Considerations influencing consumers

There are a number of internal and external forces that compete for a consumer's attention in a commercial environment. Internal factors include taste, politics, prior experience and personal limits. External factors, such as the purchasing environment, availability, price, marketing and peer pressure, could influence a decision. The extent to which these influences affect any decision depends on the individual consumer, but understanding them will help decipher any purchasing decision.

Taste

Many shopping decisions are subject to personal taste and preferences, which will affect your perception of the product. This is particularly true of subjective products such as fashion and food. Consider two coats of the same size and make but in different colours. You may wear the coat more often if you like the colour, so a coat in your favourite colour better meets your requirements.

Politics

Strong individual politics will determine what you will buy or whether you will buy at all. You may consider environmental factors, such as whether the product is sustainable or used in an environmentally friendly manner, social aspects, including the place of manufacture, or whether you actually need the product versus wanting the product.

A vegan, for example, will not buy or use anything made from any animal products, which would influence any purchasing decision. If you are a fashionable person, then you might consider it necessary to purchase this season's designer handbag but if you identify the handbag as a 'want', then you might decide against purchasing it.

Prior experience

Consumers make many decisions to purchase based on their own or someone else's prior experience. If a product has fulfilled your needs in the past, you might look to purchase it again if your requirements have not changed. You might also seek recommendations from people who have tried the product and then factor their feedback into your decision.

If you are looking to buy washing powder that will clean paint from clothing and you know that a certain brand of washing powder works, then your previous experience will come into account when you seek to buy more. If, however, you found that the product you chose previously did not fulfil your needs, then you would choose a different product.

Personal limits

You may have personal limits that may exclude certain purchases, including your ability. If you cannot drive a manual car, then you are restricted to buying an automatic vehicle.

The purchasing environment

The circumstances in which you make your purchase can influence what you purchase or how quickly you make your decision. Factors such as convenience and atmosphere, including your mood, who you are with, lighting and crowds, influence purchasing habits. The level of service and staff may also contribute to your perception of the product - think of the difference between buying clothes from a market or online compared with a high end boutique.

Availability

Your purchasing decision is limited by the availability of your desired product at your chosen outlet. Exclusivity of a product will affect its availability, as may your personal circumstances, such as age or location.

Purchases that are highly specific, such as a house, have obvious availability restrictions while others may have legal restrictions, such as the age limit to purchase alcohol or needing a prescription to purchase certain medication.

Price

For many people, the cost of an item is the most important aspect of purchasing a product. How much money you have available to spend may restrict your ability to buy a product - if you only have $100 to spend, you are financially inhibited from buying anything over that amount.

Price may also influence your perception of a product as being superior or inferior, or the difference in deciding between products if more than one meets your requirements.

Marketing

Marketing is an influential tool used by companies to encourage you to buy their product. The purpose of marketing is to create awareness of a product to positively influence your perception of the brand or item. It includes all promotional activities, from advertising to specials such as 'buy this product and receive a free gift'. Marketing occurs at every stage of the purchasing decision, even before you may need (or think you need) the product, because it relates to the creation of a sense of need.

There are two main types of marketing, aspirational and information-based marketing. Aspirational marketing places a product or brand in a context that aims to appeal to its target market; the people they hope will consume their product. By purchasing the product, the consumer feels they are part of a group or community that the marketers have defined. Advertisements for luxury goods often use the prestige factor of their product or brand in order to encourage consumers to buy the brand and therefore join the 'group'.

Information-based marketing includes news or facts about the product designed to appeal to consumers at an intellectual level so that they can make an informed decision about the product offered. The information can be as simple as reduced price, which you might find in a weekly supermarket catalogue, or a brief explanation of the products or services that a company provides, such as in an insurance commercial.

Peer pressure

Your social environment may affect your purchasing decision including what you buy and where you buy it. At its most basic level, peer pressure purchasing is about fitting in with others, so your decision may correspond with the product or brand that your friends or family own. Peer pressure can be active or passive - your family might urge you to buy a mobile phone because they want to contact you, or you may see that your friends wear a certain brand of clothing that you would also like to purchase. Marketers also apply a form of peer pressure in celebrity endorsements where they hope his or her popularity will induce fans to purchase a product.

Word-of-mouth influence is a cross between passive peer pressure and recommendation. Consumers pass on unsolicited positive or negative information about a product to other potential consumers, which can encourage or discourage others to purchase that product or brand. Stealth marketing is a type of word-of-mouth campaign initiated by a marketing company to achieve this effect.