Author: indiafreenotes

Consumer Perception is a marketing concept that tells us what Consumer think about a brand or a company or its offerings. It can be positive or negative feelings, perceptions, inhibitions, predispositions, expectations or experiences that a customer has.

A marketing concept that encompasses a customer’s impression, awareness and/or consciousness about a company or its offerings. Customer perception is typically affected by advertising, reviews, public relations, social media, personal experiences and other channels.

If you understand the concept of Consumer perception, you will figure out that it is arguably the most important factor that decides the success of a brand, product or a company as a whole. How a particular brand or company is positioned also plays a vital role in this. The characteristics of a brand and its personality play a big role.

If we look at the company Apple, we can see that the company is positively perceived by most of its customers. In fact, there are die-hard fans of Apple. The reason being that the company has been repeatedly innovative, it has good performing products which make a connect with their customers. As a result, Apple is one of the consistently top performing brands across the world.

Customer Perception decides how much a product sells and how a company is perceived.

Factors deciding customer perception

In general, customer perception can be influence by a lot of factors. Some of the major factors are

(i) Consistency of performance

How has the brand performed in the past and how it is performing currently.

(ii) Emotional Connect

Superb brands know that emotional connection with the customer is critical to brand development.

(iii) Marketing Communications

How the brand communicates with the customers using the various media vehicles.

(iv) Holistic Marketing

A brand cannot be excellent if it has good sales staff but pathetic support staff. A brand has to be a good all rounder and satisfy customers from all its touch points.

Importance of Consumer Perception

When customers buy your products, they purchase much more than physical objects. Successful marketing involves building a brand with sensory and emotional triggers and then working daily to reinforce the image that your brand triggers in the hearts and minds of customers.

The consumer perception that can make or break your brand may be carefully cultivated through clever and effective advertising. Changes in consumer perception of brands can also spring seemingly out of nowhere, as when the Hush Puppies shoe brand became a fad during the ’90s with little engineering from the company itself.

Whether your company has painstakingly fostered customer perception or had the great fortune to unwittingly benefit from it, the importance of your brand’s reputation should never be underestimated.

(i) Importance of Marketing and Action

Successful marketing is a process of reaching out to customers through advertising, selling strategies and the product itself to create an impression that inspires loyalty. However, that impression is unlikely to endure unless you work hard to maintain it. The outdoor apparel company L.L. Bean has a return policy of replacing any product that a customer returns for any reason, regardless of how long it has been worn. This policy surely costs the company extra when unscrupulous customers choose to take advantage and return items that have been worn for a considerable period of time. Over the long term, though, this legendary return policy has worked to the company’s advantage by building trust and extraordinary loyalty.

(ii) Influence of Negative Perceptions

Negative consumer perceptions can be at least as powerful as positive ones especially in the era of social media when stories about companies’ bad behaviors spread quickly and can have devastating repercussions. When United Airlines had a ticketed customer dragged off a flight in April 2017, the story spread through both social and mainstream media, creating a backlash from consumers who boycotted the airline and canceled credit cards affiliated with it. The negative publicity rippled among shareholders as well causing the company’s price to plummet by $1.4 billion.

(iii) The Power of Referrals

Referrals are a powerful way to foster positive consumer perception because they often come about organically through customers telling their friends which products they buy and why they buy them. Because they come from customers rather than from marketing or advertising, referrals give your company genuine credibility. Referrals grow out of brand loyalty and generate additional loyalty to your brand. You can give customers incentives to make referrals such as by offering free products or services, but if you’ve done a good job fostering positive consumer perceptions, you’ll get customer referrals whether or not you reward customers for them.

Your company’s brand isn’t only about what you want customers to see, it’s also about how they already see you. Public perception can make or break a business today, making it the most valuable commodity you have in your sales and marketing arsenal.

The Role of Perception

The idea of perception theory is often capitalized by haunted houses and amusement parks. The visitors are forced to walk into a dark are, which is pretty small and claustrophobic. Visitors are led to a panoply of attractions that look and and sound like like monsters, rodents, and so on. All this to overwhelm our senses. The idea is to stimulate an adrenaline rush, which would then surge through the patrons as they are forced to face their fears. The people who enjoy these things usually love the idea of conquering their fears, and they often find this experience exhilarating. However, this can be turned on its head. If you’re in the wrong neighborhood, attractions in a haunted house could easily attract customers to a haunted house but could easily chase customers away from your storefront.

As a business owner, you want to maximize the amount of time that customers spend in your store. You want them to purchase an item on a whim, and to then go on a spree of impulse buying. You want them to browse your shelves, and walk through your aisles, discovering and exploring with each step. Whether your store is a brick-and-mortar store or an online store, you want them to browse and buy, so that you increase your sales.

