my buying behavior essay

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Free Self-Reflection Journal On My Buying Behavior Essay Example

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Business , Commerce , Customers , Shopping , Information , Products , Shoes , Computers

Words: 1300

Published: 03/27/2020

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I like shopping too much though I hate impulse buying. Just like anyone else who strives to lead a decent life, I am compelled to always incur both fixed and current expenses. With regard to current expenses, I am not able to account for the current expenses I have incurred since 16th January 2014. As a matter of fact, in the past one month, I have bought many items on daily basis. However, I am able to identify belongings I have acquired over the same duration but whose acquisitions are made once and can only be replaced after a relatively longer period of time. Most of such items are those I have always longed to own but I have not been lucky to raise enough cash to buy them. I always strive to acquire things I admire. My buying habit is mainly influenced by three factors: necessity, quality, utility, and price. Besides, where I buy from and the brands I prefer depend on how much I am convinced that the items would satisfy the three factors mentioned above: necessity, quality, utility, and price. Since 16th January, I have made three purchase decisions that are very important to me. With this regard, I bought one pair of shoes, a pair of trousers, and a laptop. I had planned to buy these items before but I had never had enough cash. The three items were bought from different stores due to various factors. I bought my laptop on 26th January from a store run by Sears Company in Las Vegas. This was prompted by the company’s product promotion strategy whereby the company offered a discount of 40% for purchases made between 20th to 27th January. The offer was advertised on all media outlets and it encouraged me to buy the laptop. Besides, I had searched for information related to laptop products. As a result, I went further and inquired from my brother and sisters. In that process I got more information about various prices from various stores around our home. Through my efforts to search for information in various places with regard to the three products, I learnt much information about various brands of shoes, trousers, and laptops. Consequently, I was able to decide what brand to buy and from where to buy it based on the perceived extent to which it would satisfy my needs and preferences. For instance, I gathered much information with regard to prices of various brands of shoes across the US. I then compared prices from different stores and quality of shoes offered. Eventually, I decided to go for the shoes in Nava’s Supermarket. This is because it was the best alternative that offered the minimum price and the best quality based on my judgment. Although there were other alternatives in other supermarkets I had been told of, I decided to purchase some of the products in this supermarket due to various reasons. Firstly, my brother and sister recommended Nava since its staff value customers and also offer items and products with some gifts attached. For example, inside the pair of shoes I bought, there was free pair of socks. I also decided to buy my shoes from the supermarket since previously I had been involved in impulse buying from the supermarket when I was travelling to my grandmother place. I also psychologically felt the need to buy basic needs more since I never had enough shoes and a pair of trousers, which are basic needs (clothes). On the other hand, my need for laptop was mainly to help me in academic purposes and also to watch movies. Therefore, the need to use laptop in doing academic research and to watch movies motivated me more to buy this laptop. I also had positive attitudes towards the supermarket. Moreover, almost all my friends also were fond of buying their products and services from the supermarket. This culture of all my friends buying their products from this supermarket also influences me to buy my products from the supermarket. Furthermore, the best situational and social influences that motivated me to buy these products at that time was because, I was in the best mood and attitude. I also learnt more about these products from my friends and parents. Other factors that influence me to buy these products from the supermarket were due to their neat and stable packaging of their products. Besides, the branding of the pair of trousers I purchased met both my physical and economical needs. The trouser was black in color thus mostly appealing to my visual senses. These products were also of high quality and were made from high quality materials. In that sense it is clear that I bought these products after realizing that I lack most of them hence there was need to add more trousers and shoes. In addition, I also made a decision to buy a laptop since I lack any to use in my academic research papers. After making clear and proper decisions to buy these three products, that is a pair of trousers, a pair of shoes and a laptop I decide to look for reliable information that could help me find the best services around. The available information I got was from various sources. To begin with I learnt from my friends that Nava’s supermarket was offering best quality products and at a cheaper price. Furthermore, my mother was also fond of buying food products and home equipment’s from the supermarket thus, encourages me to also buy mine from the same supermarket. Again every evening in the process of watching news especially weekends there was an advertisement in Super sport demonstrating about how the supermarket provides the best after sales services and warranty to their customers. Therefore, this is what motivated me further to go for this supermarket. Besides, there was also an advertisement that prices of laptops will be low by giving of 10% discount to those who buy laptop from the supermarket as by 20th January to 27th January. For that reason, I did all that I could to ensure that I bought these products at the supermarket within this time period in order to enjoy this discount that was given to all customers. To be categorically I bought my products from Nava’s supermarket on 25th January. This was after careful and thorough evaluation of all the other options hence coming up with the decision to buy them from the supermarket. Therefore, from my point of view, my buying behaviors usually depend on social, personal, and psychological influences and these are the key influences that motivated me to buy these products. Again cultural, economic and social factors also played a role in the process of my buying behaviors For instance, the main motivator that prompted me to buy these products was majorly due to lack of them and influences that I got from my family members and friends. In addition, I carefully analyzed various situations like the location and the price distribution that made me chose Nava’s supermarket since it was cheaper and offers a lot of after sales services including warranty to customers. Besides, my perception and attitude towards the supermarket was also positive due to my prior shopping from the supermarket thus, allowing me to buy products from the supermarket. All in all, my major decision of buying these products was mainly influenced by psychological, social, cultural factors and even economic factors. Finally, I like buying especially when the place where I am going to buy my products is that which recognized customer’s needs. For that matter I went to Nava’s supermarket since it was the best alternative that provided one of the marketing and promotional strategies that appeal to my senses most including their prices and the discount given.

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3.2: Factors That Influence Consumer Buying Behavior

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• List and describe the cultural factors that influence consumer buying behavior.
• Explain the social factors that impact consumer buying behavior.
• Discuss the personal factors that influence consumer buying behavior.
• Describe the psychological factors that influence consumer buying behavior.
• Explain situational factors that impact consumer buying behavior.

Cultural Factors That Influence Consumer Buying Behavior

Why people buy isn’t always a straightforward question. Think about the last time you bought a car, a bike, or other item. Why did you buy that specific make and model? Was it because its sleek style made you feel good about yourself? Perhaps you bought a particular brand because someone in your family bought the same brand. These are just a couple of examples of some of the factors that influence consumer buying behavior. Let’s examine some others.

Cultural factors comprise a set of values or ideologies of a particular community or group of individuals. These can include culture, subcultures, social class, and gender as outlined in Figure 3.4.

Culture refers to the values, ideas, and attitudes that are learned and shared among members of a group. Human behavior is largely learned. When you were a child, you learned basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors from your family and other external influences like the schools and churches you attended. Consider how these values and attitudes have shaped your buying behavior. For example, in a traditional Hindu wedding in India, a bride may wear red lehenga to the wedding, whereas Christian brides typically wear white. In India, widows are expected to wear white, whereas widows in the United States and other parts of the world generally wear more somber colors to a funeral. 2

A subculture is a group of people, such as environmentalists or bodybuilders, who share a set of values. Ethnic and racial groups share the language, food, and culture of their heritage. Other subcultures, like the biker culture, which revolves around a dedication to motorcycles, are united by shared experiences. The Amish subculture is known for its conservative beliefs and reluctance to adapt to modern technology. Think about what subculture(s) you may belong to and how they influence your buying behavior. For example, hip-hop music has long been associated with fashion, particularly sneakers. Run DMC’s 1986 hit “My Adidas” led to the first endorsement deal between a fashion brand and a musical act, setting the stage for lucrative partnerships spanning the decades since—Master P with Converse , Jay-Z and 50 Cent with Reebok , Missy Elliott and Big Sean with Adidas , and Drake with Nike .

Link to Learning: Failures and Inspirations

Cultural factors play a major role in determining how best to market to consumers. There are numerous examples of company efforts that failed because they did not reflect an understanding of the culture in a particular market. Watch this CNBC video on why Starbucks failed in Australia and read this article about how Coca-Cola and PepsiCo failed when they first moved into the Chinese market.

Also check out this CNBC video about why 7-Eleven failed in Indonesia.

Failures are always important because they come with learned knowledge, and if you understand the WHY behind the failure, the learning can lead to shifts in strategy and possible success. Read the inspiring story behind Run DMC ’s revolutionary market deal with Adidas and how it opened the door for current artists like 50 Cent, Jay-Z, and Puffy.

For more success stories, check out these videos about numerous companies that got it right . Examples include stories from Rihanna’s Fenty beauty line, Adobe ’s “When I See Black” ad, Bumble ’s “Find Me on Bumble” campaign, and many more!

Your social class is also an important influence on your buying behavior. Sociologists base definitions of social class on several different factors, including income, occupation, and education. While there is disagreement on the number of social classes defined by income in the United States, many sociologists suggest five social classes: upper class, upper-middle class, lower-middle class, working class, and the economically disadvantaged. 3 Income is largely defined by disposable income (the money you have left to spend or save after taxes are deducted), but its influence goes beyond just dollars, euros, yen, etc. For example, a lower-middle-class individual might focus primarily on price when considering a product, whereas an upper-middle-class person might consider product quality and features before price. However, you also can be influenced by a social class to which you don’t belong but by which you want to be accepted. Have you ever spent money you really didn’t have on brand name running shoes or a designer purse because that’s what your friends have?

Finally, your gender plays an important role in your buying behavior. People of different genders not only want different products as a result of their upbringing and socialization, but they approach shopping itself with different motives, perspectives, and considerations. While it’s always dangerous to stereotype, those who identify as male typically follow a utilitarian, more logic-based approach when shopping. They want a quick, effortless shopping experience. Those who identify as female, on the other hand, make decisions on a more emotional level. Zappos considers these different motives and provides different layouts on their landing pages for different genders. While the “male” version focuses on providing clear navigation by product categories, the “female” version aims to sell on emotion. 4

Link to Learning: Behind the Gender Differences

Gender differences lead to different buying behaviors. Read this article about one such example, Birchbox , a hair care and skin care subscription service. For even more information, check out this article about the reasons for the differences , which include purpose, experience, brain make-up, and more. Interesting reads!

You can also watch this Gaby Barrios TED Talk. Barrios is a marketing expert who speaks about how targeting consumers based on gender is bad for business.

This humorous video from The Checkout, a TV show about consumer affairs, discusses gender marketing packaging decisions and their impact on your wallet.

Another video about fashion brands focuses on how their parent companies leverage gender strategies.

Careers In Marketing: Women in Marketing

Let’s look at gender from another angle—women advancing in marketing. Part of a series about jobs in marketing , this article examines equity in the world of marketing. Findings include data on gender balance and inequality, and guidance on ways to improve.

For an inspirational moment, be sure to read these heartwarming stories about six mothers of great marketers .

