Buyer Behavior

Buyer Behavior

XIANGUANG LIN

7381922

Introduction

All over the world people will buy things every day. People will purchase goods in order to meet the demands of their physical and emotional. People spend their money on enjoying service and buying commodity, for themselves or their families use. When people buy goods，they always consider their demands on a daily basis, and sometimes people do some decisions of buying which will influence their living in future. All these decisions have effect for themselves, their families, their companions, the surrounding, the company people purchase mode, the staffs of those company. For marketers, consumers are the key to marketing, people cannot neglect consumer decision-making. This has great significance for marketers to understand the processes of people decision-making, it is central to make policy. According to Kotler (2008), consumer behavior study the process of people buy thing，then found what products they buy，the reason why people want，and what time they buy . This report is based on the analysis of consumer behavior. It includes introduction, the main body, conclusion and the reference list. In the main body, it will discuss consumer behavior, pro-environmental consumption, cultural values and social class. Each will be discussed in details. Thence, the objective of this report is to discuss how values and social class influence pro-environmental consumption.

Consumer behavior

The defined of consumer behavior is the process pf people receive, consuming, and disposing of things and services. （Blackwell et al. , 2001）. Obtaining is the activities of the guidance by which a consumer comes to own an offering. Consumers may search information about features and options of products and also the decision about the money and time. Secondly, consuming means where, when, how that products can be used by consumers. This is the core of consumer behavior. Thirdly, disposing can be illustrated as consumers how to deal with goods and packaging they have previously acquired. For example, eco-minded consumers may seek for products which are biodegradable and recycled when disposed of. Therefore, consumer behavior is a dynamic process that the sequence of acquisition, consumption and disposition can occur over time. Obviously, it can have great significance in marketers to comprehend the behavior of buyer and then implement marketing strategies and tactics, which can influence or change one or more dimensions of consumer behavior. Understanding better of consumer behavior can help companies to increase market shares and profits.

There are many factors that may affect consumer behavior. For example, customers who make decisions of buying can be influenced by internal and external factors (Koudelka 1997), distinguishing three basic categories: personal, psychological and social factors (Brown 2006). Dawson and Kim (2009) consider that inner factors consist of sense, attitude, motive, way of life and learning, which influence all people decision-making of purchasing. External factors are also known as social affect which  involve cultures, social standard, government，household structures and groups. They influence consumer behavior to make decisions of purchasing goods (Bennett, 2009). It has been illustrated that internal and eternal factors should be considered by marketers when implementing marketing strategies, which may help them sell and distribute goods for consumers who are really needs and wants.  This essay will discuss culture and social class from external influences which affect the consumer behavior.

Green consumption

Due to an increasing awareness of environmental protection, the concept of green consumption is popular by consumers globally. Green consumption refers to “three E” and “three R” that are Economical, Ecological, Equitable, reduce waste, Reuse and Recycle. It also the main form of sustainable consumption.  It can be seen that consumers who advocate environmental protection will behave in making-decision of purchasing goods. They are aware that it is customer duty for avoiding influence on environment and wasting resources (Nash, 2008; Lemos & Giacomucci, 2002). In other words, they know the most pro-environmental consumption is green consumption. (Liedekerke & Dubbink, 2008; Svensson &Wood, 2008). Hence, they tend to use products with lower environmental impacts (Pinto et al., 2014）, for example, all paper products, aluminum cans and plastic bottles on campuses are recycled, and all cleaning detergents have been changed to biodegradable products., recycled and use green energy. It can be argued that the consumer behavior of purchasing selection, product use and post-use reflect some degree of environmental-related motivation (Peattie, 2010) when consumers choose green consumption.  

However, according the Eurobarometer’s survey of consumers’ behavior (2013), a number of people do not realize the importance of green consumption. They will not consider environmental problem when consuming. In this report, it says 80% of consumers purchase green products. In this consumer who know green consumption, 54% of those people occasionally buy green products but only 26% of them are regular to buy green products. It means people cannot always purchase green products, probably because of many external factors such as culture values and social class.

Culture

Some researchers find that culture value is the key factor affect consumer behavior. Singh (2006) says that culture includes personal values, approach, faith and view. If a person’s culture demands the needs of people emotion, they want to protect their cultural values and beliefs. For example, McDonald used the service method in American consumers and they provide the same way in Indian consumers. However, this have negative influences on Indian consumer as their specific vegetarian culture values (Kotler, 2002). Therefore, it is failure for McDonald marketing strategy to occupy Indian market as it does not connect with culture factor and consumer behavior. In addition, according to Hofstede (2005), the value is the key element of culture. The forming process of the values is because of much of sense and thought has been achieve in the childhood(Hofstede，2005),when human was in babyhood, they gain knowledge from others  in his nation what is right and what is incorrect. As people get older, it turns into memories and livelihood experience, then they become the people basic values.

In addition, culture may affect consumer behavior through consumer’s habits, such as how many times to purchase goods. For example, in Paris, many people will go shopping and purchase food for their meal daily , however，in the United States, most of consumers buy their food once a week at supermarkets. It can be said that culture affects consumer behavior. Hence, when these little things are repeated daily, and formed into habits. Similarly, if people in their country advocate green and rational consumption, it will become a culture in their country. For instance, when people are in childhood，they learn many things about green consumption which may affect their consumer behavior.