Webology (ISSN: 1735-188X)

Volume 18, Number 1, 2021

A Conceptual Paper On Factors Influencing Consumer Buying

Behaviour

Rishi Gandhi1 , Dr. Praveen Choudhry2

1
Research Scholar, Vivekananda Global University.

2
Professor, Vivekananda Global University.

Abstract: In the last years, consumer behaviour and their decision-making process has
advanced and has become an important topic in the marketing society. this paper presents an
extensive review on the influencing factors on consumers behaviour and their buying decision-
making process in marketing. The marketing starts and finish with the consumer hence,
consumer purchasing decision taking shows how well the organizations’ marketing strategy
suits marketing demand. Consumer behaviour includes the psychological procedures which
consumers experience in understanding their requirements. Discovering patterns to rectify
these requirements, taking buying decisions for example, whether to purchase goods and
services and if so, which types of brands and where, interpret tips, making plans, and executing
these plans for example, with engaging in comparison shopping or real buying of products,
Totally, modern and professional marketing staffs try to know consumers and their responses,
therefore, analyses the essential traits of their behaviour.

Keywords: consumer behaviour, perception, culture, purchasing, family, personality, social.

Introduction: Consumer behaviour is a broad field of study. The consumer usually makes
daily purchase decisions for buying a product and many of the consumers don’t know the
factors that driving them to make these decisions on a specific product or services or brand.
Consumer behaviour consists of factors which affects on consumers buying behaviour. These
factors have distinct characteristics that can be divided into four categories: personal,
psychological, social and economic. The understanding about the factor affecting consumer
buying behaviour is very interesting, how an individuals or consumer influenced by the factors
which influenced him or her for purchasing a specific goods or services.
The field of consumer behaviour covers a lot of ground. According to Solomon (1996),
consumer behaviour is a study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select,
purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and
desires. Rural consuming system and its evolution are different from that of urban
consumption. Material prosperity in the rural India due to the effect of liberalization and
globalization resulted in increased production and improved transportation and communication
facilities. Increased rural development investment has increased the purchasing power of the
rural folks. The increased purchasing power changes the dynamics of rural consumption
behaviour. Thus, it is worth to examine how the rural consumers are being motivated, how far

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these determinants differ from urban consumers and how far the socio-economic cultural
factors are influencing the rural consumers. A thorough understanding of rural consumer
behaviour would help in identifying different market segments and to evolve suitable
marketing strategies for effectively penetrating and thereby to command a respectable share in
rural markets. In India the rural markets are spread over about 6 lakhs villages across 28 states.
Certain states like Bihar and Orissa are over dominated by rural characteristics. Other state like
Maharashtra and Gujarat are more urban oriented.

Types of Consumer Behaviour

1. Problem recognition
2. Information search
3. Evaluation of alternatives
4. Purchase decision
5. Post-purchase evaluation

The study of consumer behaviour recommends that consumers experience or go through five
steps of decision-taking process whenever want to make a purchase. However, in the routine
purchasing decisions, consumers commonly delete some or reverse some these steps. The
purchasing process starts with the need recognition. At this step, the purchasers identify a
problem or requirement, or react to a marketing stimulus. The second step is search for
information or how much consumers require information (if any) is needed, to take decision.
Information can be from internal resources like memory and experience that consumers have
or external information search from friends, relatives, family, through social media or from the
marketing staffs that can provide consumers the required information. If the requirement is
strong and product and service which fulfill the requirement is easily available, a buying
decision is likely to be made quickly. If this is not the case, the information search process
starts. A customer can acquire information from different resources: individual sources (family,
friends), commercial resources (advertising, packaging, retailers), and public resources
(magazines, newspapers, radio, Internet, television). The helpfulness and extent of effect of
each of these resources of information will differ by products and by consumers (Furaiji, et al,
2012). It does not produce value if the marketing staffs hold higher control over the information
that is supplied (or not supplied) to buyers, and the patterns that, information displays (Kivetz,
et al, 2000). In the assessment step the buyers are supposed to prefer among the possible
choice’s brands and products. A significant element of the degree of the assessment is whether
the buyers fell “involve” into products. A purchaser’ degree of involvement specifies why
she/he is encouraged to look for tips about a specific product or brands even though basically
avoid others. The degree of involvement, including additional components, influences a
person’s selection from one of three types of buyers purchasing behaviour: daily response
behaviour, limited decision taking, and lengthy decision taking (Pride, et al, 2007). In the Table
(2) is showing a comparison of types of behaviours. For, products and services that consumers
purchase frequently they use routine response behaviour. These products and services are low-
cost items and requires very little information to search and less decision efforts such
purchasing of milk, eggs, bread of socks) consumers for purchasing such mentioned products

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and services spend very less time to decide if they purchase these items and don’t usually
require to study reviews or guide with friends for their point of views before doing routine
purchases. However, consumers when face with the ethical goods and services, consumers
sometimes get included, and this consequences in a lengthier seeking for information
(Carrigan, et al, 2001; Zander, et al, 2011).

