There are four broad categories of factors that influence organizational buyer behaviour. They are environmental factors, organizational factors, interpersonal factors and individual factors.
Individual factors relate to individual thoughts, feelings and actions. The most difficult is to assess motivation and perception of the individual. Essentially pampered pets are often treated as family members or an extension of their owners, who may name them, dress them in special clothing. Pampering pets has created profitable opportunities for all kinds of businesses (Elliott, Sharyn & David 2009).
Consumers who once felt sad or guilty about leaving a pet alone when they were at work or boarding a pet when they were travelling now seek out pet day care services, pet friendly hotels, and upscale boarding facilities like the TV equipped private suites offered by PetSmart, the world largest pet product retailer. There are several psychological factors that influence consumer behaviour. These include motivation, perception, learning as well as beliefs and attitudes. When a consumer is motivated, one is usually ready to act.
How we act is largely influenced by the kind of perception that a person holds of a given situation. It is important to note that people learn when they act (Elliott, Sharyn & David 2009). Furthermore, learning is a process which involves changes in individual’s behaviour which arises from experience. Consumer behaviour which is mostly learned takes place with the interaction of drives, stimuli, cues, responses and reinforcement. Beliefs and attitudes are obtained by acting and learning.
Some of the individual factors which determine or influence development include the occupation of the person, the level of income of the consumer and the new knowledge learning ability of the consumer. Motivation refers to the forces which drive a person to get their needs and wants (Elliott, Sharyn & David 2009). Needs are the basic forces that motivate one to get to a certain end. On the other hand, wants are needs that are learned during an individual’s lifetime.
Lifestyle refers to individuals’ or families’ way of living. The lifestyle concept provides descriptions of behaviour and purchasing patterns, especially the ways in which people spend their time and money. Personality, motives and attitudes also influence lifestyle. Age and life cycle stage is a major factor which influences consumer behaviour patterns. The consumer behaviour changes with stages of life.
Essentially, some marketers will define their target market based on the consumers’ present stage in life. This implies that there are cases where the subject of pampered pets will make much sense to a given stage of life as compared to another. Lastly, ability is an important concept when it comes to the subject of consumer behaviour. This is directly related to knowledge and familiarity with the product or brand.
In this case, one cannot be able to keep pets if they are not able to understand what the intricacies which are associated with keeping pets are. One study found that consumers with higher education and greater health – related experience were more likely to pay attention to the highly detailed technical information in “direct – to – consumer” ads such as the pharmaceutical advertisements (Elliott, Sharyn & David 2009).
The information in this case forms a very important aspect when it comes to the pets. It is worth noting that one cannot have a pet if the information that they have is minimal or small for that matter. Thus consumer behaviour in line with pampered pets is also influenced with the kind of information that one has.
In conclusion, today people are concerned about their image, status in the society which is usually a reflection of their material prosperity. Some have gone a notch higher to associate affluence with the kind of pets that they keep. Pets to some extent have become status symbols which have been used by people.
Reference List
Elliott, Sharyn, R-T & David, W 2009, Marketing, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Limited, Sydney