Model of consumer behavior:Model of consumer behavior:Any person engaged in the consumption process is a consumer. Consumers are the individuals who buy for personal consumption or to meet the collective needs of the family and households needs. Consumer behavior means how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources like time, money, effort on consumption of different products and services. It includes what they buy, why they buy it, when they buy it, where they buy it, how often they buy it, and how often they use it. Need of studying Consumer Behavior:Marketers must have access to data concerning consumers, buying habits and which kinds of media they favor, in order to develop convincing communication programs.• Who makes the buying decision?• Who influences the buying decision?• What motivates the buyers and people to take action? Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior Consumer purchases are influenced strongly by cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics.I. Cultural factors :
Culture: Culture is the set of basic values, perceptions, wants and behaviors learned by a member of society from family and other important institutions. Basically, culture is the part of every society and is the important cause of individual wants and behavior. The influence of culture on buying behavior varies from country to country therefore marketers have to be very careful in analyzing the culture of different groups, regions or even countries. 
Subculture: Each culture contains different subcultures such as religions, nationalities, geographic regions, racial groups etc. Marketers can use these groups by segmenting the market into various small portions. Marketers can design products according to the needs of a particular geographic group.
Social class: Social class refers to the hierarchical arrangement of the society into various divisions, each of which signifies social status or standing. Social class is an important determinant of consumer behavior as it affects consumption patterns, lifestyle, media patterns, activities and interests of consumers. 

II. Social factors:Social factors also impact the buying behavior of consumers. The important social factors are: reference groups, family, role and status. 
Reference Groups: Persons reference group are those groups that have a direct or indirect influence on the person’s attitudes or behavior. Individuals use these groups as reference points for learning attitudes, beliefs and behavior, and adapt these in their life. Family and close friends are considered to be primary reference groups in an individual’s life due to their frequency of interaction with the individual and primacy of these significant others in an individual’s life. Schoolmates, neighborhood, colleagues, other acquaintances are a part of the secondary reference groups of an individual.Family: Buyer behavior is strongly influenced by the member of a family. Therefore marketers are trying to find the roles and influence of the husband, wife and children. If the buying decision of a particular product is influenced by wife then the marketers will try to target the women in their advertisement. Here we should note that buying roles change with change in consumer lifestyles.Roles and Status: Each person possesses different roles and status in the society depending upon the groups, clubs, family, organization etc. to which he belongs. The social role and status profoundly influences the consumer behavior and his purchasing decisions.III. Personal Factors: Personal factors can also affect the consumer behavior. Some of the important personal factors that influence the buying behavior are: lifestyle, economic situation, occupation, age, personality and self-concept. Age: Age and life-cycle have potential impact on the consumer buying behavior. Consumers change the purchase of goods and services with the passage of time. Family life-cycle consists of different stages such as childhood, bachelorhood, newly married couple, parenthood etc. which help marketers to develop appropriate products for each stage. Occupation: The occupation of a person has significant impact on his buying behavior. For example a marketing manager of an organization will try to purchase business suits, whereas a low level worker in the same organization will purchase rugged work clothes. Economic Situation: Consumer’s economic situation has great influence on his buying behavior. If the income and savings of a customer is high then he will purchase more expensive products. On the other hand, a person with low income and savings will purchase inexpensive products.Lifestyle: Lifestyle of customers is another import factor affecting the consumer buying behavior. Lifestyle refers to the way a person lives in a society and is expressed by the things in his/her surroundings. It is determined by customer interests, opinions, activities etc and shapes his whole pattern of acting and interacting in the world.Personality: Personality changes from person to person, time to time and place to place. Therefore it can greatly influence the buying behavior of customers. Actually, Personality is not what one wears; rather it is the totality of behavior of a man in different circumstances. It has different characteristics such as: dominance, aggressiveness, self-confidence etc which can be useful to determine the consumer behavior for particular product or service.IV. Psychological factors :There are four important psychological factors affecting the consumer buying behavior. These are: perception, motivation, learning, beliefs and attitudes. 
