Consumer behavior is the various process a person who wants to consume a product undergoes before buying the product for use. Every consumer buys a product when the need arises, for social status or gift purposes. The paper will highlight factors and psychological processes influencing consumer behavior, giving relevant examples.

The three factors that influence consumer behavior include social, cultural and personal factors. Cultural factors consist of values, standards, and ideologies that guide a particular group of people or community. The culture determines how an individual behaves. The knowledge one acquires from their parents, friends, his cultural environment and relatives become part of their culture. For instance, Muslims do not consume products with pork and bacon. McDonald’s uses certified halal products in Arabic and Muslim countries. They have ensured their products in these countries are bacon or pork free.

The social factors that influence consumer behavior include relatives, reference groups, status in the society, family members and roles in the society. Human beings live among other people in which they come up with ideas and solutions to certain problems. They also have rules and regulations that guide them within the society . For instance, Family may influence an individual social life. A person who did not drink Coke in their childhood may buy it in a rear occasion in adulthood.

Personal factors such as occupation, age, economic condition, personality and lifestyle influences consumer behavior. For example, A CEO of a big company may be very conscious about their dress code so that people look up to him/her unlike a part-time professor who may not be keen on luxury commodities. Lifestyle differences in the society where some individual wears branded clothes while others are not brand conscious. To maintain high social status one would prefer having a lavish lifestyle.

Psychological processes affecting consumer behavior can be divided into four. These include motivation and needs, Learning, perception, and beliefs and attitude. An individual needs would motivate their buying behavior. For instance, after a long day of work without, she bought pizza. The may reason why she bought pizza is that she felt hungry and wanted to eat something. In this case, hunger motivated her to purchase. In some other cases, people spend on water or soft drinks when thirsty, motivated to buy protective gears for safety, motivation towards education to reach self-actualization. The consumers are always driven to fulfill their basic needs.

Perception is a way in which an individual view of think about things in the world. For someone an Acer Laptop might be the best laptop while others might view it as one of the best brands. Due to different perceptions, individuals with similar needs might not buy the same product. For instance, two employees from full day of work passed by a fast-food store. They all had the same motivation (hunger); one ordered baked vegetable sandwich and the other a large chicken pizza. The sandwich person perceived pizza to be of high-calorie content .

Learning about the product may influence an individual to purchase it. Upon using the product, they may get dissatisfied or satisfied and use it again. New information about the product would provide knowledge to the consumers influencing their buying behavior.

Beliefs and attitude about a product or service influence the consumer behavior. For instance, a family that believes in using Nivea products will continue using it even when there is a change in the geographical region, production, and price. The attitude will always persist.

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