Every Company wants to recognise themself as a brand. A brand is something that you own, that nobody can take away from you and you can cash it out based on that. Today every company is thinking and wants to make their name a brand, a global brand that helps them to connect with their prospect in a better way. For example when someone says smartphone what did you think of samsung, Apple, MI, Oppo, Vivo. Let us change the question a little bit. When someone says Luxury smartphone you properly think of Apple and Samsung. It takes a lot of efforts to make a company a brand that people recognise and admire.

-Today every Company around the globe wants to build a strong brand Image in the mind of the consumers by positioning their Brand in the mind of consumer and market in such a way that helps them to grow.

It is a widely known fact that it is hard to gain and cost more than a new customer than to retain an existing customer. Today’s Companies around the globe are determined to build brand loyalty of consumers toward their brand through numerous activities,s schemes. As a number of studies have been conducted in the past times that proved the impact of the brand positioning and brand loyalty on the consumer behaviour. In order to achieve their objective they need to understand the behaviour and action of their consumers and also what leads to that particular behaviour and how can you influence them.

What is consumer behaviour in marketing:-

Consumer behaviour is the study of the consumers which can be classified as the Individual,Group, Organisations their decisions toward a particular product or Service from the stage when they first thought about it to their consumptions and disposal.

In simple words we can say that it is the study of how consumers make decisions, identify their needs,desires and act on them and the way they satisfy them and the behaviour that they exhibit throughout the process is known as the consumer behaviour.

The term consumer is used for the Individual as well as the organization consumer’s but more specifically end users.

Every Individual behaves differently in different situations and thus it is not easy to depict the behaviour of the consumer. Consumer behaviour is an interdisciplinary study that means it draws a number of concepts from the various subjects such as psychology,ethnography, social science, Social anthropology, economics, marketing to name a few in order to understand the behaviour of the consumers.

Consumer Behaviour helps us to understand the actions of the consumers and the process that undergoes during the consumption and selection of the goods. It helps us to examine how the emotions, attitude, personal choices, demographics, preferences, personality affect the behaviour of the consumers. It also helps us to understand the usage rate, why people recommend certain brands over others, their brand loyalty and alot more.

There are 5 factors that influence consumer behaviour such as:-

1. Cultural Factors:- Cultural factors such as buyer culture, subculture, and social class. have a deep impact on the consumer behaviour at subconscious level of the consumer. Basically culture is an integral part of every society and has a great impact on the choices made by the people under certain cultures. 

The impact of the culture varies from the country to the country, so it is a challenge for the marketer to understand the culture of that reason before designing something, in order to understand the behaviour of the consumers of that particular locality. to understand it better let us take an help of the example how the culture can have an impact on the behaviour of the consumer. 

Let us take an example of India do you known that In india majority of the population in vegetarian, what would possibly the reaon behind that, the answer is the simple Culture, as culture have an infulenced on our bhaviour, if you go to a bhraman family in india you will find that they are a hardcore vegetarian and they donot even prefer sometimes to have link or go to places where non veg is served on other hand if you go to a bengoli family they are very much found of the non veg, and this all because of the culture.

Even Big MNC Companies when plan to enter a new market take a considerable look at culture of that particular space in order to ensure that, they succeed that’s why in MCDonald you don’t find a beef Burger because of the Belief of the Indian and their culture as they treat the cow as their mother.

2. Social Factors:- We all know that man is a social animal and that’s true and probably the reason why the social factor has a significant effect on the behaviour of the consumers. 

Consumer behaviour helps us to analyse the impact of the social factors on the consumer need and preferences there are a number of social factors such as the family, reference groups, role models, social class, society to name a few. 

Family being the most important as one in contact of their family since birth and the decision you make is determined based on background of your family Their Financial capabilities, social class you belong to, friends you hang out with and the groups you follow all these have a significant influence on the consumer behaviour, why do you think companies provide millions to the advertisement companies and brand ambassadors. 

Just think of the last time you decided to buy something and you asked for your friend’s recommendation or seeked your family approval.

3. Personal Factors:- Social and cultural factors have a significant impact on one’s behaviour and buying decision nut we cannot deny the fact and the impact that personal factors have on one’s buying decisions. 

