dimensions of consumer behaviour

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DIMENSIONS Of

ONSUMER

BEH VIOUR


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CHAPTER 11

DIMENSIONS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION

Consumer behaviour is a subset of human behaviour in general. The

fundamental process that shape behaviour in the area of buying are those that also

shape human behaviour in general. The study of consumer behaviour is very

much useful for understanding consumers needs attitudes and their brand choice

behaviour. The behaviour aspect of the consumer constitutes a major part of the

marketing man's job. The marketing man is better able to render customer

satisfaction if he can find answers to such questions as why does he buy certain

product at a certain place and in a certain manner'. Marketers use their knowledge

of consumer behaviour for market segmentation, targeting, product positioning for

planning marketing strategy etc.,

Consumer behaviour is complex in nature. The complexity of consumer

behaviour is mainly because of the differences among individual's personality,

attitude, perception, behaviour etc., Besides there are also factors such as family,

social class, references groups, culture, situation etc., Which influences consumer

behaviour. The interaction between these factors increases the complex nature of

consumer behaviour.


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Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour

Behaviour does not make place in a vaccuin. We act in an environment,

which includes the actor, the object or the event of attention, and the situation in

which the observation is being carried out2

. The major influences relevant to

consumer behaviour emerge from the external environment designed as social and

cultural influences, and the internal states, which are referred to as individual

influences, influences form external environment includes culture, subculture,

social class, reference group, family and situation. Advertisement also influences

buyer's behaviour. Internal or individual influences include personality and life

style characteristics of consumers, Interaction between theses factors makes the

study of consumer behaviour complicative

3

.

ariables affecting human

behaviour interact to such an extent that the familiar "other thins being equal"

assumption can lead to mistaken conclusion. Among the explanatory variables for

the choice process we may list enabling condition (e.g. cash in the enabling

conditions, change information received, income, price etc.) past experience and

personality traits that prevail among large group of people4.


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Culture

The concept of consumer's sovereignty has been attacked by many writers

who advance particularly the notion that "the monarch allows himself to be

swayed by the cajoleries of his slaves"

5 . The broadest environmental factor

affecting consumer behaviour is culture. Cultures refer to the norms, beliefs and

customs that are learned from society and lead to common patterns of behaviour

6

.

Man's specific wants are wholly determined by his culture. The specific wants of

mature individuals in our society are not rigid and fixed but rather malleable and

adaptable. Culture is sovereign. It is not an inflexible ruler, however it can itself

be modified and shaped in times by seller's efforts among other dynamic forces'.

One of the first writers to recognize the importance of culture in consumer

behaviour was an economist James Duesenberry. He said "In every case the kinds

of activities in which people engage are culturally determined; nearly all purchases

of goods are made... either to provide physical comfort or to implement the

activities which make-up the life or our culture

s

.

The impact of culture on society in so natural and so ingrained that its

influence on behaviour is rarely noticed. Yet, culture offers order. Direction and

guidance to members of society in all phases of human problem solemnly. Culture

is learned as a part of social experience. Culture as a concept is very broad ad it

embraces the whole society

9

. To better satisfy consumers markets have learned to

segment society in to smaller groups known as sub-culture


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Sub Culture

Certain segments may be represented as sub-cultures because they have

homogenous values and customs that distinguish them from society. Ethinic age

and geographical groupings may form sub-cultures because of differences in

norms, beliefs and behaviour. Ethinic groups include religions, racial and national

groups. Ethinic groups are considered as a part of sub-cultures when they have a

common heritage or environment that influences values and purchasing behaviour.

Geographical groups are identified as sub-culture because of differences in tastes

and behaviour. Members belonging to a sub-culture frequently buy the same

brands, read same magazines and newspapers and shop in the same type of stores.

Sub-cultures can play a dominant influence on purchase behaviour'''. The

influence varies depending on the strength of a consumer's association with the

sub-culture.

