Marketing Management, Millenium Edition - epiheirimatikotita.gr

102 CHAPTER 5 ANALYZING CONSUMER MARKETS AND BUYER BEHAVIORFigure 3-4How Consumers Use or Dispose of Productsthink about introducing a new, refillable bottle fragrance line. This is a more creative,satisfying response to an element that could potentially cause dissatisfaction amongbuyers.Just as firms that target consumers must understand how and why consumersbuy, those that target businesses and other organizations must be aware of the differencesbetween consumer and business buying behaviors and the way that businessesmake buying decisions. These topics are covered in the next chapter.EXECUTIVE SUMMARYBefore developing their marketing plans, marketers need to use both rigorous scientificprocedures and more intuitive methods to study consumer behavior, which is influencedby four factors: cultural (culture, subculture, and social class), social (referencegroups, family, and social roles and statuses), personal (age, stage in the life cycle, occupation,economic circumstances, lifestyle, personality, and self-concept), and psychological(motivation, perception, learning, beliefs, and attitudes). Research into all ofthese factors can provide clues as to how to reach and serve consumers more effectively.To understand how consumers actually make their buying decisions, marketersmust identify who makes and influences the buying decision. People can be initiators,influencers, deciders, buyers, or users, and different marketing campaigns might betargeted to each type of person. Marketers must also examine buyers’ levels of involvementand the number of brands available to determine whether consumers are engagingin complex buying behavior, dissonance-reducing buying behavior, habitual buyingbehavior, or variety-seeking buying behavior.The five-stage consumer buying process consists of problem recognition, informationsearch, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and postpurchase behavior.The marketer’s job is to understand the buyer’s behavior at each stage and what