As a business owner, you should seek to improve their experience and give them the right perception, no matter what.

Using Customer Perception to Your Advantage

So to get customer perception right, you should look into what turns your consumers on, so to speak, and then to use it to your advantage when you want to attract them. If you wish to attract high-end customers, then make a play on such things as quality, cleanliness and hygiene, lighting, packaging, and general details in the way you present your products and services. Segment your customers into the different consumer groups they fall into, and use these groups to figure what is important to each group and what to show to different categories of customers.

When you make an effort to improve consumer perception of your products, your bottom line will quickly reflect your hard-won effort. You will also make your customers and your community feel as if they are part of your family – and there is no better recipe for brand loyalty than family.

Consumer attitudes is a composite of three elements: cognitive information, affective information, and information concerning a consumer’s past behavior and future intentions. In other words, attitude consists of thoughts or beliefs, feelings, and behaviors or intentions towards a particular thing, which in this case is usually a good or service. For example, you may have a very positive view of a particular sports car (for example, you believe it performs better than most), it makes you feel good, and you intend to buy it.

Marketers need to know what are consumers likes and dislikes. In simple explanation, these likes and dislikes or we can say favourable or unfavourable attitudes. Attitudes can also be defined as “learned predispositions to respond to an object or class of objects in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way”.

This means attitudes towards brands are consumers learned tendencies to evalu­ate brands in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way. More formally, an overall evaluation done by consumers for choosing a particular product.

Attitudes help us understanding, why consumers do or do not buy a particular product or shop from a certain store etc. They are used for judging the effectiveness of marketing activities, for evaluating marketing actions ever before they are implemented within the market place.

Changes in Consumer Attitude

Companies may focus on changing consumer attitudes for a variety of reasons. Dropping sales, increased product or service complaints and new, or renewed, competition in the marketplace can all necessitate a hard look at the reasons behind trends related to consumer perceptions and attitudes. Deciphering the cause of negative perceptions requires appropriate planning and the commitment to make the necessary changes to ensure success. For small businesses, analyzing consumer behavior becomes an essential part of developing a targeted marketing and promotional campaign.

1. Identify consumer perceptions

In order to develop an action plan for changing consumer attitudes, you need to understand current perceptions of products and services. Evaluate captured feedback, such as customer service contact statistics regarding complaints and concerns. Service businesses can leave comment cards for customers to complete and mail back. Utilize surveys, paper and electronic, and focus groups to receive an accurate representation of problems or concerns that may exist.

2. Compile data for interpretation

Interpretations derived from statistical data can provide immediate feedback related to possible product or service defects. Evaluate survey responses for information related to consumer views and perceptions of the business’s products or services. Focus on repeated or habitual problems experienced by customers. Find the common thread among complaints and negative perceptions. Determine if a negative consumer attitude is the result of employee neglect or product deficiencies.

3. Create a plan of action

Once you have identified consumer perceptions, develop a plan to improve areas where consumer perceptions reflect a negative attitude toward the company, product or service. This can include improved employee training to handle concerns and help cultivate customer loyalty. Involve product development on needed product improvements. Enlist the help of the marketing department to develop campaigns focused on increasing brand awareness and resolving common concerns.

4. Share vital information with affected employees

Educate the appropriate personnel on the goals of any new campaigns and promotions. Ensure customer service representatives understand the impact of creating a positive customer environment. Changing consumer attitudes is essential to ensuring future loyalty and creating a secure job environment.

5. Measure success

Use customer service metrics as one way to measure success. This can include keeping track of incident reports, positive feedback and complaints. Signs of a shift in consumer attitudes include reduced complaints and increased sales.

Components of Attitudes

(a) Cognitive

A person’s knowledge and beliefs about some attitude object reside within the cognitive component. Through marketing research, marketers develop a vocabulary of product at- tributes and benefits.

(b) Affective

The affective component represents a person’s likes or dislikes of the attitude object. Beliefs about them are multidimensional because they represent the brand attributes consum­ers perceive but this component is one dimensional. Consumer’s over all evaluation of a brand can be measured by rating the brand from “poor” to “excellent” or from “least preferred” to “most preferred”.

Brand evaluation is central to the study of attitudes because it summarizes consumer’s predisposition to be favourable or unfavourable to the brand. Brand beliefs are relevant only to the extent that they influence brand evaluations which in turn leads to behaviour.

(c) Conative

The conative component refers to the person’s action or behavouioral tendencies toward the attitude object. This is measured in terms of intention to buy. For developing marketing strategy, this measured buying intent is important. To avoid failures in the market, marketers fre­quently test the elements of the marketing mix like – ads, packages, alternative product concepts or brand names. All this is done to know what is most likely to influence purchase behaviour.