Social Class

Every consumer belongs to one social class or another. This social class

membership often serves as a frame of reference for the development of consumer

attitude or behaviour. Social class is defined as the "division of members of a

society into a hierarchy of distinct status classes, so that members of each class

have relatively the same status and members of all the other classes have either

more or less status"'


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Relative wealth, power and prestige are three factors frequently employed

in estimation of social class

1 2

. An individual's behaviour is established by the

participation and pressure of his particular society or social group. An individual

eats, drinks and conducts in a way whereby it is not difficult to make out the social

group to which he belongs. These pressures atomizes individual behaviour to the

extent that he is not aware of his constant effort to act in a manner which conforms

to the norms or patterns imposed on him by his social group. This is the reason

why he cannot explain his behaviour or 'causes' for certain actions. This makes

man considerably different from the 'economic man', which he was long

considered to be, particularly from the buyer behaviour point of view".

The behaviour of consumers belonging to different social classes differs.

Research has revealed, for e.g. middle class women are more likely to be heavy

users of cosmetics than lower class women

1 4 .

It a consumer is asked why he like a particular product his answer will be

influenced by various factors such as status aspirations and his personal

associations. A single person is associated with many groups". These groups

influence consumer behaviour.

Reference Groups

An individual can be member of more than one reference group at the same

time. His behaviour as a consumer is influenced by the extent of association he is

having with reference group. Reference groups are those an individual uses (i.e.

refers to) in determining his judgement, belief and behaviour'''.


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Reference group provides a means of social comparison.

ocial

comparison is considered to be motivating force in consumer behaviour1 7

Reference groups are highly relevant and potent influence consumer

behaviour. Since a consumer belongs to more than one reference group it is

difficult to identify which group dominates. One study of brand choice behaviour

found group cohesiveness and brand similarities to be positively related"

According to Henry Assael involved product is likely to reflect the norms and

values of the group. A study by concanougher & Bruce found that reference

group has little effect on low involvement products. Products such as salt, tooth

paste, paper towel and plastic wrap have little visibility and are not relevant to

group norms'

.

Family

Family is one of the important social group to which every consumer

belongs. It is a primary social group where all the members have personal and

direct association. All family members can assume roles in the actual purchase

process Responsibility for some product and brand decisions generally resides in

a specific family member. Family members influence brand choice behaviour.

For e.g. husband may influence wife's brand choice

2

.

Family life cycle also influences consumer behaviour. The term life cycle

refers to the series of chances in the family status of the individual, as he grows

older.


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The marriage of a single man causes him to become husband; the birth of

his first child makes him a father. When the children grows up and leaves him his

status again changes'''.

Individuals change of status in their family influences their behaviour as a

consumer. Their brand choice is also influenced by their role in the family.

Situation is one of the most important factors influencing consumer's brand

choice behaviour. Depending upon a set of circumstances faced by the consumer

in making a purchase, behaviour may take any number of directions. Thus,

consumer behaviour may be said as ending largely upon situation'''.

The term situation includes all those factors particular to a time and place of

observation which do not follow from knowledge of personal (intra-individual) or

stimulus (choice alternative) attributes and which have a demonstrable and

systematic effect on current behaviour

2 3

.

Both consumption and purchase situations influence brand choice

behaviour.

The consumption situation is the anticipated usage situation for the brand

2 4

It includes what is being consumer? Where it is being consumed? When it is

consumed? And with whom it is consumed?


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Purchase situation includes in store environment, which includes product

availability, price change, competitive deal, displays, sales person influence etc.,

Whether the product is being purchased for self use or for the purpose of giving

gift also influence choice behaviour.

Consumer's Mood State is also likely to affect brand choice

2 5

. Degree of

product involvement also determines. The extent of situational influence. Higher

the product involvement the less likely it is that situational factors will determine

behaviour. Lower the product involvement most to help it is that situational

factors determine behaviour.

If the purchase and situation are close in time, then the situation is likely to

influence brand choice. A consumer arranging for a party that evening may

purchase brands not ordinarily purchased.

