NEED OR IMPORTANCE OF STUDY OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

 Behaviour is the interaction with the ambient surrounding environment, inherent in living creatures and mediated by their external and inner activeness. Thus consumer behaviour is actions of consumers in the market place and the underlying motives for those actions. Marketers expect that by understanding what causes consumers to buy particular goods and services, they will be able to determine which products are needed in the market place, which are obsolete and how best to present those goods to the consumer. The study of consumer behaviour is the study of how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources ( time, money, effort ) on consumption related items. In the words of Walters and Paul “ consumer behaviour is the process whereby individuals decide what, when, where, how and from whom to purchase goods and services.”

The modern marketing management tries to solve the basic problems of consumers in the area of consumption. To survive in the market, a firm has to be constantly innovating and understand the latest consumer needs and tastes. It will be extremely useful in exploiting marketing opportunities and in meeting the challenges that the Indian market offers. It is important for the marketers to understand the buyer behaviour due to the following reasons. 

 The study of consumer behaviour for any product is of vital importance to marketers in shaping the fortunes of their organisations. 

 It is significant for regulating consumption of goods and thereby maintaining economic stability.

  It is useful in developing ways for the more efficient utilisation of resources of marketing. It also helps in solving marketing management problems in more effective manner. 

 Today consumers give more importance on environment friendly products. They are concerned about health, hygiene and fitness. They prefer natural products. Hence detailed study on upcoming groups of consumers is essential for any firm.

  The growth of consumer protection movement has created an urgent need to understand how consumers make their consumption and buying decision. 

 Consumers tastes and preferences are ever changing. Study of consumer behaviour gives information regarding colour, design, size etc. which consumers want. In short, consumer behaviour helps in formulating of production policy.

  For effective market segmentation and target marketing, it is essential to have an understanding of consumers and their behaviour.

There are four types of consumer behaviour. They are;

 Complex Buying Behaviour: Consumers goes through complex buying behaviour when they are highly involved in a purchase and aware of significant differences among brands. Consumers are highly involved when the product is expensive, bought infrequently, risky and self-expensive. Here consumers go through a rational/logical thinking process to collect as much information as possible about the available brands. Behaviour exhibited while purchasing a car is an example of complex buying behaviour. Dissonance Reduction Buying Behaviour: Sometimes consumers are highly involved in purchases but see little difference in the brands. After the purchase they feel that the product does not perform to their expectations. They may thing about alternative brand which has forgone in the brand selection process. As a result, they feel some discomfort. This mental condition is known as Cognitive Dissonance. 

Variety Seeking Buying Behaviour: Here consumers have a lot more brand options to choose. At the same time there are significant brand differences. Unit price of product is low. Consumer involvement is also low. But consumer show brand switching behaviour. They go on changing from one brand to another. They like experiments for the sake of variety satisfaction. They exhibit variety seeking behaviour in case of products like soap, detergents, toothpaste etc. 

Habitual Buying Behaviour : In this situation consumers buy their products on regular basis. Brand switching behaviour is quite common here. Variations among brands are significant. Products are usually low priced. Gathering product knowledge is not so important. Consumers show habitual buying behaviour in case of products like salt, matches etc.