There are important predicting and diagnostic differences among three components and mea­sures when prediction is of prime concern then behavioural intention measures are most appropriate, since they offer the greatest predictive power as shown in Fig. But are limited in their diagnostic power.

This is basically because of their inability to reveal why consumers intend or don’t intend to perform a behaviour. For example – consumer doesn’t want to shop from a particular store for a number of reasons. Intention measures do not reveal these reasons like convenient shopping hours. There­fore, reasons for consumers attitudes and intention can be known by measuring beliefs.

Properties of Attitudes

Attitudes can vary along a number of dimensions or properties. They are:

(i) Favourability

A person may like Coke or Pepsi and dislike others like Fanta, Mirinda, Canada Dry etc.

(ii) Intensity

This means, the strength of liking or disliking. For example, consumer may be liking two brands at a time but he/she may be more positive towards one.

(iii) Confidence

This means, attitude is the confidence with which they are held. Intercity and confidence differ slightly. For example, a person may be equally confident that he/she really likes Pepsi but may be slightly favourable toward Coke.

Consumer motivation is an internal state that drives people to identify and buy products or services that fulfill conscious and unconscious needs or desires. The fulfillment of those needs can then motivate them to make a repeat purchase or to find different goods and services to better fulfill those needs.

Needs are the core of the marketing concept. The study of Motivation refers to all the processes that drives in a person to perceive a need and pursue a definite course of action to fulfill that need.

What are Needs: Every individual has needs that are required to be fulfilled. Primary needs are food, clothing, shelter and secondary needs are society, culture etc.

What are Wants: Needs are the necessities, but wants are something more in addition to the needs. For example, food is a need and type of food is our want.

What are Goals: Goals are the objectives that have to be fulfilled. Goals are generic and product specific in nature. Generic goals are general in nature, whereas product specific goals are the desires of a specific nature.

Needs and fulfillment are the basis of motivation. Change takes place due to both internal as well as external factors. Sometimes needs are satisfied and sometimes they are not due to individual’s personal, social, cultural or financial needs.

Theories of Motivation

Maslow’s Theory of Need Hierarchy

Based on the notion of a universal hierarchy of human needs Dr Abraham Maslow, a clinical psychologist formulated a widely accepted theory of human motivation. This identifies five basic levels of human need which rank in order of importance from lower level needs to higher level needs.

This theory signifies the importance of satisfying the lower level needs before higher level needs arise. According to this theory, dissatisfaction motivates the consumer.

Following are the levels of human needs

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory

• Physiological Needs: Food, clothing, air, and shelter are the first level needs. They are known as the basic necessities or primary needs.
• Safety or Security Needs: Once the first level needs are satisfied, consumers move to the next level. Physical safety, security, stability and protection are the security needs.
• Social Needs: After the safety needs are satisfied, consumers expect friendship, belonging, attachment. They need to maintain themselves in a society and try to be accepted.
• Esteem Needs: Then comes esteem needs such as self-esteem, status, prestige. Individuals here in this stage want to rise above the general level as compared to others to achieve mental satisfaction.
• Self-Actualization: This is the highest stage of the hierarchy. People here, try to excel in their field and improve their level of achievement. They are known as self-actualizers.

Critics to Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Level

(i) Concepts are too general

It is said that hunger and self-esteem are considered to be similar needs but the former is urgent and involuntary in nature whereas latter is a conscious and voluntary type.

(ii) This theory cannot be tested empirically

This means that there is no way to measure precisely how satisfied one need must be before the next higher need becomes active.

Need hierarchy is also used for the basis of market segmentation with specific advertising appeals directed to individuals on one or more need levels. For example- cigarette ads, soft drink ads etc., often stress a social appeal by showing a group of young people sharing good times as well as the product advertised. It is also used for positioning products policies, education and vocational training etc.

1. BLACK BOX MODEL

The black box model shows the interaction of stimuli, consumer characteristics, decision process and consumer responses. It can be distinguished between interpersonal stimuli (between people) or intrapersonal stimuli (within people).

The black box model is related to the black box theory of behaviourism, where the focus is not set on the processes inside a consumer, but the relation between the stimuli and the response of the consumer.

The marketing stimuli are planned and processed by the companies, whereas the environmental stimulus is given by social factors, based on the economical, political and cultural circumstances of a society. The buyer’s black box contains the Buyer Characteristics and the Decision Process, which determines the buyer’s response.

The black box model considers the buyers response as a result of a conscious, rational decision process, in which it is assumed that the buyer has recognized the problem. However, in reality many decisions are not made in awareness of a determined problem by the consumer. Once the consumer has recognized a problem, they search for information on products and services that can solve that problem.