A consumer seeing sharp reduction in price for a brand (Purchase situation)

may purchase that brand

2 6

. But a consumer purchasing for regular consumption

in future is most likely to buy the regular brands only and there is no situational

influence.

So far we have discussed external or environmental factors influencing

consumer behaviour. Let us now see the two internal influences on consumer

behaviour, consumer's personality and life style. Psychographic characteristics of

the consumer provides marketer with a richer basis for understanding consumer

behaviour27.


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Psychographic characteristics are consume Psychological characteristics

that can be measured. They are represented by two classes of variables life style

and Personality.

Life Style

A life style is broadly defined as a mode of living that is identified by now

people spend their time (activities); what they consider important in their

environment (interests); and what they think of themselves and the world around

them (environment)2 8

This mode of living differs among difficult classes or groups of people.

Life style affect individual behaviour as a consumer. His brand choice behaviour

is also influenced by life style. For example, upper and middle class women were

found to be somewhat more involved in fashion than their lower class counter

parts. Similarly, the brand choice behaviour of a college student and a middle age

man will not be same, since their life styles differ.

Personality

Like life style personality also influences consumer behaviour. It is a

lasting and general characteristic of individuals. Personality is more deep seated

than life style since personality variable reflect consistent evolving patterns of

behaviour. Personality varies from person to person. It is a complicated variable.

It includes an individual's physical appearance, character, behaviour etc. and it is

also influenced by other factors like culture. Since the personality is a lasting and

general characteristics of individual and also more deep seated it can be assumed


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that personality should be related to purchase behaviour. Such as assumption is

reasonable, but most studies have shown a weak relationship between personality

variable and purchase behaviour'''.

Consumer Decision Making

The constant increase in the variety of goods offered to him, the growing

tendency to buy more goods on the market rather than produce them at home, the

multiplicity of brands offered to him, the frequency of relatively small quality

differentials and the widely differing services offered by stores, all combine to add

to the difficulty of the consumers choice and to stress the importance of his being

able to buy with intelligence. Limited incomes of most of the consumers

accent their problem of choice making'''.

To analyse buyer one can view buyers as decision makers. Consumers

have to make many purchasing decisions for satisfying their current and future

needs. An average adult makes several decisions daily regarding, food, clothing,

shelter, transportation, recreation etc. In making these decisions buyers can use

many types of decision-making, ranging from highly extensive to routine. The

decision process used to purchase many products fall somewhere in between these

tw0

3 1

.

In highly extensive or complex decision-making the consumers evaluate

brands in a detailed and comprehensive manner. More information is sought and

more brands are evaluated than in other types of decision-making situations.


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1.

High priced products

2.

Products associated with performance risks (medical products,

automobiles)

3.

Complex products (stereo sets, home computers)

4.

Speciality goods(sports equipment, furniture)

5. Products associated with one's ego, (clothing, cosmetics)3 2

For buying most of the durable product consumers engage in complex

decision-making. There are five stages in this decision process.

Problem recognition

Search for information

Evaluate alternatives

Purchasing process and

Post purchase behaviour

Problem Recognition

Problem recognition results when a consumer recognize a difference of

sufficient magnitude between what is perceived as the desired state of affairs and

what is the actual state of affairs, enough to arouse and activate the decision

process "Actual State" refers to the way in which a need is already being met and

desire state is the way a person would like for the need to be satisfied.

Consumers become aware of the need through processing of information arising

internally and externally

3 3

.

There are numerous situations that may cause

consumers problem recognition to occur. Some of them are,


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Depleted or inadequate stock of goods

Discount with the product they already own

Changes in environmental conditions and

Changing financial circumstances and marketing activities

After recognizing the need for purchasing a product the next step is

searching for more information about the product.

Search For Information

A consumer is in this stage if he or she senses a need for information upon

which to base a choice. The recollection of past experiences (drawn from long-

term memory storage) might provide the consumer with adequate information for

the present choice. If the consumer has had no prior experience, he or she may

have to engage in extensive search of the outside environment for useful

information upon which to base a choice. How much information a consumer

gathers also depends upon situational factors.

