What is Consumer Behavior?

Definition, Example, Types &

Factors
Consumer behavior is the behavioral patterns, decision processes, and actions that a consumer follows
while making a purchase decision for a product or service for self-consumption. Understanding consumer
buying behavior is a psychological study of the series of customers’ behavioral patterns that influence their
decision-making before purchasing any products.

Being aware of consumers’ behavior is one of the most crucial factors in effective marketing, advertising, or
branding campaign. It helps businesses in running a more personalized campaign to convert the target
audience to buy products or services.

What is Consumer Behavior?

Consumer behavior is the thought processes, conditioning, behavioral inclinations, decisions, and actions of
focus groups or target audiences that influence or compel them to make a purchase.

An example of consumer behavior would be when someone goes to the grocery store and decides what
types of food they want. The person is making decisions based on their personal preferences, considering
factors such as cost, convenience, nutritional value, and taste. This behavior then influences how much
time they spend in the store, which items they purchase, and even if they return later for more items.

Understanding the psychological factors, as well as social factors of a marketing consumer, helps
marketers better understand the elements that influence customers buying decisions.

People think several times before purchasing anything from a brand or company. Keeping track of
customers’ decision-making processes and decoding them for boosting revenue is a part of the study of
Consumer Behavior. So, it is mainly a study of behavioral sciences that concerns each customer’s
psychology, behaviors, and motivations individually.

The study of Customer Behavior

The study of Consumer Behaviors is based on the psychology and behavior of each buyer towards the
company and its services. It is strictly a motivational approach to the customers on how they decide on
choosing a product.

Consumers are different, but their brains are prone to react similarly to a particular event. Studying and
understanding these subtleties in the human mind can help companies connect with their customers and
read their minds to convert them into impulse purchases.

Consumers’ behavior analysis also enhances the ethical creativity of businesses to attract more buyers to
the available products and services via a data-driven marketing campaign.

The study of Consumer Behavior includes:

1. How a consumer feel about alternate brands, products, or services

2. The parameters that help consumers to differentiate several brands
3. Behaviors during research and shopping and what they want
4. How a consumer is inspired by the media and culture of the organization
5. Marketing strategies for improving the influence of brands on the consumers
Importance of Understanding Consumer Behavior
It is scientific research about customers in various situations such as consumers’ desirable products, why
they want to purchase, how often they think of buying from the same brand, and many more.

So, Consumer Behavior is particularly for companies trying to sell services or products to as many as
potential customers they can study.
Each business invests a lot of money and time in its products and services, and it’s crucial to cater to the
basic needs of the consumers. So, it’s essential to know about the customer’s mindset to offer the most
effective services to create a great impression. So, Consumer Behavior is one of the primary keys in
marketing and provides the following advantages:

1. Better marketing and communication

In marketing, communication is the key to success, and with changing parameters like living standards,
technology, and trends, customers’ choices also vary effectively.

So, having details on consumer behavior can help understand the modern desire and needs and market
trends pretty amazingly. It helps the campaign incorporate the attributes that can easily and effectively pull
in the target audience and convert them.

2. Improve customer interaction

Consumer Behavior is a psychological study where the area of interest is the understanding of human
psychology effectively.

To achieve such a thing, it’s compulsory to interact with customers regarding their purchases and
experiences. So, Consumer Behavior provides an opportunity to communicate with customers frequently.

3. Growth in customer loyalty

Customer loyalty is one of the primary assets of the business, and to make it strong, entrepreneurs should
focus on communication. That boosts sales and increases the customers’ loyalty towards a brand.

When customers interact with a brand that understands their inclinations and preferences, they like to
repeatedly opt for that brand and hence, it optimizes the chances of having a loyal customer base.

4. Increase in sales

A company always targets potential customers from different segments and tries to understand the specific
niches. Instead of selling something randomly, prioritizing the details of customers’ likings and dislikes help
in sales growth.

Furthermore, when a company or brand gains customer loyalty, that, as a result, increases the sales of the
company. Being aware of consumer behavior helps in optimizing the lead generation process that ultimately
boosts sales and ROI.

5. Better options for strategies

Understanding Consumer Behavior can allow communication with each customer separately and an idea
about the market trend. It helps the business to organize several campaigns effectively where every
campaign represents a different motive.
A study on Consumer Behavior can enable the customer’s psychology while purchasing the product
entrepreneurs. So, it also gives the customer the best services where they can find this more correlated.

6. Knowledge about market competition

One of the essential marketing knowledge is the understanding of market trends. Consumer Behavior
analysis offers access to a few primary outlooks for the trend where the companies can provide accordingly
to reach out to more customers.