2. NICOSIA MODEL (CONFLICT MODEL)

This model focuses on the relationship between the firm and  consumers. The firm communicates with consumers through its marketing messages (advertising), and the consumers react to these messages by purchasing response. Looking to the model we will find that the firm and the consumer are connected with each other, the firm tries to influence the consumer and the consumer is influencing the firm by his decision. The Nicosia model is divided into four major fields:

Field 1: The consumer attitude based on the firms’ messages. The first field is divided into two subfields. The first subfield deals with the firm’s marketing environment and communication efforts that affect consumer attitudes, the competitive environment, and characteristics of target market. Subfield two specifies the consumer characteristics e.g., experience, personality, and how he perceives the promotional idea toward the product in this stage the consumer forms his attitude toward the firm’s product based on his interpretation of the message.

Field 2: search and evaluation The consumer will start to search for other firm’s brand and evaluate the firm’s brand in comparison with alternate brands. In this case the firm motivates the consumer to purchase its brands.

Field 3: The act of the purchase The result of motivation will arise by convincing the consumer to purchase the firm products from a specific retailer.

Field 4: Feedback This model analyses the feedback of both the firm and the consumer after purchasing the product. The firm will benefit from its sales data as a feedback, and the consumer will use his experience with the product affects the individuals attitude and predisposition’s concerning future messages from the firm.

The Nicosia model offers no detail explanation of the internal factors, which may affect the personality of the consumer, and how the consumer develops his attitude toward the product. For example, the consumer may find the firm’s message very interesting, but virtually he cannot buy the firm’s brand because it contains something prohibited according to his beliefs. Apparently it is very essential to include such factors in the model, which give more interpretation about the attributes affecting the decision process.

3. HOWARD-SHETH MODEL

This model suggests three levels of decision making:

(i) The first level describes the extensive problem solving. At this level the consumer does not have any basic information or knowledge about the brand and he does not have any preferences for any product. In this situation, the consumer will seek information about all the different brands in the market before purchasing.

(ii) The second level is limited problem solving. This situation exists for consumers who have little knowledge about the market, or partial knowledge about what they want to purchase. In order to arrive at a brand preference some comparative brand information is sought.

(iii) The third level is a habitual response behavior. In this level the consumer knows very well about the different brands and he can differentiate between the different characteristics of each product, and he already decides to purchase a particular product. According to the Howard-Sheth model there are four major sets of variables; namely:

(a) Inputs– These input variables consist of three distinct types of stimuli(information sources) in the consumer’s environment. The marketer in the form of product or brand information furnishes physical brand characteristics (significant stimuli) and verbal or visual product characteristics (symbolic stimuli). The third type is provided by the consumer’s social environment (family, reference group, and social class). All three types of stimuli provide inputs concerning the product class or specific brands to the specific consumer.

(b) Perceptual and Learning Constructs– The central part of the model deals with the psychological variables involved when the consumer is contemplating a decision. Some of the variables are perceptual in nature, and are concerned with how the consumer receives and understands the information from the input stimuli and other parts of the model. For example, stimulus ambiguity happened when the consumer does not understand the message from  the environment.

(c) Outputs- The outputs are the results of the perceptual and learning variables and how the consumers will response to these variables (attention, brand comprehension, attitudes, and intention).

(d) Exogenous(External) variables- Exogenous variables are not directly part of the decision-making process. However, some relevant exogenous variables include the importance of the purchase, consumer personality traits, religion, and time pressure.

The Decision Making Process, which Howard-Sheth Model tries to explain, takes place at three Inputs stages: Significance, Symbolic and Social stimuli. In both significant and symbolic stimuli, the model emphasizes on material aspects such as price and quality. These stimuli are not applicable in every society. While in social stimuli the model does not mention the basis of decision-making in this stimulus, such as what influence the family decision? This may differ from one society to another. Finally, no direct relation was drawn on the role of religion in influencing the consumer’s decision-making processes. Religion was considered as external factor with no real influence on consumer, which give the model obvious weakness in anticipation the consumer decision.

4. ENGEL, BLACKWELL, MINIARD MODEL (OPEN SYSTEM)

This model was created to describe the increasing, fast-growing body of knowledge concerning consumer behavior. This model, like in other models, has gone through many revisions to improve its descriptive ability of the basic relationships between components and sub-components, this model consists also of four stages;

First stage: decision-process stages The central focus of the model is on five basic decision-process stages:

Problem recognition, search for alternatives, alternate evaluation(during which beliefs may lead to the formation of attitudes, which in turn may result in a purchase intention) purchase, and outcomes. But it is not necessary for every consumer to go through all these stages; it depends on whether it is an extended or a routine problem-solving behavior.

