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Meaning of Consumer Behaviour
Consumer Behaviour simply refers to the manner in which customers reacts in the market. Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour specifies the way in which the consumers make purchase decisions in the market. Different consumers reacts differently in the market.
There are various likes & dislikes of consumers that influence their behaviour in the market. Understanding consumer behaviour is crucial as it helps in understanding customers in better way. Consumer behaviour concept consists of different stages. Starting from arising of need to the final purchase of the product for use.
Nowadays businesses are using customer relationship management technology to properly understand their customers. This technology helps in acquiring the required information from customers. Information acquired is stored in the database & is used for serving customers properly.
Factors influencing Consumer Behaviour
Purchasing Power
Purchasing power is one of the prime factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour. It clearly defines the purchasing capacity of consumers. It denotes the limit of the people for purchasing different products for satisfying their wants. Only product quality is not the parameter for making purchases.
Product may be of high quality but its price may be high that can’t be fulfilled by the consumer. Purchasing power of consumers helps the businesses in segmenting them according to their ability. Therefore, purchasing power is important tool in understanding consumer behaviour.
Marketing
Marketing campaigns have a very effective role in influencing consumer behaviour. Advertisement seeks to attract more & more people by providing information in interesting way.
This helps in shifting the purchase decisions of the consumers. Marketing campaigns if done regularly & properly can help in retaining the consumers for a long time. They may become loyal to only one brand.
Social Factors
Consumer behaviour is also influenced by various social factors. Human is a social element & lives with different peoples in a social environment. Therefore it needs to choose that is acceptable by all & tries to imitate the socially acceptable behaviour.
The main elements included in social factors include Reference groups, status & role and family culture. These three components influence consumer behaviour to a great extent.
Psychological Factors
Psychology of a person helps him in making purchase decisions. Different persons have different likes & dislikes. These personal likes & dislikes of a person make up his psychology.
It is important to understand the psychology of a person by marketers to serve them better. Personality, perception, attitudes, beliefs & motivation are key points that make up the psychology of a person.
Conditions of Economy
Market economic conditions have a great influence on consumer buying decisions. If the economic conditions are good & positive, then this will induce the consumers towards making purchase decisions.
Irrespective of their financial liabilities, they will take decisions. Therefore, the boom or depression period of the economy is taken into account by consumers for their purchase decisions.
Age
Age of a person has a great effect on the behaviour of the customer. The behaviour & nature of persons varies according to this age. A newborn child has very limited needs that are food, clothes & care. Whereas as the person grows up his wants increases.
A teenager will have its own different wants according to his needs like phone, bike, cars etc. Whereas an adult person will have different wants from a teenager. And as a person reaches adulthood his wants & behaviour again changes. He will be in more need of medicines, care etc. So age has a great impact on personal behaviour.
Customer Experience
Experience of customer also plays great role in affecting his behaviour in the market. Customer learns many things from his past experiences & use that while making buying decisions. If the customer gets a good experience from a company product, it will create good image of it.
Customer will become loyal to that particular brand. While on another hand if the customer has bad experience of company products, it will create long term bad image. Hence the customer experience has great influence over his behaviour in the market
Also Read
Nature of consumer behaviour
Scope of Consumer Behaviour