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Consumer Behaviour

Notes target consumers, their location, what media do they have access to and what are
their media preferences, etc.
In most cases of industrial products there is very little or no advertising. Brochures
containing technical specifications are often posted to clients and the salespeople
make follow-up visits. Consumer products get the maximum share of advertising.
Pharmaceutical industry exclusively uses personal selling for prescription drugs.
Insurance companies use both advertising and personal selling.
4. Use in social and non-profits marketing: Consumer behaviour studies are useful to design
marketing strategies by social, governmental and not-for-profit organisations to make
their programmes such as family planning, awareness about AIDS, crime against women,
safe driving, environmental concerns and others more effective. UNICEF (greeting cards),
Red Cross and CRY etc. make use of consumer behaviour understanding to sell their
services and products and also try to motivate people to support these institutions.

1.6 General Model of Consumer Behaviour

This model is also known as Input-Processing-Output Model. The consumer decision process is
a series of activities and steps of decision-making leading to a purchase function. It represents a
problem-solving approach. This is the simplest model to explain the consumer decision-making
process. The mechanism is the same as in any processing activity in which there are three factors
namely inputs, processing and outputs. The inputs in the form of product, price, place and
promotion parts of a marketing program are fed into the consumer information-processing box
(called 'black box') and it leads to a set of outputs.

Figure 1.1: Black Box Model

Source: www.marcbowles.com
During the last few decades, numerous models of consumer behaviour depicting the buying
process have been developed. All these models treat the consumer as a decision-maker who
comes to the market place to solve his consumption problems and to achieve the satisfaction of
his needs. The simplest model given is composed of three stages - 'Input, Processing and Output'.
Input is a set of stimulus factors that the consumer receives in the market. It is provided by two
sets of stimulus variables, namely, the firm's marketing efforts and the social environment. The
firm's marketing efforts are designed to positively expose, inform and influence consumers.
These efforts include product/service itself, advertising, price strategies, distribution network
and in fact all marketing functions. For example, when a company introduces a new brand of
detergent powder or a television set, it may run a series of radio commercials along with
supporting press advertisements. The social environment serves as a non-commercial source of

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