Social class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social class - Essay Example In order to understand these factors, it is imperative to begin by explaining the meaning of buyer or consumer behaviour. The main body of the paper will evaluate the role played by different factors in light of neuroscience. â€Å"Consumer behaviour comprises the behaviour patterns of decision units (individuals as well as families) which precede, determine and follow on the decision making process for the acquisition of need satisfying products, ideas and services,† (Strydom, 2004, p.2). On the other hand, McCarty & Perreault (1996) posit to the effect that the needs of the consumers, their motives, perceptions, attitudes, learning abilities and their personality have a bearing on their consumption patterns and buyer behaviour towards certain market offerings. Of notable concern is the fact that the consumers do not live in isolation from others and their buying behaviour is also impacted by factors such as culture and other social factors obtaining in their respective socia l environments. Aspects such as cultural and reference groups, family and the social class system impact on the buying behaviour of different people and these should be taken into consideration by the marketers. The study of buyer behaviour mainly draws from psychology with additional inputs mainly from sociology as well as Economics (Lancaster &Reynolds, 1999). Sociologically, the behaviour of people is shaped by factors such as friendship, love, status as well as self esteem among other factors while psychological factors are mainly concerned with attitude and perception developed by people towards something. There are several reasons why an individual may buy a particular product but the major one is to satisfy different needs as postulated by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (McCarthy & Perreault, 1996). Before making a decision to buy a certain product, a need must first arise and this need has to be satisfied. This in turn compels the individual to make a decision towards pu rchasing a product that can satisfy the need. According to Lancaster &Reynolds (1999), the buying behaviour of an individual is determined by factors such as perception, needs, motives as well as attitudes which are either directly or indirectly influenced by the individual’s ability to learn. A person first acquires buying and consumption knowledge about a particular product and this stage is mainly referred to as cognition. This process can be attributed to the cognitive theory which posits to the effect that that a considerable amount of learning takes place here due to the fact that the customer comes into contact with a certain product and develops a keen interest in it. Before making a decision to purchase that particular product, the customer first learns about the product to gain more knowledge and insight about it. According to this theory of consumer behaviour, the customer is viewed as a problem solver who first seeks knowledge in order to solve a problem through i nformation gathering. Mental processing is involved where the mind is manipulated in order to arrive at the desired goal. The power of reasoning is central in this process and it can be noted that as human beings we subconsciously learn about something through coming into contact with it. For instance, the buyers can learn about a product like toothpaste particularly Colgate through coming into contact with it since there are different brands. Knowledge about a product is created during the early