Social Factors That Influence Consumer Buying Behavior

Social factors are those factors that are prevalent in the society where the consumer lives. Every society is composed of individuals who have different preferences and behaviors, and these individuals influence the personal preferences of others in the society. Humans are social individuals, and the influences of people’s family, reference groups, and roles and status (refer to Figure 3.5) have a huge impact on their buying behavior.

Let’s first consider the influence of family . It is generally believed that most people pass through two families: a family of orientation (i.e., the family to which you were born or with whom you grew up) and a family of procreation (the family formed through marriage or cohabitation, including your spouse, partner, and/or children). Consider first the family of orientation. When you were growing up, whether or not you recognized it, you likely developed some degree of buying behavior through watching adult members of your household and probably tend to buy the same products or services as you grow older. Was your father a die-hard Chevy driver? If so, the chances are good that you’ll probably at least consider buying a Chevy, too. Now consider the influence that your spouse, partner, and/or children have on your buying behavior. You may want that Chevy pickup because that’s what your father drove, but your spouse or partner may subtly (or perhaps not so subtly) sway you toward a Chevy crossover SUV because it’s more practical with kids to transport to school, sports, and other activities.

Reference groups are those groups with which you like to be associated. These can be formal groups, such as members of a country club, church, or professional group, or informal groups of friends or acquaintances. These groups serve as role models and inspirations, and they influence what types of products you buy and which brands you choose. Reference groups are characterized by having opinion leaders—people who influence others. These opinion leaders aren’t necessarily higher-income or better educated, but others view them as having more expertise in a particular area. For example, a teenage girl may look to the opinion leader in her reference group of friends for fashion guidance, or a college student might aspire to getting an advanced degree from the same university as an admired professor. Social media influencers also play a role here. Consider the influence that celebrities like Kendall Jenner (with more than 217 million Instagram followers) 5 or Leo Messi (with over 310 million Instagram followers) 6 have on individuals.

All people assume different roles and status depending upon the groups, clubs, family, or organizations to which they belong. For example, a working mother who is taking classes at the local community college assumes three roles at varying times—that of an employee, a mother, and a student. Her buying decisions will be influenced by each of these roles at different times. When she is shopping for clothing, her purchases may be influenced by any or all of these roles—professional attire for the office, casual clothes for classes, or yoga pants for home.

Personal Factors That Impact Consumer Buying Behavior

Personal factors, such as your occupation, age and life cycle stage, economic situation, lifestyle, and personality and self-concept also play a major role in your buying behavior (refer to Figure 3.6). Let’s examine each of these in more detail.

Age is a major factor that influences buying behavior because consumer needs and wants change with age. Your buying habits as a teenager or twentysomething are likely to be vastly different from your buying habits in middle age and beyond. Consider the four generational cohorts currently comprising the consumer market:

• Baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are currently in their 60s and 70s. This generational cohort is approximately 70 million people strong in the United States and accounts for $2.6 trillion in buying power, 7 so you can imagine its impact on the consumer market. What types of products would you expect baby boomers to buy? Key categories for this group of buyers include pharmacy and health care products, household goods and appliances, wine, books (both digital and physical), cosmetics, and skin care products. 8
• Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979/80) are currently in their 40s and 50s. This cohort is approximately 65 million strong 9 and generally has more spending power than younger generational cohorts because they’re at or reaching the peak of their careers, and many Gen Xers are dual-income families. 10 This makes them an optimal target for higher-end brands and convenience-related goods, like made-to-order or prepared meals from the grocery store.
• Generation Y , also known as Millennials , (born between 1981 and 1994/96) are currently in their 20s and 30s. This cohort is the largest generation group in the United States, with an estimated population of 72 million. 11 One interesting aspect of Millennial buying is that they shop sustainably. They shop for brands that produce items with natural ingredients and ethical production lines and sustainable goods in every sector, such as food, household cleaning products, linens, and clothes. 12
• Generation Z , also known as Zoomers , (born between 1997 and 2012) are currently in their teens to early 20s, and they are just starting to have an economic impact on the consumer market. Although over 67 million strong, 13 many Zoomers are still in school and living with their parents, and their discretionary spending is limited.

Marketing in Practice: Marketing to the Ages

Knowing how to speak to your target market is critical. Knowing how to frame your message to a Baby Boomer versus a Gen Xer is what makes marketers successful. Want to know how to speak to each group? Check out these articles about marketing to different age demographics and generational marketing .

Learn from real-world examples of how age-agnostic marketing can work.

Have you ever seen a commercial or advertisement that pulls on your heartstrings because it gets you reminiscing? Nostalgia is an impactful tool in marketing because it gives a feeling of meaning and comfort. Check out this online blog to learn more about the impact of nostalgia in marketing.

Likewise, your life cycle stage has a major influence on your buying habits. Consider the different buying choices you would make as a single person who is renting an apartment in an urban area versus the choices you would make as a homeowner in the suburbs with children. It should be noted, though, that age and life cycle stage can often be poor predictors of buying behavior. For example, some 40-year-olds are just starting their families, while others are sending their kids off to college. Still other 40-year-olds are single (or single again). Some 70-year-olds may fit the stereotype of a retired person with a fixed income; others are still active or perhaps still working, with plenty of disposable income.

Your economic situation (income) is a huge influence on your buying behavior. Higher income typically means higher disposable income, and that disposable income gives consumers more opportunity to spend on high-end products. Conversely, lower-income and middle-income consumers spend most of their income on basic needs such as groceries and clothing.

Your occupation is also a significant factor in your buying behavior because you tend to purchase things that are appropriate to your profession. For instance, a blue-collar worker is less likely to buy professional attire like business suits, whereas attorneys, accountants, and other white-collar workers may favor suits or business casual work clothes. There are even companies that specialize in work clothes for certain types of workers, such as health care professionals who buy scrubs or construction workers who buy steel-toed boots.

Your lifestyle reflects your attitudes and values. What do you consider to be your lifestyle? Do you strive to live an active, healthy lifestyle? If so, your purchasing decisions may focus on healthier food alternatives instead of fast food. Do you consider yourself to be a soccer parent? You may (perhaps reluctantly) forgo that sports car for a minivan in order to transport your kids to youth sporting events or other activities.

Your personality and self-concept are also important factors influencing your buying behavior. Personality is the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. It’s believed that personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life. 14 Some examples of the many personality traits people might have include things like self-confidence, individualism, extroversion, introversion, aggression, or competitiveness. Your personality greatly influences what you buy as well as when and how you use or consume products and services.

Perhaps even more importantly, as consumers, people tend to buy not only products they need but also those products or services that they perceive as being consistent with their “self-concept.” In other words, they generally want the products they buy to match or blend in with who they think they are. 15

Psychological Factors That Influence Consumer Buying Behavior

Your buying choices are further influenced by several major psychological factors, including motivation, perception, learning, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes (refer to Figure 3.7).

Let’s first consider how motivation affects your buying behavior. Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It’s the driving force behind your actions. One of the most widely known motivation theories is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (see Figure 3.8).

Abraham Maslow asserted that all individuals have five needs, arranged from the most basic lower-level deficiency needs to the highest-level growth needs. As Figure 3.8 shows, physiological needs are at the most basic level and include things like adequate food, water, and shelter. Think about how marketers may try to appeal to consumers based on physiological needs. For example, Snickers ran a very successful ad campaign based on the slogan “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”

The second level is safety and security, the need to be safe from physical and psychological harm. Once again, consider just a few successful marketing campaigns that have focused on safety—“You’re in Good Hands with Allstate ” and Lysol ’s “Practice Healthy Habits” campaign with its tagline “What It Takes to Protect.”

The third level is belonging, or social needs. This level includes things like the need for emotional attachments, friendship, love, or belonging to community or church groups.

Esteem, the fourth level, includes such needs as recognition from others, taking pride in your education or work, awards, and/or prestige.

The highest level is self-actualization, which involves self-development and seeking challenges. For example, Nike ’s “Find Your Greatness” campaign was intended to spark greatness in ordinary people, not just professional athletes.

Link to Learning: Examples of Maslow’s Five Needs

Check out this Snickers' “You’re not you when you’re hungry” commercial, which appeals to basic human physiological needs.

This Lysol “What It Takes to Protect” commercial appeals to the human needs for safety and security.

Consider this public service announcement (PSA) from the Ad Council that is dedicated to fostering a more welcoming nation where everyone can belong. How does it appeal to the human need for community and belonging?

One awesome esteem level example to check out is this one from Dove . Dove launched a campaign to boost female self-esteem and to celebrate female beauty in all shapes and sizes. The company also created “confidence-boosting boards” on Pinterest. The boards include self-esteem activities so girls and their parents can share words of encouragement.

Check out one of Nike’s commercials from the “Find Your Greatness” campaign. How does it appeal to the human need for self-actualization?

Maslow asserted that people strive to satisfy their most basic needs before directing their behavior toward satisfying higher-level needs, so it stands to reason that consumer buying behavior would follow this model. For example, you’d first have to fulfill your needs for food and shelter before you might consider putting money away for retirement or purchasing a home security system.

Link to Learning: Maslow and Marketing

Understanding Maslow’s hierarchy of needs will help you be an effective and impressive marketer. You’re going to see this model in many of your business courses, not just marketing, so take the time to learn about it. Check out this brief video that may help you understand how to use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in marketing. Learn about why Maslow’s hierarchy of needs matters.

Perception is the way in which people identify, organize, and interpret sensory information. It’s another variable in consumer buying behavior because the perceptions you have about a business or its products or services have a dramatic effect on your buying behavior. What makes perception even more complex is that consumers can form different perceptions of the same stimulus because of three perceptual processes: selective attention, selective distortion, and selective retention. Let’s take a closer look.

Every day, you’re bombarded with marketing messages from TV commercials, magazine and newspaper ads, billboards, and social media ads. As of 2021, it was estimated that the average person encounters between 6,000 and 10,000 ads every single day. 16 It stands to reason that you can’t possibly pay attention to all of the competing stimuli surrounding you, so you’ll pay attention to only those stimuli that you consider relevant to your wants and needs at the time and screen out the rest. That’s the process known as selective attention .

Marketing in Practice: When Bombarding Backfires

Bombarding consumers with marketing messages can cause more harm than good. According to this article from Marketing Dive , bombarding people with ads would negatively impact a brand. This article from the Advertising Association shares data that indicates bombardment and intrusiveness negatively impact perceptions of advertising.

How can you combat the issue? Quantcast outlines ways to avoid ad bombardment.

Careers In Marketing: It’s about Ability

Your personal brand will be a significant factor when it comes to finding a job. What does your personal brand say today? What is your marketing story? Is it what you want it to be? If not, what will you do to change it? The end-of-chapter content includes various ways to explore your personal brand to help you prepare for your job search.

How are you going to stand out among other candidates? What can you do with your résumé? According to Jason Shen’s TED Talk, you should highlight your abilities and not your experience. He speaks to potential and how you can make yourself more attractive to potential employers by telling a story in a compelling way.