As personal factors are not related to thinking outside you but are related to the things that are inside you, the things that are related to the buyer itself. you might buy something that you wanted to buy might be because of your favorite color or because of the design that you liked. 

These factors include the age of the buyer, life stage of the buyer, Occupation of the buyer,lifestyle of buyer, personality of the buyer, Gender of the buyer, Self Concept(What one thinks about himself) and a lot other factors. Since these personal factors have a great importance and impact on one’s choices and the buying  behaviour. For Example there are various products and services that target only a specific Gender or type of person based on the personal factors.

4. Psychological Factors:- There are various psychological factors that have a significant impact on the consumer behaviour during the buying process. 

There are a total four psychological factors that affect consumer behaviour : perception,Motivation,Beliefs and attitude and Learning. All these have a significant impact on the buying process.

Perception refers to how someone views something, a product or service, it forms based on the past experience or the way you understand and interpret information. It can be positive or negative. 

We all have a perception toward different products, brands and humans and we act according to what we believe. 

For example if you have a perception toward a brand that the product of this brand does nor work well then you might avoid buying that particular brand and on their hand if you have a positive perception toward  a brand you might be ready to pay even a little extra for it. 

Motivation also affects the behaviour of the consumer, Every person has different needs and one tends to buy products or services toward which they are more motivated.

Beliefs and Attitude refers to the way one thinks about a particular product or brand and alsi helps to build a brand Image in the mind of the consumers.

Learning refers to the way one learns about a product or a service throughout the process of the buying journey.

5. Economic Factors:- Mony remains one of the most important factors that have impact on buying behaviour of the consumers. As the income increases or decreases so do the social class, status and the choices of the individuals.

Every Consumer is different and so do they behave differently. Different consumers tend to behave differently even if they are thrown into the same situation.

Consumer Decision Making Process:-

As we know that every consumer is different and whenever a situation arises they behave differently. There is a process that the Consumers follow before making any decision and this can be stated as defined in 6 stages, starting from the Need/Problem recognition, Information Search, Evaluation of alternative, Purchase Decision,Purchase, Post purchase behaviour.

Every one of have different needs and these needs make us to make different Decisions and act upon them differently we try our level best to satisfy those needs and that do the marketer try their level best in order to satisfy our need by understanding them, our complex thinking process can be defined in these 6 steps, let us understand them one by one in detail.

a.) Need Recognition/Problem Identification:- Many call it a need or a problem but they are kind of the same things as the first step of anything is the need, we don’t act or buy some things unless a need arises. 

Need is the mother of inventions if we say that that might not be wrong, Best business are those which solve the need of the bigger population and that is true to some extent too. 

Whenever a need arises, there is an opportunity that lies inside it for somebody. The First step that leads to the consumer journey is need, when a consumer feels the need of something, they start to feel the gap between what they wanted and what they have and start to look for the option’s and solutions that can help to satisfy those needs.

For Example:- Suppose you need to buy a new smartphone, now there is something and somewhere inside you feel the need to have a smartphone and the their can be need of connecting with friends, Playing games, Capturing movements or something else, but first is that you feel a need to have a smartphone and then you try to fill that need through various methods.

b.) Information Search:- Once you had successfully identified the need, the next step is you look for ways to gather information that is relevant to you and helps you to fulfill the gap and satisfy your need, You look for various brands, products, people that can help you find the solution or provide solution of your current problem that you are facing right now, you collect information from various sources such as internet, Newspaper, television, References, friends and family, directories and much more.

Example:- In last step you found a need to have an smartphone and in this step you might be looking for the information about various alternatives that can help you to solve your problem through various sources such as consulting with your friends, reading blogs, watching videos, Going to vendors to look for various option available in the market.

c.) Evaluation of alternative:- Now you have gathered a lot of information about what you  need and various ways to fulfill the need, In this step you  might be looking to evaluate all the alternatives that you had found in the Information Search. 

You try to compare all the alternatives available and pick the best one that helps you to satisfy your needs, in the  best possible way and provide you maximum satisfaction. In this you might make a list of all the alternatives and compare them with each other.

Example:-  Now you have gained a lot of information about the smartphones such as what are the various brands that are available, their brand image, prices, functions and the various or leading smartphones that can satisfy your needs and in this stage you might be comparing all the alternatives. 

