Customers\' Buying Behaviour the Success of Any

¶ … Customers' Buying Behaviour

The success of any for profit business organization is dependent on the customers that avail of their products or services. But making sure that these customers continuously patronize the offerings of the organization requires detailed knowledge and understanding of customers' buying behaviours. These purchasing attitudes comprise of several aspects and each of this has to be taken into consideration to ensure that customers will continually buying from the organization. Not only are the regular customers should be the focus of the business but new customers as well in order to increase sales thereby providing optimum revenue that provides business continuity and resilience. The factors that influence customers buying behaviours are varied but they are four general categories thereof namely: personal, social, psychological, and cultural (Bhasin 2010; Brown 2008). All four are equally important but one or some are more important than others especially with regards to the target market demographics.

At the very basic, the personal factors have strong influences on a consumer's purchasing attitudes. These have something to do with their age groups, standards of living, economic conditions, personalities and even their lifestyles. For instance, the taste in clothing of the younger generation is vastly different from the forty-something age group where the former prefers hip, relax and informal while the latter tends to lean on more formal and conservative attires. Those belonging to the higher income bracket will be buying trendier and more expensive clothes in contrast to those in the lower economic bracket who will be purchasing goods that are on sale or cheaper.

The social aspects are another factors affecting consumer buying behavior and these have something to do with the 'reference group (Bhasin 2010)' persons belong to. Thus, 'in certain categories friends and family play a big part as influencers in buying decisions. This is seen every day with consumer products such as food and the influence of the family on what is bought. (Oakes 2011)' Indeed, peer influences play a major role in purchasing decisions because of the innate tendency of people to want to be with the "in crowd" or be like the rest of the group.

On the psychological milieu, 'the psychological factors that influence an individual's decision to make a purchase are further categorized into the individual's motivations, perceptions, learning and his beliefs and attitudes (Callwood 2011).' It can be said that the influences of the social, personal, and cultural factors have tremendous effects on the psyche of the consumer since they affect the overall mentality of the purchaser. For instance, the 'need to determine what level of the hierarchy the consumers are at is critical in determining what motivates their purchases (Brown 2008).' On the cultural aspect, 'culture is the most basic cause of a person's wants and behavior. Marketers are always trying to spot "cultural shifts" which might point to new products that might be wanted by customers or to increased demand. (Bhasin 2010)' Further, there are organizations that produce goods or provide services exclusively targeting specific cultural and sub-cultural groups.