Evaluate Alternatives

After collecting information next step is evaluating alternatives available.

There are two broad approaches for evaluating alternatives, I . Brand processing

and 2. Attribute processing.

n

brand processing the buyer assess one brand at a

time; examine several attributes of that brand. Similarly he assesses other

alternative brands and examines their several attributes. In attribute processing the

consumer examines a specific attribute and compares several other brands on that


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attribute. Then a second attribute may be selected for compassion, and so on.

These two information-processing strategies are referred to as choice by

processing Brands (CPB) and choice by processing Attributes (CPA) respectively.

By evaluating alternating consumers select one brand for purchase. So, the next

step is purchasing process3 4

.

Purchasing Process

Consumer selects a store to make the purchase after considering, store

location, atmosphere, attributes etc. Inside the store his purchasing behaviour is

influenced by several factors such as merchandising techniques, store labour,

displays product shelving, pricing strategy, packaging and personal selling effects.

Situation surrounding the purchase also influences purchasing process'''.

Consumers make two types of purchase; trial purchases and repeat purchases

3 6

.

Research evidence indicates that when consumers purchase a new brand about

which they may be uncertain, they tend to purchase smaller quantities than they

would if it were a familiar brand

3 7

Post Purchase Behaviour

Consumers evaluate the products while using it in the light of their

expectation. The degree of post purchase analysis that consumers undertake is

likely to depend on the importance of the product decision and the experience

acquired in using the products. If the product lives upto expectation they will

probably buy it again. If the product is not upto their expectation they will search


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more suitable alternatives. Thus, post purchase behaviour serves as a feed for

further purchases,

Low Involvement Decision Making

Most studies have been devoted to situations requiring complex decision-

making. Such situations assume that consumers are highly involved in decision-

making. But, in most of the decision-making situations consumers are not at all

involved or less involved. A low involvement purchase is one where the

consumer does not consider the product sufficiently important to his or her belief

system and does not strongly identify with the thinkingly

.

For example, when a consumer purchases cleaning powder, it is unlikely

that a process of information search will be initiated to determine brand

characteristics. Not is the consumer likely to evaluate alternative brands to

identify the most favoured one, rather than searching for information she receives

it passively. The consumer sits in front of the T.V. and sees an advertisement for

Vim Cleaning powder that describes it as "cleaning better than other cleaning

powders" the consumer is thinking about anything but cleaning powder. The

advertisement is not proper evaluated. Some bits and pieces of information are

received without any active cognitive process. The need to purchase arouse

simply because the amount of cleaning powder in house is running low. The

consumer purchases Vim cleaning powder in house is running low. The consumer

purchases Vim cleaning powder because of the familiarity produced by respected

advertising. The brand is seen on the store shelf and is associated with advertising


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theme produces sufficient stimuli to buy that brand. Under low involvement

conditions, consumers do not form an attitude towards the brand as relatively

neutral since it is not associated with any important benefits tied to self or group

identification. The hierarchy of effects for low involvement product is quite

different from that for high involvement.

Sometimes consumers mostly engage in habitual buying when the product

being purchased is frequently purchased and not of much importance for the

consumer. Brand loyal consumers make mostly habitual purchase decisions.

Purchasing by habit provides two important benefits to the consumer. First it

reduces risk, second it facilitates decision-making. Habit is a means of reducing

purchase risk when the consumer is highly involved, with the product. Habit also

simplified decision-making by minimizing the need for information search.

Decision-making is not an easy job. It is influenced by numerous factors.

Brand Loyalty

There are different approaches to the definition and measurement of brand

loyalty

4 0 . Brand loyalty is a topic of much concern to all marketers. Every

company seeks to have a study group of unwavering customers for its products or

service. Because research suggests that than increase in market share is related to

improved brand loyalty

4 1

.

Thus brands that seek to improve their positions have to

be successful both in getting brand users and in increasing their loyalty.


