Page 13 - MARKETING & PUBLIC RELATIONS EBOOK IC88

CHAPTER – 3

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

A. BUYING BEHAVIOUR
 Marketing begins by asking the questions, “What does the customer want?” if this is
known, an appropriate product or offer can be prepared to mmet the needs.
 It is also necessary to know why and how he buys, his motivations.
 In the early days, the economic model of consumer behaviour was taken for granted.
 The buying decision was seen as a logical rational process.
 People wanted to belong to preferred groups. As a result, several new concepts like
social stratification, reference groups, role orientation, culture, opinion leadership etc.
used to understand and explain buyer behaviour.

B. Needs and wants
 Every person has needs and wants. It is the want that leads to acquiring or buying
 People have needs which develop into want. Hunger is common need. But the wants
accompanying hunger can be many nd varied.
 The concern for health and for taste is two different needs that affect the want to
satrisfy hunger.
 One needs may be to obtain social acceptance and therefore, conform to social norms,
while another’s need may be to be seen as individualistic, with a mind of his own and
tending to be differwent in all respects.
 Most of the time, one is not consciously aware of what one’s needs are, particularly if
such needs are not of immediate concern.
 Sometimes, nneds are not in one’s awareness, because the possibility of meeting such a
need did not exist.
 Needs may be met in different ways and each way generates a different want.
 Wants create demands, subject to the factor of affodability.
 One of the objectives of marketing activities is to create wants and also improve
affordability.

C. Reference groups
 Needs and wants would be influenced by reference groups.
 There are limited expectations, when an individual may have a dominant need to assert
his indepedence, to think for himself and not be pressurized by others and therefore
doesn’t conform.
 The tendency of non deviants would be to conform.
 A reference group is not a fixed group.
 The influence of reference groups would be subtble.

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