The dimensions of customer behaviour

At the outset, a distinction needs to be drawn between the purchases of private consumers and those of organizations. Most consumers purchasing is individual such as the decision to purchase a chocolate bar upon seeing an array of con­fectionery at a newsagent's counter, though it may also be by a group such as a household. In contrast, there are three major types of organizational buyers. First, the industrial market concerns those companies that buy products and services to help them produce other goods and services. Industrial goods include raw materials, components and capital goods such as machinery. Second, the reseller market comprises organizations that buy products and services to resell. Mail-order companies, retailers and supermarkets are examples of resellers. Third, the government market consists of government agencies that buy products and services to help them carry out their activities. Purchases for local authorities and defence are examples of this.

Understanding the behaviour of this array of customers requires answers to the following questions (see Fig.3.1).

• Who is important in the buying decision?

• How do they buy?

• What are their choice criteria?

• Where do they buy?

• When do they buy?

The answers to these questions can be derived from personal contact with customers and, increasingly, by employing marketing research, which we will examine in Chapter 4. In this chapter we examine consumer and organizational buyer behaviour. The structure of this analysis will be based on the first three questions: who, how and what. These are often the most intractable aspects of customer behaviour; it is usually much more straightforward to answer the last two questions, about where and when customers buy.

Who buys?

Blackwell, Miniard and Engel describe five roles in the buying decision-making process.

1. Initiator: the person who begins the process of considering a purchase. Information may be gathered by this person to help the decision.

2. Influencer: the person who attempts to persuade others in the group concerning the outcome of the decision. Influencers typically gather information and attempt to impose their choice criteria on the decision.

3. Decider: the individual with the power and/or financial authority to make the ultimate choice regarding which product to buy.

4. Buyer: the person who conducts the transaction. The buyer calls the supplier, visits the store, and makes the payment and effects delivery.

5. User: the actual consumer/user of the product.

Multiple roles in the buying group may, however, be assumed by one person. In a toy purchase, for example, a girl may be the initiator and attempt to influence her parents, who are the deciders. The girl may be influenced by her sister to buy a different brand. The buyer may be one of the parents who visits the store to purchase the toy and brings it back to the home. Finally, both children may be users of the toy. Although the purchase was for one person, in this example marketers have four opportunities- two children and two parents- to affect the outcome of the purchase decision. The role of children in influencing household purchasing has increased significantly in recent years, leading marketers to refer to the importance of 'pester power', as described in Marketing in Action 3.1.

The roles played by the different household members vary with the type of product under consideration and the stage of the buying process. For example, in the USA men now make more than half of their family's purchase decisions in food categories such as cereals, food and soft drinks while women, however, still purchase the majority of men's sweaters, socks and sports shirts. Also, the respective roles may change as the purchasing process progresses. In general, one or other partner will tend to dominate the early stages, then joint decision-making tends to occur as the process moves towards final purchase. Joint decision-making is more common when the household consists of two income-earners.

Most organizational buying tends to involve more than one individual and is often in the hands of a decision-making unit (DMU), or buying centre as it is sometimes called. This is not necessarily a fixed entity and may change as the decision-making process continues. Thus a managing director may be involved in the decision that new equipment should be purchased, but not in the decision as to which manufacturer to buy it from. The marketing task is to identify and reach the key members in order to convince them of the product's worth. This can be a difficult task as the 'gatekeeper' is an additional role in organizational buying. Gatekeepers are people like secretaries who may allow or prevent access to a key DMU member. The salesperson's task is to identify a person from within the decision-making unit who is a positive advocate and champion of the supplier's product. This person (or 'coach') should be given all the information needed to win the arguments that may take place within the decision-making unit.

The marketing implications of understanding, who buys, lie within the areas of marketing com­munications and segmentation. An identification of the roles played within the buying centre is a prerequisite for targeting persuasive communi­cations (see Exhibit 3.1). As we saw earlier, the person who actually uses or consumes the product may not be the most influential member of the buying centre, nor the decision-maker. Even when they do play the predominant role, communication to other members of the buying centre can make sense when their knowledge and opinions act as persuasive forces during the decision-making process.

3.1 Marketing in Action