Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior

By NIIT Editorial

Published on 23/09/2021

6 minutes

“The customer is always right”. How many times have you heard this axiom? Probably more times than you can keep count of! And rightly so. Consumers drive business revenues by creating market demand. Win over their perception and you can cultivate a loyal following for a lifetime. Branding your products is all about molding the consumer behavior so they think favorably about you. But it is easier said than done. This is one volatile parameter that few online digital marketing courses can fill you up on. In this article we will delve into the prime factors responsible for influencing consumer behavior. But first, let us clear our basics on what the term consumer really denotes.

Who is a Consumer?

In general terms, a consumer is an individual who has the decision making authority to determine the sale/purchase of a product/service. A consumer could also be an entity, that is represented by a group of people represented by the brand, when dealing in the business-to-business operations mode. Consumers are referred to as the buyers of products or services, who exchange money for an item, either paid in full or partly promised.

Consumers in all spheres have the following decision controls:

To purchase or shun product
Which brand to be associated with in the market, and whether to stay loyal to them or not
They choose the time of sale and have the subliminal sensitivity to be (or not to be) affected by marketing campaigns

We are all consumers and (being so) the forepullers for the nation’s economy. By participating in the sale and purchase of products, consumers pull the economic strings ahead.

What do you mean by consumer behavior?

Consumer behaviour is an inert process that involves the consumer reaching the decision to purchase a product/service. At a human-level, this process relates to the emotions of the consumer in which a person makes the decision to buy something and executes it.

How to study consumer behavior?

Something as complex as human behavior requires multi-pronged approaches and means to be studied, even remotely. Some digital marketing online training courses do, however, share tips on grabbing this bull by the horn. Keeping the following pointers in mind could help:

Marketers should devise data sourcing ways to understand the psyche of their target audience. This could be by way of opinion polls, surveys, direct feedback, and user ratings
Subsequent to this, the lifestyle of your TG should be at your tips. This includes average household size, per capita income etc
Extrapolate consumer exposure to relevant products in your industry
Find out purchase motivators responsible for buying decisions
Modifying and measuring aspects of after-sales service as a good portion of consumers are concerned about it

The importance of knowing such everyday trivia about your consumers is that you should know the exact demographics of your target audience. The exercise would help you in retaining such your customers with better services that stand par with expectations.

But wait, there’s more. Insights on consumer behaviour would help you in predicting their future moves and adjust marketing campaigns to respond perfectly to it.

Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior

The following factors determine and influence consumer behavior at multiple levels:

Cultural Factors

Culture - Culture represents the very fabric of human society and is symbolic of our humanist preferences as a species. It is confined by geography and represents the local belief systems, knowledge, history, art, customs, and habits of the common folk.

Subculture - It refers to the sect of people that follow the same culture. Collectively this group can be further termed and divided into race, religion, and nationality to give you an example.

Social Class - This represents much deeper levels of a stratified society. The purchasing habits of people designated under one social class are often similar. Therefore, if advertisers can identify this representational asset of their audience, then they have a high likelihood of converting leads.

Social Factors

The following group categories are also useful while studying and leveraging consumer behavior.

Reference Groups

People often associate themselves with groups that uphold their values and customs. Such reference groups are also a rich source of information that can be used to extrapolate the critical steps for upselling products/services.

Family/Relatives

Your family also represents to a large extent the way you could behave. Although unearthing and discerning such micro-level data is very difficult, yet, if you can get your hands on such familial data points, you get multiple, not just one, target to pursue.

Status

Status represents the financial standing of your prospects. Their spending capabilities are directly linked to your sales turnovers. Knowing the spending habits and limitations of your audience will help you price your offering competitively.

Personal Factors

The following personality traits are a major influencer for buying decisions:

Age

Different geographies offer a variegated mix of local population as customers. For instance, about 17.9 percent of the population in China, 63.6% of the Indian population is aged between 15-64. At the same time, millennials constitute about 21.93% of the American population. To capture market share in your target land, you have to study the age demographics and get the marketing pitch aligned accordingly.

Occupation

Financial standing, discussed in the earlier section, is linked directly to their occupation. These factors largely control and define the purchasing habits of people.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle choices originate from financial standing which further impact and shape the buying decisions of users. SEO marketers factor in such details everyday while targeting users through keywords. You can learn to do the same with the help of an SEO course online.

Learn to Influence Consumer Behavior

Consumer psyche runs on complex levels and can be influenced with branding approaches that incorporate the factors mentioned above. Whereas, knowing your customer is one thing, using the information is another. You need to learn the right tools and techniques. NIIT’s Full Stack Digital Marketing Programme is a digital marketing course of the topmost quality. Incumbents do not need to run after a standalone option of a social media marketing course, or an SEO course provided they enrol in NIIT’s end-to-end digital marketing online training. It offers the following specializations: