essay questions about consumer behaviour

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Questions to ask when studying consumer behavior, know your customers: maximize your marketing efforts.

Understanding how your customer behaves  helps you offer the right product or service that meets their needs and desires,  even when they don’t know what they want . Knowing what to offer, to whom and when helps drive effective marketing. We need to know what’s inside consumers’ minds to understand accurately.

First, let’s review a couple of terms:

• Consumers  – are people who use services and products
• Shoppers and Customers  – are the people who buy products and services

When we need to get inside the actual mind of a consumer, we turn to consumer research. Let’s talk about the difference between market research and consumer research:

• Market research   is an organized, systematic effort to gather information about customers or markets. It is a vital component of any business strategy and provides information about market needs, size, competitors and customers. It tends to be factual and statistic based. It is the “WHAT” of customers and markets.
• Consumer research  is information that enables a company to determine why their customers behave how they do about their brand. With this information, organizations can use insight to affect purchase behavior. It is the “WHY” of customers and brands.

12 Survey Questions to Ask for Effective Consumer Behavior Research

1. Who purchases your products and services?

Is it females or males? Is your target audience children? Low income or wealthy? Demographics are essential, but they are only part of the equation.

2. Who makes the buying decision?

Often, a purchase is made by someone who did not make the decision. Say a restaurant wants to update its interior – an architect or interior designer makes the buying decision.

3. Who influences purchase decisions?

A great example of this is children. The mom or the dad buys the product. Sometimes, one parent decides and the other buys. However, the child is the primary  influencer .

4. How are purchase decisions made?

Take the example regarding children — a child goes to their mom and requests a toy. Then, the mom relays that request to the other parent, who buys the toy based on the child, who is the primary influencer. This is an orderly fashion of purchase decisions, which is something a marketer should know.

5. Why does the customer buy?

Consider what the customer’s needs are when buying a product. In the above example, a parent buys a toy for their child., and each customer buys a product for different reasons. Now, you can analyze behavior based on  why they are buying .

6. Where is the product purchased?

Is it at a discount store, online or a high-end retailer? Knowing this relays information about how far a customer will go to buy a brand.

7. Why does a customer prefer one brand over another?

Most consumers have brand preferences – when you determine  why the customer favors one brand over another,  you will see several features that the customer prefers.

8. When do people buy a product?

Is the “when” seasonal, external or internal?

9. What is the product’s perception?

Is the item seen as a good value? Is it premium or luxury? Product perception is a large part of creating word of mouth, so you need positive perception, so your customer recommends it to someone else.

10. What social factors influence a buying decision?

Some people may never understand why others buy Audis or BMWs. A person with a high net worth may feel strongly about these brands because their social standards dictate that. Social factors play a significant role in purchase decisions.

11. What role does lifestyle play?

For example, consider a person who loves yoga – they are more likely to purchase a yoga mat.  Say another individual loves cycling – they are likely to buy a helmet. Learning about lifestyle is a critical part of consumer behavioral studies.

12. What role do demographics play in buying decisions?

Imagine a toy company shows its products on a news channel, or the interior design service courts a startup with a limited budget? Would they be able to capture their customer’s attention? Furthermore, an older adult will probably buy different products than a teenager.

There are more aspects to consider, like economic conditions, purchasing power and the benefits the customer seeks.

Influencing Your Audience: It’s Psychological

Consider how we — as humans — process information and make decisions. For example, consumers rarely actively consider a purchase decision or brand. They are driven almost exclusively by instinct and intuition. So, how do we design research that delivers information, insight and inspiration?

Let’s look at the differences concerning information, insight, inspiration and impact:

Information:  lays the foundation. Information is the most basic output of any consumer research as we gather data and facts about consumers to describe the marketplace, the target consumer and their behavior. Information lays the foundation and includes:

• Demographics
• Product and brand usage
• Behaviors and habits
• Media usage

Insight:  connects emotionally. Distilling information is key to identifying insights about a target consumer’s motivations. Gathering and filtering information means taking what you know from a base of information and asking questions. Why are people the way they are?

Why do they feel the way they do? Where is that spot in their emotional and logical minds (or both) where we need to aim the marketing message? Ultimately, an insight is  a discovery about an underlying motivation that drives consumers’ actions.

