Consumer behavior is influenced by internal, external, and marketing factors, including peer pressure, social acceptance, and brand recognition. Advertising plays a significant role in shaping consumer perception, while regional and ethnic differences also impact purchasing decisions. People tend to buy what they know or trust, even if there are cheaper or equally effective alternatives.
Influences on consumer behavior would simply be defined in a logical and pragmatic world. A person requests a particular item, identifies his budget, looks for the best price and makes a purchase. Much to the delight of manufacturers, marketers and advertising companies, a logical and pragmatic world is virtually non-existent. Influences on consumer behavior include peer pressure, product name recognition, social acceptance, and the desire for instant gratification. Actual need is a factor, but is often at the low end of the purchasing scale.
Influences on consumer behavior can probably be categorized as either internal, external, and marketing. Within each of these broad categories, there are countless sub-categories. Ultimately, as money changes hands in exchange for goods or services, consumer behavior revolves around perception, need, desire, self-image, or any possible combination of these.
Advertising probably plays the most important role in determining influences on consumer behavior. A consumer’s choices are greatly influenced by the presentation of a product, and in media-driven cultures such presentations are inevitable. In countries where advertising and the media are not a constant companion, consumers often contract merchants and shopkeepers for products and prices. Need and convenience take precedence over the impression created by advertising. Conversely, the shopper inundated with advertising images of a product often buys because they want to see themselves as part of that image.
The internal factors that determine the influences of consumer behavior are sometimes based not on the financial activities of the individual, but on the perception of an economy as a whole. In good times, people have a tendency to spend; in bad times, people lean towards saving. Internal influences can also be attributed to regional and ethnic differences.
If the majority of people in a region or neighborhood have traditionally bought a specific brand of beer or spaghetti sauce, sales of the product will generally remain constant. This isn’t because brands are necessarily better, cheaper, or healthier. It is because purchasing the same items as his or her peer group makes a person feel that they are a part of the surrounding culture or social fabric. People like the security of a group and even the simplest actions can add to that feeling of belonging.
External influences on consumer behavior often revolve around marketing and name recognition. In reality, brand name product ingredients are virtually indistinguishable from generic product ingredients. This is especially true with over-the-counter drugs, a line of products in which ingredients must meet certain legal standards. Even if a person realizes this fact, they will usually buy the brand whose name is most familiar.
That the price of painkiller A is double the price of the identical painkiller B makes little difference. A person tends to buy what he knows or trusts, even when the alternative is just as safe or effective. The same decision-making process can be applied to products ranging from cars to televisions to jeans to bananas.
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