CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR

Definition:
Consumer behavior refers to the mental and emotional process and the observable behavior of consumers during searching, purchasing and post consumption of a product or service. Consumer behavior involves study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy. It blends the elements from psychology, sociology, sociopsychology, anthropology and economics. It also tries to assess the influence on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups and society in general. Buyer behavior has two aspects: the final purchase activity visible to any observer and the detailed or short decision process that may involve the interplay of a number of complex variables not visible to anyone.

Factors Affecting Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumer buying behavior is influenced by the major three factors: 1. Social Factors 2. Psychological Factors 3. Personal Factors. A. Social Factors Social factors refer to forces that other people exert and which affect consumers purchase behavior. These social factors can include culture and subculture, roles and family, social class and reference groups. Example: By taking into consideration Reference group, these can influence/ affect the consumer buying behavior. Reference group refers to a group with whom an individual identifies herself/ himself and the extent to which that person assumes many values, attitudes or behavior of group members. Reference groups can be family, school or college, work group, club membership, citizenship etc. Reference groups serve as one of the primary agents of consumer socialization and learning and can be influential

enough to induce not only socially acceptable consumer behavior but also socially unacceptable and even personal 6 destructive behavior. For example, if fresher student joins a college / university, he/she will meet different people and form a group, in that group there can be behavior patterns of values, for example style of clothing, handsets which most of group member prefer or even destructive behavior such as excessive consumption of alcohol, use of harmful and addictive drugs etc. So, according to how an individual references him / herself to that particular reference group, this will influence and change his/her buying behavior. B. Psychological Factors These are internal to an individual and generate forces within that influence her/his purchase behavior. The major forces include motives, perception, learning, attitude and personality. Example: Attitude, is an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of our environment. Consumer form attitude towards a brand on the basis of their beliefs about the brand. For example, consumers of Sony products might have the belief that the products offered by Sony are durable; this will influence those customers to buy Sony products due to this attitude towards the brand. C. Personal Factors These include those aspects that are unique to a person and influence purchase behavior. These factors include demographic factors, lifestyle, and situational factors. Example: Lifestyle is an indicator of how people live and express themselves on the basis of their activities, interests, and opinions. Lifestyle dimension provide a broader view of people about how they spend their time the importance of things in their surroundings and their beliefs on broad issues associated with life and living and themselves. This is influenced by demographic factors and personality.

E.g. A CEO or Manager is likely to buy more formal clothes, ties and shoes or PDAs and less informal clothes like jeans as compared to a Mechanic or Civil engineer. So according to their lifestyle and profession, the buying behavior of people differ from one another.

CONSUMER BUYING DECISION PROCESS

Definition:
Consumer buying decision process is the processes undertaken by consumer in regard to a potential market transaction before, during and after the purchase of a product or service.

Consumer decision making process generally involves five stages: Problem Recognition
Purchase decision making process begins when a buyer becomes aware of an unsatisfied need or problem. This is the vital stage in buying decision process, because without recognizing the need or want, an individual would not seek to buy goods or service. There are several situations that can cause problem recognition, these include:

Depletion of stock Dissatisfaction with goods in stock Environmental Changes Change in Financial Situation Marketer Initiated Activities

Example: Information Search Problem Recognition Purchase Action Alternative Evaluation Postpurchase Its when a person recognizes that she can not make a call from her mobile phone thats when she recognizes that her phone has been damaged i.e. the phone has hardware problems and needs to be repaired or buying a new piece.

Information Search
After the consumer has recognized the need, he / she will trying to find the means to solve that need. First he will recall how he used to solve such kind of a problem in the past, this is called nominal decision making. Secondly, a consumer will try to solve the problem by asking a friend or goes to the market to seek advice for which product will best serve his need, this is called limited decision making. Sources of information include:

Personal sources Commercial Sources Public sources Personal experience Example: (continuing from previous) The user of the phone after recognizing that her phone is damaged, she will eventually try to find out how she can repair her

phone. If she cannot repair it herself she will ask a friend to help out, if the friend can not solve the problem she will go to mobile repair shop, if they also can not repair it then she will try to find which mobile phone is good and that can serve her need. In this process of information collection it will yield awareness of set of brands of mobile phones she can buy.

Alternatives evaluation
Consumers evaluates criteria refer to various dimension; features, characteristics and benefits that a consumer desires to solve a certain problem. Product features and its benefit is what influence consumer to prefer that particular product. The consumer will decide which product to buy from a set of alternative products depending on each unique feature that the product offers and the benefit he / she can get out of that feature. Example: (continuing from previous) When that user got enough information concerning the different brands of mobile phones available in the market, she will decide which kind of a mobile phone and brand shes going to buy depending upon her need for that particular mobile, either a mobile for multimedia and entertainment, smartphone or classic phone.

