FACTORS AFFECTING PERCEPTION IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
To understand the buyer and to make a customer out of him is the main purpose of the study of consumer behaviour. Though this problem has been analysed from different viewpoints under different premises, it still remains a complex one.
On the other hand, the buyer is a riddle. He is a highly complex entity. His needs & desires are innumerable. Some are latent, some manifest and some others are highly dominant. These have different priorities in the scheme of things. The buyer has his own ideas & plans about realizing these needs &desires. The first & foremost task of the marketer is to get close to the buyer and Understand his need-structure & priorities. There are four major factors affecting perception in consumer behavior are as follows:
1. Cultural Factors
The cultural factors affecting perception in consumer behavior are: buyer culture, subculture, and social class.
Culture : Basically, culture is the part of every society and is the important cause of person wants and behavior. The influence of culture on buying behavior varies from country to country therefore marketers have to be very careful in analysing the culture of different groups, regions or even countries.
Subculture : Each culture contains different subcultures such as religions, nationalities, geographic regions, racial groups etc. Marketers can use these groups by segmenting the market into various small portions. For example marketers can design products according to the needs of a particular geographic group.
Social Class : Every society possesses some form of social class which is important to the marketers because the buying behavior of people in a given social class is similar. In this way marketing activities could be tailored according to different social classes. I-lere we should note that social class is not only determined by income but there are various other factors as well such as: wealth, education, occupation etc.
2. Social Factors
The social factors affecting perception in consumer behavior also impact the buying behavior of consumers. The important social factors are: reference groups, family, role and status.
Reference Groups : Reference groups have potential in forming a person attitude or behavior. The impact of reference groups varies across products and brands. For example if the product is visible such as dress, shoes, car etc then the influence of reference groups will be high. Reference groups also include opinion leader (a person who influences other because of his special skill, knowledge or other characteristics).
Family : Buyer behavior is strongly influenced by the member of a family. Therefore marketers are trying to find the roles and influence of the husband, wife and children. If the buying decision of a particular product is influenced by wife then the marketers will try to target the women in their advertisement. Here we should note that buying roles change with change in consumer lifestyles.
Roles and Status : Each person possesses different roles and status in the society depending upon the groups, clubs, family, organization etc. to which he belongs. For example a woman is working in an organization as finance manager. Now she is playing two roles of finance manager and other of mother. Therefore, her buying decisions will be influenced by her role and status.
3. Personal Factors
Personal factors affecting perception in consumer behavior that influence the buying behavior are: lifestyle, economic situation, occupation, age, personality and self-concept.
Age : Age and life-cycle have potential impact on the consumer buying behavior. It is obvious that the consumers change the purchase of goods and services with the passage of time. Family life-cycle consists of different stages such young singles, married couples, unmarried couples etc which help marketers to develop appropriate products for each stage.
Occupation : The occupation of a person has significant impact on his buying behavior. For example a marketing manager of an organization will try to purchase business suits, whereas a low level worker in the same organization will purchase rugged work clothes.
Economic Situation : Consumer economic situation has great influence on his buying behavior. If the income and savings of a customer is high then he will purchase more expensive products. On the other hand, a person with low income and savings will purchase Inexpensive products.
Lifestyle : Lifestyle of customers is another import factor affecting the consumer buying behavior. Lifestyle refers to the way a person lives in a society and is expressed by the things in his/her surroundings. It is determined by customer interests, opinions, activities etc and shapes his whole pattern of acting and interacting in the world.
Personality : Personality changes from person to person, time to time and place to place. Therefore, it can greatly influence the buying behavior of customers. Actually, Personality is not what one wears; rather it is the totality of behavior of a man in different Circumstances. It has different characteristics such as: dominance, aggressiveness, self-confidence etc which can be useful to determine the consumer behavior for particular product or service.
4. Psychological Factors
There are four important psychological factors affecting the consumer buying behavior. These are: perception, motivation, learning, beliefs and attitudes.
Motivation : The level of motivation also affects the buying behavior of customers. Every person has different needs such as physiological needs, biological needs, social needs etc. The nature of the needs is that, some of them are most pressing while others are least pressing. Therefore, a need becomes a motive when it is more pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction.
Perception : Selecting, organizing and interpreting information in a way to produce a meaningful experience of the world is called perception. There are three different perceptual processes which are selective attention, selective distortion and selective retention. In case of selective attention, marketers try to attract the customer attention. Whereas, in case of selective distortion, customers try to interpret the information in a way that will support what the customers already believe. Similarly, in case of selective retention, marketers try to retain information that supports their beliefs.
Beliefs and Attitudes : Customer possesses specific belief and attitude towards various products. Since such beliefs and attitudes make up brand image and affect consumer buying behavior therefore marketers are interested in them. Marketers can change the beliefs and attitudes of customers by launching special campaigns in this regard.