It’s a basic set of questions like why the consumers are buying from your competitors, why they find that
attractive, and the service or product gap between your company and your competitors. That’s why knowing
the marketing trend is a crucial part of marketing and advertising to attract more customers.

7. Stay relevant in the market

The world is changing every day, and customers’ behavior, outlook, and passion are changing
simultaneously. So, the biggest challenge is staying relevant in the market and following the trend
accordingly to cope with this ever-changing public need. So, the varying behavior of the consumers can
give you access to find out the most appropriate strategies to communicate with enormous consumers.

For example, post-covid-19-pandemic, the behavioral inclinations of consumers have changed now, and
they prefer opting for online purchases. Therefore, businesses that were aware of this shift in consumer
habits, optimized their presence with an online store to boost their value, search potential as well as sales.

Types of Consumer Behavior

There are four types of behavior consumers possess –

1. Complex buying behavior

Consumers who like to opt for expensive, unique, exclusive, and infrequently purchases products or
services come into the category of consumers who comprise complex buying behavior.

Such consumers are fully engaged in their purchase decisions and actions, as they like to do proper
research before opting for a product or service. Purchasing a flat or a car can be some of the common
examples of complex buying behavior.

2. Dissonance-reducing buying behavior

Such types of consumers are also highly engaged in their purchase decisions and associated actions but
they find it quite difficult in finding out the key differences amongst top brands in that product niche.

The situation of dissonance occurs when the customer thinks that they might regret their purchase and
might face buyer’s remorse.

3. Habitual buying behavior

Such types of consumer behavior are associated with customers who have very little involvement in the
buying process of products or services.
Such customers habitually buy a product or service instead of giving too much time in doing research and
making decisions.

4. Variety-seeking behavior

Customers who possess such behavioral patterns make their purchase decisions while seeking variety.

These consumers buy a different product not because of dissatisfaction, instead, they make purchases for
trying a different brand.

The Factors that Influence Consumer Behavior

People buy things like healthcare, medicines, and basic amenities to fulfill the basic necessity for health and
security. But, what compels a customer to buy certain things is one of the most intriguing concepts to
understand.

Apart from necessities, people often buy something out of the product’s attractiveness or are simply
passionate about them. The study of such irrational purchases is very close to the study of behavioral
economics. Researchers from behavioral economists, marketing professionals, and psychologists have
analyzed extraneous or irrelevant purchases by customers.

The primary reasons for such purchases are to showcase social status or reduce boredom or some
emotional sadness. Sometimes, retailers manipulate customers by offering great discounts or limited stock
to make them purchase various products.

So, studying the manipulation tactics to attract more consumers is the fundamental goal of establishing a
long-term relationship with customers. All in all, buyers always purchase something either for personal
needs or for some passion, or for maintaining status.

To understand consumer behavior, it’s crucial to know about the essential elements that influence a
customer to make purchasing decisions.

1. Psychological factors
The most apparent factor to influence Consumer Behavior is human psychology. Why and how a customer
buys a particular product largely depends on the psychology of the customer.

It motivates people to attract to some specific products and helps effectively in the decision making
procedure.

2. Personal factors

Sometimes people get attracted to some recognized brands because of their personalities. Maybe that
brand is connected with some charitable work or perhaps inclined towards an arrangement for paying
attention to each customer.

Personality affects people secondarily and is closely related to the seller’s various aspects like political,
social, and religious beliefs.

3. Motivational factors

Sometimes people get easily influenced by their close friends or acquaintances and make an instant
purchase decision.

Sometimes customers see a product showcased by some celebrity, which affects customers solely to
purchase.

How to Understand Consumer Behavior

Analyzing consumer behavior is one of the toughest jobs for marketing and advertising professionals in
today’s era. To understand Consumer Behavior, sellers can consider the following ways to connect with
potential customers.

1. Analyze Consumer Behavior

In the field of marketing and advertising, a small difference can change the outlook of a brand. So, to
research Consumer Behavior, sellers should focus on the negative feedback from consumers to improve
the company’s insights.

Analyzing Consumer Behavior is very important to form a connection with potential customers
psychologically and increase the sales of your company.

2. The art of persuasion

Both the host and the message play an important role in persuasion. The marketing researcher, Robert
Cialdini has discovered the effects of ‘first impression’ on persuasion.

A company’s history as a trustworthy organization can attract more loyal customers every day. So,
persuasion is an art offered by the sellers to anticipate customers’ attention instantly before influencing their
purchasing decision.