• Beliefs and values
• Motivations

Inspiration : activating insights and telling stories. It’s not enough to identify an insight; an insight has to inspire consumers to act on them.

That means communicating insights in a way that fits into a consumer’s lifestyle and popular culture, which requires thoroughly understanding the world around your consumer and inside their hearts and minds.

• Conversations
• Cultural trends

Impact:  measuring if it worked. Consumer research has to measure changes that marketing efforts create in how consumers think, feel and act. Often this means tracking key attitudinal and behavioral measures over time as gathered through various research efforts.

• Return on investment

Finding the sweet spot

Bringing studies and brand insight together helps you develop your brand purpose. Hitting your strategic sweet spot allows you to engage with and persuade faster, meaningfully and with less effort (read: less investment).

Furthermore, by performing studies, you will understand several factors:

• Attitudes:  Consumer attitudes often affect their beliefs regarding specific products. Using consumer behavior models helps marketers create campaigns that appeal to consumers.
• Cultures:  Evolving cultures impact on marketing campaign’s design. Studying consumer psychology can help you understand cultural nuances, helping you determine your product’s target market.
• Perceptions:  Studying consumer perceptions about your brand might help you uncover negative opinions, which you can work on to improve your offering.
• Lifestyle:  Comprehending consumer lifestyles can allow you to tweak your products to meet their specific requirements.

Final Thoughts

Understanding your customers is critical to success. You can employ many methods to unearth what goes into the purchase decision process, and it starts with asking the right questions.

By understanding what drives your customers’ decisions, you can offer your customers the correct information at each stage of the  consumer journey . You will improve your marketing strategy and ensure you meet your customers’ needs.

Understanding your target audience is key to reaching them. Stefanini offers  digital marketing solutions  to get essential demographic info into your hands.

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Consumer Behavior - List of Essay Samples And Topic Ideas

An essay on consumer behavior can analyze the factors influencing consumers’ choices and purchasing decisions. It can discuss consumer psychology, marketing strategies, the impact of advertising, and the role of social, cultural, and economic factors in shaping consumer behavior, highlighting the complexities of understanding and predicting consumer choices. A substantial compilation of free essay instances related to Consumer Behavior you can find at PapersOwl Website. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

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Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior Essay

Introduction, internal factors, external factors, situational factors.

Understanding consumer behavior is a critical aspect of success for marketers in all sectors of the economy. Studying consumer behavior furnishes companies with information about consumers’ demands, perceptions, and their spending habits.

Understanding consumer behavior enables companies compete effectively, stay in business, improve sales, and develop better and effective marketing strategies. Many factors affect consumer behavior. They are classified into three groups namely internal, external, and situational factors. Internal and external factors are intertwined.

However, they affect consumer behavior in different ways. Many factors that affect consumer behavior are beyond the control and manipulation. Factors that influence consumer behavior include motivation, perception, learning, feelings, personal preferences, thinking, social norms, cultural values, trends, group influence, family influence, cultural influence, sub-cultural influence, environment, economy, culture, marketing, age, prevailing circumstances, and personal life.

Internal factors that influence consumer behavior include motivation, perception, learning, feelings, personal preferences, and thinking. These factors are also referred to as personal factors. A consumer’s motivation to purchase a certain product or service mainly depends on an urge to fulfill a certain desire or attain a certain goal. Consumers’ perceptions largely affect their behaviors. They determine how they value certain products or services based on their perceived outcomes or benefits.

Perception can be influenced by factors such as education, marketing, and advertising. Many consumer behaviors are adapted from learning. People learn to like or dislike certain products depending on the information they get form materials such as books, magazines, and online sources. Personal preferences affect consumer behaviors because they determine consumer attitudes and perceptions.

For example, some consumers prefer high heel shoes to flat shoes. This influences how they make decisions on the type of shoes to purchase. Consumer behaviors are also influenced by feelings and thinking. Emotions play a critical role in determining whether consumers purchase certain products or not. Through thinking, consumers analyze products, compare them with others, and decide which products and services best suit their needs.

