Internal and External Influence of Buyer Behaviour

This article discusses the internal and external factors that influence buyer behaviour. It covers topics such as perception, motivation, learning, culture, social class, and reference groups. The article also explains the decision-making process of consumers and the role of family and friends in it.

Running head: INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INFLUENCE OF BUYER BEHAVIOR
Internal and External Influence of Buyer Behaviour
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2INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INFLUENCE OF BUYER BEHAVIOR
2.1 Internal influence of buyer behaviour
The internal influence of the customers basically comes from their own lifestyle and
the way they perceive things. The term perceptions can be referred to as the process through
which a person selects, organises and interprets the stimuli in a coherent as well as
meaningful picture of the world (Rumelhart 2017). It could also be descried as how a person
see the world around him. These includes their own personal thoughts, feelings, attitudes,
memory and motivation. The personality of a person related to the perceived personal
features and characteristics which are continuously displayed, particularly when a person acts
in the presence of others. In many cases, the behaviour that a man projects in any situation is
alike to the behaviours that he exhibits in any other situations. For the businesses it is
therefore very important to now that the customers make purchase decisions for supporting
their self-concept. Furthermore, motivation refers to the desire of a person to achieve or to
attain certain outcomes. When it comes to the question of buying something, the motivation
of customers are likely to get affected through issues like financial positions, time constraints
and perceived risks. The customers who are highly motivated would want to get both
physically and mentally engaged in the process of purchasing. Furthermore, learning could be
regarded as a relatively change that is permanent in the behaviour taking place as a result of
the experience. From the perspective of marketing, the concept of consumer learning could
be thought of as a method through which people gathers the consumption and purchase
knowledge as well as the experience which they apply to the future related behaviour. The
process of consumer learning continuously evolves as well as changes as an outcome of the
recently or newly gathered knowledge (Mahr, Lievens and Blazevic 2014). Both their
personality experience as well as acquired knowledge serve as the feedback to the customers
and supply them the basis for their future behaviour in alike situations. According to the

3INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INFLUENCE OF BUYER BEHAVIOR
learning theories, the main elements of learning are reinforcements, response, cues and
motivations.
2.2 External influence of buyer behaviour
The attitudes, opinions and beliefs of a person are shaped with his or her culture. The
culture of a person gratifies his different emotional needs and because of this they attempt to
save their beliefs and cultural values. Such a cultural protection is displayed in the behaviour
of the individuals as consumers. Culture has the potential to develop the need of a consumer
and could also affect the indulgence of that needs. As part of the efforts of the marketers to
convince the consumers to buy their products and services, they often make use of cultural
representations, particularly in a promotional appeals. This way culture shapes the way the
buyers fulfil their needs. In context to the demographics segmentation, the consumers could
be segmented depending on the factors such as income, gender, age and the level of
education (Chen, Liu and Chang 2013). Family and friends also play a very important role in
the purchase decision making process of the customers. They are one of the primary players
in influencing their buying behaviour. Family is also considered to be the most vital reference
group and is also the most basic consumption unit for most of the consumer goods and
services. This is because of the fact that family provides economic wellbeing and emotional
support to an individual. They are the one who provides a suitable life style to them right
from their birth. With the same, it is family that provides moral and ethnic values and social
relationships along with interpersonal skills to them.
Furthermore, the social class too has a significant part to play in this context. Social
stratification is prevailing in all the societies throughout the history of the man. The status or
social class of the buyers refers to their standing or position in the society. The status of the
buyers is determined by several factors such as their income, occupation and education. The

4INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INFLUENCE OF BUYER BEHAVIOR
status of a person is often calculated or measured on the basis of their prestige, power and
relative wealth. It is defined as the division of the members of a society into several different
categories in the form of a hierarchy so that the members of every class have relatively the
similar status and the other members belonging from other different classes have either less
or more status. The status of a man is categorised under upper class, middle class, working
class and lower class (Savage et al. 2013). The upper class usually have good taste and
graceful life style. They tend to purchase the products based on the quality merchandise.
They purchasing tendencies include of expensive hobbies and recreations, arts, travel and
different expensive equipment to show case their high status in the society. The middle class
tend to purchase the products that are in fashion and are related to self-presentation. The
working class on the other hand purchase the products which includes food items, sporting
equipment, and newest appliances. Lastly, the lower class people are the ones who have very
close family relationships and are not interested in the world affairs at all. They are
neighbourhood oriented and their purchasing tendencies include the items that are readily
available and status symbols. With the same, groups to which the customers belongs too
influences their buying behaviour. They share certain features and characteristics that have
the ability to affect the purchase decisions. Such groups often contains an opinion leader who
has the major influence on the purchasing decision. Some of these basic groups include that
of the family, social class and reference groups.
The decision making process of the consumers are very complex and that involves
five stages right from the need recognition, information search, evaluation of the alternatives,
purchase making and post purchase evaluation (Alfred 2013). The perception of a customer’s
determines his need to buy a particular product and then comes the period of motivation that
motivates them to decide of giving it a try. It can also be the forcefulness or the need of the
family members that a customer thinks of making a product purchase. Thereafter comes the

5INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INFLUENCE OF BUYER BEHAVIOR
question of what to choose from such a wide range of options. Here, the perception of the
family members and friends or say the demographics, plays a very important role. It is from
the experience and perception of the society and the family that a customer choose a
particular product to buy from different alternatives. After making an evaluation, a customer
then finally makes a purchase.

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