The environmental and group influences on consumer behavior

The environmental and group influences on consumer behavior

In this blog, I want to talk about the environmental and group influences on customer behavior. In our life, the environment and social environment become the main influence factor.

The first one is environmental. The environment is about when our purchase where are we. For example, we may want to get the quiet and friendly environment when we buy the luxury products. When I want to buy the luxury product, I may choose the Harrods market, because Harrods’s market has a safe environment. Therefore, you can search by yourself or ask the sales. You can find a lot of different brands and the direction is clearly in the market. So you may have the higher require about the environment. But, if you want to buy the fruit, you may reduce requirement of the environment. You may just require environment be clean and safety. Therefore, in the different level of involvement, customer may have the different level of requirement.

The other one is a social environment. We can divide the social environment into four factors. The culture is a big part to influence us. For example, when I come to the UK, the big challenge is we have different type of food. I want to eat noodles rather than bread at the breakfast. My stomach feels uncomfortable at first. Then I feel better. The other example is we have different attitudes about the social event result in the Chinese more shy than foreigners. So when we meet the new culture, we may experience the four steps: honeymoon, rejection, tolerance and integration. For me, when I come to the UK, I feel everything is fresh and interesting. Then I may find some different thing makes me uncomfortable. Then I give up some traditional behavior to suit the new environment. After that, I may tolerance the different and feel better. Finally, I get integration. This is culture influence customer behavior. Besides, Chinese traditional culture also influence me have more tolerance mistakes.

The second one is preference groups which are about Primary / Secondary, Dissociative, Formal/ Informal, Automatic, Virtual, Normative compliance, Groups modify behavior by socialization, Value-expressive, Groups can develop members’ self-concept. The formal and informal preference group also influences our behavior. In the formal group like classmates, people may want to have the same thing with each other. For example, when we prepare the exam, we may want to have same reference book with each other. This is because we want to learn how other to do when they prepare the exam. The different habits may divide people into different informal groups. For example, I like to watch movies, I may find out some friends who have the same habit. Then we may buy movie tickets together.

 

The third one is a subculture. This one is talking about the age, Lifecycle and so on. For example, people who have the similar age, they may choose the same brand and market, because they have the same cultural background. For example, when I was 5 years old, I and my friend’s favorite products is Barbie. But now Barbie is not my first choice. Because the same age group may choice the same thing results in their same feeling and background.

 

The final one is our family, which has the powerful influence our life, because the family may help us to choose the religion and eating behavior. For example, for my family, we like eating fish in the New Year. So we have the same decision in the New Year. They also told me which brand is good or not. For example, my mother told me Tesco is an English brand, which has lower price and higher quality than local market. Therefore, I trust this brand.

 

Overall, this is environmental and group influences customer behavior.