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One definition of brand loyalty indicates that it is not simply repeat

purchasing behaviour but should be defined in terms of six necessary and

collectively sufficient conditions. According to this definitions brand loyalty is a

Biased (non-random)

Behavioural response (purchase)

Expressed over time

By some decision making unit

With respect to one or more alternative brands out of a set of such brands

Is a function of psychological (decision-making evaluative) processes'''.

This definition suggests that consumers can be loyal towards more than on

brand i.e. multi brand loyal. Brand loyalty not only selects some brands but also

rejects certain brands from a set of alternatives. Brand name may be more

important for some products than for other

4 3

Users of product vary as to their

loyalty to a specific brand or supplier. For consumer products it is usually

necessary to use marketing research to measure loyalty. While consumer products

such can often be directly observed

4 4

Brand loyalty is one of the most heavily

researched areas of consumer behaviour. But very little is positively known about

it".

"George H. Brown in one of his earliest studies of repeats purchasing

behaviour identified four loyalty patterns.


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Unindividual Loyalty: A panel member but only one brand in a

product category. This is the classic instance of "we have our

customers and out competitor have theirs".

Divided Loyalty: A panel member divides her purchases between

two or sometimes three or four, brands in a product category. A

divided loyalty purchase pattern look like this:

ABAABABBABAorlikethis:ABA CBCCABACBA

BCAB

Unstable Loyalty: A panel member purchases brands A and B in the

following

Order: AAA ABBBB This pattern is an indicator that the

consumer has

Switched individual loyalty from A to B.

No Loyalty: The brands in a product category are purchased in a

completely random order

4 6

Consumers are not always brand loyal. They often switch to other brand

expecting more satisfaction.

Brand Switching

Since man is a developing animal, a learning, a learning animal and social

animal it would be absorb to assure that the preferences of any members of any

households remain unchanged overtime and unaffected by their environment.

There are three outstanding possible reasons for change in preferences,


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.) Advertising

Choices of other consumers and

Prices and preferences

It has been observed, however, that advertising is more concerned with

persuading people to switch from one brand of commodity to another. If one

interprets different brands of a commodity) e.g. tooth paste as goods which supply

the same characteristics in different proportions, a good part of a brand advertising

may be integrated as our attempt to inform people of the characteristics of a given

brand'''. It may result in brand switch over. It is obvious that preferences of

consumers are affected by what others consume and prices of different brands.

Some consumers engage in brand switching because they become

dissatisfaction or bored with a product, others because they are more concerned

with price than with brand barne

4 8

.

The phenomenon of consumer brand shifting is a central element

underlying the dynamics of the market place. Subsequent purchase data can

provide some insight into consumer brand switching4 9

.

We cannot conclude that all consumers are brand loyal or disloyal. But,

most of the consumers engage in decision making before purchasing a product

brand.


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Review Of Literature

Situation is identified as a factor influencing brand choice behaviour only

recently. Of the few studies make in this area Russell W. Belk 's

5 article "An

explaratory.. Assessment of situational Effects in Buyer Behaviour" is popular.

This article reports an explanation of the amounts and the patterns of variance in

selected purchase context. Situation has been defined for the purpose of the study

as all those factors particular to a time from and place of observation which do not

follow from knowledge of personal (intra-individual) and stimulus (choice

alternatives) attributes, and which have a demonstrable and systematic effect on

current behaviour. He selected two consumer products snack and meat in which

situational effects were neither blatant nor impossible to image and situational

,inventories were identified for each product sources of behavioural variances and

patterns of variance were identified for both the products. The results of the

analysis made showed that choice among snack product is dependent upon

consumption and purchase situations effects on product preferences, a smaller role

for the general attractiveness for each product and a smaller but important role for

individual differences in response preferences. The result of this study show

sizeable situational influence on brand choice behaviour. Situational main effects

and interactions provide nearly half of the explained variance in meat and snack

preferences.


