MKTG1001 Lecture Notes - Consumer Behaviour, Selective Exposure Theory, Reinforcement
Factors influencing Consumer Behaviour
Cultural
Cultural factors exert the broadest and deepest influence on consumer behaviour. Each culture
contains cultural groups. These consist of shared value systems based on common life experiences
and situations. Examples of cultural include ethnic groups, political affiliation, religious groups,
sexual preference and gender identities. Social class is relatively important too, and is not
determined by one factor alone in most developed economies.
Social
Consumer behaviour is also influenced by social factors, such as the consumer’s household type and
reference groups, as well as social roles and status. These factors can strongly affect consumer
responses, companies must take them into account when designing their marketing strategies.
Social influences include household types, membership groups, reference groups, opinion leaders
etc.
Personal
A buyers’ decisions are also influenced by personal characteristics such as age, occupation,
education, economic situation, personality and self-concept, consumer lifestyle.
Psychological
Motivation, perception, learning and beliefs and attitudes. How a person acts is influenced by his or
her perception of the situation. Two people with similar motivation and in the same situation might
act quite differently because they perceive the situation differently. Perceptual processes include
selective exposure, selective distortion, selective retention etc. Consumers select, distort and retain
what suits them. Learning describes changes in an individual’s behaviour arising from experience.
The significance of learning theory to marketers is that they can build demand for a product by
associating it with strong drives, using motivating cues and providing positive reinforcement. People
acquire beliefs and attitudes through acting and learning. A belief is a descriptive thought or
conviction that a person holds about something, and involves holding an opinion. Incorrect beliefs
about product features or brand image can block sales. An attitude describes a person’s relatively
consistent evaluations, feelings and tendencies towards an object or idea. People have attitudes
towards political parties, music and food types as well as companies and brands.
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Document Summary
Cultural factors exert the broadest and deepest influence on consumer behaviour. These consist of shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations. Examples of cultural include ethnic groups, political affiliation, religious groups, sexual preference and gender identities. Social class is relatively important too, and is not determined by one factor alone in most developed economies. Consumer behaviour is also influenced by social factors, such as the consumer"s household type and reference groups, as well as social roles and status. These factors can strongly affect consumer responses, companies must take them into account when designing their marketing strategies. Social influences include household types, membership groups, reference groups, opinion leaders etc. A buyers" decisions are also influenced by personal characteristics such as age, occupation, education, economic situation, personality and self-concept, consumer lifestyle. How a person acts is influenced by his or her perception of the situation.