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA) , you need to know yourself well. Self-knowledge will help you know the kind of work environment you perform best in and what kind of work you enjoy most. The AMA is a great place to learn how to stand out as a marketing job applicant , target companies, prepare your best résumé, and have a successful interview.

Check out these sources on how to stand out and ways you can beat the competition:

• Freemanleonard : “How Marketers and Creatives Can Stand Out in Today’s Competitive Job Market”
• Recruiter.com : “13 Tried-and-True Creative Tactics Candidates Have Used to Stand Out in Interviews”
• Acadium : “Launch Your Digital Marketing Career: How to Stand Out as a Candidate”
• Indeed: “8 Marketing Interview Questions to Expect”
• Entrepreneur : “Building Your Brand Is How You Will Stand Out When Applying for a Job”
• Smart Insights : “7 Tactics to Help You Stand Out as a Marketer and Get Better Jobs”
• 24 Seven : “10 Tips to Ace Your Next Marketing Job Interview”

If you want to go the extra mile in making yourself stand out, reach out to current marketers and ask them questions. You can find hundreds, even thousands, of current marketers on LinkedIn . Try targeting people from companies you’re interested in or would like to learn more about. Look for specific people who are doing jobs that interest you. Going to an interview armed with information is incredibly powerful and will speak volumes to your interviewer. Be sure to find a way to work your completed research into the interview conversation because it will speak to your drive, curiosity, and ambition—all traits every interviewer wants to hear about. This will also be another way you can stand out from others interviewing for the job. Questions you could ask current marketers in preparation for an interview include (but by no means are limited to):

• What about you stood out in your interview process that made your current company hire you?
• Can you tell me about examples of people you’ve interviewed and why they stood out to you?
• How have candidates stood out when they spoke about their abilities in a job interview scenario?
• What are your thoughts on candidates sharing a college project with you as a way to demonstrate abilities?
• What advice do you have for me?

Be creative with your questions! Look online for other questions you could ask. Have fun!

Even the stimuli that people notice don’t always come across in the way in which the marketers intended. Selective distortion is the tendency of people to interpret information in a way that fits their preconceived notions. This was demonstrated years ago when PepsiCo launched its Pepsi Challenge blind taste test commercials. Participants were presented with two colas in unmarked plastic cups and asked to taste both colas and choose the one they liked better. Then the tester would lift a small screen to reveal the brand the participants preferred. In TV commercials that aired for years, Pepsi showed the stunned reactions of loyal Coca-Cola drinkers who had chosen Pepsi over Coke in the test. One grandmother in a commercial said, “I can’t believe it. I’ve never had a Pepsi in my life, but it must be better!” 17

People also tend to forget much of what they learn and to retain information that supports their preconceived attitudes and beliefs. That’s the power of selective retention , a bias by which you’re more likely to remember messages that are closely related to your interests, values, and beliefs rather than those that are contrary to those values and beliefs.

Beliefs, feelings, and attitudes also play an important role in consumer buying behavior. Beliefs are consumer perceptions of how a product or brand performs relative to different attributes. These beliefs are generally formed through personal experience, advertising, and conversations with others, and they play a vital role because they can be either positive or negative. You can even hold both positive and negative beliefs about the same thing. For example, you may believe that coffee is good for you because it helps you focus and stay alert, but you may also worry about the effect of coffee on your health and the way it stains your teeth. Human beliefs aren’t always accurate and can change according to the situation.

Consumer attitudes are a composite of a consumer’s beliefs, feelings, and behavioral intentions toward a product or service (see Figure 3.9).

We’ve already talked about beliefs, so let’s focus for a moment on affect, or feeling. Consumers often have certain feelings toward brands, products, or services. Sometimes these feelings are based on people’s beliefs, such as a vegetarian who can’t stand the thought of eating a hamburger, but you may also have feelings that are relatively independent of your beliefs. For example, someone who has strong environmentalist beliefs may object to clearing forests to make way for a housing development but may have positive feelings toward Christmas trees because they subconsciously associate these trees with the experience that they had at Christmas as a child.

The behavioral intention aspect of an attitude is what you as a consumer plan to do—buy the brand or not buy the brand. As with affect, this is sometimes a logical consequence of your beliefs but may sometimes reflect other circumstances. Consider a consumer who doesn’t particularly like a restaurant but will go there because it’s an after-class gathering spot with her friends. 18

Learning is still another important factor in consumer buying behavior. The fact is that consumer behavior is learned, and much of what you buy is based on your previous experiences with particular brands. This is commonly known as the Law of Effect , which asserts that, if an action is followed by a pleasant consequence, you’re likely to repeat it; if the action is followed by an unpleasant consequence, you’re less likely to repeat it. For example, let’s say you buy an Apple iPhone . If your experience with the iPhone is positive, you’ll probably be more inclined to buy another Apple product when you’re looking for a tablet or wearable. On the other hand, if you’ve had a not-so-positive experience with your iPhone, you’re likely to look at other brands when considering purchasing other devices.

Marketing in Practice: Lessons in Psychology

Psychology is a big part of marketing. Insight into your customers’ thinking will allow you to create marketing messages and stories that better speak to their needs. Learning, the process where customers acquire information they can apply to future purchases, is a foundational concept in marketing. Learn about the various types of learning and how they can impact marketing strategies from this Forbes article .

Situational Factors That Impact Consumer Buying Behavior

Situational factors influencing consumers are external (refer to Figure 3.10). These factors play an important role in how consumers experience a product and how these consumers’ opinions are formed.

Environmental factors such as music, lighting, ambient noise, and even smells can either discourage or encourage a consumer’s purchase decision. For example, researchers conducted a study on the effect of lighting on consumer purchases in a grocery store. They lit half the store with traditional fluorescent lighting and the other half of the building with LED lighting. Researchers conducted the study over 21 weeks and discovered that consumers bought 25 percent more products on the LED-lit side of the store. 19

Spatial factors also play a role. The way a product is displayed may make it seem desirable, but a crowded store or a long line at the cash register can suddenly make that same product seem less desirable. Think about it: Have you ever seen a long line to check out at the cash register and put the product you intended to buy back on the shelf because it simply wasn’t worth it to waste your time standing in line?

The Marketing in Practice feature box shows how sound and smell can affect consumers.

Marketing in Practice: Abercrombie & Fitch

As consumers, people usually don’t think twice about what a store smells or sounds like, the way it makes them feel or think, or what it makes them do. But Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) thinks about it a lot (see Figure 3.11).

The company has its own line of men’s fragrances called “Fierce,” which is sprayed liberally in stores to give off what the company describes as a “lifestyle . . . packed with confidence and a bold, masculine attitude.” A&F knows who it wants in its stores, and by associating its fragrance with its stores, it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy for its male clientele who, by wanting to smell like A&F, will be like the models and sales staff in the store.

A&F also plays loud club music throughout its stores, attracting young people who can withstand loud music longer, while older customers may run from it. It’s just another way that A&F is enabling its stores to maintain a more youthful clientele and a “fresher” image. 20

Watch this video on Abercrombie & Fitch’s brand transformation for further insight on how A&F has positioned its retail brand Hollister as a global iconic teen brand and modernized the A&F brand to focus on young millennial consumers.

The social situation of shopping is another situational factor. Did you know that you’re more likely to stop to look at certain products when you’re in the company of a friend as opposed to a parent? The social aspect can even alter the price you’re willing to pay. You might be more inclined to purchase a more expensive product when you’re with a colleague or potential partner than you would if you’re with a friend or spouse. 21

The goal of your shopping trip is yet another situational factor. If you go to a store to look for a birthday present for your mother, your purpose is totally different than if you’re casually shopping for a new pair of shoes. The reason for shopping dictates the kinds of products customers are willing to interact with at that time and may cause them to bypass certain products they would normally interact with on another shopping trip. This is even true at the grocery store. You’ll interact with products differently if you’re on your weekly shopping trip versus simply going into the store because you’re out of milk.

Much like the purpose of your shopping trip, timing also influences your consumer behavior. If you’re in a rush because it’s Christmas Eve and you haven’t bought a present for your best friend yet, you’ll interact with fewer products than if you have hours to shop. Even if two people are looking for the same type of product, the one in a rush will probably end up with the most accessible product, whereas the leisurely consumer has time to weigh the price and quality of offerings.

Finally, your mood influences your buying behavior. Someone who is feeling sad or stressed interacts differently with products than a happy, relaxed shopper. The same can be said for someone who’s fatigued versus someone who’s full of energy.

Marketing in Practice: Situational Factors

There are many examples where companies use situational factors in their marketing approaches. Here are several online sites and specific articles:

• Westin and the White Tea Signature Scent
• The Aroma Trace : “Best Examples of Olfactory Marketing in Companies”
• Sync Originals: “10 Brands That Made Music Part of Their Marketing DNA”
• Omnify : “8 Simple Lighting Techniques That Boost Retail Sales”
• Science News: “Does Background Noise Make Consumers Buy More Innovative Products?”
• Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science : “Sounds Like a Healthy Retail Atmosphere Strategy: Effects of Ambient Music and Background Noise on Food Sales”

Knowledge Check

It’s time to check your knowledge on the concepts presented in this section. Refer to the Answer Key at the end of the book for feedback.

You’re at the shopping mall looking for a new pair of shoes when you smell the wonderful aroma of freshly baked pretzels. Before you know it, you’ve bought a giant pretzel with cheese sauce. What type of factors influenced your purchase?

• Psychological factors
• Social factors
• Situational factors
• Personal factors

Traditionally, in China, the bride’s wedding gown is red because the color is associated with good luck, happiness, and prosperity. Which influence on consumer buying behavior does this illustrate?

• Social class
• Personality

Jazmine purchases a wireless alarm system for her apartment. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which level of needs does this purchase reflect?

• Physiological
• Safety/security
• Self-esteem

The tendency of people to interpret information in a way that supports what they already believe is known as ________.

• cognitive dissonance
• selective attention
• selective retention
• selective distortion

Attitudes are a composite of a consumer’s beliefs, feelings about, and ________ toward a product or service.

• predispositions
• behavioral intentions
• preconceived notions
• attributions

Consumer Buying Behavior

Introduction, consumer behavior, purchasing mind map, internal factors, external factors, works cited.

Consumer buying behavior forms an important component of marketing. Marketers are interested in the factors that influence a consumer to buy a particular product. According to Waheed and Sandhu, consumer behavior involves the actions that drive buyers to choose a particular product (637). There are internal and external factors that influence the selection of a product. The internal factors include consumer psychology and personal factors. The external factors constitute situational, social and cultural factors. The following paper is a self-reflection on how various factors influence the purchasing decisions. The reflection relates to an iPhone 6S I purchased last weekend. To get a clear glimpse of the purchase, I will use a purchasing mind map to illustrate the combination of the factors that led to the decision.