External factors that influence consumer behavior include social norms, cultural values, trends, group influence, family influence, cultural and sub-cultural influence, and environment. Social norms are strong determinants of consumer purchasing behaviors. In many societies, certain social norms restrict individuals of certain genders to certain ways of dressing or doing social things.

For example, women only purchase certain types of clothing that does not contradict their norms. This greatly affects their purchasing behaviors. Group influences includes informational influence, comparative influences, and comparative influences. Informational influences take place in situations where consumers seek information from families or friends.

Comparative influences take place when a consumer bases his/her decision on the identity of the group to which they belong. For example, a young person will buy the type of shoes that his/her peers buy. Finally, normative influences involves establishment of rules regarding the behavior of group members. These aspects determine what consumers purchase. Trends have significant influence on consumers especially young people.

They dress in the latest fashion in order to look relevant and knowledgeable. Older people are less attracted to trends and fashion. They mostly dress for comfort. Families also affect the process of decision making by consumers. For example, purchasing trends change when a single individual starts a family. Single people purchase products that suit their lives as single individuals.

In contrast, married people purchase products that fulfill the needs of all their family members. As such, they purchase more products. I addition, families influence decision making. Unlike in the case of single individuals that make personal decisions, married individuals make joint decisions that take into account the preferences of other family members. Cultural and sub-cultural factors include social norms and beliefs.

In certain cultures, modes of dressing, feeding, and communication are determined by norms, traditions, and beliefs. Therefore, consumers are very selective on what they purchase. Collectivist cultures differ from individualistic cultures. In collectivist cultures, decisions are made collectively. As such, consumer behaviors are determined by the collective decision made. In contrast, the consumer habits observed in individualistic societies depend on personal tastes and preferences.

One of the most important aspects of business is the consumer market. An important skill is needed for businesses to understand the needs of customers. In addition, they should understand the factors that affect their behaviors. Examples of situational factors that affect consumer behavior include economy, culture, marketing, age, prevailing circumstances, and personal life.

These factors that affect consumer spending have different effects in varying degrees. Some have stronger effects than others do depending on the status of the consumer. Economy is the main and most important factor. This is because it determines the financial status of consumers, the amount of money they are willing to spend, and the amount available to spend. If the state of the economy is worse, then consumers will have little to spend and will therefore shun spending.

However, if the economy is thriving, consumers possess a lot of money and they therefore spend it on buying goods and services. In addition, the economy also affects the job markets. High rates of employment mean that consumers have more money to send while low rates of employment means that the economy is unstable and therefore little money to spend. Culture is also an important factor. Culture determines the beliefs, attitudes, and prejudices that people harbor. This in turn affects their purchasing tendencies.

People’s attitude and beliefs are largely influenced by their families and friends. It is important to study the effect of culture on consumers’’ spending tendencies. Marketing is a very effective tool that is used to control and influence consumers’ spending tendencies. It influences consumes by telling them what to buy and why to buy. Age is also a determinant of consumer behaviors. People of different ages have different needs and preferences.

Therefore, consumer behaviors depend on age and the suitability of certain goods and services to certain ages. For example, movies attract more young people compared to old people. Finally, personal life and prevailing circumstances influences consumer behaviors significantly. For example, the spending habits of married people are different from sending habits of single people. The wants and needs of married people are more. Therefore, they spend more.

Many factors affect the purchasing decisions that consumers make. These decisions are influenced by a wide range of factors that are grouped in three classes. They include internal, external, and situational factors. Factors in each group influence consumer behavior differently in varying degrees. Examples of internal factors include motivation, feelings, perception, and attitude.

External factors include group influence, family, environment, culture, and sub-culture influences. Situational factors include economy, personal life, age, and prevailing circumstances. Study of consumer behavior is important because it furnishes companies with information about consumers’ demands, preferences, perceptions, and spending habits. In addition, it helps businesses improve sales and develop better and effective marketing strategies.

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IvyPanda. (2019, January 17). Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior. https://ivypanda.com/essays/factors-affecting-consumer-behavior/

"Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior." IvyPanda , 17 Jan. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/factors-affecting-consumer-behavior/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior'. 17 January.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/factors-affecting-consumer-behavior/.

1. IvyPanda . "Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/factors-affecting-consumer-behavior/.

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IvyPanda . "Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/factors-affecting-consumer-behavior/.

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