Individual Factors that Influence Consumer Behavior

occupation

Dickies makes rugged clothes for blue-collar workers

economic situation

Maxwell house targets lower-income consumers who can't afford Starbucks

attitudes

a person's relatively consistent evaluation toward some thing or idea; hard to change

personal factor includes

age and life-cycle stage, occupation, economic situation, personality

learning

changes in behavior rise from experience; a drive becomes a motive when it is directed toward a stimulus object; cues are stimuli that determine when, where and how a person might respond

cultural factor includes

cultures, subcultures, social class

beliefs

descriptive thought about something

social factor includes

family, reference groups, roles and status

reference groups

groups that serve to influence attitudes and buying behavior; opinion leaders are within these groups and exert special influence

family

most important group influence; wives have more influence on purchases outside the home and husbands have more influence on purchases inside the home

psychological factor includes

motivation, perception, learning, beliefs, attitudes

age and life-cycle stage

over people's lifetimes, their needs and purchases change

selective attention

people screen out most information they are exposed to, so ads must strike a strong chord with the target market

perception

process people use to select, organize and interpret information

personality

refers to relatively enduring psychological characteristics; marketers try to match the brand's to the target market's.

cultures

set of basic vales and behaviors shared by members of society; most basic cause of a person's wants and behaviors learned while growing up; health shift creating opportunities for fitness companies

subcultures

smaller groups within a culture that have shared value systems; fastest growing subsegment is Latino(a)s, and mature consumers love cosmetics and health foods to look younger

social class

society's ordered divisions whose members share values and behaviors; occupation is the most important determinant

motivation

subconscious; difficult to uncover; sufficient need to trigger the person to satisfy it

selective retention

tendency to retain only information that supports existing attitudes and beliefs

roles and status

the persons role and status within a group may influence buying behavior

selective distortion

the tendency for people to interpret information in a way that conforms to their prior beliefs