According to Kotler and Armstrong, combination of the internal and external factors results in consumer value framework (CVF) (28). The factors interact to determine the process of consumption, the value, and the relationship quality. The internal factors include consumer psychology and personality of the consumer (Kotler and Armstrong 29). The consumer psychology factors are subcategorized into perception, implicit memory, attitudes, information processing, and categorization. On the other hand, personality of the consumer entails motivation, personal values, emotional expressiveness, and lifestyles. The external factors are further divided into social, cultural and situational factors.

The purchase of the iPhone 6S last weekend was influenced by personal, psychological, cultural, situational and social factors. The following purchasing mind map exemplifies the determinants and the contributors that influenced the purchase.

Every day, people make purchasing decisions. Some of the decisions do not require a lot of thinking. On the other hand, there are other purchases that involve a long decision-making process. For example, purchase of a cell phone requires the consumer to think about the model, necessity and the technological specifications. The personal factors that influenced my purchase included lifestyle, preferences, and emotional expressiveness. According to Waheed and Sandhu personal factors are features that are unique to a person.

The factors include interests and opinions (639). In relation to the lifestyle, I am always attracted to new trends in the market. Furthermore, I admire cell phones that have good music applications, and high-resolution camera. I frequently visit social media sites and use the internet to research on various issues; hence, I preferred the iPhone. The emotional expressiveness entails the motivation and personal values. The iPhone 6S I purchased last weekend had the aesthetic qualities that resonated with my emotions and social class.

The other category of internal factors that influence purchase decisions are the psychological factors. Psychological factors refer to the individual’s ability to learn and comprehend information (Waheed and Sandhu 640). Psychological factors also include attitudes and perceptions. According to Kotler and Armstrong consumers respond to marketing promotions based on the perceptions and attitudes (42). In my case last weekend, the key psychological factors that affected the purchase of the iPhone included attitudes, categorization and perception. Attitudes are acquired ways of thinking about something. Attitudes entail the expression of favor or dislike of an object or someone (Waheed and Sandhu 638).

According to Kotler and Armstrong, attitudes form an important component of choosing a product (30). In my case, I already had a different model of smartphones. However, over the years I have admired Apple’s products. The desire for the brand and the strong conviction that the iPhone 6S has excellent features made me purchase it. Categorization entails grouping of people or things based on their traits (Kotler and Armstrong 43). In the electronic store, there were different genres of phones. However, the value and the superior features of Apple’s smartphones led me to prioritize the iPhone.

Perception is the other psychological factor that informed the purchase. Waheed and Sandhu stated that perceptions are usually formed based on experiences (640). Perceptions result in assigning meaning to particular people or products. In the case of the purchase, my orientation towards the iPhone was due to the perception that the cell phone has superior technological specifications. Perceptions are created in the mind. Other buyers in the store could have been attracted to other models of smartphones, but my passion was in the iPhone.

Social factors affect how consumers make purchasing decisions and respond to marketing messages (Waheed and Sandhu 640). The social influences are diverse and include family, social and peer interactions. In my case, the social factors that influenced the purchase included a reference group, peers, and my online social groups. For instance, during the purchase I was accompanied by a friend who has a smartphone. Earlier, I had seen his phone and wished to have a similar cell phone. In addition, my social roles as a student influenced the decision. The other external factors were cultural. Cultural factors are the set of values and ideologies that define a group. Many people in the U.S own smartphones. Hence, it has become national trend to have smartphones. Apple has penetrated the U.S market; as a result, many people have purchased the iPhones. Furthermore, most of my family members prefer the iPhones to other smartphones. The other subcultural factor was my affiliation with online groups.

Situational factors are the external factors that influence consumer behavior. Extensive research has been carried to examine how situational factors influence the purchase decisions. Marketers leverage on factors that influence purchase due to the situational issues (Kotler and Armstrong 42). For example, during the cold season, people buy warm clothes. Similarly, my purchase was influenced by situational factors. The factors comprised of time, location and income. The time factor related to the increase in academic research work throughout the semester. I required a cell phone that would make it easy for me to browse the internet. The second factor was location. The beautiful display of the phones along a busy street attracted me to the store. If it were not for the display, maybe I would not have purchased the phone last weekend. The other situational factor was the financial ability. I had $300 which I had saved specifically for the purchase of a cell phone.

The decision to purchase a product is influenced by many factors. The factors are categorized into external and internal factors. Similarly, my decision to buy the cell phone was influenced by the combination of internal and external factors. Even though there were similar phones that had the technological specifications such as the iPhone 6S, I settled for the product due to the personal, psychological, situational, cultural and social factors. These aspects pointed that purchase decisions are formed by the interaction of many factors. Therefore, marketers need to put into consideration the various factors that influence the purchasing process.

Kotler, Philip and Gary Armstrong. Principles of Marketing, London: Pearson Education Limited, 2008. Print.

Waheed, Abdul and Ahmand Sandhu. “Factor That Affects Consumer Buying Behavior: An Analysis of Some Selected Factors.” Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 19.5 (2014): 636-641. Print.

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OPINION article

Factors affecting impulse buying behavior of consumers.

• Instituto Superior de Gestão, Lisbon, Portugal

In recent years, the study of consumer behavior has been marked by significant changes, mainly in decision-making process and consequently in the influences of purchase intention ( Stankevich, 2017 ).

The markets are different and characterized by an increased competition, as well a constant innovation in products and services available and a greater number of companies in the same market. In this scenario it is essential to know the consumer well ( Varadarajan, 2020 ). It is through the analysis of the factors that have a direct impact on consumer behavior that it is possible to innovate and meet their expectations. This research is essential for marketers to be able to improve their campaigns and reach the target audience more effectively ( Ding et al., 2020 ).

Consumer behavior refers to the activities directly involved in obtaining products /services, so it includes the decision-making processes that precede and succeed these actions. Thus, it appears that the advertising message can cause a certain psychological influence that motivates individuals to desire and, consequently, buy a certain product/service ( Wertenbroch et al., 2020 ).

Studies developed by Meena (2018) show that from a young age one begins to have a preference for one product/service over another, as we are confronted with various commercial stimuli that shape our choices. The sales promotion has become one of the most powerful tools to change the perception of buyers and has a significant impact on their purchase decision ( Khan et al., 2019 ). Advertising has a great capacity to influence and persuade, and even the most innocuous, can cause changes in behavior that affect the consumer's purchase intention. Falebita et al. (2020) consider this influence predominantly positive, as shown by about 84.0% of the total number of articles reviewed in the study developed by these authors.

Kumar et al. (2020) add that psychological factors have a strong implication in the purchase decision, as we easily find people who, after having purchased a product/ service, wonder about the reason why they did it. It is essential to understand the mental triggers behind the purchase decision process, which is why consumer psychology is related to marketing strategies ( Ding et al., 2020 ). It is not uncommon for the two areas to use the same models to explain consumer behavior and the reasons that trigger impulse purchases. Consumers are attracted by advertising and the messages it conveys, which is reflected in their behavior and purchase intentions ( Varadarajan, 2020 ).

Impulse buying has been studied from several perspectives, namely: (i) rational processes; (ii) emotional resources; (iii) the cognitive currents arising from the theory of social judgment; (iv) persuasive communication; (v) and the effects of advertising on consumer behavior ( Malter et al., 2020 ).

The causes of impulsive behavior are triggered by an irresistible force to buy and an inability to evaluate its consequences. Despite being aware of the negative effects of buying, there is an enormous desire to immediately satisfy your most pressing needs ( Meena, 2018 ).

The importance of impulse buying in consumer behavior has been studied since the 1940's, since it represents between 40.0 and 80.0% of all purchases. This type of purchase obeys non-rational reasons that are characterized by the sudden appearance and the (in) satisfaction between the act of buying and the results obtained ( Reisch and Zhao, 2017 ). Aragoncillo and Orús (2018) also refer that a considerable percentage of sales comes from purchases that are not planned and do not correspond to the intended products before entering the store.

According to Burton et al. (2018) , impulse purchases occur when there is a sudden and strong emotional desire, which arises from a reactive behavior that is characterized by low cognitive control. This tendency to buy spontaneously and without reflection can be explained by the immediate gratification it provides to the buyer ( Pradhan et al., 2018 ).

Impulsive shopping in addition to having an emotional content can be triggered by several factors, including: the store environment, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and the emotional state of the consumer at that time ( Gogoi and Shillong, 2020 ). We believe that impulse purchases can be stimulated by an unexpected need, by a visual stimulus, a promotional campaign and/or by the decrease of the cognitive capacity to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of that purchase.

The buying experience increasingly depends on the interaction between the person and the point of sale environment, but it is not just the atmosphere that stimulates the impulsive behavior of the consumer. The sensory and psychological factors associated with the type of products, the knowledge about them and brand loyalty, often end up overlapping the importance attributed to the physical environment ( Platania et al., 2016 ).

The impulse buying causes an emotional lack of control generated by the conflict between the immediate reward and the negative consequences that the purchase can originate, which can trigger compulsive behaviors that can become chronic and pathological ( Pandya and Pandya, 2020 ).

Sohn and Ko (2021) , argue that although all impulse purchases can be considered as unplanned, not all unplanned purchases can be considered impulsive. Unplanned purchases can occur, simply because the consumer needs to purchase a product, but for whatever reason has not been placed on the shopping list in advance. This suggests that unplanned purchases are not necessarily accompanied by the urgent desire that generally characterizes impulse purchases.

The impulse purchases arise from sensory experiences (e.g., store atmosphere, product layout), so purchases made in physical stores tend to be more impulsive than purchases made online. This type of shopping results from the stimulation of the five senses and the internet does not have this capacity, so that online shopping can be less encouraging of impulse purchases than shopping in physical stores ( Moreira et al., 2017 ).

Researches developed by Aragoncillo and Orús (2018) reveal that 40.0% of consumers spend more money than planned, in physical stores compared to 25.0% in online purchases. This situation can be explained by the fact that consumers must wait for the product to be delivered when they buy online and this time interval may make impulse purchases unfeasible.

Following the logic of Platania et al. (2017) we consider that impulse buying takes socially accepted behavior to the extreme, which makes it difficult to distinguish between normal consumption and pathological consumption. As such, we believe that compulsive buying behavior does not depend only on a single variable, but rather on a combination of sociodemographic, emotional, sensory, genetic, psychological, social, and cultural factors. Personality traits also have an important role in impulse buying. Impulsive buyers have low levels of self-esteem, high levels of anxiety, depression and negative mood and a strong tendency to develop obsessive-compulsive disorders. However, it appears that the degree of uncertainty derived from the pandemic that hit the world and the consequent economic crisis, seems to have changed people's behavior toward a more planned and informed consumption ( Sheth, 2020 ).