Second stage: Information input At this stage the consumer gets information from marketing and non-marketing sources, which also influence the problem recognition stage of the decision-making process. If the consumer still does not arrive to a specific decision, the search for external information will be activated in order to arrive to a choice or in some cases if the consumer experience dissonance because the selected alternative is less satisfactory than expected.

Third stage: information processing This stage consists of the consumer’s exposure, attention, perception, acceptance, and retention of incoming information. The consumer must first be exposed to the message, allocate space for this information, interpret the stimuli, and retain the message by transferring the input to long-term memory.

Fourth stage: variables influencing the decision process  This stage consists of individual and environmental influences that affect all five stages of the decision process. Individual characteristics include motives, values, lifestyle, and personality; the social influences are culture, reference groups, and family. Situational influences, such as a consumer’s financial condition, also influence the decision process.

This model incorporates many items, which influence consumer decision-making such as values, lifestyle, personality and culture. The model did not show what factors shape these items, and why different types of personality can produce different decision-making? How will we apply these values to cope with different personalities? Religion can explain some behavioral characteristics of the consumer, and this will lead to better understanding of the model and will give more comprehensive view on decision-making.

Indian consumer durables market is broadly segregated into urban and rural markets, and is attracting marketers from across the world. The sector comprises of a huge middle class, relatively large affluent class and a small economically disadvantaged class. Global corporations view India as one of the key markets from where future growth is likely to emerge. The growth in India’s consumer market would be primarily driven by a favorable population composition and increasing disposable incomes.

Per capita GDP of India is expected to reach US$ 3,273.85 in 2023 from US$ 1,983 in 2012. The maximum consumer spending is likely to occur in food, housing, consumer durables, and transport and communication sectors.

Market Size

• The growing purchasing power and rising influence of the social media have enabled Indian consumers to splurge on good things. Import of electronic goods reached US$ 53 billion in FY18.
• Indian appliance and consumer electronics (ACE) market reached Rs 2.05 trillion (US$ 31.48 billion) in 2017. India is one of the largest growing electronics market in the world. Indian electronics market is expected to grow at 41 per cent CAGR between 2017-20 to reach US$ 400 billion.
• Television industry in India is estimated to have reached Rs 740 billion (US$ 10.59 billion) in CY2018 and projected to reach Rs 955 billion (US$ 13.66 billion) in CY2021.
• As of FY18, washing machine, refrigerator and air conditioner market in India were estimated around Rs 7,000 crore (US$ 1.09 billion), Rs 19,500 crore (US$ 3.03 billion) and Rs 20,000 crore (US$ 3.1 billion), respectively.
• India’s smartphone market grew by 14.5 per cent year-on-year with a shipment of 142.3 million units in 2018. India is expected to have 829 million smartphone users by 2022. In 2019, India is expected to manufacture around 302 million handsets.

Investments

According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, during April 2000 – June 2019, FDI inflows into the electronics sector stood at US$ 2.45 billion.

Following are some recent investments and developments in the Indian consumer market sector.

• In November 2019, Nokia entered in partnership with Flipkart to enter consumer durables market in India and plan to launch smart TVs.
• In October 2019, Apple Inc. entered in agreement with Maker Maxity mall, co-owned by Reliance Industries to open its first company-owned iconic outlet in India.
• In August 2019, Voltas Beko launched India’s first five star washing machine.
• In July 2019, Voltas Limited entered into partnership with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) to manufacture and sell 5-star rated Inverter Air Conditioners.
• In April 2019, TCL Electronic announced its entry into home appliances market in India.
• Xiaomi became the India’s largest brand network in the offline market, having presence in over 790 cities in the country.
• Bosch Home Appliances to invest US$ 111.96 million to expand in India.
• Number of TV households and viewers in India reached 197 million 835 million, respectively in 2018.
• According to the retail chains and brands, there is 9-12 per cent increase in the sales of consumer electronics in Diwali season in October 2019.
• The smartphone shipment witnessed a year-on-year growth of 9.3 per cent in July-September 2019 with 46.6 million unit shipped.
• Consumer durables loans in India increased by 68.8 per cent to Rs 5,445 crore (US$ 780 million) in September 2019.
• Intex Technologies will invest around Rs 60 crore (US$ 9.27 million) in 2018 in technology software and Internet of Things (IoT) startups in India in order to create an ecosystem for its consumer appliances and mobile devices.
• Micromax plans to invest US$ 89.25 million by 2020 for transforming itself into a consumer electronics company.
• Haier announced an investment of Rs 3,000 crore (US$ 415.80 million) as it aims a two-fold increase in its revenue by 2020.

