3:-CONSUMER STUDY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Consumer Behavior is defined as the behavior that consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. Consumer behavior comes under marketing branch.

The study of consumer behavior dwells from various themes the important once are discussed below: -

a)   Buying motive

b)   Buying roles

c)    Major factors influencing buying behavior

d)    Working towards enhancing customer satisfaction

e)    The five stages in consumer buying process

The aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customers’ needs and wants. The field of Consumer behavior studies how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires. Understanding consumer behavior and “knowing customers” is never simple. Customers may say one thing but do another. They may not be in touch with their deeper motivations. They may respond to influences that change their mind at the last minute. Marketing and environmental stimuli enter the buyer’s consciousness. The buyer’s characteristics and decision processes lead to certain purchase decisions. The marketer’s task is to understand what happens in the buyer’s consciousness between the arrival of outside stimuli and the purchase decisions. It has been aptly said that the field of consumer behavior holds for various categories of people such as the consumers, marketers and students of marketing.

All the firms have started considering “customer” as the “king or queen”. Today, the market place is flooded with many new players including the host of MNCs resulting in the availability of more number of brands in every segment of the market. On account of this, the customer has started becoming choosy about what to buy. Thus, all firms are becoming not only customer focused but are also trying to build relationships with them. This is done by continuously updating knowledge, information and understanding of the customer’s needs and expectations.

Awareness that is displayed by the firms has made consumers take more interest in their own consumption related decisions. They are keen top gain more knowledge about taking various decisions related to products and the promotional influences that persuade them to buy.

Marketers have woken up to the reality that they exist in a competitive environment, and therefore have to be more customer focused. On the one hand, the firms are facing liquidity problems, followed by a rising rate of inflation along with increasing competition eating into their margins and sales. On the other hand, marketers have observed that the choice empowered customer cannot be taken for granted. This is particularly true because of the rapid rise in the average customer’s earnings, as well as a sharp drop in the savings rate- resulting in a huge amount of disposable income to be spent on products and services. Having a better understanding of consumer behavior will help companies become better than their competitors. They will be able to predict the way a consumer may react to a given set of cues, and thus they will be able to plan their marketing programs or strategies accordingly.