Consumers are an asset in the business market. They buy our products and services, and our businesses run. Therefore they are very valuable to us.
Learning factors influencing consumer behavior is essential to understand them and create a long-lasting relationship to make a profit in the market.
Companies invest a lot of money in marketing and learning consumer behavior.
Their behavior impacts marketing strategy and profit too.To run a successful campaign, learning consumer behavior is essential. Customers’ likes, dislikes, and product satisfactions do matter a lot.
In this article, we will learn about consumer behavior (target audience) and the factors that affect them.
What is Consumer Behavior?
Consumer behavior is learning how a consumer reacts in the market.
In this study, you can observe how consumer(s) choose, reject, accept, buy, and use goods, ideas, and satisfaction with various services offered in the market.
Many factors can affect consumer (s) behavior; based on these factors, an individual customer makes purchasing choices.
Each customer’s reactions can vary. Their pre-existing status can influence it. So, people conduct market research on various factors like who is their target audience, what is their age or age group, and what are the social, psychological, cultural, and financial aspects?
What they purchase this product often, how often they buy it, etc.
Marketing persons also try to understand their consumers’ moods and preferences to build a better and long-lasting relationships.
They offer additional perks of getting referrals from their family and friends to achieve profitability.
5 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
It is important to understand that customers’ expectations change because of various factors, and the brand needs to move and accept according to changing behavior to satisfy customer needs.
If a brand or company understands its behavior, it can turn it into profit and run the business successfully.
Here are 5 top factors that influence their behavior:
1. Psychological Factors
Human psychology is a major factor in influencing customer behavior. However, these factors are hard to scale but are effective enough to affect making a purchase decision.
Some key factors can be motivation, perception, learning, and attitude and belief that influence buying decisions.
2. Social Factors
Humans are social creatures. They live around people who affect their buying behavior. When a person plans to buy something, they take the opinion of their family, friend, colleague, or neighbor too.
An individual also wants to buy something that is also socially accepted.
They don’t want any controversy over that object. Hence their buying behavior is influenced by the people around them. So, you also need to learn their social structure to understand their behavior.
Those social factors include family, associated groups or persons, and their roles and status.
3. Cultural Factors
People are connected to some values, beliefs, and ideologies from the Community they belong to.
When a person comes from a particular community, their behavior is influenced by the culture associated with that Community. So, culture also influences a person’s purchasing perception, and they make decisions accordingly.
Those cultural factors can be culture, subculture, social class, etc.
4. Personal Factors
Personal choices, age, income, occupation, and lifestyle impact a person’s buying behavior. Personal factors can vary from person to person depending upon their needs and preferences.
Age is a big factor in influencing buying behavior. The buying choice of youth can be different from middle age or old age. Each age group has different buying needs and preferences.
Similarly, buying behavior also depends on the person’s income and occupation. A person with a higher income can spend more money on luxurious products or expensive branded products. People also buy products according to their profession and lifestyle.
5. Financial/Economy Factors
Your customers’ buying habits also depend on their financial status. The country and state’s economic factors shape the buying behavior of the people belonging.
If a country or state is developed, people’s financial ability to buy more. They are more confident about spending money on purchasing items. Whereas in a poor country or state, people could not spend more money buying products.
The poor economy reflects the troubling market due to unemployment and lower buying capacity. Economy factors impact the buying decision of a customer.
Some key economic factors include personal income, family income, consumer credit, liquid assets, and savings.
These factors majorly influence the purchasing decision and power of customers.
Conclusion
A customer’s buying power depends on various factors influencing their behavior. Therefore, brands must move and accept consumer behavior to satisfy their needs.
FAQs
What key factors influencing consumer behavior?
Psychological, social, cultural, and economic factors can influence customer behavior.
What is consumer behavior?
Consumer behavior involves the customers’ reaction to the products they buy, use, select, or reject.
Who are the consumers?
Consumers are those who purchase your products or services.
How does a customer decide to buy a product?
A customer decides to buy a product as per their need, but other factors also influence their decision.
What social factors influence decisions?
Family and Community can influence buying decisions of a person.