Consumer behavior. Peculiarities

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

What guides the average buyer when choosing a product? The behavior of consumers, the factors on the basis of which they make their decision, have long been the objects of close attention of marketers, psychologists, economists, and simply all people involved in the field of trade. So what does modern economic theory say about this?

Basic postulates

In order to understand what consumer behavior in a market economy depends on and what its mechanism is, economists rely on a number of the following provisions:

1. Rationality. The final choice of the buyer largely depends on his system of preferences. The same good for different people will have a different value, which is determined by an individual assessment of the usefulness of a particular product. Each buyer strives for a specific assortment of life's goods. There is no objective scale of utility; consumer behavior depends on his subjectivepreferences. At the same time, each person knows what specific benefits he needs, he can compare their sets and choose what will be most preferable for him. This is what rationality is all about.
2. Sovereignty. Any buyer makes a personal decision to purchase a good, which cannot have a significant impact on producers. However, thanks to the market mechanism, the individual choices of consumers are summed up, and this result affects the further development of the manufacturer's business. If buyers give preference to any good, then its producer makes a profit, his business flourishes. In other words, the sovereignty of the consumer means his power over the market, the ability to determine what and how much will go on store shelves.
3. Plurality. The variety of needs of a person and the whole society leads to the fact that there is an abundance of all kinds of goods on the market aimed at satisfying certain needs. Therefore, consumer behavior is influenced by the fact that there is always something to choose from, there are various options for how this can be done.

How the purchase works

The whole process of making a decision regarding the purchase of a product or service is divided into five stages:

- human definition of need;

- search and identification of all alternatives;

- evaluation of each option;

- making a decision and making a purchase;

- post-purchase analysis.

Consumer behavior is a kind of reaction to the incentive actions of marketing incentives: the product, its price, methods of distribution and ways of influencing buyers. These factors, acting together with other stimuli (cultural, economic, political, etc.) in the "black box" of the mind of the buyer, cause a response (choice of product, brand, time of purchase, etc.).

Influence of the last name on the ability to shop

Consumer behavior is a very complex process. While there are many models, schools, and trends in the study of customer behavior today, the study sometimes brings interesting surprises. So, American scientists found that people who have one of the last letters of the alphabet at the beginning of their last names make the decision to make a purchase faster than others. This is explained by the fact that since childhood they have been at the end of queues and different lists, and therefore in adulthood they are afraid to miss out on profitable offers. And who knows what other secrets lurk in our minds?