
3 Primary Factors Affecting the Consumer Decision Making Process
- 1. Sociological Factors Social and cultural factors can affect the everyday decisions people make. Friends, family, culture and generations are significant and can affect the findings on our purchases. ...
- 2. Psychological Factors Motivation, perception, emotions and beliefs are psychological factors that influence consumers’ decisions. ...
- 3. Personal Factors
How do factors influence the decision making process of consumers?
Several factors influence the decision-making process of consumers. The way the product is marketed, how consumers think, what situations they are put into, and how society runs all impact consumers’ decisions to buy. Understanding what influences and persuades consumers to buy can help any business boost their sales and marketing spend in the right direction.
What is the basis of social factors that influence consumer behavior and affect buying decisions?
Culture – the basis of social factors that influence consumer behavior and affect buying decisions. Culture can be as small as a reference group or as big as the country in which you live, or the religion you practice.
What are the three components of attitudes?
Attitudes – a person’s enduring evaluation of his or her feelings about behavioral tendencies toward an object or idea, consists of three components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral . Cognitive reflects what a person believes to be true. Affective reflects what a person feels about the issue at hand – his or her like or dislike of something. Behavior al comprises the actions a person takes concerning the issue at hand. Marketers can change consumers’ attitudes through persuasive communications and personal experiences.
What is perception in marketing?
Perceptions – how consumers select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world. Marketing influences our acquisition and consumption of goods and services through our tendency to assign meaning to such things as color, symbols, taste, and packaging.
What is product in marketing?
Product – a product or service that a consumer decides whether it satisfies his or her needs or wants. Marketers emphasize the differentiation in their product to help influence consumers’ decisions.
Why is it important to have control over family buying decisions?
Family – many purchase decisions are made about products or services that the entire family will consumer or use therefore, consumers often consider the needs of all family members. Children and adolescents play an increasingly important role in family buying decisions so, it’s vitally important to have control over influencing this group.
What are the factors that influence the way people receive a marketing message?
These factors include motives, attitudes, perceptions, learning, and lifestyle.
How do people influence consumer decisions?
Consumer’s wants, learning, motives etc. are influenced by opinion leaders, person’s family, reference groups, social class and culture. All these factors play an important role in consumer’s decision process. People mean all human actors who play a part in service delivery and thus influence the consumer’s perceptions and attitudes through their own behaviours and attitudes (Wilson 2010). People who are effectively involved in service delivery can help consumers through the decision making process, can reinforce an existing brand image and increase consumers purchase and re-purchase intentions.
What is the second stage of consumer decision making?
This is the second stage in consumer decision process. During this stage the consumer who has recognised the need, search for information to satisfy the need. A consumer can collect the information from many sources. For example, these might be
What is the CDP model?
According to Blackwell, Miniard and Engel (2006) the Consumer Decision Process (CDP) model, represents a road map of consumer’s minds that marketers and managers can use to help guide product mix, communication, and sales strategies. The model captures the activities that occur when decisions are made in a schematic format and shows how internal and external forces interact to affect how consumers think, evaluate and act.
How many characteristics should be in an ad?
According to Kotler and Armstrong 2004, there should be three main characteristics in the ads to get customers’ attention.
Why is it important to have a strong belief in a product?
Marketers are interested in formulating strong beliefs about their product in the consumers because these beliefs make up product and brand images that affect buying behaviour.
What is the assignment on Coca Cola?
The assignment focuses on attitudes and behaviour on the concept of the consumer’s buying behaviour towards coca-cola, different consumers have got different decision making process. The buyer’s ultimate goal is to buy the product with low/best affordable price.
Why is branding important?
Branding has become so strong that today hardly anything goes unbranded. Brand names help consumers identify product which might benefit them; they also tell the buyer something about the product quality. Consumers who always buy the same brand know that they will always get the same features, benefits and quality.
What are the factors that determine the degree of involvement in a consumer?
Several factors exist that determine the degree of involvement consumers have in making a decision. Some of them are as under: Personal Factors : The degree of involvement tends to be higher when the outcome of the decision affects the person directly. Personal factors include self-image, health, beauty, or physical condition.
What are the factors that influence the degree of active reasoning?
These are: 1. Involvement. The degree of personal involvement is a key factor in shaping the type of decision process that consumers will be followed. Involvement is the level of perceived personal importance ...
What are perceived risks?
Many types of perceived risks have been identified, including physical (risk of bodily harm), psychological (especially, a negative effect on self-image), performance (fear that the product will not perform as expected), and financial (risk that outcomes will lead to loss of earnings).
What happens when perceived risk becomes unacceptably high?
When perceived risk becomes unacceptably high, there is motivation either to avoid purchase and use altogether or to minimize risk through the search and pre-purchase alternative evaluation stages in extended problem solving.
Buying Task
The buying task refers to the consumer's approach to solving a particular problem and how much effort it requires.
Market Offerings
The available market offerings are another relevant set of situational influences on consumer problem solving. The more extensive the product and brand choices available to the consumer, the more complex the purchase decision process is likely to be.
Demographics
Demographics are an important set of factors that marketers should not overlook when trying to understand and respond to consumers. Demographics include variables such as age, gender, income level, educational attainment, and marital status. Each of these can have a strong influence on consumer behavior.
Life Stage
Linked to demographics is the concept of life stage: consumer behavior is tied to the significant life events and circumstances people are experiencing at any given moment.
