1. Consumers' own factors
Consumers' buying behavior is first influenced by their own factors, which mainly include:
First, consumers' economic status, that is, consumers' income, deposits and assets, borrowing ability, etc.
the economic situation of consumers will strongly affect their consumption level and scope, and determine their demand level and purchasing power. When consumers are in a better economic situation, they may have a higher level of demand, buy higher-grade goods and enjoy higher consumption. On the contrary, consumers' economic situation is poor, and usually they can only give priority to meeting basic living needs such as food, clothing, housing and transportation.
the second is the occupation and status of consumers.
Consumers in different occupations often have different needs and hobbies for goods. A consumer engaged in the teaching profession will generally buy more cultural goods such as books, newspapers and magazines; For fashion models, beautiful clothes and elegant cosmetics are more needed. The different status of consumers also affects their purchase of goods. Consumers who are in a high position will buy higher-level goods that can show their identity and status.
the third is the age and gender of consumers.
consumers' demand for products will change with their age, and they need different commodities at different stages of their life cycle. For example, in infancy, you need baby food, toys, etc. In the old age, there is more need for health care and life-prolonging products. Consumers of different sexes also have great differences in their buying behavior. Alcohol and tobacco products are mostly purchased by male consumers, while female consumers like to buy fashion, jewelry and cosmetics.
the fourth is the personality and self-concept of consumers.
Personality refers to a person's unique psychological quality, which is usually described by being strong or weak, enthusiastic or withdrawn, extroverted or introverted, creative or conservative. Consumers with different personalities have different buying behaviors. Strong consumers are bold and confident in buying, while weak consumers tend to be timid in choosing goods.
2. Social factors
People live in society, so consumers' buying behavior will be influenced by many social factors.
firstly, the influence of social and cultural factors on consumers' buying behavior. Culture usually refers to the values, moral concepts and other codes of conduct and customs established by human beings in their long-term life practice. Failure to study and understand the cultural background of consumers will often lead to the failure of marketing activities. Any culture also contains some smaller groups or so-called sub-cultural groups. They connect members with a specific sense of identity and influence, so that they hold specific values, lifestyles and behaviors. There are many different types of this sub-culture group, among which the most significant ones are: < P > First, the ethnic sub-culture group. For example, in addition to the Han nationality, which accounts for the majority of the population, there are dozens of ethnic groups in China, and they still retain many traditional tastes and preferences of their respective ethnic groups in food, clothing and entertainment.
the second is the religious subculture. In China, there are Islam, Buddhism and Catholicism at the same time. Their unique beliefs, preferences and taboos show many characteristics in purchasing behavior and types.
the third is the geographical subculture group. For example, South China and Northwest China, or coastal areas and remote areas in the mainland, all have different lifestyles and fashions, so the purchase of goods is also very different.
secondly, the influence of social related groups on consumers' buying behavior. Related groups refer to organizations, groups and people who have direct or indirect influence on consumers' attitudes and buying behaviors. As a member of society, consumers often have various contacts with their families, schools, work units, neighbors and social groups in their daily lives.
Family is the most basic related group of consumers, so family members obviously have the strongest influence on consumers' buying behavior. At present, most marketers pay great attention to studying the role and influence of different family members, such as husband, wife and children, in the purchase of goods. Generally speaking, the degree of participation of husband and wife in purchasing is mostly different due to different products. Housewives are usually the buyers of a family, especially in the purchase of food, household clothes and daily necessities, which is traditionally mainly borne by their wives. However, with the enhancement of intellectual women's enterprising spirit and the gradual rise of men's participation in family and housework, it will cause great mistakes in marketing decisions if enterprises that produce basic consumer goods still think that women are the only or main buyers of their products. Of course, in the family's purchase activities, the decision is not always made unilaterally by the husband or wife. In fact, some expensive or infrequently purchased products are often made by both husband and wife, including grown-up children.
Relatives, friends, classmates, colleagues and neighbors are also important related groups that affect consumers' buying behavior. These related groups are people that consumers often contact and have close relationships with. Because they often study, work and chat together, consumers are often influenced by these people's evaluation of goods when they buy goods, sometimes even decisively. In addition, the social factors that affect consumers' buying behavior also include certain social, political, legal, military and economic factors. The main factors that affect consumers' buying behavior are not only consumers' own factors and social factors, but also enterprise and product factors, such as product quality, price, packaging, trademarks and promotion work of enterprises.
consumers' purchasing decision-making process. People's buying a commodity does not happen suddenly. Before buying, buyers will have thinking activities or behaviors to ensure that the goods they buy later can satisfy themselves. Even after a consumer buys a product at home, he will further study the product he bought to see how it works, how it tastes and so on. In this way, what is related to consumer buying behavior is a complete consumer buying process. As an enterprise participating in marketing, it is very important to understand the whole process of consumers' purchase decision, because in the process of consumers' purchase, enterprises can formulate some strategies to help consumers meet their own needs.