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Aragoncillo, L., and Orús, C. (2018). Impulse buying behaviour: na online-offline comparative and the impact of social media. Spanish J. Market. 22, 42–62. doi: 10.1108/SJME-03-2018-007

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Falebita, O., Ogunlusi, C., and Adetunji, A. (2020). A review of advertising management and its impact on consumer behaviour. Int. J. Agri. Innov. Technol. Global. 1, 354–374. doi: 10.1504/IJAITG.2020.111885

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Sohn, Y., and Ko, M. (2021). The impact of planned vs. unplanned purchases on subsequent purchase decision making in sequential buying situations. J. Retail. Consumer Servic. 59, 1–7. doi: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102419

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Keywords: consumer behavior, purchase intention, impulse purchase, emotional influences, marketing strategies

Citation: Rodrigues RI, Lopes P and Varela M (2021) Factors Affecting Impulse Buying Behavior of Consumers. Front. Psychol. 12:697080. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.697080

Received: 19 April 2021; Accepted: 10 May 2021; Published: 02 June 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Rodrigues, Lopes and Varela. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Rosa Isabel Rodrigues, rosa.rodrigues@isg.pt

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Home — Essay Samples — Business — Consumer Behavior — The Factors Influencing Consumer Purchasing Behaviour

The Factors Influencing Consumer Purchasing Behaviour

• Categories: Consumer Behavior Customer

About this sample

Words: 1506 |

Published: Feb 8, 2022

Words: 1506 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

Table of contents

Executive summary, introduction, social influence, personal factor.

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• https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c74a/5c9a78601cb9b340a2628ac5602bee137f11.pdf
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• https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/38034975/KacenLee_ImpulseBuyingJCP.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DThe_Influence_of_Culture_on_Consumer_Imp.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20190626%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20190626T095431Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=747a1603302bde322dfcba863e31de86a60315b6b30d0a9e6c2edf7762ccbb88
• https://www.scribd.com/document/201942829/The-Asch-Phenomenon-and-Consumer-Behavior
• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-brain-work/200910/status-more-accurate-way-understanding-self-esteem 

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3.2 Factors That Influence Consumer Buying Behavior

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• 1 List and describe the cultural factors that influence consumer buying behavior.
• 2 Explain the social factors that impact consumer buying behavior.
• 3 Discuss the personal factors that influence consumer buying behavior.
• 4 Describe the psychological factors that influence consumer buying behavior.
• 5 Explain situational factors that impact consumer buying behavior.

Cultural Factors That Influence Consumer Buying Behavior

Why people buy isn’t always a straightforward question. Think about the last time you bought a car, a bike, or other item. Why did you buy that specific make and model? Was it because its sleek style made you feel good about yourself? Perhaps you bought a particular brand because someone in your family bought the same brand. These are just a couple of examples of some of the factors that influence consumer buying behavior. Let’s examine some others.

Cultural factors comprise a set of values or ideologies of a particular community or group of individuals. These can include culture, subcultures, social class, and gender as outlined in Figure 3.4 .

Culture refers to the values, ideas, and attitudes that are learned and shared among members of a group. Human behavior is largely learned. When you were a child, you learned basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors from your family and other external influences like the schools and churches you attended. Consider how these values and attitudes have shaped your buying behavior. For example, in a traditional Hindu wedding in India, a bride may wear red lehenga to the wedding, whereas Christian brides typically wear white. In India, widows are expected to wear white, whereas widows in the United States and other parts of the world generally wear more somber colors to a funeral. 2

A subculture is a group of people, such as environmentalists or bodybuilders, who share a set of values. Ethnic and racial groups share the language, food, and culture of their heritage. Other subcultures, like the biker culture, which revolves around a dedication to motorcycles, are united by shared experiences. The Amish subculture is known for its conservative beliefs and reluctance to adapt to modern technology. Think about what subculture(s) you may belong to and how they influence your buying behavior. For example, hip-hop music has long been associated with fashion, particularly sneakers. Run DMC’s 1986 hit “My Adidas” led to the first endorsement deal between a fashion brand and a musical act, setting the stage for lucrative partnerships spanning the decades since—Master P with Converse , Jay-Z and 50 Cent with Reebok , Missy Elliott and Big Sean with Adidas , and Drake with Nike .

Link to Learning

Failures and inspirations.

Cultural factors play a major role in determining how best to market to consumers. There are numerous examples of company efforts that failed because they did not reflect an understanding of the culture in a particular market. Watch this CNBC video on why Starbucks failed in Australia and read this article about how Coca-Cola and PepsiCo failed when they first moved into the Chinese market.

Also check out this CNBC video about why 7-Eleven failed in Indonesia.

Failures are always important because they come with learned knowledge, and if you understand the WHY behind the failure, the learning can lead to shifts in strategy and possible success. Read the inspiring story behind Run DMC ’s revolutionary market deal with Adidas and how it opened the door for current artists like 50 Cent, Jay-Z, and Puffy.

For more success stories, check out these videos about numerous companies that got it right . Examples include stories from Rihanna’s Fenty beauty line, Adobe ’s “When I See Black” ad, Bumble ’s “Find Me on Bumble” campaign, and many more!

Your social class is also an important influence on your buying behavior. Sociologists base definitions of social class on several different factors, including income, occupation, and education. While there is disagreement on the number of social classes defined by income in the United States, many sociologists suggest five social classes: upper class, upper-middle class, lower-middle class, working class, and the economically disadvantaged. 3 Income is largely defined by disposable income (the money you have left to spend or save after taxes are deducted), but its influence goes beyond just dollars, euros, yen, etc. For example, a lower-middle-class individual might focus primarily on price when considering a product, whereas an upper-middle-class person might consider product quality and features before price. However, you also can be influenced by a social class to which you don’t belong but by which you want to be accepted. Have you ever spent money you really didn’t have on brand name running shoes or a designer purse because that’s what your friends have?

Finally, your gender plays an important role in your buying behavior. People of different genders not only want different products as a result of their upbringing and socialization, but they approach shopping itself with different motives, perspectives, and considerations. While it’s always dangerous to stereotype, those who identify as male typically follow a utilitarian, more logic-based approach when shopping. They want a quick, effortless shopping experience. Those who identify as female, on the other hand, make decisions on a more emotional level. Zappos considers these different motives and provides different layouts on their landing pages for different genders. While the “male” version focuses on providing clear navigation by product categories, the “female” version aims to sell on emotion. 4

Behind the Gender Differences

Gender differences lead to different buying behaviors. Read this article about one such example, Birchbox , a hair care and skin care subscription service. For even more information, check out this article about the reasons for the differences , which include purpose, experience, brain make-up, and more. Interesting reads!

You can also watch this Gaby Barrios TED Talk. Barrios is a marketing expert who speaks about how targeting consumers based on gender is bad for business.

This humorous video from The Checkout, a TV show about consumer affairs, discusses gender marketing packaging decisions and their impact on your wallet.

Another video about fashion brands focuses on how their parent companies leverage gender strategies.

Careers In Marketing

Women in marketing.

Let’s look at gender from another angle—women advancing in marketing. Part of a series about jobs in marketing , this article examines equity in the world of marketing. Findings include data on gender balance and inequality, and guidance on ways to improve.

For an inspirational moment, be sure to read these heartwarming stories about six mothers of great marketers .

Social Factors That Influence Consumer Buying Behavior

Social factors are those factors that are prevalent in the society where the consumer lives. Every society is composed of individuals who have different preferences and behaviors, and these individuals influence the personal preferences of others in the society. Humans are social individuals, and the influences of people’s family, reference groups, and roles and status (refer to Figure 3.5 ) have a huge impact on their buying behavior.

Let’s first consider the influence of family . It is generally believed that most people pass through two families: a family of orientation (i.e., the family to which you were born or with whom you grew up) and a family of procreation (the family formed through marriage or cohabitation, including your spouse, partner, and/or children). Consider first the family of orientation. When you were growing up, whether or not you recognized it, you likely developed some degree of buying behavior through watching adult members of your household and probably tend to buy the same products or services as you grow older. Was your father a die-hard Chevy driver? If so, the chances are good that you’ll probably at least consider buying a Chevy, too. Now consider the influence that your spouse, partner, and/or children have on your buying behavior. You may want that Chevy pickup because that’s what your father drove, but your spouse or partner may subtly (or perhaps not so subtly) sway you toward a Chevy crossover SUV because it’s more practical with kids to transport to school, sports, and other activities.

Reference groups are those groups with which you like to be associated. These can be formal groups, such as members of a country club, church, or professional group, or informal groups of friends or acquaintances. These groups serve as role models and inspirations, and they influence what types of products you buy and which brands you choose. Reference groups are characterized by having opinion leaders—people who influence others. These opinion leaders aren’t necessarily higher-income or better educated, but others view them as having more expertise in a particular area. For example, a teenage girl may look to the opinion leader in her reference group of friends for fashion guidance, or a college student might aspire to getting an advanced degree from the same university as an admired professor. Social media influencers also play a role here. Consider the influence that celebrities like Kendall Jenner (with more than 217 million Instagram followers) 5 or Leo Messi (with over 310 million Instagram followers) 6 have on individuals.

All people assume different roles and status depending upon the groups, clubs, family, or organizations to which they belong. For example, a working mother who is taking classes at the local community college assumes three roles at varying times—that of an employee, a mother, and a student. Her buying decisions will be influenced by each of these roles at different times. When she is shopping for clothing, her purchases may be influenced by any or all of these roles—professional attire for the office, casual clothes for classes, or yoga pants for home.

Personal Factors That Impact Consumer Buying Behavior

Personal factors, such as your occupation, age and life cycle stage, economic situation, lifestyle, and personality and self-concept also play a major role in your buying behavior (refer to Figure 3.6 ). Let’s examine each of these in more detail.

Age is a major factor that influences buying behavior because consumer needs and wants change with age. Your buying habits as a teenager or twentysomething are likely to be vastly different from your buying habits in middle age and beyond. Consider the four generational cohorts currently comprising the consumer market:

• Baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are currently in their 60s and 70s. This generational cohort is approximately 70 million people strong in the United States and accounts for $2.6 trillion in buying power, 7 so you can imagine its impact on the consumer market. What types of products would you expect baby boomers to buy? Key categories for this group of buyers include pharmacy and health care products, household goods and appliances, wine, books (both digital and physical), cosmetics, and skin care products. 8
• Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979/80) are currently in their 40s and 50s. This cohort is approximately 65 million strong 9 and generally has more spending power than younger generational cohorts because they’re at or reaching the peak of their careers, and many Gen Xers are dual-income families. 10 This makes them an optimal target for higher-end brands and convenience-related goods, like made-to-order or prepared meals from the grocery store.
• Generation Y , also known as Millennials , (born between 1981 and 1994/96) are currently in their 20s and 30s. This cohort is the largest generation group in the United States, with an estimated population of 72 million. 11 One interesting aspect of Millennial buying is that they shop sustainably. They shop for brands that produce items with natural ingredients and ethical production lines and sustainable goods in every sector, such as food, household cleaning products, linens, and clothes. 12
• Generation Z , also known as Zoomers , (born between 1997 and 2012) are currently in their teens to early 20s, and they are just starting to have an economic impact on the consumer market. Although over 67 million strong, 13 many Zoomers are still in school and living with their parents, and their discretionary spending is limited.

