Environmental and Consumer Influences - Essay Example

According to Wilhem,Yankov & Magee (2011), consumer behavior is determined by their psychological makeup and the influence of others or may be defined as the outcome of interaction of the consumer and personal influence as well as pressure exerted on them by outside forces. An understanding of consumer behavior is integral in marketing and planning strategies because consumer preferences influence the existing consumers to generate preferences for new phones. Consumers may be either influenced by personal consumption or organizational consumption or individual and environmental factors.

Some individual factors affecting consumer decision are demographics, consumer knowledge, perception,, attitudes and lifestyles while environmental factors include culture, social class, reference group, family and household. Most consumer decisions are influenced by price, brand, and interface and features particularly the physical appearance. Consumers significantly consider the size and the menu organization of mobile phones for self-identity purposes. Mobile phone users are also influenced by aesthetics and costs of the gadgets.

Consumers value price, quality and style functions of the mobile phones. Some users prefer high priced mobile phones with unique features and style functions for identity purposes. Such kind of preference tends to be common amongst individuals who value personality issues. Moreover, the current youthful population embraces technological changes and would always love to identify themselves with new technology in the market. They tend to buy mobile phones that have new technology features and this greatly influences them to make new purchase decisions (Wilhem,Yankov & Magee, 2011).

There are consumers who consider reliable quality and user-friendliness of the specific brand of mobile phone brand especially amongst youth consumers. Young consumers, mostly students and urban residents, value handsets of reputed brands, nice appearance, and advanced value