Understanding the Buyer

Focus on the buyer is the key dimension of marketing and is what sets the discipline apart from all other business fields. The marketer must therefore understand how buyers come to the decision to purchase a product. This decision-making process is a complex one, both for consumers who are end users and for industrial buyers. For consumers, the process includes the effects of experience, lifestyle, promotion, and price. More general factors influencing consumers may be culture, geography, social class, occupation, psychological factors, peer pressure, and the effect of globalization. Marketers have conducted a great deal of research to understand the consumer decision process better and, as a result, have developed the tools of lifestyle analysis and segmentation to be able to serve consumers more efficiently and more profitably. On the industrial side, organizational purchasing is subject to a different set of influences, both because it is usually based on derived demand and because the decision is often split between decision-makers and influences. Other factors that affect buyers’ product acceptance are the diffusion of innovation, usage, and loyalty and the existence of a customer franchise.