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Consumer
Behavior Models
• Consumer
z Behaviour can be defined as the behavior
that consumers display in searching for, purchasing,
evaluating, and disposing of products and services that
they expect will satisfy their needs.

• Focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend

their available resources on consumption

• The term customer refers to the purchaser of a product

or service whereas the term consumer refers to the end
user of a product or service.
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Models of Consumer Behaviour

 Traditional Models
 Economic Model

 Psychoanalytic Model

 Sociological Model
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Contemporary models

 Horward Sheth model

 Nicosia model

 Engel, Blackwell and Minard model

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Economic Model
 Synthesized by Alfred Marshall based on the Theory of
Marginal Utility and Micro-Economic Theory.

 The Focus is on the “Act of Purchase” of an “Average

Consumers”

 Explains “What” a Consumer would purchase and “In What

Quantity”

 This model assumes that with limited purchasing power and a

set of needs and tastes, a consumer will allocate his/ her
expenditure over different products at a given prices so as to
maximize utility.
Economic
z Model Components & Basis

 Law of Principle of Maximum utility

 Price Effect

 Income Effect

 Substitution Effect
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Basic Assumptions
 Individual needs are unlimited
 Individual needs cannot be fully satisfied
 Individual is completely aware of his needs
 Individual is a rational buyer
 Individual has the perfect information about the utility of
products available in the market
 The utility of a product or service gets reduced with each
subsequent purchase
 Price of goods are the sole sacrifice involved in obtaining a
product or service
 Market is a collection of homogeneous individuals
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Economic Model
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Economic Model at Work
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Economic Model at Work
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Economic Model at Work
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Criticism to Economic Model
Economic Models ignores the effect of

 Perception

 Attitude

 Motivation

 Personality

 Learning Process

 Social Class

 Culture
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Psychoanalytical Model of Consumer
Behaviour

 Psychoanalytic theory is attributed to the work

of eminent psychologist Sigmund Freud.

 This model tries to explain

 what would get “chosen” in the market? Or

 What will get “sold” and why?

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Psychoanalytic theory

 Human mind is
composed of three
elements:
 Conscious element

 Preconscious element

 Unconscious element
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Elements of Mind
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The Psychoanalytic Theory
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Psychoanalytical Model at work
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Psychoanalytical Model at work
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Psychoanalytical Model at work
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Criticism to Psychoanalytical Model

 All the behaviors cannot be attributed to satisfaction of Id.

 This model views consumers as individuals with minimal

influence of the family, society, reference groups, or other
social and group influences.

 Values of individual are liable to change over a period of

time through changes created in perception, learning,
attitude building which this model ignores.
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Sociological Model
 As per this model, an individual buyer is a part of the institution
called society, gets influenced by it and in turn, also influences it in
its path of development.

 The interactions with all the set of society leave some impressions on
him and may play a role in influencing his buying behaviour.

 The marketers, through a process of market segmentation can work

out on the common behaviour patterns of a specific class and group
of buyers and try to influence their buying pattern.
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Sociological Model

 Family, friends and close associates exert the maximum

influence

 Opinion Leader influences the life-style and buying

behaviour of an individual
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Contemporary models

 Horward Sheth model

 Nicosia model

 Engel, Blackwell and Minard model

 The Howard Sheth Model of buying
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behaviour
 It attempts to throw light on the rational brand behavior
shown by buyers when faced with situations involving
incomplete information and limited abilities.
 The model refers to three levels of decision making:
 Extensive problem solving
 Limited problem solving
 Routinized response behaviour
 The model has borrowed the learning theory concepts to
explain brand choice behaviour when learning takes
places as the buyer moves from extensive to routinized
problem solving behaviour.
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 The model makes significant contribution to
understand consumer behaviour by identifying
the variables which influence consumers.
 Four components involved in the model are
 Input variables

 Output variables

 Hypothetic constructs

 Exogenous variables
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 Input Variables: these variables acts as stimuli in the
environment.

