It includes such variables as age and life-cycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle (activities, interests, opinions and demographics), personality and self-concept as well.
These may explain why our preferences often change as our situation changes. "Decisions and buying behavior are obviously also influenced by the characteristics of each consumer".
Age and way of life
A consumer does not buy the same products or services at 25 or at 75 years. His lifestyle, values, environment, activities, hobbies and consumer habits evolve throughout his life. Age and life-cycle have potential impact on the consumer buying behavior. It is obvious that the consumers change the purchase of goods and services with the passage of time.
Family life-cycle consists of different stages such young singles, married couples, unmarried couples etc. This helps marketers to develop appropriate products for each stage.
Example- During a consumer's life, a consumer could change his diet from unhealthy products (fast food, ready meals, etc.) to a healthier diet, during mid-life with family before needing to follow a little later a low cholesterol diet to avoid health problems.
Personality and self-concept
Personality is the set of traits and specific characteristics of each individual. It is the product of the interaction of psychological and physiological characteristics of the individual and results in constant behaviors.
It materializes into some traits such as confidence, sociability, autonomy, charisma, ambition, openness to others, shyness, curiosity, adaptability, etc.
While the self- concept is the image that the individual has or would like to have of him and he conveys to his entourage.
Example- Since its launch, Apple cultivates an image of innovation, creativity, boldness and singularity which is able to attract consumers who identify to these values and who feel valued in their self-concept by buying a product from Apple.
Occupation
The occupation of a person has significant impact on his buying behavior.
Example- Assume you are a marketing manager of an organization what will you buy for meetings and office use? Will you go for business suits or something casual? You know the answer. Whereas a low level worker in the same organization will purchase rugged work clothes.
Economic Situation
Consumer 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.
Example: A person who works as a cleaning staff will select for unbranded and low cost clothes for daily use, rather that using branded clothes.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle of customers is another important 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.
Example: A businessman would be able to visit the club and salons for daily masseur and other services with his social groups, where as on the other hand a normal salaried person would not prefer that.
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.
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