Significant factors include past experiences, a variety of cognitive biases, an escalation of commitment and sunk outcomes, individual differences, including age and socioeconomic status, and a belief in personal relevance. These things all impact the decision making process and the decisions made.
- Step 1: Identify the decision. You realize that you need to make a decision.
- Step 2: Gather relevant information.
- Step 3: Identify the alternatives.
- Step 4: Weigh the evidence.
- Step 5: Choose among alternatives.
- Step 6: Take action.
- Step 7: Review your decision & its consequences.
The 5 stages which a consumer often goes through when they are considering a purchase: problem or need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase behavior.
Internal influences basically come from consumers own lifestyle and way of thinking. These are consumers' personal thoughts, self-concepts, feelings, attitudes, lifestyles, motivation and memory (Kotler, 2002). These internal influences can also be known as psychological influences.
Three major categories of influences affect the consumer buying decision process: situational, psychological, and social. Situational influences are external circumstances or conditions existing when a consumer makes a purchase decision.
To influence consumers' decisions about purchasing a product or service, companies need to understand their requirements and identify how to deliver a marketing message that appeals to them. Many businesses believe that they can use social media to influence or change the way customers think.
Problem recognitionThe first step of the consumer decision-making process is recognizing the need for a service or product. Need recognition, whether prompted internally or externally, results in the same response: a want.
As we discussed, the decision-making process for consumers is anything but straightforward. There are many factors that can affect this process as a person works through the purchase decision. The number of potential influences on consumer behavior is limitless.
Factors Influencing Individual Behavior
- Abilities.
- Gender.
- Race and culture.
- Attribution.
- Perception.
- Attitude.
Internal influences relate to the consumer's learning and socialization, motivation and personality, and lifestyle. External influences deal with factors outside the individual that have a strong bearing on personal behaviors. Figure 4.2 A model of consumer behavior.
Determinants of Consumer Behaviour (With Diagram)
- Personal income:
- Family income:
- Consumer income expectations:
- Consumer liquid assets:
- Consumer credit:
- The level of standard of living:
- Motivation:
- Perception:
Significant individual factors that affect the ethical decision-making process include personal moral philosophy, stage of moral development, motivation, and other personal factors such as gender, age, and experience.
Learning is considered to have a psychological influence on consumer behavior, along with motivation and personality, perception, values, beliefs, and attitudes and lifestyle. Types of learning include: Simple non-associative learning (habituation and sensitization) Associative learning.
How do emotions affect purchasing decisions? emotions affect purchasing decisions because say for example you are at the grocery store. If you are hungry you are more likely to buy more food compared to ifyou weren't hungry you wouldn't buy as much food. That's why people say not to goto the grocery store hungry.
Culture influences what feels right, normal and desirable. Retailers that ask consumers to swim against the social current are making it harder for the consumer to choose their services. It's usually better practice to make it possible and easy for consumers to choose your product within their cultural comfort zone.
Social media can build brand attitudes that affect buying behavior. The good image of brand or product can lead the consumer to make decision on their purchases. Another study shows that social media allows consumers and Page 6 prospective consumers to communicate directly to a brand representative.