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Another study concluded by "Miller & Ginter"

5 1

investigates situational

variation both in brand choice behaviour and attitude. This study measures

situational variation in observed/reported brand choice behaviour and also asses

whether situation specific measures improve the measured relationship between

attitude and behaviour. Specifically the authors have extended previous research

by 1) using competing brands in a narrowly defined product category and 2)

considering self-reports congruence. The research issues were examined through

testing of the following hypotheses.

HI

urchases level of specific brands vary differentially across

situations.

1 1 2

ttribute importance vary differentially across situations

H3

erceptions of specific brands vary inferentially across

situations

H4

ituation specific measurement of attribute importances and

perceptions improves prediction and brand choice over

general (non-situational) measurement.


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The findings of this study support the argument that explicit consideration

of situational contexts may contribute to the understating of consumer behaviour.

In addition, the use of brands in this study demonstrates that situational influence

is not restricted to grossly different product types. The results showed situational

influence is not restricted to grossly different product types. The results showed

situational variation in purchase level, attribute importance and perceptions.

William 0. Bearden & Arch G. Woodside

5 2

has studied interactions of

consumption situations and Brand attitudes. The objective of the study was to

examine an aggregated situational attitudinal model behavioural intention with a

multiplicative interaction term included. By empirically testing the model across

both brands and situations, the relative importance of the object and situational

variable were assessed. Those situations that consistently interact with attitudinal

measures across brands were examined. Variables corresponding to individual

consumption situations were used with an aggregated attitude towards the object

variable to predict brand behavioural intentions.

The results of the study supports the hypothesis that situations are

influencial in the formation of behavioural intentions and that a better

understanding of choice behaviour is possible if more that attitudinal measures are

used to explain behaviour. According to authors of this article future research is

needed to explain the circumstances producing specific situations that interact with

consumer attitudes to affect brand intentions.


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The article "Person-Situation Segmentation's Missing Link"

5 3 offered a

general framework which positions situation and person within situation as

theoretically legitimate and potentially useful bases for segmenting demand and

targeting marketing strategy. It discusses the conventional market segmentation

theory and practice from a person situation perspective.

The analytical behavioural and demand analysis justifications for the model

are first presented. The extents to which usage situation or person situation

segments conform to Kotler's three criteria for segmentation were also discussed.

After laying this foundation, several of the currently popular segmentation

techniques including psychographic and benefit segmentation are reinterpreted

from a person situation perspective.

The

erson-situation framework provides a structure for integrating

different bases by reducing them to a common higher order basis. According to

the author Peter R. Dickson such an approach should help marketers assess the

overall synergic effect of their marketing strategy.

The article "contextual influences on the meanings ascribed to ordinary

consumption objects"

5 4 offered a social-psychological paradigm for studying how

individuals ascribe meaning to a contextual object when they encounter it.


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Authors approach differs from much of the consumer research (e.g. brand

identification, multi attribute attitude models, and most categorization studies) that

focuses on information about categories of objects that individuals already have

stored in memory. It also suggests that typical product perception studies might be

incomplete to the extent that they assume subjects "correctly" ascribe meaning to

stimulus products. The article examined this assumption and explored how

consumers ascribe meaning to products. The authors began with a perspective on

object meaning. An experiment was conducted for testing several hypotheses

concerning how the kind and amount of context affects the meaning people ascribe

to ordinary consumption objects (and label they use to identify those meaning).

Results of those hypotheses tests supports the view that is, in different situations

persons ascribe different meaning for ordinary consumption objects.

The objectives of Rajendra K. Srivastava

5 5

and other's study "A customer

Oriented Approach for Determining Market Structures" was

To examine the predictive ability of the usage situational taxonomy (via

cross validation), since the usefulness of the entire framework is dependent

on taxonomy.

To illustrate that when product/services have multiple uses (are suitable for

several types of usage situations) hierarchical clusters may be misleading,

as they require exclusive group membership. Over-lopping market

structures are more appropriate under these circumstances; and


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Show that interactions among situation, person and product factors may be

more managerially meaningful then main effects.

