Continue factors of consumer buyer behaviour

Psychological factors

A person’s buying choices are further influenced by four important psychological factors: motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes.

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A motive or drive is a need that is pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction. psychologist have developed theories of human motivation. Two of the theories that I have learned during my marketing lesson are the their of Sigmund Freud and Abraham Maslow.

Freud’s theory teaches us that people are largely unconscious of the real psychological forces shaping their behaviour. He sees the person as growing up and repressing many urges. These urges are never eliminated or under control, they emerge in dreams in neurotic and obsessive behaviour.

Maslow has looked at why one person spends so much time and energy on personal safety and another on gaining the esteem of others. Maslow’s answer is that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy, from the most important to the least important needs.

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Perception is the process by which people select, organise and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world. Everybody can form different perceptions of the same stimulus because of the three perceptual processes: selective attention, selective distortion and selective retention.

Learning describes changes in an individual’s behaviour through from experience.

A belief is a descriptive thought that a person has about something, for example a product. An attitude describes a person’s relatively consistent opines and feelings toward an object or idea.

Hereby a description of how consumers personal characteristics and primary factors affect their buying decisions.

Consumer Behaviour

Consumer purchases are influenced by cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics.

Cultural factors
Have the deepest influence on consumers behaviour, the marketeers need to understand the role played by the buyers culture, subculture and social class.

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Culture is the most basic cause of person's want and behaviour , human behaviour is largely learned. Growing up in a society, a child learns basic values, perceptions want and behaviours from the family.

Sub culture is based on common life experiences and situations, sub culture include nationalities, religions, racial groups etc.

Social classes are society's relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interest and behaviours.

Social factors
A consumer's behaviour is also influenced by social factors, such as family , friends, reference groups, roles and status.

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Some are primary groups with whom there is regular but informal interaction, such as family, friends neighbours and fellow workers.

Reference groups are groups that serve direct or indirect points of comparison or reference in forming a person's attitudes or behaviour.

For example aspirational group, in one which the individual wishes to belong , as when some one idolises a famous person.

A person belongs to many groups but the person's position in each group can be defined in terms of both role and status.

A role consists of the activities that people are expected to perform according to the persons around them. Each role carries a status reflecting the general esteem given by the society.

Personal factors
A buyers decisions are also influenced by such as the buyer's age ,life-cycle stage, occupation, lifestyle and personal characteristics.

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Family life cycle divine the stages which family's pass though a period of time, based on model life ( love, marriage and then children)
Life style is a person's pattern of living as expressed in his or her activities, interest and opinions. The techniques of measuring lifestyles is known as psychographics, divided in three dimensions, known as AIO ( activities, interests and opinions)

1. Activities: stand for work, hobbies, vacation, entertainment, shopping, sports, etc.
   
2. Interests: Family, home, Job, community, fashion, food, etc.
   
3. Opinions: stand for politics, business, economics, education, , future, culture, etc.

Next week.............

Psychological factors, with the theory off Abraham Maslow( hierarchy of needs)

Marketing Mix

This week I learned about marketing strategy, marketing strategy is a process that allows an organization to concentrate its limited resources to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A marketing strategy should be centered around the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal.

The company identifies the total market, divides it into smaller segments, selects the most promising segments and focuses on serving them.

To determine which segments offer the best opportunity for achieving company objectives. Consumers are grouped in various ways based on geographic factors for example countries, regions, cities etc. Or in demographic factors (age, income, education) and Psycho graphic factors social classes, lifestyle.

A market segment exist out of people who respond the same way to marketing stimuli. Companies only focus on meeting the distinct needs of one or more market segments, if they don't they might be wasting their money.

Once the company has chosen its overall competitive marketing strategy, is ready to plan the details of the marketing mix. A marketing mix focuses on the product, price, place and promotion.

4 P's

1. Product means the totality of goods and services that the company offers, for example variety,quality, design, features, brand name etc.
   
2. Price is what the customers pay to get the product the discounts and payment period are also a part of the price.
   
3. Place includes company activities that make the product available to consumers (the channels, locations and transport)
   
4. Promotion are all the activities that communicate the merits of the products and persuade the consumers about the company and the products.( advertising, promotion, publicity)

Marketing Lesson

Continue
To explain the this definition, I will examine the following important terms: needs wants and demands. Following the products, quality and satisfaction, relationships and the markets.

This is picture above shows these core marketing concepts are linked, with each concept building on the one before it.

The first stage of the circle describes Needs, wants and demands. When we speak of Needs we include basic physical needs for food, clothing, warmth and safety. Social needs for belonging and affection and individual needs for knowledge and self-expression. This is not invented by marketers but they are a basic part of the human. When a need is not satisfied, a person will:

• Look for an object that will satisfy it or
• Try to reduce the need

Wants are the form human needs take as they are shaped by culture and individual personality. For example a hungry person in Hong Kong may want a bowl of noodles, but a hungry person in The Hague may want a ham or cheese roll. As a society evolves the wants of its members expand, as people are exposed to more objects arouse their interest and desire. To fulfill the wants producers try to provide more want-satisfying products and services.

People have narrow basic needs but almost unlimited wants, however they also have limited resources. So they will choose products that provide the most satisfaction for their money.
When backed by an ability to pay, that's called 'the buying power' wants become demands.

A product is anything that can be offered t a market to satisfy a need or want. Product is not limited to physical objects, such a s a phone, car, television it also includes services for example banking, repair services and an airline.

Customer value is the difference between the values the customer gains from owning and using a product and the costs of obtaining the product. And customer satisfaction depends on a products performance in delivering value relative to a buyer expectations.

The next step in the circle that I think is interesting is relationship marketing. Its important to work on a long-term relationship with valued customers, distributors, dealers and suppliers. The company achieve this through consistently delivering high quality products, good services and fair prices.

Market is the set of actual and potential buyers of a product, these buyers share a particular need or want. Originally the term market stood for the place where buyers and sellers gathered to exchange their goods, such as a village square.

Marketing Education In the Netherlands

Hello all students,
I am a student at the University of Holland, I would like to tell you about my education in Holland. And would like to hear back from marketing students, so we can compare the studies.

I am studying commercial economics, I hope to learn all aspects of getting goods and services to the consumer.
I will learn how to do a market research, advertise and how to present a "new"product. I will also learn allot about distribution policy, pricing, business economics, sociology and psychology.

I would like to tell you about my lesson last week so you can get a good sense of what I learn on a week to week bases.

The first thing our teacher asked us all was "What is marketing?"

Many people think of marketing only as selling and advertising. But is should be seen as satisfying customer needs. Marketing starts long before a company has a product. Marketing is the homework that managers undertake to assess needs, measure their extent and intensity and determine whether a profitable opportunity exists.
Marketing doesn't end their it continues throughout the product's life, trying to find new customers and keep current customers by improving product appeal and performance, learning from product sales results and managing repeat performance.

We define marketing as: a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want though creating and exchanging products and value with others.