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Meaning and Definition of Consumer Behaviour

Consumer behaviour is defined as how individuals select, purchase, use, and dispose of goods and services to satisfy their needs and wants. It involves the decision-making process and actions of consumers in the marketplace. Understanding consumer behaviour allows marketers to determine which products are needed, identify obsolete products, and best present goods to consumers. Consumer behaviour is influenced by personal, psychological, social, cultural, and situational factors and varies between individuals, regions, and countries.

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Anoop Ajayan
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408 views

Meaning and Definition of Consumer Behaviour

Consumer behaviour is defined as how individuals select, purchase, use, and dispose of goods and services to satisfy their needs and wants. It involves the decision-making process and actions of consumers in the marketplace. Understanding consumer behaviour allows marketers to determine which products are needed, identify obsolete products, and best present goods to consumers. Consumer behaviour is influenced by personal, psychological, social, cultural, and situational factors and varies between individuals, regions, and countries.

Uploaded by

Anoop Ajayan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Meaning and Definition:

Consumer behaviour is the study of how individual customers, groups


or organizations select, buy, use, and dispose ideas, goods, and
services to satisfy their needs and wants. It refers to the actions of the
consumers in the marketplace and the underlying motives for those
actions.

Marketers expect that by understanding what causes the consumers to


buy particular goods and services, they will be able to determine—
which products are needed in the marketplace, which are obsolete,
and how best to present the goods to the consumers.

The study of consumer behaviour assumes that the


consumers are actors in the marketplace. The perspective of
role theory assumes that consumers play various roles in the
marketplace. Starting from the information provider, from
the user to the payer and to the disposer, consumers play
these roles in the decision process.

The roles also vary in different consumption situations; for


example, a mother plays the role of an influencer in a child’s
purchase process, whereas she plays the role of a disposer
for the products consumed by the family.

Some selected definitions of consumer behaviour are as


follows:
1. According to Engel, Blackwell, and Mansard, ‘consumer
behaviour is the actions and decision processes of people
who purchase goods and services for personal
consumption’.

2. According to Louden and Bitta, ‘consumer behaviour is


the decision process and physical activity, which individuals
engage in when evaluating, acquiring, using or disposing of
goods and services’.

Nature of Consumer Behaviour:


1. Influenced by various factors:
The various factors that influence the consumer behaviour
are as follows:
a. Marketing factors such as product design, price,
promotion, packaging, positioning and distribution.

b. Personal factors such as age, gender, education and


income level.

c. Psychological factors such as buying motives, perception


of the product and attitudes towards the product.

d. Situational factors such as physical surroundings at the


time of purchase, social surroundings and time factor.
e. Social factors such as social status, reference groups and
family.

f. Cultural factors, such as religion, social class—caste and


sub-castes.

2. Undergoes a constant change:


Consumer behaviour is not static. It undergoes a change
over a period of time depending on the nature of products.
For example, kids prefer colourful and fancy footwear, but
as they grow up as teenagers and young adults, they prefer
trendy footwear, and as middle-aged and senior citizens
they prefer more sober footwear. The change in buying
behaviour may take place due to several other factors such
as increase in income level, education level and marketing
factors.

3. Varies from consumer to consumer:

All consumers do not behave in the same manner. Different


consumers behave differently. The differences in consumer
behaviour are due to individual factors such as the nature of
the consumers, lifestyle and culture. For example, some
consumers are technoholics. They go on a shopping and
spend beyond their means.
They borrow money from friends, relatives, banks, and at
times even adopt unethical means to spend on shopping of
advance technologies. But there are other consumers who,
despite having surplus money, do not go even for the regular
purchases and avoid use and purchase of advance
technologies.

4. Varies from region to region and country to county:


The consumer behaviour varies across states, regions and
countries. For example, the behaviour of the urban
consumers is different from that of the rural consumers. A
good number of rural consumers are conservative in their
buying behaviours.

The rich rural consumers may think twice to spend on


luxuries despite having sufficient funds, whereas the urban
consumers may even take bank loans to buy luxury items
such as cars and household appliances. The consumer
behaviour may also varies across the states, regions and
countries. It may differ depending on the upbringing,
lifestyles and level of development.

5. Information on consumer behaviour is important to the


marketers:
Marketers need to have a good knowledge of the consumer
behaviour. They need to study the various factors that
influence the consumer behaviour of their target customers.
The knowledge of consumer behaviour enables them to take
appropriate marketing decisions in respect of the following
factors:
a. Product design/model

b. Pricing of the product

c. Promotion of the product

d. Packaging

e. Positioning

f. Place of distribution

6. Leads to purchase decision:


A positive consumer behaviour leads to a purchase decision.
A consumer may take the decision of buying a product on
the basis of different buying motives. The purchase decision
leads to higher demand, and the sales of the marketers
increase. Therefore, marketers need to influence consumer
behaviour to increase their purchases.

7. Varies from product to product:


Consumer behaviour is different for different products.
There are some consumers who may buy more quantity of
certain items and very low or no quantity of other items. For
example, teenagers may spend heavily on products such as
cell phones and branded wears for snob appeal, but may not
spend on general and academic reading. A middle- aged
person may spend less on clothing, but may invest money in
savings, insurance schemes, pension schemes, and so on.

8. Improves standard of living:


The buying behaviour of the consumers may lead to higher
standard of living. The more a person buys the goods and
services, the higher is the standard of living. But if a person
spends less on goods and services, despite having a good
income, they deprives themselves of higher standard of
living.

9. Reflects status:
The consumer behaviour is not only influenced by the status
of a consumer, but it also reflects it. The consumers who
own luxury cars, watches and other items are considered
belonging to a higher status. The luxury items also give a
sense of pride to the owners.

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