Buying behavior is a function of two things: the brand differences and customer involvement. These are the behaviors that influence the purchase decisions of consumers and determines the usage rate of those products. Based on these behaviors the companies can segment various types of customers. Buying decisions could be complex such as business to business buying decisions e.g., buying electronic components may require careful analysis of the products by the buyer themselves or it could be simple buying behaviors which are also known as consumer buying behavior. These behaviors are important to be aware of so that consumers and business could be aware of their purchase decisions and how to make those purchase decisions. To be successful it is important for companies to think from the perspective of their customers and try to understand their psyche in making purchase decisions. Think like your customers, what would you do while buying certain products. After understanding these behaviors, you can easily determine how to market your products and how to satisfy customers.
What is Consumer Buying Behaviors?
Consumer buying behaviors are based on the degree of customer involvement and how different the significant brands of choice are. Depending upon these factors we can differentiate these into four types.
- Complex buying behavior:
In this the customer involvement and brand differences are both high. A lot of thinking goes into it before making the purchase decisions e.g., buying a car. As cars are expensive, a lot of thinking goes in the purchase process. The purchase choice may also be highly dependent upon personal preferences of the purchaser.
- Dissonance reducing buying behavior:
This type of buying behavior involves post purchase anxiety and therefore requires customer services to increase customer satisfaction. In this customer involvement is high but brand differences are low e.g. buying paint for your house or carpets etc. In these types of decisions post purchase anxiety may occur because the customer may hear about better brands or they may not be satisfied with the product. These are infrequently bought that is why a lot of thinking goes into it as well.
- Variety seeking buying behavior:
There is low customer involvement and high brand differences. Customer switches between products just for the sake of trying out different varieties e.g., different brands of biscuits.
- Habitual buying behavior:
There is low customer involvement and low brand differences. These are the decisions mostly used for daily usage products. E.g., toilet papers, oil, toothpaste etc.
B2B Buying Behaviors
B2B buying behaviors are more complex as they involve businesses and in a firm many people are involved in making the purchase decisions. The decision is made emphasizing two main factors: the profit impact of the product on business and the supply risk. These are based on different types of products purchased by the company mentioned below:
- Leverage items:
These have high profit impact and low supply risk, which means there are many suppliers of such item. e.g., raw materials for making the products of the company.
- Non-critical items:
These items have low profit impact and low supply risk as they are not essential to the main purpose of the business. e.g., nuts and bolts, bedpans etc.
- Strategic items:
Strategic items are components that have high profit impacts and high supply risk. These might be the new components or new technologies in the market for which many suppliers are not available yet. They are hard to find, costly, difficult to deliver. e.g., Quantum chipsets for mobile phones.
- Bottleneck items:
These are the components that have low business impact in profit terms and high supply risk. You need to maintain good relations with the current suppliers and try to identify new global suppliers. e.g., an integral part of technology hardware, the power pack for a laptop etc.
Summary:
Whether it is purchasing or selling the concepts explained above should be understood by both the customers and firms. Electronic components industry is Before making the purchase decisions the above concepts need to be well understood both by the purchasers and sellers. Electronic components industry incredibly competitive, therefore purchasing of such components needs careful analysis both from the buyers and seller’s perspective. Buying electronic components should not be done in haste, due to the increasing competition careful steps should be taken. Understanding these buying behaviors can help businesses gain a competitive advantage as they will be more in check with their customer preferences and their consuming behaviors.
