Consumer behaviour is that the study of people, groups, or organizations and also

the processes they use to pick, secure, and eliminate merchandise, services,

experiences, or ideas to satisfy desires and also the impacts that these processes

wear the buyer and society. In today's competitive environment, marketers are faced

with informed and highly complex consumers. The consumer is becoming more

powerful and difficult to predict in their everyday purchase decisions. This has forced

marketing to pay attention to specific research techniques aiding to the success of the

performance of the organization. An ongoing need for information and examining

buying behaviour is very important to the success of an organization (Gentile, 2007).

In the marketing context, the term ‘Consumer Behaviour’ refers not only to the

act of purchase itself but to any pre-purchase and post-purchase activities which are of

interest to the marketing manager. Pre-purchase activities might consist of growing

awareness of a need or want, and the search for the evaluation of information about the

product and brand that might satisfied it. The post-purchase activities include the

evaluation of information about the purchased brand in use and the reduction of any

anxiety which accompanies the purchase of expensive and infrequent bought items like,

consumer durables. Engel et al (1989) have defined consumer behaviour as “act of

individual directly involved in obtaining and using economic goods and services,

including the decision process that precede and determines that acts.” They add further

that, though, the word behaviour is used to include only the overt or observable actions,

it is increasingly being recognised that the overt purchasing act is only one (the

discernible) portion of the decision process. It involves the study not only of what people

consume but also when, how often and under what condition goods and services are

consumed.

The term consumer behaviour refers to the behaviour that consumers display in

searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that

they expect will satisfy their needs. In other words, consumer behaviour can be defined

as, “The decision process and physical activity engaged in when evaluating, acquiring,

using or disposing of goods and services. (Kotler, 2008)

These definitions raise a few questions in our mind; what or who are consumers?

What is the decision process that they engage in? Answers to these questions help the

marketers and other interested parties in understanding the broad nature of consumer

behaviour. The study of consumer behaviour is the study of how individual makes

decision to spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption related

items. This is achieved by studying how the consumer buy a particular item, why they

buy it, when they buy it, where they buy it, how often they buy it and how often they use

it. Answering to these questions will give some insight knowledge of consumer

behaviour. However, the research on consumer behaviour goes for beyond these facets

of consumer behaviour.

Consumer is a person, a company, or a party who buys products/services. This

seller-buyer relationship has been practiced since the reign of Barter Trade, upholding

the business prophecy that emphasize customer as “The King”. It has been an

obligation to the manufacturers or service providers to meet, or even exceed, the

standards or expectation level of the consumer in regards with quality, quantity, time to

delivery and many more to capture the market share.

An understanding of consumer behaviour is of critical importance to all personnel

engaged in any form of marketing activity. This understanding enables the marketers to

find behaviour of consumers, to influence their behaviour and to manipulate the

influencing variables to gain advantage. The growth in the size of companies and

markets has given birth to the marketing research. The consumer behaviour, the focal

point of marketing, is being researched very widely throughout the world. The products

are designed to fit into the consumers' perceptions. The products are distributed as per

the consumers' convenience and advertised to communicate consumers and ultimately

influence their behaviour in favour of its offers. The stakes in the businesses are very

high and competition is too stiff. A business involves application of a large amount of

capital; hence the failure of a business is a very risky proposition. Therefore, it is

desirable to assess the consumer’s behaviour and their preferences in order to remain

competitive in the market.