Government Initiatives

• National Policy on Electronics Policy was passed by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology in February 2019.
• A new Consumer Protection Bill has been approved by the Union Cabinet, Government of India that will make the existing laws more effective with a broader scope.
• The mobile phone industry in India expects that the Government of India’s boost to production of battery chargers will result in setting up of 365 factories, thereby generating 800,000 jobs by 2025.
• The Union Cabinet has approved incentives up to Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.47 billion) for investors by amending the M-SIPS scheme, in order to further incentivise investments in electronics sector, create employment opportunities and reduce dependence on imports by 2020.
• The Government of India has allowed 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) under the automatic route in Electronics Systems Design & Manufacturing sector. FDI into single brand retail has been increased from 51 per cent to 100 per cent; the government is planning to hike FDI limit in multi-brand retail to 51 per cent.

Robinson, Faris & Wind states that when understanding the Industrial Buying Behavior a permanent process of problem solving and decision – making must be taken into consideration. All members in a business who become involved in such a buying process are centered to specify group – These processes and group members may vary when purchasing different kinds of products and services.

An important part of the marketing process is to understand why a Customer or Buyer makes a purchase. Without such an understanding, business finds it hard to respond to the customer’s needs and wants. Marketing theory traditionally splits analysis of buyer or customer behavior into TWO broad group of analysis – Consumer Buying and Industrial Buying.

Consumer Buying

The study of how and why people purchase goods and services is termed as Consumer Buying.

The term covers the decision making processes from those that precede the purchase of goods and services to the final experience of using the product or services.

Models of Consumer Buying Behavior draw together the various influences on the process of the buying decision. They attempt to understand the proverbial “Black box” (Buyer’s mind) of what happens within the consumer between his/her exposure to marketing stimuli and the actual decision to purchase.

Consumer Buying Process

(i) Recognition of need

(ii) Information Search

(iii) Evaluation of Alternatives

(iv) Purchase decision

(v) Post Purchase Behavior

Industrial Buying

Industrial purchasing stands for more than half of the whole economic activity in Industrialized countries. Hardly any consumer has the buying authority as organization and any given end product is made up by many industrial purchase that is important to understand how industries perform buying activities.

Industrial buying behavior is in essence the arrangement of how Industrial Organizations purchase goods and services. This area is essential for the understanding of the consumer needs and must be taken into consideration for successful suppliers.

Industrial Buying Process

(i) Problem Recognition

(ii) General need description

(iii) Product specification

(iv) Supplier search

(v) Proposal solicitation

(vi) Supplier selection

(vii) Order routine specification

(viii) Performance review

Difference between Consumer Buying and Industrial Buying

• In Consumer Buying, buying is done as required, In Industrial Buying, buying is to be done in bulk or in large potential.
• In Consumer Buying, product specification takes place. In this there can be at a time buying of products.
• In this, product specification does not take place because of the large potential revenue of such products.
• In this at a time buying can never be done.
• In this no demand or order is to be kept before in advance far the purchase of goods.
• In this buyers have to make only few simple decisions about the products while making a purchase.
• In this before buying demand for the products is to be kept forward as an order then only this buying for the products is possible.
• In this buyers faces many critical decisions in making purchase.
• In this buyers prefer to buy a total solution to their problem from more than one seller.
• Consumer buying are those who purchase items for their personal consumption.
• In this less Dollars & Items are involved in sales.
• In this buyers prefer to buy a total solution to their problem from one seller. (system buying)
• Industrial Buying are those who purchase items on behalf of their business or organization.
• In this more Dollars & Items are involved in sales.
• Consumer Buying is done in order to satisfy the needs of the consumers.
• In Consumer buying, purchase volume is small.
• Industrial Buying can not satisfy the consumer’s need but can satisfy the needs of industrialists. It does the production of those products which can satisfy the needs of consumers.
• In Industrial Buying, purchase volume is large.
• In Consumer Buying, the number of customers are many.
• In Consumer Buying, the location of buyer is Dispersed.
• In Consumer Buying, the nature of consumer Buying is more personal.
• In this the nature of buying influence is single.
• In Industrial buying, the number of customers are fewer.
• In Industrial buying, location of buyer is Geographically concentrated.
• In Industrial Buying, the nature of industrial buying is more professional.
• In this the nature of buying influence is multiple.
• In Consumer Buying, there are many buyers in the market.
• In consumer Buying , importance of one person as a buyer is there.
• Consumer Products are considered as daily used Products.
• In Industrial Buying, there are fewer potential buyers in the market.
• In Industrial Buying, there is little importance for one person buying.
• Industrial Products are not considered as daily used Products.
• Sales promotion is there.
• Consumer buying is very quick process. It doesn’t requires any type of data or presentations.
• In this repeat sale is allowed.
• Sales promotion is not there.
• Industrial buying requires more and proper scientific data as well as presentations.
• In this repeat sale is not allowed.
• In Consumer Buying individual and family involvement takes place.
• Consumer buying includes many purchasing procedures.
• In Consumer Buying the products are standard and with detailed specification.
• In Industrial Buying group decisions and many buying influences takes place.
• Industrial Buying includes impulse, planned or experiential
• In Industrial Buying the products are with technical complexity. They are standard or customized.
• Consumer products are :- eatable products, usable products etc.
• Industrial products are :- raw materials, fabrication parts and materials, installation, accessories, equipments etc.

