Consumer behavior involves the decision-making process and activities related to the evaluation, acquisition, use, or disposal of goods and services. Influenced by individual determinants like motivation, attitudes, and personality, as well as group influences like culture, social class, and family, consumer behavior varies among individuals. Models such as the Howard Sheth model and Engel Kollat Blackwell model explain this behavior through inputs, perceptions, and external factors impacting decision-making and post-purchase evaluations.

1. CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

2. NATURE OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
• “The decision process and physical activity engaged in when
evaluating, acquiring, using or disposing of goods and services.”

3. WHO IS A CONSUMER?
• To put in very generic terms, a consumer is a person or a group who
intends to order, orders, or uses purchased goods, products, or
services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar
needs, not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities
(Wikipedia)
• A “customer” is one who actually purchases a product or service from
a particular shop or organization

4. DECISION PROCESS

6. INDIVIDUAL DETERMINANTS
• Motivation and Involvement:
• All of us are consumers, with in a given society all of us have the same
alternatives to choose from and yet not two consumers may exhibit
identical consumer behavior
• each one of us is a unique individual with a unique set of needs,
desires and motivation.
• Motivation is that internal force which arouses or activates some
need and provides direction of behaviour towards fulfilment of the
need.

7. • A motivation may be physiological in nature directed towards
fulfilment of biological needs such as hunger and thirst, other
motivations are psychological in nature focusing on the satisfaction of
psychological desires such as the need for seeking status
• Everyone has both physiological and psychological motivations, but
we each fulfil them in different ways.

8. • The reason why we adopt different methods of satisfaction of our
motivations is because of the differing level of personal involvement
in various activities.
• Involvement refers to the personal relevance or importance of a
product or service that a consumer perceives in a given situation.

9. • High involvement leads to a highly motivated state of mind .
• High involvement and high motivation lead to a consumer behaviour
process which is distinctively different from that of a low involvement
and low motivation

10. Attitudes
• Attitudes are our learned predispositions towards objects, people and
events.
• It is our attitudes which influence how we respond to different
products and services.
• Attitudes are not inborn or innate in us
• Our attitudes influence our purchase decisions and consumption

11. Personality and Self-concept
• A related construct, Self-concept or self-image is the way we perceive
ourselves in a social framework.
• We always tend to buy only those products and services which we
think fit or match with our personality or are in conformity with our
selfconcept.

12. Learning and Memory
• We only remember the information which is of relevance and
importance to us, or where we have a motivation to remember
• Our motives, attitudes and personality act as filters by letting in only
relevant information and keeping all other information out. Surely, we
would see the product, hear its jingle but chances are it will not
register in our minds. We will remember it only for a short while and
then forget it. This is known as selective retention

13. InformationProcessing
• This refers to the process and activities which consumers engage in
while gathering, assimilating and evaluating information.
• The manner in which we assimilate and evaluate this selective
information is determined by our motives, attitudes and personality
and self-concept.

14. GROUP DETERMINANTS

15. Cultural Influences
• The first of the influences is that of cultural variables.
• Culture is defined as the complex, sum total of knowledge, belief,
traditions, customs, art, morals, law and any other habits acquired by
people as members of a society.
• Culture of one society differs from that of another. Many of our
actions, and behaviour as consumers stem from our cultural
background

16. Sub-cultural Influences
• Within a given culture, there are many groups or segments of people
with distinct customs, tradition and behaviour, which set them apart
from other people.
• These subcultures as part of the same cultural mainstream on
account of their dress, food habits, religious traditions and rites; offer
interesting implication for the marketer.

17. Social Class Influences
• Social class is a group consisting of a number of people who share
more or less equal position in a society.
• Within a social class people tend to share same values, beliefs, and
exhibit similar patterns of behaviour and consumption. Some social
classes are ranked as higher and lower.
• Social classes differ from one society to another, and their standing in
society may also change over time. Social classes may be defined by
parameters such as income and occupation.
• The belongingness to a social class influences decisions such as choice
of residence, type of holiday, means of entertainment and leisure.

18. Social Group Influences
• A social group is a collection of individuals who share some common
attitudes and a sense of relationship as a result of interaction with
each other.
• Social groups may be primary where face-to-face interaction take
place frequently, such as families, workgroups and study groups.
Secondary groups are those where the relationship is a more
formalized and less personal in nature.

19. Family Influences
• Family is a social group which can be defined as a primary group.
• it is one of the strongest sources of influences on consumer behaviour.
• The first and strongest influence on a child is that of his family and he
imbibes many behavioural patterns from other family members sub
consciously. These influences tend to stay with him even after
attaining adulthood.
• Further, within a family many decisions are made jointly with various
members exerting different degree of influence. The changing
structure of families as the joint family system gradually gives way to
single nucleus families also influence the consumer behaviour

20. Personal Influences
• Each individual is influenced by the family, social class, sub-cultural and
cultural group to which he belongs, and yet has his own distinct
personality which influences his decisions and behavior as a consumer.
• Each decision process is the outcome of an interplay of personal and
social variables.
• The process of evaluation of different products and different brands will
vary from person to person. For one, price may be the most important
parameter in making the decision to buy a water geyser, for another it is
convenience, and for yet another it may be the status symbol value.

