International_Marketing

Factors Influencing Consumer Buying Decisions Consumer purchases are influenced strongly by cultural, social, individual/personal, and psychological characteristics. |cultural | | | |Culture | |Subculture | |Social class | |social | | | |Reference groups | |Opinion leader | |family | |individual | | | |gender | |age | |family life cycle stage | |personality | |self concept | |lifestyle | |psychological | | | |motivation | |perception | |learning | |attitude | The table show factors influencing consumer buying decisions Cultural factors Cultural factors influence on consumer buying decisions. The marketer needs to understand the role played by the buyer’s culture, subculture, and social class. Culture: The set of basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors learned by a member of society from family and other important institutions. Marketers are always trying to spot cultural shift in order to discover new products that might be wanted. For example in Malaysia, today we can see most of people take healthy life. So, marketers take the chance like created exercise equipment, healthy food, health and fitness services. Subculture: A group of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. Social class: Relatively permanent and ordered divisions in a society whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors. Marketers are interested in social class because people within a given social class tend to exhibit similar buying behavior. Social classes show distinct product and brand preferences in areas such as clothing, home furnishings, and automobiles. For example, Afiqah’s social class may affect her handbag decision. If she comes from a higher social class background, she must buy an expensive camera. Social Factors A consumer’s behavior also is influenced by social factors, such as reference groups, opinion leader, and family. Reference groups: Reference groups serve as direct ( face to face ) or indirect points of comparison or reference in forming a person’s attitude or behavior. Direct can divide by two group, primary and secondary. Primary groups with whom there is regular but informal interaction, such as family, friends, and neighbors. Secondary groups which are more formal and have less regular interaction. These include organizations like religious groups, professional and trade union. Opinion leaders: Opinion leaders are people within a reference group who, because of special skills, knowledge, personality, or other characteristics, exert influence on others. Family: Family members can strongly influence buyer behavior. The family is the most important consumer buying organization in society, and it has been researched extensively. Marketers are interested in the roles and influence of the husband, wife, and children on the purchase of different products and services. Individual Factors A buyer’s decisions also are influenced by personal characteristics such as the buyer’s age, gender, family life cycle stage, personality, self concept and lifestyle. Age: People change the goods and services they buy over their lifetimes. Tastes in food, clothes, and furniture are often age related. Gender: Different gender have different demand, so it can effect to buyer. Family life cycle stage: The stages through which families might pass as they mature over time. Lifestyle: A person’s pattern of living as expressed in his or her activities, interests, and opinions. Personality: A person’s distinguishing psychological characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and lasting responses to his or her own environment. Personality is usually described in term of traits such as self-confidence, dominance, sociability, autonomy, defensiveness, adaptability, aggressiveness, outgoing, creative, and active. Self concept: The basic self concept premise is that people’s possessions contribute to and reflect their identities.