From over all , we conclude that without industrial buying production can not be done. If the production is not done than consumer will not be able to get their wanted and needed things. If they will not get the things, they will not do the buying, i.e. consumer buying will not be done.

Thus we can say that without Industrial buying, Consumer Buying can not be done. As Industrialists always try to fulfill the needs of consumers.

Industrial buying behavior is the pattern of actions by a company involved in manufacturing, processing and other heavy industry. Many of these companies are required to make regular purchases as a means of supplying their businesses. Although each company — and each industry — will have buying behavior affected by its own set of factors, there are several main variables that can affect industrial buying as a whole.

1. Demand

Perhaps the main driver of industrial buying is demand. The amount of buying that an industrial concern will do is directly depended on the amount of business that the company can expect in the near future. Generally, if a company expects higher demand, then it will stock up on raw materials as a means of ensuring that it will be able to meet consumer demand and maximize revenue.

2. Price

Buying patterns are also affected by the price of the materials the companies are purchasing. When prices are higher or the company expects a decrease in the near future, the company may choose to hold off making purchases, so as to save money. This can involve some difficult decision making. For example, a company that uses fuel in the production of its products may attempt to guess the direction of oil prices.

3. Economy

In addition to current demand and the current prices for a product, industrial companies may look to the economy as an indication of the future availability of materials relative to the consumer demand for them. If the economy is trending upward, the company may purchase more based on the expectation of a future rise in sales, while a downward trending economy may push it to the opposite course of action.

4. Technological Changes

In addition, industrial companies are heavily influenced by changes in technology that affect both the provision of goods and their own requirements. For example, if purchasing a piece of technology means that a raw material becomes cheaper to use, then the company may choose to invest in the new technology. Similarly, the acquisition of new technology will often change the company’s buying habits, as the technology will have different raw material requirements to run.

5. Political/Legal Factors

Government influence on the Industrial marketing environment. From the time of Jawaharlal Nehru to the time of Mr. Atal Behari Vajapayee there has been major influence of the Government in the industry to protect the Indian industries’ foreign investment or for that matter, foreign participation of any kind has not been allowed in the areas of defence, steel, drugs, fertilisers, machine tools etc.

More encouragement was given to small scale and cottage industry. Even the banks were nationalised, the multinationals which were present in India till about 1980s were engaged in commerce, trade and finance or export of tea. Indian Government felt that in areas where adequate Indian skills and capital are available, there was no need for foreign collaboration.

In fact, in 1977 Coca-Cola was asked to wind up operations in India, and IBM was to dilute equity to stay. Some companies like Alkali Chemicals, Dunlop, Goodyear and Asbestos Cement were allowed to remain as they were operating in non-priority areas. Today the Government having realised the importance has liberalised in many areas.

Still controls the industries do not contribute to an extent the effective and fair functioning of the economy. The Government acts as a regulatory agency in import and export matters. It controls the tax and interest rates. It provides economic stabilisation through control of inflation. It is environmentally and socially conscious. It passes rules, regulations and laws from time to time to ensure that general public interest is not compromised.

The Government has placed a large number of drugs with dubious justification under the scanner. Doubts persist about safety of a host of drugs including CISAPRIDE, the drug for night heart burn, and PPA, an ingredient in certain paediatric preparations. The review of iron preparations containing zinc, amino acids and vitamins decision could be of grave concern to many leading MNCs as these drugs are high margin products.

The Government can also change the marketing environment by making changes to its procedures for example Mr. Chandra Babu Naidu, Ex-Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has decided to experiment with online procurement in four of its government departments.

1. Cultural Factors

Culture is one of the key factors that influences a consumer’s buying decisions. These factors refer to the set of values, preferences, perceptions, and ideologies of a particular community. At an early age, buyers learn to recognize acceptable behavior and choices when selecting products.

For example, it is our culture that teaches us that, as a buyer, we need to make payments and honor contracts, pay on time, observe rules, and assume responsibility when seeking information. Sometimes ‘cultural shifts’, due to the influence of different cultures indicate the need to introduce new products.

Each culture is further divided into various subcultures based on age, geographical location, religion, gender (male/female), etc.

