Consumer Behavior as a Multidisciplinary Study

Consumer Behavior as a Multidisciplinary Study

Consumer behavior is the study for understanding how and why people buy or not buy products. So, it involves elements from Psychology, Sociology and Economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process in order to help firms improve their marketing strategies.

All of the above mentioned elements are integrated in each other while consumers are buying something new. First, we need to undesrtand the psychology of how consumers think, feel and select between different alternatives and also how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment. Besides, economic environment and the consumer’s economic conditions are the other key elements in buying process. Consumers may be motivated to purchase specific brands because people they admire have bought those same products. Both from a psychological and sciological view the desire to fit into a social group can influence the buying of clothing, food, the type of home and neighborhood. Also with social pressure, the focus is not to stand out and be admired, but to fit into the group of choice, and be recognized as a part of that group. Related to that, the idea was that the consumers were buying less expensive things before but now it is cleared that for luxury items consumers choose the best quality good without checking the price of it, because in order to belong that high class the consumer buys luxury products. So, we can say that one of the key elements that influences consumer behavior is the self-image of the consumer. People who have admiration in order to feel good about themselves often goes to extraordinary lengths to receive validation from others. This will often lead them to purchase the latest trendy clothing and the newest car loaded with extras, and being seen in the right places can be extremely important. By contrast, people who are less concerned with what others think are likely to focus on making purchases they deem as practical and...