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CONSUMER BEHAVIOR (INTRODUCTION)

Consumer Behavior complements and consummates the application of 'Marketing Concept' in every organization as a way of achieving overall corporate objectives. Consumers' experience has been widened by their exposure to competing products, rapid changes in technology, which result in regular availability of innovative products. The information-age consumers are ardent information processors that undergo a lot of internal and external considerations before and after purchasing a product or service. They set high expectations for any product or service to meet their present and future needs. Marketers' success now anchors on the extent to which they understand and respond perfectly to the behavior of consumers. Marketers are compelled to search for new ideas, theories and principles from behavioral sciences like anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics. It has been found that a consumer involves consideration from these perspectives when making their purchase decisions. However, only a few part of these fields have so far been incorporated into consumer behavior. This relevant part includes topics on which practical researches have been conducted and validated. For a marketer to penetrate the hearts of numerous prospects and consumers, to let them react positively to his products or service; understanding the behavior of consumers is unavoidable because the knowledge acquired about the consumers has an important role to play for the marketer 'success.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND MARKETING

Professional marketers uses an understanding of consumer behavior to anticipate future behavior based on the implementation of specific marketing strategies. A knowledge of consumer behavior serves as a strong basis for the development of effective and efficient marketing strategy. A careful monitoring of Consumer Behavior in the competitive market enables the marketer to measure the success or failure of a specific marketing strategy. Marketer also uses knowledge of consumer behavior to segment their market.

BUYING DECISIONS

Howard and Sheath (1980) have distinguished three types of buying decision behavior:

1. Routinised response behavior
2. Limited problem solving
3. Extensive problem solving

In buying a product or service, the buyer goes through a decision process consisting of problem recognition, information search and evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post purchase behavior. The marketer's job is to understand the buyer's behavior at each stage and what influences the prospects and consumers.

Limited problem solving exists when the need is known, every information on the alternative means of solving the problem is also known and the decision maker has to make his decision within the given spectrum.

Extensive problem solving embraces greater uncertainty and there is risk that the final decision is wrongly made. Often the decision maker on his own has very little information on the items and may seek to update this from his friends or professionals.

MODELS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

A model is a simplified representation of a real phenomenon. Model of Consumer Behavior can be expressed verbally or algebraically, but in some cases they take the form of elaborate mathematical form or flow chart. For example, consumption C is a function of income Y, or C =F (Y).

All Marketers, in collecting, analyzing and interpreting data, use MODELS as a basis for the systematic study of Consumer Behavior. They are interested in understanding the decision processes involved and the relationship between or among the variables that affect consumer decision-making processes.

Consumer Behavior models are concerned with the relationships between inputs into the buying decision, and resultant outcome. This outcome may be positive or negative, a decision to make purchase, or decision to reject a product or service. In dealing with consumers, marketers are confronted with a variety of response possibilities and countless environmental variables.

MODELS CLASSIFICATION

Models of Consumer Behavior can be classified under three broad headings:

1. Black box models; which take no account of the mental processes involved in decision taking, and internal variables are ignored.

2. Personal variable models; which are primarily concerned with internal psychological variables and take no account of external environmental variables.

3. Comprehensive models; which aim to include all categories of variables that have an influence on Consumer Behavior. This model takes both the personal and environmental variables into account. They include the so-called "grand models" such as those put forward by Howard and Sheath, Engel, Kollat and Blackwell, Nicosia.

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