Consumer behaviour

Consumer behaviour refers to the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society.

Overview

Consumer behaviour blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, marketing and economics, especially behavioural economics. It examines how emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behaviour. Characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, personality lifestyles and behavioural variables such as usage rates, usage occasion, loyalty, brand advocacy, willingness to provide referrals, in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, sports, reference groups, and society in general.

Decision making

The decision model situates the black box in a broader environment which shows the interaction of external and internal stimuli (e.g. consumer characteristics, situational factors, and marketing influences) on the consumer's decision making process. Black box model is based on input and output, where input is given by the firm and the output is the consumer behaviour.

Influences

Consumer behaviour is influenced by: the consumer's own personality and attitude, others' influence, consumer's perception, consumer's learning, and consumer's motivation. Other factors that may influence include the environment and the consumer's psychological state.

See also

• Marketing
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Economics

References

Consumer behaviour Resources
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