Customer behaviour is the series of actions or patterns customers follow when deciding to buy products or services. These behaviours change depending on multiple variables, such as life experiences, age, environment, beliefs, knowledge, memories, mood, and much more.
Understanding what motivates customers is vital for companies because it helps recognise consumers’ expectations and how they satisfy their needs, allowing you to act accordingly. The most crucial advantage to understanding customer behaviour is that it allows you to create and market your company more effectively. When you understand how customers behave, you spend the money where it matters, you connect deeply with the audience, and the information you share has a meaning and purpose — when you understand customers, nothing is by chance.
Factors that affect customer behaviour
Everything in the world is constantly shaping customer perception and, as a result, their behaviour. More importantly, the way we were brought up, our life experiences, our beliefs and other internal factors play a crucial role in our decision-making process.
So, being aware of how customers make decisions allows you to create a brand that can connect with them emotionally and build an everlasting relationship. When you understand people’s behaviour, you can say the right thing at the right time. As a result, you can make customers feel understood, heard, and encouraged, inspiring them to talk about your brand, generating deals and word of mouth.
Let’s talk about the five factors that influence customer behaviour.
Psychological factors
Human psychology has become one of the foundations of branding because it helps companies understand at a deep level why people do what they do and what they are looking for. The following are some psychological factors that you must be aware of and use to position your brand.
Motivation: Motivation is a crucial factor that affects customer behaviour because it is associated with the most basic human needs.
Perception: Remember that perception is what customers feel and believe your products or services represent. So, when people see something about your company, they form an idea/image that will dictate how they feel about your company.
Learning: When customers buy products, they learn about them through experience. However, when people haven’t experienced anything similar to what you offer, they seek external resources to get that knowledge.
Attitudes and beliefs: Everything people believe will affect their behaviour both consciously and subconsciously. The way customers see life will dictate absolutely everything they ever purchase.
Social factors
Humans are social beings and we are constantly interacting with others. Some people are like us, some are not. However, the key to social factors is that humans continuously compare themselves with others and seek social acceptance.
Therefore, whoever customers interact with shapes their behaviour, for better or for worse. This is where branding becomes more potent because when your brand has a positive perception, everyone will want to be part of it.
Family: Depending on the type of relationship we have with family members, their actions towards some brands will affect our own behaviour.
Reference groups: These are groups of people with whom customers associate themselves. The members will usually have similar purchase patterns, behaviour, and have an influence on each other.
Cultural factors
Our values and beliefs are often shaped by our environment and the community we belong to. For example, people from Africa will behave entirely differently from those from Asia. South Americans will probably jump and hug you to say hello, whereas Asians will respectfully say hi from one meter away.
Having a brand creates a common culture that people can feel like they belong to, no matter where they are from.
Here are some cultural factors.
Culture: Cultural factors are strong influencers of customer behaviour. Here we find basic values, wants, preferences, needs, perceptions, and even behaviours obtained through observing family members and other important people in customers’ lives.
Subculture: These are small groups among the cultural group. Usually, people from subcultures have a stronger and more specific set of values and beliefs. The groups can be created by people from different religions, nationalities or geographies.
Social class: Whether we like it or not, society is segmented by social classes. Social class is associated with customer occupation, background, profession, education, residence location, and more.
4) Personal factors
Although social, psychological, and cultural factors constantly shape and adjust customer behaviour, personal factors can be decisive when thinking about how people behave. These are unique, internal beliefs of how life should be.
The following are some of these factors.
Age: This is one of the most fundamental differences in customer behaviour. Purchasing decisions of teenagers, middle-aged people, and the elderly are dramatically different.
When positioning your brand, you have to make sure that you know your audience’s age and adapt your message to resonate with them specifically.
Income: The amount of money people have also impacts their behaviour. The higher the income, the higher the purchasing power. When people have more money, they get access to more luxurious items, whereas people with less would go for more affordable products.
Occupation: People tend to buy things that are appropriate for their professions. For example, a business person would probably choose different clothes than an artist or musician.
Lifestyle: The most critical behaviour creator is how people live and what they do daily. For example, if customers follow a healthy lifestyle, every single decision they make will be based on that way of living — prioritising products and services that represent them the best.
Last line
Big corporations spend billions of dollars studying customer behaviour because they know that understanding people is key to thriving in today’s business. You might be wondering how can this help my business? And the truth is that this information is all you need to create a successful business. Remember, customers create your brand, not you.
