camerer, 2006). Motivation is one of the factors that affect the buying power of a consumer largely. A consumer needs are driven by the inner motivation. As per Maslow theory the consumer are driven by the inner needs which forces him to make purchases decision (Mullen & Johnson, 2013; Laros & Steenkamp, 2005).

Crowding is another factor that affects the consumer behavior. People tend to shop at those places which are crowded with more people. This behavior is called as herd behavior of consumers. Not all physical factors are under control but there are some which can be controlled to some extent.  Consumer social situation influence the consumer behavior to a great extent. Social factors influence the consumer behavior and affect the buying patterns of the consumer. Society affects the buying decision of an individual (Bian & Moutinho, 2011; Vinerean, Cetina, Dumitrescu & Tichindelean, 2013). 

Consumer buying decision is affected by the situational and technological factors. He behaves as per the current situation .time and mood of an individual affects the buying decision as he only makes purchase when he is willing to. Moreover technology plays a major role in deciding the behavior of an individual. Social media tools are used as one of the important tool to promote purchase decision in the customers.  They are highly affecting the purchasing decision of an individual.

An impulse purchase is a spontaneous decision to purchase a good or a service before actual purchases. A person who makes such purchases is called as an impulse purchaser. A study has suggested that sentiments and feelings play a major role in purchasing. The consumer tends to make purchases which are prompted by the product or due to exposure to some promotional message. Marketers tend to use consumer tendency to utilize impulsive behavior of the consumer. For example, a departmental store is keeping the candy, gum, mints and chocolate at the exit in order to promote impulsive buying.  Another example of impulsive buying is for the products which are complementary to each other. It stirs a particular passion inside the consumer to buy some goods. Impulsive buying affects the normal decision making power of an individual customer. The logical sense of the customers is overpowered by the irrational moment of self satisfaction. It’s largely appeals to the emotional side of a customer (Muruganantham & Bhakat, 2013).

Psychological Factors

A high involvement purchase occurs when a consumer wants to buy an expensive product. It involves a high degree of emotional significance for the buyer and he highly avoids the mistake made in purchases decision making.  Complex and involving buying behavior affects the buying process and it tends to shift in situation that requires less involvement.  The importance of the product and the buyer’s emotional significance are equally correlated. Purchasing decision of an individual are highly altered when he buys an expensive product. Social and personal risk plays a vital role in buying decision making. The consumer buying decision in case of high involvement purchases are in the case of purchase of a house, car, electronic gadget etc because of the amount of expenditure made in their purchases. Another reason behind such purchases is because a consumer invests only once, so he wants it to be best (Dijksterhuis et al, 2005). 

The buying process is long in case of high involvement purchases as it involves a well extended phase of research of the product. The consumer collects the information prior to the actual purchases and only makes purchases if he is highly satisfied with the goods or the services.

Conclusion

Consumer behavior is subject to various external and internal factors. He behaves differently depending upon the situation. Consumer behavior is very difficult to be judged as every person has different set of preferences depending upon his needs. There are two factors namely psychological and social factors that affect the buying decision of a consumer. Psychological factors mainly includes reason that control the emotional needs of an individual whereas social needs are the one that are influence by the cultural background of the individual and the society he is living in. moreover there are other different factors as well which decides the buying pattern of an individual. An impulsive buyer is one who make spontaneous buying decision whereas a high involvement buying decisions are made after a thorough research. Consumers exhibit differently depending upon his personal requirements. It is difficult for an individual to judge any future behavior but previous market research tools are used to understand the behavior of an individual. Hence it is evident that a consumer behavior depends upon various external and internal factors.

References 

Bian, X., & Moutinho, L. (2011). The role of brand image, product involvement, and knowledge in explaining consumer purchase behaviour of counterfeits: Direct and indirect effects. European Journal of Marketing, 45(1/2), 191-216.

Dijksterhuis, A., Smith, P. K., Van Baaren, R. B., & Wigboldus, D. H. (2005). The unconscious consumer: Effects of environment on consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(3), 193-202.

Ho, T.H., Lim, N. and Camerer, C.F., 2006. Modeling the psychology of consumer and firm behavior with behavioral economics. Journal of marketing Research, 43(3), pp.307-331.

Juster, F. T. (2015). Anticipations and purchases: An analysis of consumer behavior. Princeton University Press.

Kardes, F., Cronley, M., & Cline, T. (2014). Consumer behavior. Cengage Learning.

Laros, F. J., & Steenkamp, J. B. E. (2005). Emotions in consumer behavior: a hierarchical approach. Journal of business Research, 58(10), 1437-1445.

Mullen, B., & Johnson, C. (2013). The psychology of consumer behavior. Psychology Press.

Muruganantham, G., & Bhakat, R. S. (2013). A review of impulse buying behavior. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 5(3), 149.

Solomon, M. R. (2014). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: prentice Hall.

Vinerean, S., Cetina, I., Dumitrescu, L., & Tichindelean, M. (2013). The effects of social media marketing on online consumer behavior. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(14), 66.