Paper Example. Consumer Buying Influences and Behavior

Consumer behavior can broadly be defined as the actions and decisions that influence the purchasing behavior of consumers (Zhang & Benyoucef, 2016). To pursue an effective marketing plan, a firm must clearly understand the factors that influence the buying behavior of consumers. Over the years, marketers have tried to analyze and understand what drives a consumer to choose a particular product. It is largely agreed that emotions and reasoning play a critical role in the purchasing process. Understanding consumer behavior not only helps push the current marketing agenda but can also be used to predict the future. Consumer analysis, consumer profile, as well as economic, social, and ecological factors, are some of the elements that must be analyzed to understand consumer buying influences and behavior.

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Consumer Analysis

Consumer analysis refers to the process of finding various information regarding the consumer, such as consumer needs, demographics, and psychographics. This information can be acquired through market research and can help in predicting consumer behavior as well as segmenting the market to adequately satisfy the different needs.

Demographics

Understanding the demographics of the target market is critical in marketing. Demographics refers to consumer factors such as race, age, gender, religion, family size, level of education, income, among others. These factors greatly influence product preferences as well as the purchasing behaviors of the consumers. Understanding demographics can also help firm target buyers with similar demographic characteristics and hence, help the firm maximize its sales and profits (Pooler, 2018). It can also help design marketing strategies. For instance, while premium products appeal to people with higher incomes, people with lower incomes are sensitive to price and hence prefer discounted products. Similarly, different products appeal to different age groups.

Psychographics

Psychographics refers to the factors regarding the personality, opinions, interests, attitudes, and lifestyles of the consumers. Psychographics is the most recent trend in the ever-evolving marketing field. Psychographics helps understand a person's interests in a more profound way than demographics. The information acquired from psychographics helps firms produce better-targeted products, which further supports the marketing agenda (Weinstein, 2015).

Consumer Profile

Though societal trends shape the buying patterns of consumers, various shades of priorities, likes, dislikes, values and morals, influence consumer behavior at a personal level. For instance, in dynamic industries such as personal care and fashion, the consumer's personal view about style is usually the dominant influencing factor. Though marketing strategies such as advertisement may change these factors, the influence of personal likes and dislikes on consumer behavior cannot be ignored.

Economic, Social, and Ecological Factors

The prevailing economic conditions in the market greatly influence the spending decisions made by consumers. Generally, a positive economic environment gives consumers more confidence to make purchases regardless of their financial liabilities. The purchasing power of the consumer is also a critical determinant of the consumer's buying behavior. Before deciding to buy a particular product or service, consumers analyze their purchasing power. Though a consumer might like a particular product, they might end up not buying it if the product is beyond their purchasing ability (Williams, Priest, and Anderson, 2016).

Identifying the economic factors that influence consumer buying behavior can help segment consumers according to their purchasing ability, which would, in turn, give better results for the organization. As mentioned earlier, society also has an impact on the purchasing behavior of an individual. For instance, one's family members, friends, classmates, and colleagues greatly influence buying decisions. The political, economic, competitive and technological environments also influence the purchasing behavior of consumers and hence must be incorporated in marketing strategies (Williams, Priest, and Anderson, 2016).

Conclusion

For an effective marketing plan, the influences of consumer behavior must be clearly understood. Some of the factors that influence consumer behavior have been discussed in this paper. Consumer analysis, especially regarding demographics and psychographics, has come out as a major influence on consumer behavior. General and individual economic well-being is among the major influences. Social and ecological factors also play a huge role.

References

Pooler, J. A. (2018). Demographic targeting: the essential role of population groups in retail marketing. Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351730327

Weinstein, A. (2015). Using Psychographics to Segment B2B Technology Markets: An Exploratory Study. The Sustainable Global Marketplace, 491-493. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10873-5_288

Williams, D. R., Priest, N., & Anderson, N. B. (2016). Understanding associations among race, socioeconomic status, and health: patterns and prospects. Health Psychology, 35(4), 407. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-14744-013

Zhang, K. Z., & Benyoucef, M. (2016). Consumer behavior in social commerce: A literature review. Decision Support Systems, 86, 95-108. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167923616300458