6.1 Introduction to Buyer Behavior

Introduction

The success of an organization’s efforts, depend on its understanding of the target market’s behaviors, motivations, and influences when in the buying decision process.  This understanding will lead to a more effective development of the marketing mix. For example, how raising or lowering a price will affect the buyer’s perception of the product and therefore create a fluctuation in sales, or how will a specific review on social media create an entirely new direction for the marketing mix?

To understand buyer behavior, marketers must understand how customers make buying decisions. Consumers and businesses have processes for making decisions about purchases. These decision-making processes are affected by cultural, social, individual, and psychological factors. Let’s begin our study by looking at this process for consumers.