Retail Customers’

Buying Behavior

“Business exists because of the customers; therefore, to succeed in business we must know

our customers!”- Fred Wieserma, Customer Intimacy

•Baby Boomers. Generation of children born between 1946 and 1964. A good number have, perhaps, established leadership positions in industry and society.•Generations X and Y. The young leaders of today, the yuppies, the NOW generation.•Generation Z. Those born in 2005 and beyond. The people who will whiteness Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth and the “redrawing” of a new global map.

Levy and Weitz (2004) listed the following types of buying decision under problem solving:

•Extended Problem-Solving•Limited Problem-Solving•Habitual Problem Solving

Consumer Adoption Process

Suggested Marketing Strategy

Awareness Communicate the availability of new product

Interest Communicate benefits of New Product

Evaluation Emphasize advantages of new product over other alternatives

Trial Motivate Consumers to try the new product

Adoption Ensure consumers are satisfied with the use of the new product

Know and Take Care of Your CustomersThe following are guidelines excerpted from some of the lessons learned by a marketer (Arcilla, 2007):

1. Love your consumer above all else – including your boss, if necessary, because even the boss can be fired by consumers. Ultimately, the consumer is the boss.

2. Do not force consumers to buy what they don’t want or need. You are simply wasting your time, money and talent, and turning off your prospects.

3. Remember that ultimately, a good product or service is the best form of marketing as you will win loyal customers who will generate word-of-mouth advertising. Conversely, therefore, a bad product or service is the worst form of advertising.

4. Do not over-intellectualize your message and advertising. Follow the KISS principle, Keep It Simple yet Smart for the sales, the trade, and your consumers.

5. Do not give trade deals just to get quick sales because deals are addictive like drugs and constitute “bribery” of the trade.

6. Do not be greedy as to promote excessive consumption of your product because that practice may create a backlash.

7. Do not blame others for any failure since the buck stops with marketing – whether it’s a lousy ad, a product/package defect, poor availability, material run-out, ill-timed price, hike, liquidity crunch, etc. The consumer doesn’t care. She/he sees, knows and remembers only the brand/company, and is ultimately the consumer is the boss, then marketing owns the privilege of being his/her “direct report”.

8. Do not pretend to be who you’re not, as consumers will see through you as “phony” and this applies as much to brands as it does to people. Be yourself.

9. Indeed, marketing is vital for any company, but precisely because of this, you must accept that marketing is too important to be left only to marketing people.

Social Factors Influencing Buying Decisions

•Family•Reference Groups

•Culture

Family. Many purchase decisions are made for products that the entire family will consume or use.

Kartajaya’s SQ. Behavior of people may be driven by his rational, emotional, and spiritual self.

Covey’s seven habits or principles. Between stimulus and response is man’s freedom to choose which is supported by his God-given endowments such as awareness, imagination, conscience and independent will.

Table 8. Covey’s Seven Habits (Principles)Covey’s Principles

Be Proactive – Principles of Personal Vision

Begin with End in Mind – Principles of Personal Leadership

Put First Things First – Principles of Personal Management

Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood – Principles of Emphatic Communication

Synergize – Principles of Creative Cooperation

Sharpen the Saw – Principles of Balanced Renewal

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Freud’s Two MotivesA person’s behavior is basically driven by two motives:1. By his sex urge2. By his desire to be great.

Hofstede’s Cultural TypologyThis oft-quoted cultural typology involves:• Power Distance• Individualistic Cultures• Collectivist Cultures• Masculinity• Feminity• Uncertainty Avoidance

Core-factors that marketers consider in decision making pertaining to their target market:1. Attitudes2. Beliefs3. Values4. Culture5. Language/Communication6. Aesthetics

F. Landa-Jocano’s Pinoy Values• Dangal• Damdamin• Kapwa

Thank You!

Reporters:Suzette G. PretencioIrna Mae C. Javines

Jayson D. MenchavezLerma M. Remorosa