Banking Marketing Aptitude Consumer Behaviour Marketing Aptitude - Consumer Behaviour

Consumer

A consumer is an individual, who buys products or services for personal use and not for manufacture or resale. A consumer may be a person or group of people such as a household who are the final users of products or services.

• Classification of Consumer

Consumers are mainly classified into two groups

1. Individual consumer
2. Commercial Consumer

Individual consumer buys the products and services for his own and his family or friends whereas commercial consumer buys products or services for manufacturing or reselling.               

• Nature of India Consumer
• Tendency of bargaining.
• More focus on price than its quality.
• Lack of awareness in the consumer for brand or trademark.
• Attraction for changed consumption structures like car, scooter, coloured television, refrigerator, washing machine etc.

Consumer Behaviour

Consumer behaviour is a complex, dynamic, multidimensional process and all marketing decisions are based on the assumption about consumer behaviour. Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups or organisation and the process they use to select, secure and dispose of products, services, experiences as well as ideas to satisfy needs and we find the overall impact of these processes on the consumer as well as on society.

• Elements of Consumer Behaviour
• Want of consumer
• Attitude of consumer
• Decision-making in purchase process
• Finding out the problems relating to purchase

• Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour

The factors influencing consumer behaviour are as follows

• Cultural
• Traditions     
• Nationalities
• Religions   
• Racial groups

• Social
• Reference groups
• Family
• Social class          
• Caste

• Personal
• Age
• Life style
• Personality                   
• Life cycle stage
• Occupation            
• Self-concept
• Economic circumstances

• Psychological
• Motivation                   
• Perception
• Attitude                   
• Learning

Some Terms Related to Consumer Behaviour

• Negative Demand

When consumers dislike a product and may even pay to avoid it, it is called negative demand.

• Impulse Buying

A situation in which consumer purchases are unplanned, is called impulse buying.

• Buyer Resistance

It means buyer s hesitation in buying the product. Buyer resistance can be overcome by cordial relation between buyer and seller, good negation, persuasive communication and good after sales service.

• Reference Group

It means a group of satisfied customers.

• Target Group

It means a group of people likely to buy the identified product.

• Various Stage in Consumer Decision-Making

Generally, a buyer passes through five distinct stages, while taking a decision for purchasing a particular commodity.

• Need Recognition

A consumer determines an order of preference for satisfying his needs. Determination of such order of preference is the first stage of buying process. A marketer tries to convey the uses of his products to the consumers through his advertisement programmes.

• Information Search

Determination of preference order sets the needs of a consumer in an order and the consumer starts to fulfil his needs one by one. He determined the need to be satisfied first of all. Then he tries to identify different alternatives to study his need.

• Evaluation of Alternatives

The purpose of this Step is to evaluate the merits and demerits of all the available alternatives. It helps the consumer in choosing the best possible alternative. After selecting the best alternative, the consumer proceeds to buy it.

• Purchase Decision

After the evaluation of all the alternatives, the consumers now decide on what they will purchase and where? These include the cost of product compared to how much money the consumer can afford to spend, the opinions of family or friends and the sales and services of the marketer.

• Post Purchase Evaluation

At this stage, the attempts are made to understand the extent to which the buyers feel themselves satisfied with their purchases. Such information is very useful for the marketer.

Buying Motives

There are different kinds of customers. So, their wants and needs are also different. They buy products or services to satisfy their needs. The causes and factors which stimulate consumer to buy certain goods or services, are called buying motives.

• Types of Buying Motives

Buying motives are basically of two types

• Product Buying Motives

These refer to those influences or factors which motivate a buyer to choose a particular product. They include the physical or psychological attraction of product, i.e., design, shape, size, colour, package, etc.

Product buying motives can be divided into two types

(i) Emotional Product Buying Motives When a buyer decides to purchase a product without thinking logically and carefully, this is called emotional product buying motives.

These include

(ii) Rational Product Buying Motives When a buyer decides to purchase a product after thinking logically and carefully, this is called rational product buying motives.

These include

• Patronage Buying Motives

These refer to those considerations or reasons which motivate a buyer to purchase the product from a particular shop.

Patronage buying motives can also be divided into two types

(i) Emotional Patronage Buying Motives

(ii) Rational Patronage Buying Motives

• Importance of Consumer Behaviour

The importance of the study of consumer behaviour may be explained as under

• Production Policies

Consumer behaviour discovers the habits, tastes and preferences of consumers and such discovery enables an enterprise to plan and develop its products according to these specifications. It is necessary for an enterprise to be in continuous touch with the changes in consumer behaviour so that necessary changes in products may be made.

• Price Policies

A businessman must study the behaviour of his consumers very well before fixing the price of his product because the consumer behaviour affects price policies of the enterprise to a great extent.

• Distribution Policies

It is necessary for the manufactures to assure regular and continuous supply of products in the market. Therefore, all the efforts should be made to distribute the products through channels of distribution most suited to the consumers so that availability of these products at right time and right place may be assured.

• Sales Promotion Policies

The study of consumer behaviour helps the enterprise in knowing the buying motives of consumers. The decisions of the form, colour, packaging and labelling, etc. of the products are directly affected by the motives for which the consumer buy the products.

• Six Questions Related to Consumer Behaviour
• Who? Who is the consumer?
• What? What does the consumer want to buy?
• When? When does the consumer want to buy?
• Where? Where does the consumer want to buy?
• How? How does the consumer want to buy?
• Why? Why does the consumer want to buy?

Tit-Bits

• Needs differ from wants because wants are socialised manifestation of underlying needs.
• Self-actualisation need is most likely to be associated with consumer's purchase of goods which appeal to their inner sense of peace of mind.
• Organisational consumer of the bank is a firm, a corporate body, an industry or trust or school.
• The social factor of the bank customer includes social class and caste class.
• Customer's relationship with the bank is influenced by attitude of sales persons.