Page 133 - DMGT551_RETAIL_BUSINESS_ENVIRONMENT

Retail Business Environment Anand Thakur, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 7: The Customers and the Retail Business:
Knowing Your Customers

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
7.1 Need for Studying Consumer Behaviour
7.2 Focusing on Consumer – The Changing Consumer
7.3 Factors Influencing Retail Shopper
7.4 Customer Decision-making Process
7.5 Consumer Buying Process
7.6 Mapping out Society
7.7 Summary
7.8 Keywords
7.9 Review Questions
7.10 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
Explain the need for studying consumer behavior
Discuss the concept of Focusing on Consumer – The Changing Consumer
Explain Customer Decision-making Process

Describe the Consumer Buying Process
Discuss the concept of Mapping out Society
Introduction

One of the very few aspects common to all of us is that we are all consumers and the reason for
a business firm to come into being is the presence of consumers who have unfulfilled, or
partially fulfilled needs and wants. Buyer behaviour is an extremely important and complex
subject for any marketer. At the same time, it is important to appreciate that there is no unified,
tested, and universally established theory on this subject. Buyer remains an enigma and her/his
mind is viewed as a black box. Before businesses can develop marketing strategies, they must
understand what factors influence buyer behaviour and how they make purchase decisions to
satisfy their needs and wants. Understanding buyer behaviour and “knowing buyers” are not
that simple. It is almost impossible to predict with one hundred per cent accuracy how buyers
will behave in a certain situation. Buyers are moved by a complex set of deep and subtle
emotions. Their behaviour results from deeply held values and attitudes, their perceptions of
the world and their place in it, from common sense, impulse, or just plain whimsy.
Consumer behaviour can be defined as, “Consumer behaviour refers to the mental and emotional
processes and the observable behaviour of consumers during searching, purchasing, and post consumption
of a product or service.”
—Satish K. Batra and S. H. H. Kazmi, ‘Consumer Behaviour’, Excel Books, 2004

128 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY