Understanding Buyer Behavior
Read this chapter. The terms "customer" and "consumer" are often mistakenly used interchangeably. The distinction is blurry because different organizations, academics, and governments have varying definitions for both of them. One easy way of distinguishing between the two is to think of the consumer as a potential customer to a firm and the customer as someone that already consumes the goods a specific firm produces. For example, if you regularly purchase shoes from Footlocker, you are a Footlocker customer. But if your friend does not shop at Footlocker, then Footlocker considers him a consumer: a potential customer. Firms often target consumers and existing customers differently.
Buyer Behavior as Problem Solving
Influencing Factors of Consumer Behavior
While the decision-making process appears quite standardized, no two people make a decision in exactly the same way. As individuals, we have inherited and learned a great many behavioral tendencies: some controllable, some beyond our control. Further, the ways in which all these factors interact with one another ensures uniqueness. Although it is impossible for a marketer to react to the particular profile of a single consumer, it is possible to identify factors that tend to influence most consumers in predictable ways.
The factors that influence the
consumer problem-solving process are numerous and complex. For example,
the needs of men and women are different in respect to cosmetics; the
extent of information search for a low-income person would be much
greater when considering a new automobile as opposed to a loaf of bread;
a consumer with extensive past
purchasing experience in a product
category might well approach the problem differently from one with no
experience. Such influences must be understood to draw realistic
conclusions about consumer behavior.
For purposes of discussion, it may be helpful to group these various influences into related sets. Figure 4.2 provides Such a framework. Situational, external, and internal influences are shown as having an impact on the consumer problem solving process. Situation influences include the consumer's immediate buying task, the market offerings that are available to the consumer, and demographic traits. Internal influences relate to the consumer's learning and socialization, motivation and personality, and lifestyle. External influences deal with factors outside the individual that have a strong bearing on personal behaviors. Current purchase behavior is shown as influencing future behavior through the internal influence of learning. Let us now tum to the nature and potential impact of each of these sets of influences on consumer problem solving. Figure 4.2 focuses on the specific elements that influence the consumer's decision to purchase and evaluate products and services.
FIGURE 4.2 A model of consumer behavior