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Environmental
influences on consumer behaviour
Various factors
associated with a consumer’s environmentl can influence his or her
purchase decisions. The factors are referred to as environmental
influences viz: culture, subculture, social class, reference groups,
family and word of mouth communication. Culture refers to the
learned patterns of symbolism and behaviour that are passed from one
generation to the next. It represents the totality of values that
characterize a society. Culture includes material elements such as
architecture and art and non-material elements such as beliefs,
values, norms and means of solving problems. Culture values are
important to marketing organizations. The cultural values serve the
consumer as guidelines towards acceptable modes of behaviour in
making a purchase decision. Cultural values are common within a
society, but there are differences in values across societies
otherwise referred to as cross cultural differences. The cross
cultural differences account for one of the reasons why consumer’s
product choices vary from one society to another. International
marketers must adapt to the cultural differences in developing their
product marketing strategies.
Different groups within the society are termed subcultures. They
include religious, geographical and ethnic groups. Tastes, needs and
preferences vary among cultures. Subculture equally affects consumer
behaviour as culture does. Members of a subculture do treat the
subculture values, norms and ways of behaving as a source of
information towards finding a solution. A social class comprises
people with similar social standing. The division of members of a
society into groups or classes can be based on many common
characteristics Stich as income, occupation, education, social
status or prestige. These characteristics lead to similar
behavioural patterns and activities which distinguish them from
those of other social classes. The consumer behaviour is influenced
by social class in a number of ways. Social class members strive to
emulate the behaviour of their social class in order to ensure that
they are known and accepted as members of that social class. Social
class members also make choices that guarantee their membership of
the social class. Some socially visible and status-oriented products
are influenced by social class. Reference groups consist of people
who share the same values, beliefs and norms which regulate their
mutual conduct. There are different types of reference groups. Also,
there are various ways to categorize reference groups.
A primary group is made up of people whose number is small enough
for members to communicate with one another face to face. On the
other hand, a secondary group comprises people who occasionally
interact with one another. A formal group is one that is highly
structured while an informal group is one that is loosely
structured. A positive reference group is one in which individuals
want to be its members. If individuals do not want to be like
members of a group, then such a group can be called a negative
reference group. Generally, examples of reference groups are
friends, sales teams, seminar groups, trade union, professional
societies companies, social service groups, family members etc.
Reference groups influence the purchase decisions of consumers in
different ways.
They are often seen as a source of believable information. Consumers
are willing to believe information that emanates from members of
their reference group more than the information from commercial
sources such as advertising and salespersons. Reference groups
influence consumers because the groups have the power to accept or
reject the consumers and their behaviour. Family decision making is
a group process with family members playing different roles.
Consumer behaviour can also be explained through the use of a
concept known as family cycle. It is a progression of a family from
its stage of formation to child rearing, middle age and retirement
stages. When families pass through their life cycle, their product
needs change, also their financial capabilities change and elements
of consumer behaviour change too. Marketing organizations use
families or households as bases to segment their markets. This is
strongly emphasized at the centre for Economic and Entrepreneurial
Development.
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