Consumer Behaviour Theory - Approaches & Models

Consumer behaviour is the study of how individual customers, groups or organizations select, buy, use, and dispose ideas, goods, and services to satisfy their needs and wants. It refers to the actions of the consumers in the marketplace and the underlying motives for those actions. According to Engel, Blackwell, and Mansard, "consumer behaviour is the actions and decision processes of people who purchase goods and services for personal consumption". According to Louden and Bitta, "consumer behaviour is the decision process and physical activity, which individuals engage in when evaluating, acquiring, using or disposing of goods and services".

1 Consumer behaviour: those actions directly involved in obtaining, consuming, and disposing of products and services, including the decision processes that precede and follow these actions (Engel et al, 1995:G3)

Chapter 1 provided an overview of the area of research for this study, by identifying, among others, the objectives of the study together with the importance attributed to the study. This chapter will focus on the area of consumer behaviour by first considering a number of human behavioural models and the commonalities thereof with consumer behaviour, impacting the marketing field of study. Once the human behavioural models have been addressed, the chapter will focus on models of consumer behaviour.

Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy their needs and wants. It is also concerned with the social and economic impacts that purchasing and consumption behaviour has on both the consumer and wider society. Consumer behaviour blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, marketing and economics, especially behavioural economics. It examines how emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behaviour. Characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, personality lifestyles and behavioural variables such as usage rates, usage occasion, loyalty, brand advocacy, willingness to provide referrals, in an attempt to understand people's wants and consumption are all investigated in formal studies of consumer behaviour. The study of consumer behaviour also investigates the influences, on the consumer, from groups such as family, friends, sports, reference groups, and society in general. [3]

International Journal of Education Humanities and Social Science

The purpose of this study is to present the evolution of theories that have influenced consumer buying decision processes in a unique way. Consumer behaviour is the study of how individual customers or groups of organisations, select, buy, use, and dispose ideas, goods and services to satisfy their needs and wants. Marketers use theories of consumer behaviour to explain how consumers behave and to segment the market for consumers. Marketers make use of several theories of consumer behaviour, namely, traditional theories and contemporary theories. Traditional theories are based on economic principles or experiences of marketers, whereas modern theories are associated with empirical results. The concept of empirical means something that can be observed or measured. The theory of consumer behaviour is an explanation of facts in an orderly manner. However not all theories of consumer behaviour are good or sound. A sound theory of consumer behaviour describes both behaviour and the natur...

Chapter 1 provided an overview of the area of research for this study, by identifying, among others, the objectives of the study together with the importance attributed to the study. This chapter will focus on the area of consumer behaviour by first considering a number of human behavioural models and the commonalities thereof with consumer behaviour, impacting the marketing field of study. Once the human behavioural models have been addressed, the chapter will focus on models of consumer behaviour.

Consumer behaviour can be defined as the decisions and actions taken by the consumers which influence their purchasing behaviour. Consumers' response to external stimulus either in form of marketing strategies or personal, economic and social attributes and their decision and buying behaviour is largely affected by this stimulus. It is thus, an inter-disciplinary social science that draws upon the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, sociology and marketing apart from economics. Therefore, many marketers often believe that a clear understanding of the buying behaviour of the consumers helps to analyse both past, present and future market scenario. The examination of the economic theories is helpful in identifying the consumer behaviour from the perspective of utility, prices and other economic aspects. But they do not reflect the perceptions or attitude of a consumer towards a product. So, to understand the consumer behaviour, a more holistic approach is required, that involves economic, non-economic theories and the decision making models. This paper is an attempt to understand the economic and psychological theories that influences the consumer behaviour. Further, an attempt has been made to correlate the consumer behaviour theories and consumer decision making models to explain the factors affecting the buying decisions of the consumers.

Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services, including the consumer's emotional, mental and behavioural responses that precede or follow these activities. Consumer behaviour emerged in the 1940s and 50s as a distinct sub-discipline in the marketing area. Consumer behaviour is an inter-disciplinary social science that blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, ethnography, marketing and economics, specially behavioural economics. It examines how emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behaviour. Characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, personality lifestyles and behavioural variables such as usage rates, usage occasion, loyalty, brand advocacy, willingness to provide referrals, in an attempt to understand people's wants and consumption are all investigated in formal studies of consumer behaviour. The study of consumer behaviour also investigates the influences, on the consumer, from groups such as family, friends, sports, reference groups, and society in general. The study of consumer behaviour is concerned with all aspects of purchasing behaviour-from pre-purchase activities through to post-purchase consumption, evaluation and disposal activities. It is also concerned with all persons involved, either directly or indirectly, in purchasing decisions and consumption activities including brand-influencers and opinion leaders. Research has shown that consumer behaviour is difficult to predict, even for experts

2007

The essential component of human behavior, the consumer's behavior restrictively, reflects people's conduct when it comes to buying and / or consuming material goods and services. At large, it comprises the entire conduct of the final user of material and immaterial goods. The study of the behavior of the consumer is vital for an enterprise in the motivation of the consequences that it carries along regarding all the decisions of marketing : the positioning of the brands, the segmentation of the markets, the development of new products, advertising strategies of distribution etc. The analysis of the consumer's behavior, because of the fundamentally different nature of the acts and processes of decision that compose it, is characterized by its multidisciplinary origin. Thus, economy, such as psychology, sociology, anthropology permitted the laying of the conceptual foundations of the actual knowledge in this domain. Even though the interdisciplinary character of the consumer's behavior investigations is recognized, there are, however, numerous points of view in the specialty literature that plead for the autonomization of this domain. This thing doesn't impose though its separation from the marketing studies.