How and why do consumers buy what they do? At the most fundamental level, what people buy is dependent on personal factors like age and stage of life. Over a lifetime from babyhood to old age, people progress through various stage with different needs and tastes. Occupation and economic circumstances also decide consumption patterns, with blue-collar workers, for instance, buying more work shoes and water carriers, while white-collar executives buy expensive suits and club memberships. Similarly, a person’s lifestyle in terms of his interests and activities affects his purchases. These personal factors explain consumer behavior in a general and superficial way. Research on consumer behavior, however, shows that there are deeper psychological reasons.
Psychologists believe that consume behavior is the result of motivation, the energy which a person expends towards fulfilling his needs. All individuals have a range of needs, the satisfaction of whch leads to a state of equilibrium or comfort. Many theories have been postulated to explain motivation, the most well-known being Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In this theory, Maslow maintains that an individual has five types of needs – and that an individual’s lower level biological needs must be satisfied before he progresses to higher level psychological needs. For example, a consumer at the lowest level concentrates on food purchases, while a consumer at the highest level might be collecting limited editions of things that interest him.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
Discussion:
- On what basis do you make purchases?/ what affects your choice of purchases? How much would you be willing to spend on something that you like?
- Which of Maslow’s hierarchy is the most important to you?
- If physiological need are met through spending, how can the other needs be met?
- What do you think about this saying:
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
What profit has a man from all his labor
In which he toils under the sun
(Continue with Ecc 2)
OR
- (Volunteer then shares what he/she thinks about the Bible verse: What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul.