Theory of Consumer Behavior – Definition and Approaches

Theory of Consumer Behavior:- The field of psychology includes a multitude of theoretical approaches to study human behavior. What facilitates the marketing; understand the behavior of people as seen in the following theories:

Behavioral Theories of Behavior

Theoretical and applied psychology diverge in many points; But the main difference lies between those who hold that behavioral theories are the key to understanding human behavior and those who defend psychoanalytic theories proposed by Sigmund Freud.

Behavioral theorists tend to be more practical and eclectic in their methods. None of the approaches have generated psychological work tools that have practical marketing applications.

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Theories on Stimulation and Response

This type of theory holds that learning occurs when a person responds to a stimulus and is rewarded for giving a correct or punished answer for giving an incorrect answer. The first theories of this type of stimulus – response (ER) were proposed by Pavlov, a Russian scientist who demonstrated that it was possible to have a dog generate saliva when a conditioned stimulus, such as meat in Dust, and an unconditioned stimulus, that is, anyone who did not normally provoke the response, contemporary psychologists have perfected and modified later theories.

In practical marketing applications of this observation are seen in repetitive advertising, designed to reinforce shopping habits.

Theories on Cognitive Learning

Cognitive theorists think that some aspects such as attitudes, beliefs and past experiences of people, combine mentally to generate some knowledge of a situation. According to Cogno scientists, the brain or central nervous system is the dominant element. In most cases, cognitive theories of learning reject the theories defended by behavior lists of stimulus stimuli and responses of stimuli and strict responses, calling them too mechanical. On the other hand behaviorists reject the “mentalism” of cognitive things. They insist that behavior is visible and measurable, and consider their theory to be the practical approach to studying psychology.

Example: Consumer attitudes influence purchasing behavior, where cognitive theory comes into play. Although a behaviorist would seek stimulus and response relationships in the purchasing situation, the Cogno scientist will attribute the buying behavior to the use of past experience and a set of specific attitudes. Strongly held attitudes tend to prevent people from paying attention to conflicting stimuli. In a marketing situation, such incentives are the advertising and sales efforts of competitors.

Ordinarily it requires very persuasive sales advertising to change a person’s attitude toward a product or service that has provided prior satisfaction. For example, it is very difficult to change the preference for brands of foodstuffs. There will be no change in brand preferences until after potential customers have tried other products, so food merchants work hard to induce potential customers to try other products. The techniques of reducing prices and giving discount coupons have been effective, but once the potential customer buys a competitive product, they must be better than the one they had been using or otherwise will not record a lasting change in the behavior of purchase.

Gestalt theory of Learning

This theory is based on perception, experience and an orientation towards concrete goals. The psychologists who defend this theory think that the individual perceives a complete situation instead of assimilating the particular elements of it. The whole, therefore, is more than the simple sum of the elements that compose it, because people tend to organize the elements of a situation and then add others from past experiences, making with them that the experience is greater than the sum Of individual perceptions, that is to say, if certain key cues are provided it may involve something more than what occurs in a situation.

If a toothbrush announcer wants to involve dentists approving the product, the use of a person dressed as a dentist is enough to convey this message. The implication is clear, even without stating that the person is a dentist or without providing a dental office setting.

Psychoanalytic Learning theories

Based on Sigmund Freud’s original work, psychoanalytic theories hold that people are born with instinctual biological needs that are rarely socially acceptable. As the person matures and learns that those desires cannot be fulfilled in a direct way, he seeks other means of satisfaction; therefore Freud spoke of sublimation, substitution and other aspects to explain why people behave as they do.

One of the main benefits derived from psychoanalytic theory is the work done in the research of motivations, researchers are able to increase the chances of success of a product or service, before making a substantial investment, resorting to analytical theory, As well as some practical methods for discovering the corresponding motivations.

Motivation

The concept of motivation is an aspect that is heatedly discussed from many theoretical points of view. However if it is considered as a stimulated need, it becomes an accessible and useful concept for the marketing staff. Awakening a need creates a situation of motivation with inherent tensions that need to be resolved. Needs do not become motivators until the individual is not aware of the situation. For example if a person does not feel hungry they will not feel motivate to eat. And on the contrary if he is hungry he will eat practically anything, if he is hungry enough; But in the absence of a biogenic need, the attractiveness of the psychologically derived motives determines which brands will be chosen, which products will be used, etc. This is known as learned or culturally induced motives.

Perception

Perception is the interpretation of the sensation that the raw data is received by a subject, through his senses (stimulus), based on his physical attributes, his relationship with the surrounding environment and the conditions that prevail in the individual at a time determined.

The elements that contribute most to the process of perception are the characteristics of the stimulus and the past experiences, attitudes and characteristics of the personality of the individual.

For example:-  to select the appropriate stimulus, the trader must know as much as possible about the target market. It is necessary to remember that the perception is selective and that each individual traverses characteristics that determine the level and the quantity of this selectivity. On a general scale, a new sports car means amusement, jubilation and / or position for its new owner; but also means a commission for the seller who made the sale. So it is important that marketing employees know how each market will respond.