Marketing in Practice

Marketing to the ages.

Knowing how to speak to your target market is critical. Knowing how to frame your message to a Baby Boomer versus a Gen Xer is what makes marketers successful. Want to know how to speak to each group? Check out these articles about marketing to different age demographics and generational marketing .

Learn from real-world examples of how age-agnostic marketing can work.

Have you ever seen a commercial or advertisement that pulls on your heartstrings because it gets you reminiscing? Nostalgia is an impactful tool in marketing because it gives a feeling of meaning and comfort. Check out this online blog to learn more about the impact of nostalgia in marketing.

Likewise, your life cycle stage has a major influence on your buying habits. Consider the different buying choices you would make as a single person who is renting an apartment in an urban area versus the choices you would make as a homeowner in the suburbs with children. It should be noted, though, that age and life cycle stage can often be poor predictors of buying behavior. For example, some 40-year-olds are just starting their families, while others are sending their kids off to college. Still other 40-year-olds are single (or single again). Some 70-year-olds may fit the stereotype of a retired person with a fixed income; others are still active or perhaps still working, with plenty of disposable income.

Your economic situation (income) is a huge influence on your buying behavior. Higher income typically means higher disposable income, and that disposable income gives consumers more opportunity to spend on high-end products. Conversely, lower-income and middle-income consumers spend most of their income on basic needs such as groceries and clothing.

Your occupation is also a significant factor in your buying behavior because you tend to purchase things that are appropriate to your profession. For instance, a blue-collar worker is less likely to buy professional attire like business suits, whereas attorneys, accountants, and other white-collar workers may favor suits or business casual work clothes. There are even companies that specialize in work clothes for certain types of workers, such as health care professionals who buy scrubs or construction workers who buy steel-toed boots.

Your lifestyle reflects your attitudes and values. What do you consider to be your lifestyle? Do you strive to live an active, healthy lifestyle? If so, your purchasing decisions may focus on healthier food alternatives instead of fast food. Do you consider yourself to be a soccer parent? You may (perhaps reluctantly) forgo that sports car for a minivan in order to transport your kids to youth sporting events or other activities.

Your personality and self-concept are also important factors influencing your buying behavior. Personality is the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. It’s believed that personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life. 14 Some examples of the many personality traits people might have include things like self-confidence, individualism, extroversion, introversion, aggression, or competitiveness. Your personality greatly influences what you buy as well as when and how you use or consume products and services.

Perhaps even more importantly, as consumers, people tend to buy not only products they need but also those products or services that they perceive as being consistent with their “self-concept.” In other words, they generally want the products they buy to match or blend in with who they think they are. 15

Psychological Factors That Influence Consumer Buying Behavior

Your buying choices are further influenced by several major psychological factors, including motivation, perception, learning, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes (refer to Figure 3.7 ).

Let’s first consider how motivation affects your buying behavior. Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It’s the driving force behind your actions. One of the most widely known motivation theories is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (see Figure 3.8 ).

Abraham Maslow asserted that all individuals have five needs, arranged from the most basic lower-level deficiency needs to the highest-level growth needs. As Figure 3.8 shows, physiological needs are at the most basic level and include things like adequate food, water, and shelter. Think about how marketers may try to appeal to consumers based on physiological needs. For example, Snickers ran a very successful ad campaign based on the slogan “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”

The second level is safety and security, the need to be safe from physical and psychological harm. Once again, consider just a few successful marketing campaigns that have focused on safety—“You’re in Good Hands with Allstate ” and Lysol ’s “Practice Healthy Habits” campaign with its tagline “What It Takes to Protect.”

The third level is belonging, or social needs. This level includes things like the need for emotional attachments, friendship, love, or belonging to community or church groups.

Esteem, the fourth level, includes such needs as recognition from others, taking pride in your education or work, awards, and/or prestige.

The highest level is self-actualization, which involves self-development and seeking challenges. For example, Nike ’s “Find Your Greatness” campaign was intended to spark greatness in ordinary people, not just professional athletes.

Examples of Maslow’s Five Needs

Check out this Snickers' “You’re not you when you’re hungry” commercial, which appeals to basic human physiological needs.

This Lysol “What It Takes to Protect” commercial appeals to the human needs for safety and security.

Consider this public service announcement (PSA) from the Ad Council that is dedicated to fostering a more welcoming nation where everyone can belong. How does it appeal to the human need for community and belonging?

One awesome esteem level example to check out is this one from Dove . Dove launched a campaign to boost female self-esteem and to celebrate female beauty in all shapes and sizes. The company also created “confidence-boosting boards” on Pinterest. The boards include self-esteem activities so girls and their parents can share words of encouragement.

Check out one of Nike’s commercials from the “Find Your Greatness” campaign. How does it appeal to the human need for self-actualization?

Maslow asserted that people strive to satisfy their most basic needs before directing their behavior toward satisfying higher-level needs, so it stands to reason that consumer buying behavior would follow this model. For example, you’d first have to fulfill your needs for food and shelter before you might consider putting money away for retirement or purchasing a home security system.

Maslow and Marketing

Understanding Maslow’s hierarchy of needs will help you be an effective and impressive marketer. You’re going to see this model in many of your business courses, not just marketing, so take the time to learn about it. Check out this brief video that may help you understand how to use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in marketing. Learn about why Maslow’s hierarchy of needs matters.

Perception is the way in which people identify, organize, and interpret sensory information. It’s another variable in consumer buying behavior because the perceptions you have about a business or its products or services have a dramatic effect on your buying behavior. What makes perception even more complex is that consumers can form different perceptions of the same stimulus because of three perceptual processes: selective attention, selective distortion, and selective retention. Let’s take a closer look.

Every day, you’re bombarded with marketing messages from TV commercials, magazine and newspaper ads, billboards, and social media ads. As of 2021, it was estimated that the average person encounters between 6,000 and 10,000 ads every single day. 16 It stands to reason that you can’t possibly pay attention to all of the competing stimuli surrounding you, so you’ll pay attention to only those stimuli that you consider relevant to your wants and needs at the time and screen out the rest. That’s the process known as selective attention .

When Bombarding Backfires

Bombarding consumers with marketing messages can cause more harm than good. According to this article from Marketing Dive , bombarding people with ads would negatively impact a brand. This article from the Advertising Association shares data that indicates bombardment and intrusiveness negatively impact perceptions of advertising.

How can you combat the issue? Quantcast outlines ways to avoid ad bombardment.

It’s about Ability

Your personal brand will be a significant factor when it comes to finding a job. What does your personal brand say today? What is your marketing story? Is it what you want it to be? If not, what will you do to change it? The end-of-chapter content includes various ways to explore your personal brand to help you prepare for your job search.

How are you going to stand out among other candidates? What can you do with your résumé? According to Jason Shen’s TED Talk, you should highlight your abilities and not your experience. He speaks to potential and how you can make yourself more attractive to potential employers by telling a story in a compelling way.

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA) , you need to know yourself well. Self-knowledge will help you know the kind of work environment you perform best in and what kind of work you enjoy most. The AMA is a great place to learn how to stand out as a marketing job applicant , target companies, prepare your best résumé, and have a successful interview.

Check out these sources on how to stand out and ways you can beat the competition:

• Freemanleonard : “How Marketers and Creatives Can Stand Out in Today’s Competitive Job Market”
• Recruiter.com : “13 Tried-and-True Creative Tactics Candidates Have Used to Stand Out in Interviews”
• Acadium : “Launch Your Digital Marketing Career: How to Stand Out as a Candidate”
• Indeed : “8 Marketing Interview Questions to Expect”
• Entrepreneur : “Building Your Brand Is How You Will Stand Out When Applying for a Job”
• Smart Insights : “7 Tactics to Help You Stand Out as a Marketer and Get Better Jobs”
• 24 Seven : “10 Tips to Ace Your Next Marketing Job Interview”

If you want to go the extra mile in making yourself stand out, reach out to current marketers and ask them questions. You can find hundreds, even thousands, of current marketers on LinkedIn . Try targeting people from companies you’re interested in or would like to learn more about. Look for specific people who are doing jobs that interest you. Going to an interview armed with information is incredibly powerful and will speak volumes to your interviewer. Be sure to find a way to work your completed research into the interview conversation because it will speak to your drive, curiosity, and ambition—all traits every interviewer wants to hear about. This will also be another way you can stand out from others interviewing for the job. Questions you could ask current marketers in preparation for an interview include (but by no means are limited to):

• What about you stood out in your interview process that made your current company hire you?
• Can you tell me about examples of people you’ve interviewed and why they stood out to you?
• How have candidates stood out when they spoke about their abilities in a job interview scenario?
• What are your thoughts on candidates sharing a college project with you as a way to demonstrate abilities?
• What advice do you have for me?

Be creative with your questions! Look online for other questions you could ask. Have fun!

Even the stimuli that people notice don’t always come across in the way in which the marketers intended. Selective distortion is the tendency of people to interpret information in a way that fits their preconceived notions. This was demonstrated years ago when PepsiCo launched its Pepsi Challenge blind taste test commercials. Participants were presented with two colas in unmarked plastic cups and asked to taste both colas and choose the one they liked better. Then the tester would lift a small screen to reveal the brand the participants preferred. In TV commercials that aired for years, Pepsi showed the stunned reactions of loyal Coca-Cola drinkers who had chosen Pepsi over Coke in the test. One grandmother in a commercial said, “I can’t believe it. I’ve never had a Pepsi in my life, but it must be better!” 17

People also tend to forget much of what they learn and to retain information that supports their preconceived attitudes and beliefs. That’s the power of selective retention , a bias by which you’re more likely to remember messages that are closely related to your interests, values, and beliefs rather than those that are contrary to those values and beliefs.

Beliefs, feelings, and attitudes also play an important role in consumer buying behavior. Beliefs are consumer perceptions of how a product or brand performs relative to different attributes. These beliefs are generally formed through personal experience, advertising, and conversations with others, and they play a vital role because they can be either positive or negative. You can even hold both positive and negative beliefs about the same thing. For example, you may believe that coffee is good for you because it helps you focus and stay alert, but you may also worry about the effect of coffee on your health and the way it stains your teeth. Human beliefs aren’t always accurate and can change according to the situation.

Consumer attitudes are a composite of a consumer’s beliefs, feelings, and behavioral intentions toward a product or service (see Figure 3.9 ).