1. The consumer's purchase decision-making process can be clearly divided into five stages, which are: understanding needs, information search, evaluation and selection, purchase decision and post-purchase evaluation.
1. Knowing the need consumers will choose and buy a product only after they realize that they need the function of a certain product. Therefore, knowing the need is the first stage in the process of consumers' purchase decision. At this stage, consumers realize the gap between their instant state and their ideal state, so they want to eliminate this gap. Many factors can make people realize their needs. When people see that the refrigerator is empty, they will buy vegetables, fruits, drinks and so on to supplement it. Even empty soy sauce bottles and vinegar bottles will make people realize that they need a new bottle of soy sauce and vinegar. It is precisely because many factors can stimulate people's awareness of needs, so marketing companies can stimulate people's demand for new products through advertisements, so that they can give up those old products or products that are no longer competitive in the market.
2. After information search consumers realize their own needs, they will automatically enter another stage in the purchase decision-making process? Information search, of course, for the goods purchased repeatedly, consumers will go beyond the information search stage, because the required information has been mastered by consumers through past searches, which is self-evident. In addition, for a consumer, the more expensive the product, the more consumers can pay attention to information search. There are many external sources of information.
(1) Personal sources: Relatives and friends are typical external sources of information. In chatting with relatives and friends, people will get knowledge and information about goods, and a considerable number of consumers like to accept other people's suggestions and shopping guides, although the knowledge or sources of information of people who introduce goods are sometimes not very accurate.
(2) public sources: public sources are wide, which can be awards from the government or other organizations, comments and introductions about products in newspapers or magazines, and programs about commodities organized by radio stations or TV stations.
(3) the source of goods: the source of goods includes product advertisements, salesmen's introductions, store displays or instructions on product packaging, etc. However, the information from these channels sometimes has congenital deviations for consumers, who can agree or believe, ask questions or make other comments based on their own experience.
3. Evaluation and selection
(1) Brand subset The so-called brand subset refers to the commodity brands within a limited range made by consumers according to certain standards. Evaluation and selection are only carried out in a subset of consumers' brands, which does not include all brands of this kind of products.
(2) Determinants Among the criteria for consumer evaluation and selection, there is usually one major factor that promotes consumer decision-making, which is called a decisive factor. The decisive factors vary according to the types of goods and the feelings, lifestyles, attitudes and needs of consumers. For example, when a senior employee of a company wants to buy a watch commensurate with his position, he usually buys OMEGA, and the brand is the decisive factor in his evaluation and choice. If a consumer who loves Chili peppers buys snacks, then the food with spicy flavor is his first choice, so he will buy crispy rice or shrimp strips with spicy flavor. As for the brand, it is not the main point of his concern. Sometimes there is more than one decisive factor, and it can be two equally important factors.
For an enterprise, it is not the whole job to make a product have a unique feature. What matters is that this feature must be combined with the decisive factors in the eyes of consumers, so as to attract consumers and meet their urgent needs. In fact, this idea has been used by many enterprises, and the function of products to cater to the decisive factors of consumers is constantly promoted in advertisements. The decontamination ability of detergents, the side leakage prevention of sanitary napkins, the convenience of all-in-one TV and video recording machines, and the non-lethargy of anti-allergic drugs are all examples in this regard.
4. Purchase Decision Consumers will make a purchase decision after evaluating and selecting products through search information. Of course, consumers may also postpone or cancel the purchase decision because of problems in the evaluation and selection process, and the decision-making process of consumers' purchase is at a standstill. It is impossible for enterprises involved in marketing to do any work on consumers' purchase decision, because once consumers make a purchase decision, all that remains is to complete the transaction in the store or somewhere else, that is, to pay, pick up the goods or arrange the delivery place.
5. Post-purchase evaluation After buying the goods home, the consumer's purchase decision-making process has not been terminated, because in the initial process of using the goods, consumers will check and measure the goods they bought based on their pre-purchase expectations, in order to see if there are any problems or dissatisfaction.
the difference between consumers' expectations and the products they buy is called two-way difference. The correction of two-way differences is mainly carried out by the marketing enterprises, such as checking whether the product description gives correct guidance to consumers, whether the advertising content is surreal, whether there are still defects in product manufacturing and so on. On the other hand, it is very important for enterprises to give special guidance and training to consumers for products with high technical requirements, which has been adopted by many computer companies and software companies.