Analytical Study on Consumer Perception Factors on Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior can be defined as the decision-making process and physical activity involved in acquiring, evaluating, using and disposing of goods and services. This definition clearly brings out that it is not just the buying of goods/services that receives attention in consumer behavior but, the process starts much before the goods have been acquired or bought. A process of buying starts in the minds of the consumer, which leads to the finding of alternatives between products that can be acquired with their relative advantages and disadvantages. This leads to internal and external research. Then follows a process of decision-making for purchase and using the goods, and then the post purchase behavior which is also very important, because it gives a clue to the marketers whether his product has been a success or not. The key concept of marketing is customer centrality: we cannot ignore customer decision-making. Understanding the processes involved in making those decisions is central to establishing policy. Consumer behavior, and industrial buyer behavior, has been studied by marketers since the time before marketing itself became Other issues in the „obtaining‟ category might include the ways in which people pay for the products (cash, credit card, bank loan, hire purchase, interest-free credit, and so forth), whether the product is for themselves or is a gift, how the new owner takes the purchases home, and how the decisions are affected by branding, and by social elements such as the respect of friends. Consuming refers to the ways in which people use the products they buy. This includes where the product is consumed, when (in terms of on what occasions the product might be used) and how the product is used. In some cases people use products in ways that were not intended by the manufacturer: this is called re-invention. For example, a biologist might buy a turkey-basting syringe to use for taking water samples from a river, or a gardener might buy a china serving dish to use as a plant pot. Consumption is necessary for our health and well-being: obviously some consumption is not good for us (over-consumption of alcohol, drug abuse, or even using a mobile telephone while driving) but most of our consumption is essential for living and relating to other people (Richins 2001).

Every day we buy things. We exchange our money for goods and services, for our own use and for the use of our families: we choose things we think will meet our needs on a day-to-day basis, and we occasionally make buying decisions which will affect our lives for years to come. At the same time, we make decisions about disposing of worn-out or used-up possessions. All these decisions and exchanges have implications for ourselves, our families, our friends, the environment, and the businesses we buy from, the employees of those businesses, and so on. Evolution is, in general, a very slow process, and in the case of human beings it has been further hindered by our dominance of the environment: people are less likely to make fatal mistakes and thus remove themselves from the gene pool. Neuro economics seeks to map brain activity onto economic behavior. In this way, neuroscientists hope to explain consumer behavior in terms of evolutionary and survival factors. As yet, the discipline is in its infancy, but neuroscientists have already identified some of (Gakhal and Senior 2008). It seems likely that further practical insights will emerge as research continues (Garcia and Saad 2008). People often define themselves, at least in part, by the products they consume. Possessions become an extension of the individual – an extended self – and thus project who the person is to others (Mittal 2006). Indeed, many acts of consumption are tribal and role-supporting, even when they do not define the self (Ryan et al. 2006).

Perception is a mental process, whereby an individual selects data or information from the environment, organizes it and then draws significance or meaning from it.

 PERCEIVED FIT

Perceived fit is an attitudinal measure of how appropriate a certain channel of distribution is for a specific product .Morrison and Roberts (1998) found that consumer‟s perception of the fit between a service/product and a channel is very influential in determining whether they will consider using that channel for a specific service. In fact, perceived fit was found to be more important than consumer‟s preferences for the distribution method or service.

 QUALITY

It is our aim to provide the best product for the consumer and we believe that if the products have quality the consumer will pay the price, says Amal Pramanic, regional business director. Oral-B

 PACKAGING

Packaging establishes a direct link with the consumers at the point of purchase as it can very well change the perceptions they have for a particular brand. A product has to draw the attention of the consumers through an outstanding packaging design. Earlier packaging was considered only a container to put a product in, but today, research in to the right packaging is beginning at the product development stage itself. Packaging innovation has been at the heart of Dabur‟s attempt to rap with the urban consumers. It spends large sums annually on packaging research. -“We have been laying emphasis on aesthetics, shelf appeal and convenience for consumer‟” says Deepak Manchandra, manager packaging development.

PSYCHOGRAPHICS:

The possibility of using measures of personality to guide marketing action, for example in segmenting volume of research. Few significant relationships, which would be of interest to marketing managers resulted from the research which concentrated upon the search for links between aspects of consumer choice (such as brand selection) and highly specific personality traits (such as sociability). However, the investigation of personality types, broad bundles of complementary traits which describe an individual‟s general pattern of behavioral response has shown more promise in the quest to describe and predict consumer behavior. Thus, the success of personality research is also partly attributed to the simultaneous widespread dissatisfaction with psychoanalytical techniques of motivational research. The first attempts to apply Fruedian and neo-Feudian (e.g., Horney and Adler) concepts, were made in the 1950s, when a perspective known as motivational research was developed. Ernest Ditcher advocated the use of psychoanalytical techniques to uncover hidden motivations (e.g., to understand the deeper meanings of products and advertisements). He strongly argued that people could not be asked why they did what they did directly, because most of the time they did not know. Ditcher‟s ideology of “truth-is-in-the-subconscious”, behind his in-depth interviews was much criticized by traditional statistical researchers who called such motivational research a “pseudo-science” (e.g., Politz) (Piirto 1991). Perhaps the most persistent problem with motivational research was that it failed one of the cardinal rules of scientific methods - reliability. Two researchers could draw two totally different conclusions from the same interview, because motivational research was so dependent upon individual interpretation. Thus, the widespread dissatisfaction with simple demographics and disenchantment with motivational research, coupled with the increasing accessibility of computers gave many researchers the raw material needed to measure the quantitative elements of personality traits, motivations, and psychological attributes (e.g., Yankelovich 1958). Consumer decision-making is therefore not isolated from all other human behavior. People try to behave in ways that enable them to enjoy their lives, to relate to their friends and families, and to contribute to society at large. In almost all cases this behavior is likely to involve consumption of products and services produced by other people: this is the province of consumer behavior. Marketing strategies should therefore not only seek to influence consumers, they should also be influenced by them. Planning for a customer-led future means putting consumer behavior at the centre of the firm‟s thinking. In the 21st century, consumers hold the power: there is evidence that people consider their spending power to be a form of voting, a way of expressing approval for what the supplier is offering

but as time has gone on people have found it empowering, and they do not hesitate to use their power (Davies and Elliott 2006).

Consumer buying behavior refers to the buying behavior of the ultimate consumer. Many factors, specificities and characteristics influence the individual in what he is and the consumer in his decision making process, shopping habits, purchasing behavior, the brands he buys or the retailers he goes. A purchase decision is the result of each and every one of these factors.

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