Consumer Buying Behavior

3 Pages 798 Words

Characteristics of Consumer Buying Behavior

When it comes to consumer buying behavior, consumer’s purchase for a couple of reasons. Usually final consumers purchase for personal, family, or household use. I think we first need to understand what consumer buying behavior actually is though. Consuming buying behavior is easily defined as the decision processes and acts of final household consumers associated with evaluating, buying, consuming, and discarding products for personal consumption.
We could look at an example of purchasing an automobile to illustrate my point. When it comes to buying a car, you generally will not consider different options until some event triggers a need, such as a problem needing potentially expensive repair. Once this need has put you out in the market, you begin to ask your friends for recommendations regarding dealerships and car models; at least this is what I do. After visiting several dealerships, you test drive several models and finally decide on a particular model. After picking up your new car, you have doubts on the way home, wondering if you can afford the monthly payments, but then begin to wonder if instead you should have purchased a more expensive but potentially more reliable model. Over the next five years, the car has several unexpected breakdowns that lead you to want to purchase a different brand, but you have been very happy with the services of the local dealership and decide to again purchase your next car there. In this particular case, the following model of consumer decision making appears to hold the following characteristics of buying behavior: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post purchase behavior.
To start, there are many group influences on consumer buying behavior. First, there is culture. Culture is basically the set of basic values, beliefs, norms, and associated behaviors that are learned by a mem...