1.2. Consumer Behaviour
Consumer behaviour is complex. There are pre-purchase needs and
attitudes, the experience of previous usage, and external influences such
§W Consumer Behaviour 3
as advertising and promotion, retail availability, personal selling and
word-of-mouth effects, and differences in product-formulation, packaging
and pricing. Decisions have to be made about whether and what
to buy, how much and at what cost, and when and where. Then there
are various usage or consumption activities and responses which generate
post-usage feelings of satisfaction and changes in attitude. These
various aspects of consumer behaviour are briefly touched on in Chapter
11 (5 11.2), but in the bulk of this book we consider only buyer
behaviour in the narrow sense of the buying act itself, and repeatbuying
in particular.
Repeat-buying is one aspect of the way in which consumers buy
fast-moving goods. These are the kinds of products which are bought
fairly frequently, like the various lines of food and drink, of soap and
toiletries, of cigarettes and petrol, and so on, which tend to be generally
available from grocery and other retail outlets. In as far as the same
person buys any particular item more than once within a relatively
short time-period, such as a week, a month, or a year, the notion of
repeat-buying becomes particularly relevant.
,
The factors involved in the buying situation are highly varied. The
kinds of products dealt with here are typically sold in pre-packaged
branded form, but they may be available in different types of packages,
in different pack-sizes, in different varieties (e.g. flavours), at different
levels of quality and price (e.g. grades of petrol) and under different
manufacturers’ brand-names. The items are generally low-priced (although
a purchase of several gallons of petrol, say, may be relatively
costly). Some products are bought more or less as necessities or staple
commodities. (Most people tend to buy some bread, potatoes, meat,
vegetables, soap, petrol - if they have a car - and so on). Others are
bought more for variety with an element of luxury (different types of
breakfast cereals, or the modern “convenience” foods, say). These
various distinctions might affect the regularity with which the items
were bought, i.e. their repeat-buying patterns.
Further variations in the buying situation are that some products like
tinned vegetables have a long storage life and can be stocked up, others
(like frozen vegetables) can be stored for a relatively short time only
(other than in a deep-freeze), and some can only be bought and stored
in limited amounts (like petrol). Some products are generally used up in
one go once the package is opened (e.g. frozen or tinned vegetables),
others tend to be used in small amounts but may have a relatively short
storage life once opened (e.g. breakfast cereals or butter) or quite a long
one (e.g. toilet soap or toothpaste).
4 Buyer Behaviour fCh. f
For some products the different brands available are virtually indistinguishable
apart from their brand-names and possibly their packaging
(e.g. petrol, or some brands of washing powder or of cigarettes), in
others the “brands” are clearly different (e.g. breakfast cereals) or there
are different “varieties” of the same brand (e.g. different flavours),
while in yet other cases there may be two or more distinct ~~JWS of
product competing directly (soups in cans and soups in foil packets).
Some products have a single end-use and others have a variety of
different end-uses (e.g. butter is used for cooking, frying, baking, and to
put on bread). Some end-uses can be satisfied by only one product (e.g.
petrol), while others are open to a variety of products (e.g. eggs and
bacon and/or cereals for breakfast, or neither).
Shopping habits for different products and retail availability also
greatly vary. Some may be bought nearly every day as demand requires
(break, milk, or cigarettes), some are mainly bought at most once a
week, often as part of a general weekly purchase trip for household
needs. Some are always kept in stock in the household and some are
only bought again some time after the initial purchase has run out.
Grocery outlets usually sell several different brands of the same product
(including possibly the retailer’s own “private label” version), but
may not stock the particular brand required. ln contrast, a given brand
of petrol is usually only available from a solus-site outlet but is then
always “in stock”. The extent of retail availability is often correlated
with total sales or market-share, and here different brands differ widely,
with the market-leader often having 30% or more of the market, whilst
small brands may account for only 1% or less.
Promotional support (advertising, special offers,, etc.) tends to vary
greatly by product and brand. It is usually much heavier for marketleaders
than for smaller-selling brands, and differs also in type and
content. Consumer attitudes to different products