“The behaviour that consumers undertake in seeking, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products

and services that they expect will satisfy their personal needs”
Theoretically consumers are end users and customers are buyers but this definition brings about some degree
of ambiguity . Therefore we define consumers as those who seek products to consume and satisfy they needs.
Based on this definition, consumers are the most important element in marketing and understanding their
behavior makes really sense.
DEFINATION OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
The term consumer behavior is defined as the behavior that consumers display in searching for, purchasing,
using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. consumer
behavior focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money ,effort)
on consumption-related items .That includes what they buy, why they buy it, where they buy it, how often
they buy it, how often they use it, how they evaluate it after the purchase, the impact of such evaluations on
future purchase, and how they dispose it.
PRODUCTION CONCEPT
The Production concept assumes that consumers are mostly interested in product availability at low prices;
its implicit marketing objectives are cheap, efficient production and intensive distribution
PRODUCT CONCEPT
The Product concept assumes that consumers will buy the product that offers them the highest quality, the
best performance, and the most features. A product orientation leads the company to strive constantly to
improve the quality of the product and to add new features that the technical feasible, without finding out first
whether or not consumers really want these features.
SELLING CONCEPT
The assumption of the selling concept is that consumers are unlikely to buy the product unless they are
aggressively persuaded to do so- mostly through the “hard sell” approach.
Buying objectives
• Delivery/Availability
• Product quality
• Lowest price
• Services
• Supplier Relationship
Purchasing Activities
The industrial purchasing activities consist of various phases (or stages) of buying-decision making process.
Phases in buying decision process
1. Reorganization of a problem or need.
2. Determination of the application or characteristics and quantity of needed product.
3. Development of specification or description of needed product.
4. Search for and Qualifications of potential suppliers.
5. Obtaining and analyzing suppliers proposals.
6. Evaluation of proposals and selection of suppliers.
7. Selection of an order routine.
8. Performance feedback and post-purchase evaluation.
Types of purchases or buying situations
• New purchase
• Change in supplier
• Repeat purchase
Models of organizational buying Behaviors
• There are two type of model
1. The Webster and wind model:- this is quite a comprehensive model.
a) Environmental Variables
b) Organizational Variables
c) Buying centre Variables
d) Individual Variables
2. The Sheth model: - this model emphasises the decision-making by two or more individuals and
the psychological aspects of the decision making individuals in the industrial buying behavior.

Objectives
• Determine how cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors influence consumer buying
behavior.
• Describe how the consumer makes a purchasing decision.

Model of Customer Buyer Behavior

Application of CB
1. Marketing Strategy
2. Regulatory (Public) Policy
3. Social Marketing
4. Personal Consumer Skills
Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior
1. Cultural- Culture, Subculture, Social Class
2. Social- Reference Groups, Family, Roles & Status
3. Personal- Age & Life-Cycle Stage, Occupation, Economic Situation, Lifestyle, Personality &
Self-Concept
4. Psychological- Motivation, Perception, Learning, Beliefs & Attitudes

Influences on the consumer purchase decision process

Consumer decision process- Consumer decision process and corresponding model to elaborate their decision
making process in order to analyze their behavior along different steps
1. Need recognition(Perceiving a value)- Needs can be triggered by:
Internal stimuli-Normal needs become strong enough to drive behavior
External stimuli
Advertisements
Friends of friends
2. Information search(Seeking a value)- Internal Search- Recall information from
mem, External Search- information from outside environment
3. Evaluation of alternatives(Assessing value)- Analyze product attributes, Rank
attributes by importance
4. Purchase decision(Buying value)
5. Post-purchase behavior(Assess value in consumption) Inner tension that a
consumer experiences after recognizing an inconsistency between behavior and values or opinions.

Consumer needs..
• Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs helps both marketers and consumers to understand and
classify their needs in order to find the best choice of satisfaction.
Elements Of Perception
Two people might be exposed to the same stimuli under the same conditions ------ but they will draw
different meanings out of the same.
Perception is about “ how we see the world around us”. Its influenced by a person’s needs, values and
expectations.
Perception is defined as the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets stimuli
into meaningful and coherent picture of the world.

Dynamics Of Perception
Nature of the stimulus: nature of the product, its physical attributes, packaging, design, factors
related to advertising – copy, contrast, models, positioning claims etc.
Expectations: people usually see what they expect to see and what they expect to see is usually based on
familiarity, previous experience or preconditioned set.
Motives: people tend to perceive the things they need or want. The stronger the need the greater is the
tendency to ignore unrelated stimuli.
Stimulus Factors
Size and intensity of the stimuli
Colours and Movement of the object
Position of the object in the person’s vision field (shelf space, screen/page location etc)
Contrast from expected / isolation from other stimuli.
Interest generated by the stimuli
Perceptual selection:
Consumers subconsciously exercise a great deal of selectivity as to which aspects of the environment they
should perceive.
Two major factors other than the nature of the stimuli itself –
1) consumer’s previous experience as it affects their expectations and
2) their motives at that time (needs, desires, interests etc.)
Selective Perception
Selective Exposure: - Consumers seek out messages that they find pleasant / which they are sympathetic
with and avoid ones which are unpleasant.
Selective Attention:- People have heightened awareness of stimuli that meet their needs – likely to note
ads of products that will satisfy their needs.
Selective Perception
Perceptual Defense: we subconsciously screen out stimuli that are psychologically threatening, even after
getting exposed. (Smokers avoiding the statutory warnings)
Perceptual Blocking: protect themselves from being bombarded with stimuli by simply blocking such
stimuli
Perceptual Distortion: Individuals are subject to a number of influences that tend to distort their
perceptions