In that study a framework for market analysis based on customer

perceptions of substitutability-in-use was presented.

t was shown that

interactions among situation, product and person factors may be more

managerially meaningful than the main effects.

Sales person expertise is one of the purchase-related situations. A study''

was made on the effects of price and salesperson expertise on customer purchasing

behaviour. The following two hypotheses were tested for the purpose.

HI

n increase in the level of perceived salesman expertise will product

a shift in a product's demand curve to the right, that is product sales

will be greater at given prices under high versus low salesman

expertise conditions.

H2

n increase in the level of perceived salesman expertise will

produce a decrease in a product's price elasticity.

Findings of this study that price and salesman expertise influence

consumer's purchasing behaviour. For some products and within specific ranges,

price decisions may be far less important for customer's purchase decisions may

be far less important for customer's purchase decisions than other marketing

variable for example, sales message and the creditability of the communicator.

Alfred A. Kuchn

5 7

in his article "Consumer Brand Choice as a learning process"

has discussed the following questions. What do we know about brand choice?


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What behavioural mechanism appears to underlie this phenomenon? Is such

behaviour habitual? Is learning involved? Does repeated purchasing of a brand

reinforce the brand choice response? What is the relationship between consumer

purchase frequencies and brand shifting behaviour? In the light of available

empirical data and a model which appears to describe them.

Result showed that most recent purchase of the consumer is most likely to

influence brand choice behaviour but it is not the only one, which influence and

brand choice. Many families use a mix of brands of frozen orange juice, because

of the unavailability of specific brands in all the stores, among which the

consumer shifts in the course of his week-to-week shopping trips. Whenever a

great amount of time has elapsed since the consumer's last purchase of the

product, the brand he last brought has little influence on his choice of a brand-the

probability of his buying any given brand in this case is approximately equal to the

market share of the brand and most consumers have a low probability of buying

several other brands.

The article title situations and social action: "Applications for markets of

recent theories in social psuchology"5 8

described some development in social

psychology theories and discusses some of the implications for market research. It

concentrated on social situations and examined a situation-act model. The model

of social behaviour described provides an approach to analyzing social actions.,

which can be applied to different specific situations. The study of the relationship


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between situations and social actions is seen as potentially useful understanding

consumer behaviour.

The purpose of the paper "Consumer intention and behaviour-a not on

research and challenge to researchers"

5 9 is the identification of an important source

of weakness in the assumptions which underpin much current market research

practice in the development of new products. This paper examined the wide

spread attempts of market researcher to predict consumer choice on the basis of

the survey respondents verbally expressed intentions to buy new brands. In

particular it assesses Fishbein behavioural intentions model, which represents the

most sophisticated technique available for such work Theoretical experimental

and practical evidence is obtained to demonstrate the futility of assuming linear

continuity between intentions and behaviour in the prediction of many

managerially relevant aspects consumer behaviour, notably choices of new brands

which will be introduced into established product classes.

Thus the discussion in this chapter on different aspects of consumer

behaviour and the review of past studies on situational influence on brand choice

shows that there is considerable scope for research in this area. The present study

is an attempt in this direction.


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I. Sarin & Gopalakrishnan, Marketing in India, Madras, Orient Logmans Ltd., 1969,

PP 1421 55.

2.

Marketing management and Behavioural

environment,

Perry Bliss, Prentice

Hall Inc, New Jersy, 1970, PP 95-97.

3.

Dorothy Cohen, Consumer Behaviour, Random House Business Division,

New York 1981, PP.14-15.

4 A.S.S. Etenberg & E.G. Pyatt (eds) Consumer Behaviour Aske

Publications, England, 1971, P.13.

5

Ruby

Turner Norris, The Theory of Consumer Demand, New Haven, Yale

University Press, Nov.1941 P,62.

6.

Henry Assael, Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Action, California,

Kent Publishing Co.,

1987, P.297.

7. The

Theory of Consumer Demand, Opcit, PP.63-64.

8.

James, S. Duesenberry, Income Saving and Theory of Consumer

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dimensions of consumer behaviour

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