We’ve already talked about beliefs, so let’s focus for a moment on affect, or feeling. Consumers often have certain feelings toward brands, products, or services. Sometimes these feelings are based on people’s beliefs, such as a vegetarian who can’t stand the thought of eating a hamburger, but you may also have feelings that are relatively independent of your beliefs. For example, someone who has strong environmentalist beliefs may object to clearing forests to make way for a housing development but may have positive feelings toward Christmas trees because they subconsciously associate these trees with the experience that they had at Christmas as a child.

The behavioral intention aspect of an attitude is what you as a consumer plan to do—buy the brand or not buy the brand. As with affect, this is sometimes a logical consequence of your beliefs but may sometimes reflect other circumstances. Consider a consumer who doesn’t particularly like a restaurant but will go there because it’s an after-class gathering spot with her friends. 18

Learning is still another important factor in consumer buying behavior. The fact is that consumer behavior is learned, and much of what you buy is based on your previous experiences with particular brands. This is commonly known as the Law of Effect , which asserts that, if an action is followed by a pleasant consequence, you’re likely to repeat it; if the action is followed by an unpleasant consequence, you’re less likely to repeat it. For example, let’s say you buy an Apple iPhone . If your experience with the iPhone is positive, you’ll probably be more inclined to buy another Apple product when you’re looking for a tablet or wearable. On the other hand, if you’ve had a not-so-positive experience with your iPhone, you’re likely to look at other brands when considering purchasing other devices.

Lessons in Psychology

Psychology is a big part of marketing. Insight into your customers’ thinking will allow you to create marketing messages and stories that better speak to their needs. Learning, the process where customers acquire information they can apply to future purchases, is a foundational concept in marketing. Learn about the various types of learning and how they can impact marketing strategies from this Forbes article .

Situational Factors That Impact Consumer Buying Behavior

Situational factors influencing consumers are external (refer to Figure 3.10 ). These factors play an important role in how consumers experience a product and how these consumers’ opinions are formed.

Environmental factors such as music, lighting, ambient noise, and even smells can either discourage or encourage a consumer’s purchase decision. For example, researchers conducted a study on the effect of lighting on consumer purchases in a grocery store. They lit half the store with traditional fluorescent lighting and the other half of the building with LED lighting. Researchers conducted the study over 21 weeks and discovered that consumers bought 25 percent more products on the LED-lit side of the store. 19

Spatial factors also play a role. The way a product is displayed may make it seem desirable, but a crowded store or a long line at the cash register can suddenly make that same product seem less desirable. Think about it: Have you ever seen a long line to check out at the cash register and put the product you intended to buy back on the shelf because it simply wasn’t worth it to waste your time standing in line?

The Marketing in Practice feature box shows how sound and smell can affect consumers.

Abercrombie & Fitch

As consumers, people usually don’t think twice about what a store smells or sounds like, the way it makes them feel or think, or what it makes them do. But Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) thinks about it a lot (see Figure 3.11 ).

The company has its own line of men’s fragrances called “Fierce,” which is sprayed liberally in stores to give off what the company describes as a “lifestyle . . . packed with confidence and a bold, masculine attitude.” A&F knows who it wants in its stores, and by associating its fragrance with its stores, it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy for its male clientele who, by wanting to smell like A&F, will be like the models and sales staff in the store.

A&F also plays loud club music throughout its stores, attracting young people who can withstand loud music longer, while older customers may run from it. It’s just another way that A&F is enabling its stores to maintain a more youthful clientele and a “fresher” image. 20

Watch this video on Abercrombie & Fitch’s brand transformation for further insight on how A&F has positioned its retail brand Hollister as a global iconic teen brand and modernized the A&F brand to focus on young millennial consumers.

The social situation of shopping is another situational factor. Did you know that you’re more likely to stop to look at certain products when you’re in the company of a friend as opposed to a parent? The social aspect can even alter the price you’re willing to pay. You might be more inclined to purchase a more expensive product when you’re with a colleague or potential partner than you would if you’re with a friend or spouse. 21

The goal of your shopping trip is yet another situational factor. If you go to a store to look for a birthday present for your mother, your purpose is totally different than if you’re casually shopping for a new pair of shoes. The reason for shopping dictates the kinds of products customers are willing to interact with at that time and may cause them to bypass certain products they would normally interact with on another shopping trip. This is even true at the grocery store. You’ll interact with products differently if you’re on your weekly shopping trip versus simply going into the store because you’re out of milk.

Much like the purpose of your shopping trip, timing also influences your consumer behavior. If you’re in a rush because it’s Christmas Eve and you haven’t bought a present for your best friend yet, you’ll interact with fewer products than if you have hours to shop. Even if two people are looking for the same type of product, the one in a rush will probably end up with the most accessible product, whereas the leisurely consumer has time to weigh the price and quality of offerings.

Finally, your mood influences your buying behavior. Someone who is feeling sad or stressed interacts differently with products than a happy, relaxed shopper. The same can be said for someone who’s fatigued versus someone who’s full of energy.

Situational Factors

There are many examples where companies use situational factors in their marketing approaches. Here are several online sites and specific articles:

• Westin and the White Tea Signature Scent
• The Aroma Trace : “Best Examples of Olfactory Marketing in Companies”
• Sync Originals : “10 Brands That Made Music Part of Their Marketing DNA”
• Omnify : “8 Simple Lighting Techniques That Boost Retail Sales”
• Science News : “Does Background Noise Make Consumers Buy More Innovative Products?”
• Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science : “Sounds Like a Healthy Retail Atmosphere Strategy: Effects of Ambient Music and Background Noise on Food Sales”

Knowledge Check

It’s time to check your knowledge on the concepts presented in this section. Refer to the Answer Key at the end of the book for feedback.

• Psychological factors
• Social factors
• Situational factors
• Personal factors
• Social class
• Personality
• Physiological
• Safety/security
• Self-esteem
• cognitive dissonance
• selective attention
• selective retention
• selective distortion
• predispositions
• behavioral intentions
• preconceived notions
• attributions

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• Book title: Principles of Marketing
• Publication date: Jan 25, 2023
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• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/3-2-factors-that-influence-consumer-buying-behavior

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Essay: Buying Behaviour

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Buying Behaviour

We intend to find out the buying behavior of the consumers through their perception of prevailing prices, availability of choices and the perceived government policies.

Consumers rely on various information cues or product attributes in their decision-making. Price represents extrinsic cues, and is one of the most important kinds of information consumers’ use when they make a purchase decision, accounting for 40 percent of their information search (The influence of retail environment on price perceptions, 2003, Byoungho Jin & Brenda Sternquist, journal: International Marketing Review). Consumers change their consumption habits with change in the perceived inflation rates. They tend to consume more if the perceived inflation rates are high (Impact of Inflation on Consumer Life Style: Some Empirical Results on the Money Illusion and Consumer Purchasing Behaviour, 1979, Gunter Poser, Zoher E. Shipchandler, European Journal of Marketing) for example if an individual perceive the price of a particular product to go high in future, he would rather consume the product now at the prevailing price than wait for the price to go up.

Buying behaviour is also affected by the perceived availability of choices. When the consumer perceives the economic conditions to be adverse he engages in minimal search of alternatives and hence perceives limited availability of choices (External search effort: An investigation across several product categories, Sharon E Beatty and Scott M Smith, Journal of Consumer Research, 1987)

An individual’s buying decision is also influenced by the perceived government policies. If a person feels that the current policies are enough to fight against price rise and unemployment then he will be encouraged to buy. Not much literature review is available to demonstrate any direct relation between perceived government policies and buying behavior but indirect studies have been done on this example buying decision and inflation (Buyer Behavior in a Stagflation/Shortages Economy, Eugene J. Kelley and L. Rusty Scheewe).

Personal Finance Index

Personal finance index is dependent on the following factors: Perceived current family income, perceived future income and Perceived availability of finance (University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index survey).

One of the very important factor in determining the consumer confidence is the level of income of an individual. The higher the income, higher will be the consumer confidence (Consumer confidence and the permanent income hypothesis: a note, McIntyre, K.H, 2002)

The idea that relative income is of more importance compared to the real income might not hold true in certain cases as is empirical from the study done by Kenneth V. Greene, Phillip J. Nelson, 2007 (Is relative income of overriding importance for individuals?) whose findings were opposite to their hypothesis and it revealed that people are actually more interested in real rather than relative income. Therefore in our research we have taken perceived current real family income as one of the measure of personal finance index.

The perceived availability of credit or cheap finance is also one of the indicators of consumer confidence. If an individual thinks that’s easy finance is available then his perceived confidence goes up (Understanding compulsive buying tendencies among young Australians: The roles of money attitude and credit card usage, Ian Phau & Charise Woo, 2008) for example

Business conditions

An increase in the unemployment rate or a recession period is likely to generate an increase in uncertainty among consumers, even among those who may not themselves be unemployed. This is likely to increase precautionary savings and decrease confidence and consumption As such, one can expect a negative relationship between unemployment and consumer confidence�i.e., the higher the unemployment rate, the lower sentiment and consumption are likely to be. (DION, David Pascal (2006): Does Consumer Confidence Forecast Household Spending?)

Expectations regarding the future of the economy and their own personal finances, and may therefore contain useful information not yet captured by other indicators. Such information might be particularly relevant for the intervening period between the announcement of a policy shift and the time it is implemented. For example, suppose that following an election, a change in administration leads households to expect an improvement in the economy. We would expect this (positive) sentiment to have an impact on consumers’ current and projected future spending patterns. Moreover, consumer attitudes also incorporate households’ estimates of the impact of rare or unique shocks�e.g., an event such as Hurricane Katrina�that cannot be systematically built into models but affect the economy in significant ways. (Trends in consumer sentiment and spending by Maude Toussaint-Comeau, economist, and Daniel DiFranco, associate economist

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Online Stores’ Influence on Consumers’ Buying Behavior Essay

Many customers often notice that being on the site of some online store with a clear goal of buying a certain product, in the end, acquire not only it but an additional pile of completely unnecessary junk for them. Internet stores often use certain tricks to attract potential buyers and force them to buy the product. One can look at this topic in two ways: on the one hand, a pleasant interface and competently structured site help the buyer to choose the right items, but on the other hand, various details on the sites can prompt the purchase of unnecessary goods.

In her essay “An Evaluation of how fashion is consumed online,” Ashley Foster described a platform called Polyvore. This site was created to create original images, combinations of those, or other products. The interface of this site is very pleasant, which makes using it as efficient as possible. This site provides an opportunity to assemble an individual fashion image and purchase the goods included in it.

For her part, Sidney Fussell, in an essay entitled “The Endless, Invisible Persuasion Tactics of the Internet,” condemns the use of so-called “nudges” by online stores and platforms. The author argues that the majority of online purchases come from the manipulation of potential customers. Product accentuations, fake sales and promotions, and the use of notifications that influence people’s minds cause people to make unnecessary purchases online.

