As the study of consumer behaviour evolved into a distinct discipline, newer approaches were offered to describe and explain what influences consumer behaviour. The following models emphasize on the mental activity that occurs before, during and after purchases are made. The focus is on consumer decision making, specially on how individual consumers arrive at brand choices. Here consumer is analyzed as a system with stimuli as the input to the system and behaviour as the output to the system.
The term models of consumers refer to general view or perspective as to how and why individuals behave as they do. Specifically, models of consumers have been examined in terms of the following four views:
An economic view – in the field of theoretical
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At least to some degree the passive model of the consumer was subscribed to by the hard-driving super salesmen of old, who were trained to regard the consumers as an object to be manipulated. The following extract from a 1971 salesmanship text radically illustrates the long held belief in the supremacy of the salesmen over the submissive, somewhat passive consumer.
The limitation of the passive model is that it fails to recognize that the consumer plays an equal, if not dominant role in many buying situations sometimes by seeking information about product alternatives and selecting the product that appears to offer the greatest satisfaction and at other times impulsively selecting a product that satisfies perception, learning, attitudes, communication and opinion leadership serves to support the intention that consumers are not often objects of exploitation. Therefore, this simple and single-minded view should also be rejected as
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Within this framework consumers normally are pictured as either receptive to or actively searching for products and services that fulfill their needs and enrich their lives. The cognitive model focuses on the processes by which consumers seek and evaluate information about selected brands and retail outlets.
Within the context of the cognitive model, consumers are viewed as information processors. Information, processing leads to the formation of preferences and finally to purchase intentions. Consumers also may use a preferences formation strategy that is other based in which they allow another person to make the selection for them.
In contrast to the economic view, the cognitive view recognizes that the consumer is unlikely to even attempt to obtain all available information about every choice, in its place consumers are likely to cease their information seeking efforts when they perceive that they have sufficient information about some of the alternatives to make a suitable decision. The cognitive or problem solving view describes a consumer who falls somewhere between the boundaries of the economic and passive views, who does not have total knowledge about available product alternatives and therefore cannot make perfect decisions, but who nonetheless actively seeks information and attempts to make satisfactory
More importantly, the decision to purchase is done subconsciously. This means that the majority of the time, your consumer is not even aware of their decision to buy or not to buy your product. In fact,
Lindstrom noticed that shoppers stuck to a certain brand and he couldn’t understand why. Before the study, Lindstrom got the idea from his stay at a hotel. He got to his room, and almost instantly forgot where he had left his room key. Although he had the same key in his hands only seconds earlier, he could not remember where he would have placed it. He blamed the confusion on his brain where he was imagining of other things in his mind (i.e. his location, activities, food). If asked, he would have no recollection of where it would be. “Our brains are constantly busy collecting and filtering information… most will become extraneous clutter” (Lindstrom, 2). After realizing this, he figured this is how consumers feel when making purchases. They have so many things on their minds that choosing between different brands would be strenuous and not a beneficial use of time. Throughout the book, Lindstrom discusses his research and evaluations on what the consumer mind is actually saying during the process of
By researching the wants and needs consumers, food companies have obtained several methods to manipulate them. In “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate,” Marion Nestle explains that supermarkets hire social scientists to study the emotions and unconscious minds of consumers to help them promote their business (497-498). Researching is done in order to better understand their clients and execute the best methods to control them. Nestle explains that researchers constantly interview shoppers to get a better sense of what they like to shop for (498). When researchers get an insight into what customers are interested in they can incorporate that information into supermarkets themselves. When supermarkets offer memberships to customers and those customers receive benefits, supermarkets also benefit with information from the consumer. Through a membership, supermarkets are able to carefully record each customers’ buying habits (Nestle 498). As customers apply for a membership, they unknowingly help companies get a better idea of how to use the unconscious mind to promote their sales. However, supermarkets do inform the consumer on the use and purpose of a membership within the terms and conditions. Supermarkets also give the shopper the responsibility to choose whether they want a membership with the store or not. Although supermarkets do inform the consumer, they
“Consumer 2.0” is a concept which describes the behaviors related to how consumers interact with information in the context of the purchase decision lifecycle.
Shopping is a function of the nature of the product (Holton, 1958), the degree of perceived risk inherit to the product class (Cox, 1964) and level of knowledge about the alternatives (Bucklin, 1966)
We are all consumers, and we buy diverse products every day. But, do you know what the main factor is that influences us to choose a product? If someone selects a cloth, maybe he pays attention to its quality! Customers’ decisions can be changed depending on what the main factors they are looking at. Various influences can cause consumers to select different products.
... of consumer behaviour, lays emphasis on the objectivity of science and the consumer as a reasonable and sensible decision maker. While, the interpretive point of view is in contrast to that of the positivist, in that it emphasises on the importance of the subjective meaning of the consumers individual experience, hence, it suggest that whichever behaviour a consumer performs is subject to diverse interpretations to a certain extent than just a single explanation to it.
Therefore, in order to predict how consumers will react to a message, we must correlate behavior with share of mind.
From buying a hamburger to buying a house people use a process in order to make a decision on what to buy. (book cite) describes this as the consumer decision process (pg.175). Utilizing a consumer decision process model, marketers are able to better understand how consumers are purchasing products and services. The five step consumer decision process model includes need recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase, and post purchase. Not all purchases require following all five steps to a T, but consumers, whether they know it or not, follow a version of this model when making a purchase. Companies also use this model in order to effectively market their products and services. A company
Sassatelli, R. (2007). Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics, London: Sage, Page 30, Page 126, Page 132, Page 133
Conclusion Companies are better able to market their products to consumers if they have a good Understanding of the consumers and the basic purchase decision process. By understanding the consumer and the type of purchasing behavior associated with different products, marketers are more likely to create a marketing campaign that positively impacts the consumer’s purchasing decision.
Every company wants to understand why people decide to buy its products or others. Firstly, we have to understand why people buy certain kind of product. People buy products because they need them. A need is activated and felt when there is a sufficient discrepancy between a desired or preferred state of being and the actual state. (Engle£¬Blackwell and Miniard. 1995. p407 ) For example, when you feel hungry, what you needs is some food. It is very important for marketer to understand the needs of consumers. All the consumers may have the same needs, but the ways which they satisfy what they need are different. Here is a example, Chinese people would choose rice when they feel hungry, whilst British people may choose bread to satisfy their needs.
Rousseau, G.G. 2007. Buyer reality: attitudes, learning, and involvement. (In Hughes, T., ed. Buyer behaviour: understanding consumer psychology and marketing. 4th ed. South Africa: Oxford university Press. p. 185-213).
“Viewpoint: Who Knows What Lurks in the Hearts of Consumers? The Inner Mind Knows.” Advertising Age. 09 06 1997: n. page. Web. The Web.
To achieve and maintain success in such a complex system as market it is essential to every marketing person to understand clearly consumer behavior. Understanding consumer behavior is not that easy as it may seem from the first glance. The reason is that there are plenty of various factors that may influence it in one certain way or the other. When considering each of the factors it is also important not to forget that they ought to be analyzed as different parts of one whole picture, that is, in correlation with each other.