2. Social Factors

Social factors, which includes the groups to which the customer belongs, and his or her social status, also affect purchase decisions. Human beings are innately social. They need people to interact with, and make decisions. Social groups, like families, can influence the buying decisions of consumers. These factors are further divided into:

3. Family

Family is one of the most important buying organizations in our society and, is thus, the most influential group. Family has a direct or indirect influence on the behavior and attitude of a buyer. In the traditional setting, it was the wife in a husband-wife model relationship who was responsible for making buying decisions related to product categories such as household products, food, and clothing. However, with more women opting for full-time professional careers, these roles have changed. Today, it may be a man doing the household shopping. So, it is important to have a marketing mix that targets these consumers as well.

4. Social Status

Social class or status can also influence buying decisions. The members of a social class are one that share similar behavior, values, and interests. Apart from income, people in the same occupation, neighborhood, or educational system can belong to a shared social classes.

5. Free Shipping

With a contribution of 49%, free shipping is the second most significant factor that influences the consumer decision making process. Free shipping usually attracts customers who purchase very often from online stores and websites. Free shipping helps to keep the customers hooked for a longer period of time.

To avoid bearing the entire burden of shipping costs, you can add a fraction of shipping costs into your products but remember that prices have to be competitive too.

6. Product and Information Quality

One of the most important factors that influence the consumer’s buying behavior is product quality and product information. Promoting and selling good quality products at the right time and the right platform are vital to a business’s success.

Product descriptions, specifications, product videos, and more can be utilized to influence the consumer’s decision making process.

7. Easy Returns

Undeniably, a lack of personal touch is something which an eCommerce business suffers from. But, it can overcome this challenge by putting an easy return policy in place. Defined and easy return policies are really very helpful if they are in favor of consumers. In a business where sie or color of the product can mismatch, easy return policy helps you get the consumer’s trust.

8. Great Navigation

A Great Navigation in the eCommerce website helps in getting positive user experience. It will help the consumers in getting the idea where they are and where to move on. Good navigation includes everything from well-defined categories to site maps. It gives a simple sneak-peek into the list of products that the company offers.

9. Easy Checkout

The process of checkout must be really simple. If the checkout process is complicated, there are chances that the customer might lose interest in purchasing the product. Ensure a great CX for the consumer buying process.

Pro tip: There are a few things which can make the check out process easy. For example, customers are able to send 2 different products in 2 different states, they are able to apply discount coupons easily, send personalized cards with different products and more.         

10. New Product

Customers often lookout for new products. Try to add new launches to the product catalog. Consumers always look for something that is new and innovative. Moreover, new products attract more traffic too.

Pro tip: To increase the traffic on your website, it is considered as a good practice (from an SEO point of view) to add a ‘New Products’ section.

With the above seven factors in mind, analyze the business model of your business. Take necessary actions to positively influence your customer’s purchase decision. There are many factors that influence the customer’s decisions. Thereby, analyze the requirements of your business and focus on providing maximum CX to your customers. To keep your business on top of the competition, make sure that you analyze the marketing trends properly and include them in your strategy.

Self-concept is defined as the way, in which we think, our preferences, our beliefs, our attitudes, our opinions arranged in a systematic manner and also how we should behave and react in various roles of life. Self concept is a complex subject as we know the understanding of someone’s psychology, traits, abilities sometimes are really difficult. Consumers buy and use products and services and patronize retailers whose personalities or images relate in some way or other to their own self-images

Traditionally, individuals are considered to be having a single self-image which they normally exhibit. Such type of consumers are interested in those products and services which match or satisfy these single selves. However, as the world became more and more complex, it has become more appropriate to think of consumers as having multiple selves.

Major aspects of Self-concept

Self-Concept is Organized

We all have various views about ourselves. We all may think we are kind, calm, patient, selfish, rude and what not. It doesn’t matter what perception you have about yourself, but the one perception that facilitates all these insights is organized self-concept. When a person believes in something that matches his self-concept he sticks to his view and does not agree to change the same and even if does, it takes a lot of time.

Self-Concept is Learned

It is believed that self-concept is learned and no person is born with a self-concept. It develops as and when we grow old. Our self-concept is built when we meet people socially and interact with them. We are the ones who shape or alter our self-concept and its quite natural that we may have a self-concept different for ourselves as compared to what people think about us.

For example − If an individual thinks, he is very generous and helpful, it may not necessarily be the case with others. Others may see him as a selfish person.

Self-Concept is Dynamic

Our self-concept in life is not constant and it may change with instances that take place in our lives. When we face different situations and new challenges in life, our insight towards things may change. We see and behave according to the things and situations.

Thus, it is observed that self-concept is a continuous development where we let go things that don’t match our self-concept and hold on those things that we think are helpful in building our favorable perception.

Self-concept is the composite of ideas, feelings, emotions and attitudes that a person has about their identity and capabilities.