Suppose in the last step you came to know that the product you are looking for or can say the smartphone that you are looking for is currently provided by two leading brands Apple and Samsung and in this step you will try to evaluate all the alternatives available by comparing them with each other asking for expert recommendations and your friends, browsing internet to  name a few and choose the best alternative that suits best to your needs and budget.

d.) Purchase Decision:- In this step you finally make your mind whether you want to buy that particular product or service or not. Suroisingky it falls in the  midway of the purchase decision making process at this stage you still have an option to walk away. 

By this time you had a lot of information about the product and services available in the market, various brands that are offering that product and service, the functionality of the product, price, specifications, payment options and much more to name a few. 

By now you understand whether that product or service will solve your problem or satisfy the need. This is the time when you have to make a decision whether you want to proceed further or not. In case if the customer goes back at this stage then the way to bring him back is through retargeting the customer.

Example:- Now After the evaluation at this stage you finally decide, whether you want to continue with your decision or back off. You make your purchase decision, whether you want to buy or not.

If you decide to buy then you go to the next step otherwise sadly your journey ends here. Now suppose you decided to make a purchase decision to buy an apple latest smartphone Iphone 11 pro. 

e.) Purchase:- You had identified the gap/Need of a product or service, you had enough information by this time, you had done a lot of research about various offerings and you had evaluated the various alternatives and even made your mind to make a purchase. In this stage one finally makes the hard decision, That is to make a purchase after viewing many alternatives and evaluating them.

Even at this stage there are chances that you might lose your customer, so it is essential that you keep your marketing effort high at this stage too, as you might lose your customer at this stage.

Example:- Now as in the last step you made the decision to buy the apple iphone and at this stage you finally make a purchase of your smartphone.

f.) Post Purchase Decision:- This is the last step of anyone’s journey many think that when purchase is made the journey is over but that is not the case, there is still a process to journey a destination to reach as this can build or Destroy your brand. In this step the customer tries to evaluate whether they are satisfied with the choice they made, whether the product solves the problem they are facing, or whether they are satisfied with the product. This is essential as it builds brand loyalty and leads to increased revenues. Here we try to measure that the person is satisfied with the product and service or not and what can be done to improve their experience.

Example:- In the last step we purchase the new apple iphone and in this step we will try to evaluate whether the purpose has been fulfilled or not, whether you are satisfied with the product or not, the behaviour that you express after purchasing the product and service.

It’s essential for a company and a marketer to understand all those stages and understand in which stage the customer lies and how one can target and influence the customer based on the stage in which they are going through, understand their needs and problems and propose a solution that they cannot deny to have.

Importance of Consumer Behaviour:-

 Today there’s a lot of competition in the market and the only way to sustain is to stay ahead of the competition and understand the market before anyone else and take relevant action and satisfy the need of the consumer and If one want to satisfy the need of the consumer then they first must understand them, understand how they behave.

Everything around us is changing at a rapid rate and to keep yourself updated and relevant to consumer you to need to keep yourself updated, Here are some points that clearly define us why it is important for a company ,marketer to study consumer behaviour:-

a.) Consumer Behaviour helps you to differentiate consumers from one another that helps companies to target them based on their behaviour and characteristics.

b.) Consumer Behaviour helps you to retain your customer and make them loyal toward your brand as the game doesn’t end when the customer buys your product, but you win when he also uses and recommends it to others.

c.) Consumer behaviour study helps us to design the most relevant marketing stargerty by understanding their behaviour and telling us where to target as if you know their pain point you can offer them a solution to their pain point in your marketing effort which sounds more appealing and convincing.

d.) Consumer Behaviour study also helps you to analyze the future marketing trends and act upon them before they become obsolete or already used by your competitor. Which might provide you a first mover advantage.

e.) Consumer Behaviour can also help you analyse your competitors by analyzing the behaviour of your consumer, why do they buy from your competitor instead of you and what you can do better to be their first choice.

f.) Consumer Behaviour helps you to innovate, come up with new ideas that help you to solve the pain point of your consumers and customers.

g.) Consumer Behaviour study helps you to stay relevant to the market through regular analysis of the behaviour of the consumers and finding ways to please them.

h.) Consumer Behaviour helps companies to improve their customer service by understanding what matters most to their customer.