Purchase Action
This stage involves selection of brand and the retail outlet to purchase such a product. Retail outlet image and its location are important. Consumer usually prefers a nearby retail outlet for minor shopping and they can willingly go to a far away store when they purchase items which are of higher values and which involve higher sensitive purchase decision. After selecting where to buy and what to buy, the consumer completes the final step of transaction by either cash or credit. Example: (continuing from previous)

After selecting brand of the phone and model from different alternatives of mobile phones, she will make a final decision of where to buying that phone and make the final transaction procedures.

Post-purchase Actions
Consumer favorable post-purchase evaluation leads to satisfaction. Satisfaction with the purchase is basically a function of the initial performance level expectation and perceived performance relative to those expectations. Consumer tends to evaluate their wisdom on the purchase of that particular product. This can result to consumer experiencing post purchase dissatisfaction. If the consumers perceived performance level is below expectation and fail to meet satisfaction this will eventually cause dissatisfaction, and so the brand and/ or the outlet will not be considered by the consumer in the future purchases. This might cause the consumer to initiate complaint behavior and spread negative word-of-mouth concerning that particular product. Example: (continuing from previous) If she decided to buy a multimedia phone she will try to compare the quality of music it provides and pictures taken if they meet her expectations. If she will find that her expectation are meet she will be satisfied, if she found that there are more additional features that she did not expect this mobile phone to have, she will be delighted, otherwise she will be dissatisfied.

CASE STUDY
Introduction:

The this research we are going to ascertain the customers decision process and post purchase satisfaction / dissatisfaction with a mobile communication service provider in Delhi, especially students from Jamia Hamdard University. How the Research Was Conducted: In this research we used the method of Questionnaire and Interviewing. Questionnaire papers were given and filled by the student, and some of the students were interviewed to clarify some of the issues. The sample format of the questionnaire is as follows: JAMIA HAMDARD Name: Age: Designation: Address: 1. Which Mobile Connection are you using these days? Airtel Vodafone Idea Tata Reliance Others 2. Since how long are you using this connection? Less than 3 months Less than 6 months Less than 12 months (1 year) More than 12 months(1 year) 3. Are you Satisfied with the connection you are using? Yes No Cant say

4. If yes then which feature of the service of your service provider makes you feel Comfortable? Lower call rates Good connectivity New offers and special tariff plans Good customer service All of the above 5. If no then which feature of the service of your service provider makes your feel dissatisfied? High call rates Bad connectivity No good offers Bad customer service All of the above 6. had you used any connection before started using this connection? Yes No 7. If yes which among the two you find much better? Existing Connection Previous Connection 8. In general, Rate the satisfaction level of your existing connection Dissatisfying Satisfying very satisfying 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 9. what feature or services would you like to be changed or improved in the near future? . . . 10. Do you want to give any suggestion to your network provider. If yes, what are your suggestions? Respected madam/sir, As a part of my project I would like to gather some information from you which will help me in an in depth study of project. The information provided by you will be kept confidential and will be used for academic purpose only. I would be obliged if you co-operate with me in filling the questionnaire. 1. NAME: AGE : Below 20 20-30 30-40 above 40 Sex : Male Female 2. a) Are you aware of the Rani Food Products? Yes No b) If yes, how do you come to know about this product? Advertisement

Friends retail shop Sales executives Any other source (Specify) 3. Have you used Rani Food Products? Yes No 4. If you are a customer of Rani Food products, how long have you been buying it? Below 6 months 0-1 year 1-2 year Above 2 year 5. Do you think the advertisement of Rani Food Products has a major influence in your buying decision? Strongly agree Agree Average Disagree Strongly disagree 6. Please rate the following factors which influence your purchase decision. (Strongly agree-5, Agree-4, Neutral-3, Disagree-2, Strongly Disgree-1) Respected madam/sir,

Respected madam/sir, As a part of my project I would like to gather some information from you which will help me in an in depth study of project. The information provided by you will be kept confidential

and will be used for academic purpose only. I would be obliged if you co-operate with me in filling the questionnaire. 1. NAME: AGE : Below 20 20-30 30-40 above 40 Sex : Male Female 2. a) Are you aware of the Rani Food Products? Yes No b) If yes, how do you come to know about this product? Advertisement Friends retail shop Sales executives Any other source (Specify) 3. Have you used Rani Food Products? Yes No 4. If you are a customer of Rani Food products, how long have you been buying it? Below 6 months 0-1 year 1-2 year Above 2 year 5. Do you think the advertisement of Rani Food Products has a major influence in your buying decision? Strongly agree Agree Average 6. Please rate the following factors which influence your purchase decision. (Strongly agree-5, Agree-4, Neutral-3, Disagree-2, Strongly Disgree-1)

Price of the product ii . Quality of the product iii . Availability of the product i v. Brand name of the company v. Previous Experience vi . Advertisements vii . Family/friends opinion viii . Sales promotional activities 9. How satisfied are you with Rani Food Products compared with the others substitutes available in the market? Highly satisfied Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied Highly Dissatisfied 10. Has your friends/relatives opinions influenced you to buy Rani Food Products? Strongly agree Agree Average Disagree Strongly disagree 11. Any suggestions:

Thank you for your kind co-operation