 Stimuli can be of Significative, Symbolic & Social

 Significative stimuli are those actual elements of

brands which the buyer confronts, where as Symbolic
stimuli are those which are used by marketers to
represent their products in a symbolic form. Social
stimuli are generated by the social environment such
as family, friends, groups etc.
 Output
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 These are which buyer’s observable responses to stimulus inputs. They

appear in the sequence as below:

 Attention: Based on the importance of the buyer’s information intake.

 Comprehension: the store of information the buyer has about the

brand.

 Attitude: the buyer’s evaluation of the particular brand's potential to

satisfy his or her motives.

 Intention: the brand which the buyer intends to buy.

 Purchase behaviour: the act of actually purchasing, which reflects the

buyer’s predisposition to buy as modified by any of the inhibitors.
 Hypothetical Constructs
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 The model proposes a number of intervening variables which

have been categorised into two major groups: Perceptual
and Learning constructs.

 Perceptual Constructs include:

 Sensitivity to information: the degree to which the buyer

regulates the stimulus information flow.

 Perceptual bias: refers to distorting or altering information

 Search for information: it involves actively seeking

information on the brands or their characteristics.
The buyer’s
z learning constructs can be defined as:
 Motives are general or specific goals impelling action.

 Decision mediators are based on the motives. The buyer will have
certain mental rules for matching and ranking the purchase
alternatives.
 Predisposition refers to a preference towards brand in the evoked
set which expresses an attitude towards them.
 Inhibitors refers to environmental forces like price and time pressure
which may inhibit or put restrain on the purchase of a preferred
brand.
 Satisfaction the extent to which, post actual purchase will measure
upto the buyer’s expectation
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Exogenous variables:

 These are list of a number of external

variables (external to the buyer) which can
significantly influence buyer decisions.
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Limitation of the model

 There is a absence of sharp distinctions between

exogenous variables and other variables.

 Some of the variables, which are not well defined,

and are difficult to measure too.

 The model is quite complex and not very easy to

comprehend.
 The Nicosia Model
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 Proposed by Francesco Nicosia in 1970s

 This model attempts to explain buying behaviour by establishing a
link between the organisation and its prospective customer. It
analyse human being as a system with stimuli as the input to the
system and the human behaviour as an output of the system.
 The model suggests that message from the first influences the
predisposition of the consumer towards the product or services.
Based on the situation, the consumer will have a certain attitude
towards the product. This may result in a search for the product or
an evaluation of the product attributes by the consumer.
 If the customer satisfies with above it may result in a positive
response, with a decision to buy the product otherwise the reverse
may occur.
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 The Nicosia Model explains in 4 basic areas:
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 Field 1:- the consumer attribute and the firm’s attributes. The advt.
message sent from the company will reach the consumer attributes.
 Field 2:- it is related to the search and evaluation, undertaken by the
consumer, of the advertised product and also to verify if other alternatives
are variable.
 If the process results in motivation to buy, it becomes the input for Field 3

 Field 3:- it explains how the consumer actually buys the product.
Transformation of the motivation into the act of buying

 Field 4:- it is related to the uses of the purchased items. It can also be
related to an output to receive feedback on sales results by organisation.
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Limitations:
 The flow is not completed and does not mention the
various factors internal to the consumer.

 The assumption about the consumer being involved in the

decision process with no predisposition about the various
brands is restricting.

 Overlapping between firm’s attributes and consumers

attributes.
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What is Engel Kollat Blackwell Model?

The model consists of three different categories, namely: Present

Situation – this is where the customer is at the current moment,
Desired State – this is where the customer wants to be in the
future and it will help them achieve their goals, and Pathway for
Movement from one state to another – this includes various steps
that may include various products or services which can help
move towards their desired state.

EKB model was created in 1968. Later this model went through
several revisions, updates, and improvements to become the
Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard Model (EBM) in the 1990s.
z Engel Kollat Blackwell Model
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Limitations of the Model
EBM model has also not been found to be a complete
analytical explanation of the consumer behaviour and his
decision-making. The model suffers from the following
shortcomings:

1. The model does not show what factors shape items,

such as personality, values and culture.
2. The model also fails to differentiate as to why different
types of personality produce different decision-making
Ref.: https://neostrom.in/consumer-behavior-models/
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