Factor affecting Consumer Buying Behaviour

The four main factors which affect the consumer buying behaviour are:
1) Personal factors
2) Psychological factor
3) Cultural and social factor
4) Economic factor

1) Personal factors
The first factor which affects the consumer buying behaviour is personal factor. The personal
factor consists of age &stages of life cycle, occupation, personality, lifestyle and values which
affects the consumer buying behaviour. These are the combination of both direct and indirect
personal factors. Out of these, some affects direct to the consumer buying behaviour and some
affects indirect to the consumer buying behaviour. The companies should focus on the personal
factor and it is usually applicable in the daily products as well as specific products. (Kotler &
Keller 2016,pp. 183; Kotler et al., 2017, pp. 147.)

1) Age and stages of life cycle

Consumer buying behaviour is always dynamic and change at the different stages of age and
different stages of life cycle or different stages of relationship. A person changes the taste of
buying goods at different ages of life. For example; A 70 years old man cannot buy a sport car
perhaps he can buy a family car. There are different ages which is segmented by the marketers,
which started from up to 12years, 13 to 18 years, 19 to 26 years, 27 to 35 years, 36 to 50years
and above 50 years. In these stages of age, the buying behaviour of a person changes
continuously. Theses age always affect the consumer buying behaviour throughout his life. The
second is different stages of life cycle. The different stage of life cycle or human relationship
includes marriage, divorce, having children, children going to college, retirement and so on.
The choices of consumer also change at different level of life. It may be occurred when a person
marring with someone, after the marriage, after having children and children going to college.
The companies often choose the target market for sell its products in the market as well as
creates marketing strategies based on different stages of age or life cycle of consumer.
Sometime, companies create its products on the basis of different stages of life cycle and/or
different ages of consumer. (Kotler et al., 2017, pp. 147.)

2) Occupation
Occupation is a kind of work performed in a job. The occupation concept is the “Set of jobs
whose main tasks and duties are characterized by a high degree of similarities”(N.A., 2012).
Occupation is a part of personal factor which affect the consumer buying behaviour.

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Companies should focus on occupation of consumer during the making of pricing of a product
or develop a product. Occupation includes doctors, engineers, teachers, businessman, drivers,
students and so on. A consumer occupation affects its buying behaviour towards any goods or
services. For instance; a businessman may buy more expensive goods or services as compare
to other professionals. (Kotler & Keller,2016, pp. 185; Kotler et al., 2017, pp. 148.)

3) Personality
According to Kotler, Personality refers the “the unique psychological characteristics that
distinguish a person or group. Personality is usually described in terms of traits such as self-
confidence, dominance, sociability, autonomy, defensiveness, adaptability and aggressiveness”
(Kotler et al., 2017, pp. 150.). When a consumer purchases a specific branded product instead
of other branded product, it indicates the personality of the consumer. Brands also have its own
personalities. Kotler & Keller defined the term “brand personality as the specific mix of human
traits that we can attribute to a particular brand” (Kotler & Keller,2016, pp. 185). Jennifer
Aaker identified in her research work “Dimension of measuring brand personality”, the five
brand personality traits:
1) Sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, wholesome and cheerful)
2) Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative and up-to-date)
3) Competence (reliable, intelligent and successful)
4) Sophistication (glamorous, upper class and charming)
5) Ruggedness (outdoorsy and tough) (Kotler et al., 2017,pp. 150.)Most of the marketers focus
on consumer personality and make strategies to influence the consumer towards its goods or
services. Personality is also one of the personal factors which affect the consumer buying
behaviour.

4) Lifestyle
Lifestyle is behaviour of a person living its own life with its own style in the world. Every
person has its own lifestyle for living life. Kotler defined the definition of lifestyle “a person
pattern of living as expressed in his or her activities, interests and opinions”. Lifestyle includes
activities, interests and opinions of a person. Activities refer to the person work, hobbies,
shopping, sports and social events. Interests refer the person eating food, fashion, family and
recreation. An opinion refers the person social issue and business product. Lifestyle of a person
creates a different image in the society. A customer doesn’t buy only a product, he buys a
lifestyle as well. The companies can take the advantages from the study of consumer lifestyle.
The companies can make the marketing strategy after the study of consumers lifestyle. The
companies can also make the product after the study of consumers lifestyle (Kotler et al.,2017,
pp. 149.). Lifestyle affect as a personal factor of the consumer buying behaviour.

2. Psychological factor:
The psychological factor also affects the consumer buying behaviour. It is also known as
internal factor (Ali & Ramya, 2016). Environment play an important role in the purchasing
process of consumer (Kotler & Keller, 2016, pp. 187). The peoples often influenced by the
other consumers purchase of goods or services. The “other consumer” might be a friend, family

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member, colleague and so on (Rani, 2014).Consumer can be excited for a new product which
introduced in the market, it is because of environment. Environment relates with psychology.
Some companies focus on this factor. The psychological factor includes four factors
motivation, perception, learning and memory.(Kotler & Keller, 2016, pp. 187)