21. MODELS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
• The Howard Sheth Model and
• The Engel Kollat Blackwell models both present comprehensive
models of individual buying behavior
• The family buying behavior explains the decision process and
influences that come into play when the buying is being done for joint
use by a given family.

22. The Howard Sheth Model
• The Howard Sheth Model recognizes consumer decision making
under 3 different problem-solving levels.
• The first level describes extensive problem-solving where the
consumer does not have any basic information or knowledge about
the brand or have any preferences for any product. In this situation,
the consumer will seek information about all the different brands in
the market before purchasing

23. • The second level, limited problem-solving, exists when consumers
have little knowledge about the market, or partial knowledge about
what they want to purchase. In order to arrive at a brand preference,
some comparative brand information is sought
• The third level is habitual or routinised response behavior exists
when, the consumer knows very well about the different brands, can
differentiate between the different characteristics of each product,
and his repeat buying decision is usually a brand replenishment
decision in favour of his preferred brand.

24. • This Howard Sheth model explains the buying decision process with
the help of four sets of variables that include
• (i) the inputs,
• (ii) the perceptual and learning constructs
• (iii) the output and
• (iv) exogenous variables.

25. • The input variables consist of the stimuli like price, quality,
distinctiveness presented by the marketers which have both
significative and symbolic impact. Input variables also include social
variables like family, social class and reference groups.
• The learning constructs comprise psychological variables such as
motives, attitudes, brand comprehension and choice criteria which
enable the buying intention

26. • The perceptual stimuli explain how the consumer receives and
understands the information from the input stimuli and other parts of
the model.
• For example, stimulus ambiguity results when the consumer does not
understand the message from the environment. Perceptual bias
occurs if the consumer distorts the information received so that it fits
his or her established needs or experience.

27. • The output variable is the purchase decision and the resultant post
purchase evaluation of either satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
• The former will result in strengthening of brand comprehension and
brand attitude, while the latter will trigger off a reaction of negative
attitude, low attention to the product stimuli, poor brand
comprehension and negative intention to purchase.

28. • The Exogenous variables on the other hand are not shown as being
part of the decision process but may have an important bearing on
the overall decision as such.
• These include importance of the purchase, consumer personality
traits, religion, and time pressure

29. The Engel Kollat and Blackwell mode
• ,the model explains the buying behavior process with the help of five
components,
1. Information input
2. Information processing
3. Decision process
4. Decision process variables
5. External influences

30. • Information input- This component includes all kinds of marketing
stimuli like advertisements, product displays, a point of purchase
stimulus and non-marketing stimuli like information inputs shared by
friends, family or colleagues, Once you are exposed to this
information from a variety of sources you begin to process this
information by going through the stages of exposure, attention,
comprehension, acceptance and retention of this information.
• You also utilize your stored memory relevant to this purchase in
processing this information and before retaining it as actionable input
for your decision process

31. • The next component, the decision-making process, in this model,
suggests that you could enter the decisionmaking process at any time
during your information processing stage.
• The decision process is shown to comprise of the sequential stages of
problem recognition search for alternatives, alternative evaluation,
choice, and outcomes (post-purchase evaluation and behavior).

32. • Once you arrive at the decision based on your alternative evaluation,
which in turn is impacted by both individual differences and external
influences, this decision will lead to a purchase.
• The outcome of the purchase could be satisfaction or result in post
purchase dissatisfaction, if your purchase does not fully meet your
expectations.These outcomes will now become feedback and be
stored in your memory to be used as reference in your next purchase
or related decision-making situation

33. • Individual variables like demographics, motives, beliefs, attitude,
personality, values, lifestyle and external influences like culture, social
class and reference groups are important influences that impact the
stages of both information processing and decision making.
• If any of your important reference group members like a colleague in
the IT department of your office has expressed a strong negative
opinion about the after sales service of a given laptop brand, that
brand will not be considered among the alternatives that you evaluate
during your decision process.

34. APPLICATIONS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
MARKETING
• Analyzing Market Opportunity:
• Study of consumer behaviour helps in identifying needs and wants
which are unfulfilled.
• This is done by examining trends in income, consumer lifestyles and
emerging influences.
• The rapidly rising sales graph in these categories is an indication of
how well the product has satisfied the consumer’s need.

35. • Selecting the Target Market:
• Knowing who these groups are, how they behave, how they decide to
buy enables the marketer to market products/services especially
suited to their needs.
• All this is made possible only by studying in depth the consumer and
his purchase behaviour.

36. Determining the Product Mix:
• Product: The marketer has the product that will satisfy hitherto
unfulfilled consumer need, but he must decide the size, shape and
attributes of the product
• Price: What price should the marketer charge for the product? Should
it be the same as that of the competing product or lower or higher?
Should the price be marked on the product or left to the discretion of
the retailer to charge what he can from the customer?

37. • Distribution: Having determined the product size, shape, packaging
and price, the next decision the marketer has to make is regarding the
distribution channel. What . type of outlets including the online ones
should be used to sell the products? Should it be sold through all the
retail outlets or only through a selected few? Should a mix of online
and offlinebe used?

38. • Promotion: The marketer here is concerned with finding the most
effective methods of promotion which will make the product stand
out amongst the clutter of so many other brands, and products, which
will help attain the sales objective and yet be within the budget. This
is possible only when the marketer knows who his target consumers
are,where are they located, what media do they have access to, what
is their preferred media and what role does advertising play in
influencing the purchase decision?