Outline and explain the consumer buying decision-making process and Essay

Outline and explain the consumer buying decision-making process and its influencing factors - Essay Example The foundation of consumer behaviour is based up a relationship that is established with the provider of a product or service. The level of that relationship, of course, is dependent upon the type of product or service and the connection between the consumer and the product that is linked within the transaction is central to understanding consumer behaviour. 2. Consumer Behaviour Relationship marketing is intended to create a trust between the consumer and the brand which will in turn help the marketer to develop a better understanding with of the consumer’s wants and needs. The marketer can then create a more substantial response to the consumer’s need, thus creating a mutually beneficial relationship (Raju 2009, p. 27). Much of the relationship marketing that is done is not based upon rational concepts such as quality and value, but on emotional concepts. In Western countries, as an example, convenience foods that are served quickly have become a part of the cultural landscape, their part within the Western diet an integral addition in food consumption and consequentially, as an example of consumer behaviour that is often based upon brand loyalty associated with emotional context over other more rational factors such as quality or good taste. For emerging nations, the shift from traditional to global cultures is happening at an advanced rate, thus creating a bit of confusion within socio-cultural understanding as Western concepts of aesthetics push the consumer to participate with the event of purchasing foods from these sources with the relationship developing at a different pace (Raju 2009, p. 27). McDonald’s in the U.K. (Daily Mail Reporter 2009) Rational factors, such as awareness, price, and income, are key factors that consumers will consider when making a purchase based on economic decision making processes. Brands become a source of comfort in reducing buyer anxiety when the assessments that are insinuated upon a product by the co nnotation of a brand mythology create ease of the unknown within the consumer. The concept of the brand will allow the consumer to make a decision based upon the attributes that are conferred upon the product (Heding, Knudtzen, and Bjerre 2009, p. 33). Most products are developed with branding that will reach beyond the rational and attach to the emotional needs of the consumer. In the brand-consumer exchange relationship, the exchange has the primary goal of achieving the transaction, a onetime event in which a good is purchased based upon consumer perception of the economic rationale for the value of the transaction (Heding Knudtzen and Bjerre 2009, p. 34). There are four major categories that can be used to determine the factors that affect consumer behaviour. These can be broken down into social, personal, psychological, and situational (Drummond and Ensor 2005, p. 289). These categories can be combined in various different ways in order to explain consumer behavior. Some factor s will have a social, psychological set of elements, where another set of factors will include social personal elements. However, there are distinct characteristics that will influence behaviour in regard to these four categories. 2.1 Social Social factors will include elements such as culture, subculture, social class, reference groups, family and roles and status (Durmmond and Ensor 2005, p. 289). Culture can be identified by a series of elements that are associated with values, ideas, attitudes and other