Motivation: The level of motivation also affects the buying behavior of customers. Every person has different needs such as physiological needs, biological needs, social needs etc. The nature of the needs is that, some of them are most pressing while others are least pressing. Therefore a need becomes a motive when it is more pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction. Maslow arranged human needs in a hierarchy according to their importance. They are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs. A person tries to satisfy the most important need first. When that need is satisfied, it will stop being a motivator and the person will then try to satisfy the next important need. 
Perception: Selecting, organizing and interpreting information in a way to produce a meaningful experience of the world is called perception. What an individual thinks about a particular product or service is his/her perception towards the same. Individuals with the same needs might not purchase similar products due to difference in perception.Attitudes: Customer possesses specific beliefs and attitudes towards various products. Since such beliefs and attitudes make up brand image and affect consumer buying behavior, therefore, marketers are interested in them. Marketers can change the beliefs and attitudes of customers by launching special campaigns in this regard.

The Consumer Buying Decision Process:The purchase is only the visible part of a more complex decision process created by the consumer for each buying decision he makes.Today, let’s focus on the Consumer Buying Decision Process and the stages that lead a shopper to purchase a new product..I. Need recognition / Problem recognition :The need recognition is the first and most important step in the buying process. If there is no need, there is no purchase. This recognition happens when there is a lag between the consumer’s actual situation and the ideal and desired one.Classification by type of needs:Functional need: the need is related to a feature or specific functions of the product or happens to be the answer to a functional problem. Like a computer with a more powerful video card to be able to play the latest video games or a washing machine that responds to the need to have clean clothes while avoiding having to do it by hand or go to the Laundromat.Social need: the need comes from a desire for integration and belongingness in the social environment or for social recognition. Like buying a new fashionable bag to look good at school or choose a luxury car to “show” that you are successful in life.Need for change: the need has its origin in a desire from the consumer to change. This may result in the purchase of a new coat or new furniture to change the decoration of your apartment.II. Information search:Once the need is identified, it’s time for the consumer to seek information about possible solutions to the problem. He will search more or less information depending on the complexity of the choices to be made but also his level of involvement.Then the consumer will seek to make his opinion to guide his choice and his decision-making process with:Internal information: this information is already present in the consumer’s memory. It comes from previous experiences he had with a product or brand and the opinion he may have of the brand.Internal information is sufficient for the purchasing of everyday products that the consumer knows – including Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) or Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG). But when it comes to a major purchase with a level of uncertainty or stronger involvement and the consumer does not have enough information, he must turns to another source:External information: This is information on a product or brand received from and obtained by friends or family, by reviews from other consumers or from the press. Not to mention, of course, official business sources such as an advertising or a seller’s speech.III. Alternative evaluationOnce the information collected, the consumer will be able to evaluate the different alternatives that offer to him, evaluate the most suitable to his needs and choose the one he think it’s best for him.In order to do so, he will evaluate their attributes on two aspects. The objective characteristics (such as the features and functionality of the product) but also subjective (perception and perceived value of the brand by the consumer or its reputation).IV. Purchase decisionNow that the consumer has evaluated the different solutions and products available for respond to his need, he will be able to choose the product or brand that seems most appropriate to his needs. Then proceed to the actual purchase itself.His decision will depend on the information and the selection made in the previous step based on the perceived value, product’s features and capabilities that are important to him.V. Post-purchase behaviorOnce the product is purchased and used, the consumer will evaluate the adequacy with his original needs (those who caused the buying behavior). And whether he has made the right choice in buying this product or not. He will feel either a sense of satisfaction for the product (and the choice). Or, on the contrary, a disappointment if the product has fallen far short of expectations.An opinion that will influence his future decisions and buying behavior. If the product has brought satisfaction to the consumer, he will then minimize stages of information search and alternative evaluation for his next purchases in order to buy the same brand. Which will produce customer loyalty.