Buyer Behaviour - Essay Example

Buyer Behaviour Submitted: Buyer Behaviour Buying behaviour refers to why and how an individual selects, purchases anddisposes of a particular product. There can be several reasons that can stimulate individuals to purchase a particular good or service. In this paper we will discuss why and how an individual selects, purchases and disposes of a product in relation with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and the decision making process involved in consumer’s buying behaviour. The product we have selected for this paper is an economical car.

According to Maslow, all individuals in this world have five needs which include psychological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization needs (GAY, 2007, p.166). Maslow further stated that an individual first tries to satisfy his basic needs such as psychological and safety needs and once these needs are satisfied, he moves forward to satisfy the remaining needs. Psychological needs refer to the basic necessities that an individual needs to remain alive, examples of psychological needs include: food, clothing, water and shelter.

Safety needs refer to ones desire of safety from physical and emotional pain, examples of goods that satisfy safety needs include: insurance and security systems. Social needs refer to an individual need for belongingness, example of products that satisfy social needs include beauty products, cosmetics and cars. Advertisers of these products try to portray that by using these products, an individual becomes more acceptable in the society. The selected product falls in the goods that satisfy an individual’s need for belongingness.

Consumers will only pursue economical cars once their basic necessities of safety and survival are satisfied. Once the social needs are fulfilled, consumers pursue the satisfaction of esteem needs. Esteem needs refer to the need of being recognized by others and the value an individual imposes on himself. Products that satisfy esteem needs include a high end car such as Ferrari or a high end watch such as Rolex. Once all these needs are satisfied, an individual pursues the need of self actualization.

Need of self actualization refers to an individual’s need to achieve whatever they want in their lives. There are six stages involved in an individual’s buying decision procedure (PRIDE, 2012, p.365). First an individual identifies a need for a particular product, for example: an individual realizes that he needs a vehicle or mode of transportation to move from one place to another. Next the individual looks at all available options to satisfy his need, for example: an individual identifies that he can purchase his own car or he can use public transportation to satisfy his need for conveyance.

Next, the individual evaluates the options he has identified. For example: an individual looks at the pros and cons of using public transportation and purchase of his own economical car. Once the individual has selected the alternative he is going to use, he makes a purchase decision. For example: an individual decides to purchase an economical car and he has to make a decision of who to buy it from and from where to purchase. Next the individual makes the purchase of the alternative he has selected.

After purchasing the alternative, he identifies whether the alternative he has purchased has satisfying or dissatisfying effects on him. List of References GAY, R., CHARLESWORTH, A., & ESEN, R. (2007). Online marketing: a customer-led approach. Oxford, Oxford University Press. PRIDE, W. M., HUGHES, R. J., & KAPOOR, J. R. (2012). Business. Mason, OH, South-Western Cengage Learning.