3. Understand the type of customer segmentation

Before you start convincing a customer about their desire, understanding the type of buyers can help you to
approach the customer effectively. Suppose the customer is tightwads, and then you need to be super
appealing to convince that person. On the contrary, if the customer is spendthrifts, you can easily influence
them on the purchase decisions.

Studying Consumer Behaviors is like solving a puzzle, and the factors that influence Consumers Purchase
Behavior in a target market are a part of that puzzle. To solve the entire puzzle, sellers need to understand
the type of buyers to convince them with the most relevant strategies.

 Unconflicted: Unconflicted buyers are the most problematic customers organize a survey on them.
Their purchase decision is not driven by any variables and only depends on the psychological state at
the time of purchase. An unconflicted buyer doesn’t make buying decisions based on the available
cash or motivation. They like to purchase a product by the influence of social, psychological, and
personality factors.
 Spendthrifts: This type of buyer is more into shopping rather than increasing the bank balance. The
spendthrifts often make impulsive decisions during the purchase, and convincing them of various
products is very easy. They are not inclined to make effective decisions, and they certainly don’t
compare and analyze products; they just see the products and buy them. In a word, spendthrift
buyers are believers of instant liking. They also show variety-seeking buying behavior.
 Tightwads: A tightwad buyer is very resolved about their purchasing decision, and they don’t spend
money frivolously. So, influencing this category is very appealing and takes effort. It’s not necessarily
that a tightwad buyer has to be a millionaire or penniless but is very choosy about the purchase.

4. Introduce the effects of internal labels

Several types of research on consumer behavior have pointed out that internal labeling can include more
people in the list of buyers. Deep down, each customer wants to be a part of the brand, and labeling them
can influence their psychology towards a brand. So, label your customers and make them feel superior.

5. Be honest and accept the shortcomings

There is no shame in saying sorry and admitting the faults. Each person or company makes mistakes, and
covering up those blunders won’t help to understand consumer behavior.

So, by being transparent and admitting faults, sellers can easily win the customers’ hearts, and that offers
the access to communicate with the customers easily.

6. Power of the first impression

Yes, the first impression is always the last. Marketing and business area also rely on the first impression.

By understanding consumer attitudes, and paying heed to internal factors as well as external factors that
affect consumer buying behavior, you will be able to create an impression through which consumers
engage straight away.

7. Collect buying behavior data of target audience

To adeptly understand the customer behavior of your target audience, it is very crucial to collect the
behavior data of your consumer. Some of the most crucial data for analyzing the behavior of a consumer
are-

 Customer Reviews
 Q&A sites
 Surveys
 Focus groups
 Keyword research
 Google Analytics
  Competitor analysis
 Blog comments
 Twitter Insiders
 Google Trends
 Government data
 Social media

8. Use Social Intelligence

The right way of using social intelligence is also of great significance to collect consumer insights via
effective social media research. To channel this, you should ask some key questions and try to find out
what consumers think of your brand.

Using social networks to learn about the behavioral inclinations and buying behavior of your product
category, in general, to know how they make their purchase decisions for their products and services.
Different things that need to consider here are-

 Analyze Intent to Purchase: By analyzing the intent to purchase of your target audiences, you will
have comprehensive knowledge about their buying behavior that will ultimately make your campaign
effective enough to convert them to your call to action.
 Do sentiment analysis: Brands, marketers, or advertisers should try to understand the sentiment of
your target consumers regarding your product or service, or brand. You can use social listening tools
to understand what they think of you. Going through product reviews and feedback can also be of
great benefit in optimizing the effectiveness of your brand campaigns.
 Do campaign analysis: You should try to analyze the response of your consumers to your product
or service, plus it is also important here to measure your brand associations and emotional response
around your brand.
 Run intelligent market segmentation: Running intelligent segmentation as per the variety of
motivation factors of consumers is also important here in making marketing and advertising
campaigns more effective.

What is the Role of Consumer Behavior in Marketing?

Marketing and advertising are two interrelated industries with a common goal of influencing audiences with
new services or products and convincing them to purchase. Moreover, the consistency of customers’
preferences varies over time, and that needs to be brand new strategies for every campaign.

To deal with fickle audiences, it’s important to adopt proper ways to message, advertise for the target
groups, do basic market research, and ultimately, do psychological research on the audiences. That helps
marketing professionals to understand the customers and communicate with them most efficiently. So, the
study on Consumer Behavior provides data on the customers and compels them to commit to purchasing
effectively.

Understanding consumer buying behavior plays a key role in segmentation and branding strategies. With
your consumer behavior research, you can personalize your marketing messages as per the marketing
consumer behavior and create effective marketing strategies. It optimizes marketing efforts, brand loyalty,
customer retention, etc.