3. Social factor:
The social factor is one of the most affected factor which affect on consumer buying behaviour.
The social factor includes the group, social network, online social network and family of a
person. The word-of-mouth is also a part of social factor which influenced the consumer buying
behaviour. Kotler defined the definition of Group “Two or more people who interact to
accomplish individual or mutual goals”. Kotler also said “Groups that have a direct influence
and to which a person belongs are called membership groups. In contrast, reference group serve
as direct (face-to-face interactions) or indirect points of comparison or reference in forming a
person’s attitudes or behaviour. People often are influenced by reference groups to which they
do not belong” (Kotler et al., 2017, pp. 144.). Kotler and Keller stated that “Some of these are
primary groups with whom the person interacts fairly continuously and informally, such as
family, friends, neighbours, and co workers. People also belong to Secondary groups, such as
religious, professional, and trade-union groups, which tend to be more formal and require less
continuous interaction”(Kotler & Keller, 2016, pp. 191).The word-of-mouth is s the strongest
factor which influence the consumer buying behaviour. A person can influence more by his/her
family or friends rather than the other persons such as salesperson of a company and so on. A
person more trust on its family or friend instead of the persons. The recommendation of family
or friends more followed by the person rather than another person. Family is a more important
part of any person life. An individual trust on family more rather than any other person. Family
suggestion or recommendation is more important for any person life. The family member can
influence more to the consumer. Kotler said, “The impact of the personal words and
recommendations of trusted friends, family, associates and other customers on buying
behaviour” (Kotler et al., 2017, pp. 144.). Nowadays, the peoples are more spending time on
online social media and they also enhance the social network. Online social network includes
the social media sites, blogs etc. The social networking sites are Facebook and twitter etc. The
companies are more focusing on online social media for reaching its customer (Kotler et al.
2017,pp. 145).

4. Economic factor:
The economic factor is the fourth factor which affects the consumer buying behaviour. The
economic condition of a consumer effect its purchasing decision and choice of a specific brand
or product. The companies can study on behaviour of spending money and saving money of
consumer. For instance; Samsung offers mobile with high price as well as low price. There are
several economic factors including Personal Income, Family income, Income expectations,
Savings, Consumer credit and Other economic factors (Ali & Ramya, 2016). The personal
income refers the income of an individual. The personal income of a person affects the buying
behaviour. The consumer makes its decision on the basis of its net income after taxes. The
family income refers the sum of family members income. The income of either more than one

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family member or all family member income. It depends on the families or working family
members. The income expectation refers the income which possibly coming in the form of
bonus, overtime and so on. The saving refers the money saved by a person after using all the
expenses in a month. The consumer credit refers the money provided by the banks or financial
institutes. A credit card is one of the form of consumer credit. The other economic factors
include inflation, slowdown, and government policies and so on. If a person income is low so
he is unable to buy a costly product. So, the income is directly proportional to the buying goods
or services.

Results and discussion

Marketing begins with the consumer and finish with the consumer. Satisfaction of consumer
gets the significant goal of a business enterprise. The essential to ensure consumer fulfilment
lies in recognizing of the consumer, his likes and dislikes, his expectations and encouragement,
in short understanding of consumer behaviour. Consumer behaviour caters a clear essential for
recognition and knowing consumer requirements. Hence, the analysis of consumer behaviour
for any product is significance to the marketers in shipping the fortunes of their organizations,
and also the study of consumer behaviour is crucial for managing consumption of goods and
by that sustaining economic. Consumer behaviour is an extensively studied area. It allows the
organizations to know how consumers decide about acquiring products and services. Marketing
managers are always eager to understand more about the consumer behaviour; hence they are
able to prepare better communication and advertising campaigns about their products and
services. Many people make purchasing decision daily but they don’t realize the components
that derive them to this settlement. Commonly the components influencing consumers
purchasing behaviour involve, concerning mental components, civil components, cultural
components and personal components. Consumer behaviour doesn't stay identical or consistent
in every condition it changes from time to time. There are different components that affect
consumer behaviour. As the change comes in these components, consumer behaviour also
changes such as Demographic Factors, social factors and cultural factors. Consumer purchasing
decision process involves five stages in which, actual buying (for decisions that are
complicated) is the only stage on the process. Not all decision-making process causes to a
purchase and also, not all consumer decision always involves these stages, and determined by
the extent of complexity such as problem recognition, information search, and evaluation of
alternative, purchase decision and post. There are different types of consumer purchasing
behaviour that consumers engaging and conducting in their purchasing such as (daily
Response/Programmed Behaviour, Limited Decision taking, lengthy Decision taking/Complex
high level of involvement and Impulse purchasing in which no conscious planning of
purchasing the products.

Conclusion
This research based on factor affecting consumer buying behaviour. It can be concluded that,
there are four main factors which affects consumer buying behaviour such as Personal factor
(Age and stages of life cycle, Occupation, Personality and Lifestyle), Psychological factor
(Motivation, Perception, Learning and Memory), Social factor and Economic factor (Personal

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Income, Family income, Income expectations, Savings, Consumer credit and Other economic
factors). It also concluded that a consumer affects at the different ages and stages of life cycle.
A motivation and perception also affect the consumer buying behaviour and surrounding of the
consumer play a major role for influencing the buying decision. This research helps the
understanding of factor affecting consumer buying behaviour for decision making towards the
products.

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