What Factors Influence Consumer Behavior?

The study of consumer behavior focuses on how individuals, communities, and organizations choose, acquire, utilize, and dispose of concepts, products, and services to fulfill their needs and desires. It deals with the motivations behind customer behavior in the marketplace. Many distinct aspects affect consumer behavior.

Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior

Psychological Factors

Interestingly, although these aspects are not quite simple to evaluate, human psychology is in reality a crucial factor that affects customer behavior. A few crucial psychological elements influencing how consumers behave are as follows:

Motivation

Motivation to take action frequently affects a person’s purchasing behavior. People have a variety of needs, including social, fundamental, security, esteem, and self-actualization wants. Out of all of these, the consumer is motivated to purchase goods and services by their fundamental necessities and security needs, which come first among all other wants. 

Perception

Every time we see an advertisement, review, comment, or promotion for a product, we create an impression of it. As a result, how we perceive something greatly influences how we make decisions about what to buy.

Learning

We learn more about a product through experience every time we buy it. Also, our prior information, skills, and experience play a major role in this learning.

Attitudes and Beliefs

Our attitudes and beliefs affect how we behave toward a product and are a major factor in creating the brand image of that product. Therefore, knowing a customer’s attitude and beliefs helps marketers create effective marketing efforts.

Social Factors

The people in our immediate environment have some influence on our purchase decisions. In an effort to blend in with our environment, we are always trying to imitate other people. As a result, social variables have an impact on how we purchase things. Among these elements are :

Family

In reality, our families have a big influence on our purchase decisions. Thus, as children, we observe how our families use particular things and develop a predisposition or dislike for them as they continue to use them as we get older.

Opinions

We are influenced by the people around us, including family, friends, and even online communities. Recommendations and opinions from trusted sources can sway our buying decisions.

Roles and status

Of course, the position we occupy in society affects us all. The more status we possess, the more it influences what and how much we buy.

Cultural factors

The values and conceptions of society and the community we live in influence the values and beliefs that each of us holds. Moreover, our actions are influenced by the culture that is prevalent in that community, whether we are aware of it or not. Several crucial cultural aspects include:

Culture

Our cultural elements are essentially the fundamental needs, beliefs, desires, behaviors, and preferences. And we notice in our immediate families as well as other influential individuals in our lives and absorb them.

Subculture

We have many subcultures within a given cultural group. These groups hold similar values and convictions. Also, they include individuals from different racial groups, faiths, castes, and geographical locations. Moreover, this client group encompasses the whole customer base.

Social Class

Every civilization on the planet is identified and known by a particular social class. Our combined family histories, professions, levels of education, and places of living determine this socioeconomic class. Thus, our socioeconomic class is yet another factor that controls how we behave as consumers.

Personal Factors

Consumers’ personal circumstances have an impact on what they buy. These individual characteristics range from person to person, leading to diverse views and purchasing patterns. Some of the individual factors are:

Age

One of the key elements influencing our preferences is our age. Teenagers tend to make more colorful and spectacular purchases than senior people. Furthermore, our middle-aged population is naturally more interested in buying homes, cars, and real estate.

Income

Our purchase habits are most definitely influenced by our money. A higher standard of living forces us to spend more on luxuries. Whereas a lower standard of living forces us to spend more on necessities like food, clothing, and education.

Occupation

Our choice of products is heavily influenced by our profession. Also, we all have a tendency to buy things that are useful or fit for our line of work.

Lifestyle

One of the key factors influencing our decisions the most is our way of life. Also, our purchase habits are largely influenced by our lifestyle.

Personality

Personalities play a role too. Extroverts might seek social interaction when buying, while introverts might prefer online shopping.

Economic Factors

A country’s or a market’s economic status has a significant impact on consumer purchasing patterns. When a country’s economy is strong, there is more money available on the market and customers have more purchasing power. In contrast, a weak economy depicts a market that is in trouble as a result of high unemployment and declining purchasing power. Several important economic factors are as follows:

Personal Income

The amount of money we will spend on purchasing goods or services will depend on our personal income. Moreover, a consumer’s personal income is primarily divided into two categories: disposable income and discretionary income.

Family Income

Actually, the entire revenue of all of our family members makes up our family’s income. Therefore, after covering all of one’s fundamental needs, any money left over is spent on various commodities, branded goods, pleasures, durables, etc.

Consumer Credit

Our purchasing decisions are influenced by the credit resources available to us. Moreover, sellers typically offer this financing, either directly or indirectly through banks or other financial institutions.

Liquid Assets

We are more likely to spend more on luxury and shopping items if we have more liquid assets. Meanwhile, less money is spent on these things when there are fewer liquid assets.

Savings

The amount of savings a consumer wishes to make from his or her income has a significant impact on that consumer. If a person elected to increase his savings, his spending on purchases would decrease. Moreover, a consumer will spend the majority of his income on goods if he wants to save more money.

Conclusion

These are some of the underlying variables that affect consumer behavior. Also, marketers need to be aware of them in order to make the right strategic marketing choices.

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