In the opinions of the authors can be found both similarities and differences. The first author writes about the Polyvore platform: “A home page is a place where praise and recognition are paid to the work of Polyvore users” (Bullock et al. 850). The second author complements this idea in his essay, only in a negative way, arguing that most of the “social proofs” are fake (Bullock et al.). Since this tool can inspire a potential buyer, this aspect can also be considered positively. The next important aspect is the use of accents in the design of websites. In the first essay, the author argues that black-and-white website design helps focus on the most needed – the products (Bullock et al.).

If the designer places the product in the middle of the page and depicts it in a distinctive color scheme from the page, the buyer’s attention will be solely on the product. For his part, Sidney Fussell argues that no platform can be devoid of nudges (Bullock et al.). This is a convergence in the opinion of the authors. Thus, pleasing design and the right placement of accents can not always be regarded negatively. Many people appreciate a pretty picture, it is important to them that everything around them is beautiful, and only a beautifully designed website can encourage them to buy.

I believe that both readings on synthesis have influenced my opinion. I can agree with some aspects of both essays. For example, I agree with Ashley Foster’s idea that enhanced site functionality, a pleasant interface, and a focus on customer convenience attract users. I, like most shoppers, would rather have a site with a nice design and advanced features than an awkward online store. In the second essay, my opinions agree with most of the statements, for example, that the use of the so-called “shadow template” should be eradicated.

Like the author, I believe such manipulation takes away the buyer’s right to choose. Today’s world is full of provocations that prevent people from shopping intelligently. Canceling various subscriptions should be as easy as making those subscriptions. Internet platforms prey on people who, for one reason or another, do not have the time or knowledge to cancel a purchase.

Works Cited

Bullock, Richard, et al. The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings (Sixth Edition) . Available from: Yuzu, (6th Edition). W. W. Norton, 2022.

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Buying College Essays Is Now Easier Than Ever. But Buyer Beware

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As the recent college admissions scandal is shedding light on how parents are cheating and bribing their children's way into college, schools are also focusing on how some students may be cheating their way through college. Concern is growing about a burgeoning online market that makes it easier than ever for students to buy essays written by others to turn in as their own work. And schools are trying new tools to catch it.

It's not hard to understand the temptation for students. The pressure is enormous, the stakes are high and, for some, writing at a college level is a huge leap.

"We didn't really have a format to follow, so I was kind of lost on what to do," says one college freshman, who struggled recently with an English assignment. One night, when she was feeling particularly overwhelmed, she tweeted her frustration.

"It was like, 'Someone, please help me write my essay!' " she recalls. She ended her tweet with a crying emoji. Within a few minutes, she had a half-dozen offers of help.

"I can write it for you," they tweeted back. "Send us the prompt!"

The student, who asked that her name not be used for fear of repercussions at school, chose one that asked for $10 per page, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"For me, it was just that the work was piling up," she explains. "As soon as I finish some big assignment, I get assigned more things, more homework for math, more homework for English. Some papers have to be six or 10 pages long. ... And even though I do my best to manage, the deadlines come closer and closer, and it's just ... the pressure."

In the cat-and-mouse game of academic cheating, students these days know that if they plagiarize, they're likely to get caught by computer programs that automatically compare essays against a massive database of other writings. So now, buying an original essay can seem like a good workaround.

"Technically, I don't think it's cheating," the student says. "Because you're paying someone to write an essay, which they don't plagiarize, and they write everything on their own."

Her logic, of course, ignores the question of whether she's plagiarizing. When pressed, she begins to stammer.

"That's just a difficult question to answer," she says. "I don't know how to feel about that. It's kind of like a gray area. It's maybe on the edge, kind of?"

Besides she adds, she probably won't use all of it.

Other students justify essay buying as the only way to keep up. They figure that everyone is doing it one way or another — whether they're purchasing help online or getting it from family or friends.

"Oh yeah, collaboration at its finest," cracks Boston University freshman Grace Saathoff. While she says she would never do it herself, she's not really fazed by others doing it. She agrees with her friends that it has pretty much become socially acceptable.

"I have a friend who writes essays and sells them," says Danielle Delafuente, another Boston University freshman. "And my other friend buys them. He's just like, 'I can't handle it. I have five papers at once. I need her to do two of them, and I'll do the other three.' It's a time management thing."

The war on contract cheating

"It breaks my heart that this is where we're at," sighs Ashley Finley, senior adviser to the president for the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She says campuses are abuzz about how to curb the rise in what they call contract cheating. Obviously, students buying essays is not new, but Finley says that what used to be mostly limited to small-scale side hustles has mushroomed on the internet to become a global industry of so-called essay mills. Hard numbers are difficult to come by, but research suggests that up to 16 percent of students have paid someone to do their work and that the number is rising.

"Definitely, this is really getting more and more serious," Finley says. "It's part of the brave new world for sure."

The essay mills market aggressively online, with slickly produced videos inviting students to "Get instant help with your assignment" and imploring them: "Don't lag behind," "Join the majority" and "Don't worry, be happy."

"They're very crafty," says Tricia Bertram Gallant, director of the Academic Integrity Office at the University of California in San Diego and a board member of the International Center for Academic Integrity.

The companies are equally brazen offline — leafleting on campuses, posting flyers in toilet stalls and flying banners over Florida beaches during spring break. Companies have also been known to bait students with emails that look like they're from official college help centers. And they pay social media influencers to sing the praises of their services, and they post testimonials from people they say are happy customers.

"I hired a service to write my paper and I got a 90 on it!" gloats one. "Save your time, and have extra time to party!" advises another.

"It's very much a seduction," says Bertram Gallant. "So you can maybe see why students could get drawn into the contract cheating world."

YouTube has been cracking down on essay mills; it says it has pulled thousands of videos that violate its policies against promoting dishonest behavior.

But new videos constantly pop up, and their hard sell flies in the face of their small-print warnings that their essays should be used only as a guide, not a final product.

Several essay mills declined or didn't respond to requests to be interviewed by NPR. But one answered questions by email and offered up one of its writers to explain her role in the company, called EduBirdie.

"Yes, just like the little birdie that's there to help you in your education," explains April Short, a former grade school teacher from Australia who's now based in Philadelphia. She has been writing for a year and a half for the company, which bills itself as a "professional essay writing service for students who can't even."

Some students just want some "foundational research" to get started or a little "polish" to finish up, Short says. But the idea that many others may be taking a paper written completely by her and turning it in as their own doesn't keep her up at night.

"These kids are so time poor," she says, and they're "missing out on opportunities of travel and internships because they're studying and writing papers." Relieving students of some of that burden, she figures, allows them to become more "well-rounded."

"I don't necessarily think that being able to create an essay is going to be a defining factor in a very long career, so it's not something that bothers me," says Short. Indeed, she thinks students who hire writers are demonstrating resourcefulness and creativity. "I actually applaud students that look for options to get the job done and get it done well," she says.

"This just shows you the extent of our ability to rationalize all kinds of bad things we do," sighs Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. The rise in contract cheating is especially worrisome, he says, because when it comes to dishonest behavior, more begets more. As he puts it, it's not just about "a few bad apples."

"Instead, what we have is a lot ... of blemished apples, and we take our cues for our behavior from the social world around us," he says. "We know officially what is right and what's wrong. But really what's driving our behavior is what we see others around us doing" or, Ariely adds, what we perceive them to be doing. So even the proliferation of advertising for essays mills can have a pernicious effect, he says, by fueling the perception that "everyone's doing it."

A few nations have recently proposed or passed laws outlawing essay mills, and more than a dozen U.S. states have laws on the books against them. But prosecuting essay mills, which are often based overseas in Pakistan, Kenya and Ukraine, for example, is complicated. And most educators are loath to criminalize students' behavior.

"Yes, they're serious mistakes. They're egregious mistakes," says Cath Ellis, an associate dean and integrity officer at the University of New South Wales, where students were among the hundreds alleged to have bought essays in a massive scandal in Australia in 2014.

"But we're educational institutions," she adds. "We've got to give students the opportunity to learn from these mistakes. That's our responsibility. And that's better in our hands than in the hands of the police and the courts."

Staying one step ahead

In the war on contract cheating, some schools see new technology as their best weapon and their best shot to stay one step ahead of unscrupulous students. The company that makes the Turnitin plagiarism detection software has just upped its game with a new program called Authorship Investigate.

The software first inspects a document's metadata, like when it was created, by whom it was created and how many times it was reopened and re-edited. Turnitin's vice president for product management, Bill Loller, says sometimes it's as simple as looking at the document's name. Essay mills typically name their documents something like "Order Number 123," and students have been known to actually submit it that way. "You would be amazed at how frequently that happens," says Loller.

Using cutting-edge linguistic forensics, the software also evaluates the level of writing and its style.

"Think of it as a writing fingerprint," Loller says. The software looks at hundreds of telltale characteristics of an essay, like whether the author double spaces after a period or writes with Oxford commas or semicolons. It all gets instantly compared against a student's other work, and, Loller says, suspicions can be confirmed — or alleviated — in minutes.

"At the end of the day, you get to a really good determination on whether the student wrote what they submitted or not," he says, "and you get it really quickly."

Coventry University in the U.K. has been testing out a beta version of the software, and Irene Glendinning, the school's academic manager for student experience, agrees that the software has the potential to give schools a leg up on cheating students. After the software is officially adopted, "we'll see a spike in the number of cases we find, and we'll have a very hard few years," she says. "But then the message will get through to students that we've got the tools now to find these things out." Then, Glendinning hopes, students might consider contract cheating to be as risky as plagiarizing.

In the meantime, schools are trying to spread the word that buying essays is risky in other ways as well.

Professor Ariely says that when he posed as a student and ordered papers from several companies, much of it was "gibberish" and about a third of it was actually plagiarized.

Even worse, when he complained to the company and demanded his money back, they resorted to blackmail. Still believing him to be a student, the company threatened to tell his school he was cheating. Others say companies have also attempted to shake down students for more money, threatening to rat them out if they didn't pay up.

The lesson, Ariely says, is "buyer beware."

But ultimately, experts say, many desperate students may not be deterred by the risks — whether from shady businesses or from new technology.

Bertram Gallant, of UC San Diego, says the right way to dissuade students from buying essays is to remind them why it's wrong.

"If we engage in a technological arms race with the students, we won't win," she says. "What are we going to do when Google glasses start to look like regular glasses and a student wears them into an exam? Are we going to tell them they can't wear their glasses because we're afraid they might be sending the exam out to someone else who is sending them back the answers?"

The solution, Bertram Gallant says, has to be about "creating a culture where integrity and ethics matter" and where education is valued more than grades. Only then will students believe that cheating on essays is only cheating themselves.