Lifestyle
One of the newer and increasingly important set of factors that's being used to understand consumer behavior is lifestyle. In this context, "lifestyle" refers to the potential customer's pattern or being or living in the world combined with his or her psychographics (a set of attitudes, opinions, aspirations, and interests).
Personality
Personality is used to summarize all the traits of a person that make him or her unique. No two people have the same personalities, but several attempts have been made to classify people with similar traits. Perhaps the best-known personality types are those proposed by Carl Jung, which are variations on the work of Jung's teacher, Sigmund Freud.
Consumer Decisions and the Workings of the Psyche
When we talk about psychological factors that influence consumer decisions, we are referring to the workings of the mind or psyche: motivation, learning and socialization, attitudes and beliefs.
How do reference groups influence individual buying behavior?
Few reference groups influence individual’s buying behavior by rewarding behavior that meet certain standards like particular dress code. For example, the reference group of workers in a factory might define the appropriate dress code including hat and shoes and criticize those who violate the dress code.
What is consumer lifestyle?
Consumer Lifestyle: Lifestyle refers to how people in a particular area live, how they spend their day-to- day routine, how much they spend, what activities they accomplish, what type of relations they have with others and their behavior & thinking about the world in which they live.
How does social change affect people?
Any major social change in the society may have its impact on people’s lifestyles. For example, as the people become highly educated, more affluent, their lifestyles change drastically upward. They feel the need for a good house, vehicle and education of their children.
How do cultural factors affect consumer decisions?
Cultural factors have a subtle influence on a consumer’s purchasing decision process. Since each individual lives in a complex social and cultural environment, the kinds of products or services they intend to use can be directly or indirectly be influenced by the overall cultural context in which they live and grow.
What are the factors that consumers consider?
The consumers consider various things like the characteristics of the product, price charged, availability of the product at the required location and much more. 4. Personal Factors. The personal factors include age, occupation, lifestyle, social and economic status and the gender of the consumer. These factors can individually or collectively ...
What are the factors that affect consumer buying behaviour?
When it comes to the psychological factors there are 4 important things affecting the consumer buying behaviour, i.e. perception, motivation, learning, beliefs and attitudes. 6. Social Factors. Social factors include reference groups, family, and social status. These factors too affect the buying behaviour of the consumer.
What is the role of functional factor in buying?
2. Functional Factor. The factor is totally about needs, backed by a logic that what makes sense and also fits in the best interest of the customer. This one factor also plays a very important role in the buying decision. 3.
What are cultural factors?
These Cultural factors include race and religion, tradition, caste and moral values. Consumer behaviour can indicates different things like how individuals or groups choose to buy, use and dispose goods or services, to satisfy their needs and desires.
Why is economic factor important?
This one is the main foundation of any purchasing decision. The reason is simple people can’t buy what they can’t afford . The need of a product also doesn’t play a role here, but the most important thing is affordability.
What are the components of a marketing mix?
There are 4 components in the marketing mix, i.e. product, pricing, promotion and place of distribution and each of these components have a direct or indirect impact on the buying process of the consumers.
What is the major element of a consumer's buying decision process?
A major element of a consumer's buying decision process is the level of problem solving that the consumer exhibits in the process. The level of involvement is higher for some purchases than for others. The marketer will want to tailor the marketing message according to the perceived level of involvement the consumer will have.
How many steps are there in the consumer process?
Unwittingly, most consumers follow a defined process when purchasing goods and services. This process includes six steps, and the marketer must understand where the consumer is in this process in order to be successful with his or her marketing strategies.
What is the role of marketers in the consumer?
Marketers are concerned with the behaviors consumers exhibit and the decisions they make when purchasing a product or service. Likewise, they are concerned with the decision-making processes that change over time. A consumer's self-concept is also important to marketers.
What do marketers use to understand consumers?
Marketers often use principles and theories from sociology and psychology to better understand#N#consumers' actions and#N#A. to develop basic strategies for dealing with their behavior .#N#B. to contribute to the theoretical knowledge in those discipline s.#N#C. to avoid cultural reference group problems .#N#D. to maximize postpurchase cognitive disson ance.#N#E. to satisfy ritual consumption needs while avoiding overconsumption.
What does "d" mean in consumer?
D. a consumer recognizes an unsatisfied need.

Marketing Mix
- Marketers focus on multiple areas to increase the appeal of their product or service. The marketing mix includes the four Ps: product, price, placement, and promotion. Product– a product or service that a consumer decides whether it satisfies his or her needs or wants. Marketers emphasize the differentiation in their product to help influence consumers’ decisions. Price– wha…
Psychological Factors
- The way people receive a marketing message is influenced tremendously by different psychological factors. These factors include motives, attitudes, perceptions, learning, and lifestyle. Motives– a need or want that is strong enough to cause the person to seek satisfaction. When a need is not satisfied, it motivates us, or drives us, to get satisfaction. Marketers can motivate co…
Social Factors
- External factors from the social environment such as family, reference groups, and culture all influence a consumer’s decision to buy. Family– many purchase decisions are made about products or services that the entire family will consumer or use therefore, consumers often consider the needs of all family members. Children and adolescents play an i...
Situational Factors
- Factors specific to the situation that sometimes override or at least influence the other two factors, psychological and social issues. Purchase situation– customers might be predisposed to purchase certain products or services because of some underlying psychological trait or social factor, but these factors may change in certain purchase situations. For example, Lucy consider…