6.1. Buying Behavior

Differences in customer's habits, their cognitive structures and their motives cause them to behave differently when buying. Although an individual doesn't act the same way in all situ­ations, people tend to act consistently. Consequently, we may identify six groups of consumers by their buying behavior:

1- A habit-determined group of brand-loyal consumers who tend to besatisfied with the product or brand last purchased.

2- A price-cognitive group of consumers who decide princi­pally upon the basis of price or economy comparison.

3- A cognitive group of consumers who are sensitive to rational claims.

4-An impulse group of consumers who buy on the basis of physical appeal and are relatively insensitive to brandname.

5- A group of emotional reactors who respond to product symbols and are heavily swayed by images.

6-A group of new consumers who haven't yet stabilized the psychological dimensions of their behavior.

Particular characteristics of some products have a psychological influence on buying behavior. Six classes of products may be identified by their psychological appeal:

♦   6.1.1. Prestige

Prestige products are those which become symbols. They not only represent image or personality attribute but become identified with they attribute. Ownership of a prestige-laden automobile isn't only a symbol of a success but is evidence of success expensive homes , house counter cloth­ing , period furniture ,art objects and certain magazines fall into this category.

♦   6.1.2. Maturity

Maturity products are those which are typically withheld from younger people because of social customs. Consequently , the initial use of such products suggests that the customer has achieved certain stage of maturity. Products in this category include cigarettes, cosmetics, coffee, beer and  liquor.

♦   6.1.3. Status

Status, those which impute class membership to their users. Particular brands are selected because consumer believe these brands are impute success, substance, quality, or other attributes to the user. We may say that prestige products denote leathership while status products denote membership.

♦  6.1.4. Anxiety

Anxiety products are those which are used to alleviate a personal or social threat. This category would include soaps, dentifrice, perfumes and razors. These products involve ego-defense, where as the three preceding classes of products are concerned with ego-enhancement.

♦  6.1.5 Hedonic

Hedonic products are those which depend highly upon their appeal to the senses. Their appeal is immediate and frequently results in impulse purchases. Included in this category are snack items, many types of clothing, presweetened cereals and visualatyle features such as design and color.

♦  6.1.6. Functional

Functional products arc those to which little cultural or social meaning has been imputed. Most staple food items, fruits and vegetables and many building products fall into this group.

6.2. Customer Income

In addition a marketing man will hear and use the terms "money income" - "real income" and "psychic income".

• Money income is the amount of a person receiver in actual cash or checks for wages, salaries, rents, interest and dividends.

• Real income is what the money income will buy in goods and services, it's purchasing power. If a person's money income rises five percent in one year but the cost of what he buys increases eight percent on the average, then his real income decreases about three percent.

• Psychic income is an intangible but highly important income factor imputed to climate, a satisfying neighborhood, enjoyments of one's job etc.

6.3. Population

Population it one of the main components of a market. Therefore, a marketing man should study all aspects of the distribution and composition of the population. İn the following sections we shall consider only those population factors which affect the consumer market. In analyzing population a marketing executive should first find out which characteristics of the population "such as age, education or family size" substantially affect the composition of the market for his product or service.

6.4. Total Population

A logical place to start is with on analysis of total population and here the existence of a "population explosion" becomes evident.

The total spent for food, clothing, leisure-time, goods and services, home furnishing, automobiles and all the other products and services demanded by the population reaches an astronomical figure.

This market is so large and so heterogeneous that it must be analyzed in segments.

6.5. Number Of Families And Size Of Family

The rate of household and family formation is a population factor of considerable significance to marketing men. A household is defined as one or more person living in the same dwelling unit.Every new household or family is potentially a market for n dwelling place, furniture, appliances and other home furnishings. May firms direct on entire segment of their promotional program to young married couples.

For manufacturers of appliances and furniture the number of families is often more important than the size of the family.

6.6. Age Groups

The size of various age groups has a substantial effect on the market for certain products.

The youth market (under twenty) for instance constituted 60 percent of the population in today's. Developments in this market are upsetting traditional advertising appeaser overloading traditional media and are revising our previous understanding of how children think and buy.

More and more, the teenage market is being recognized as an important one. Not only is the size of this market growing but its members have an increasing amount of money to spend. I here are good customers for record, automobiles, cosmetics,clothes, jewelry and other products. In order to tap this market, many manufacturers are adopting new product and distribution policies, bor instance, some clothing manufacturers are now designing junior read-to-wear dresses which reflect the age and not merely the size of the teenage girl.

Many deportment  stories  have   ready-to-wear departments labeled "college", "junior" or "miss" which handle similar or duplicate styles but different sizes.

Entire promotional programs are geared to segments of the youth market. Children's television shows, for example, are sponsored by cereal manufacturers and other advertisers in an effort to develop brand preferences at an early age. Other manufacturers select as advertising media those magazines or radio programs which receive high ratings among teenage audiences.

Manufacturers and middlemen alike are beginning to recognize the people in over fifty five age group. This group is logical prospects for small law-cost housing units, health products and cosmetics developed especially for older people.

Many firms are also developing promotional programs to appeal to buying motives of this group and to cater to their buying habits.

6.7. Sex

Another widely employed and very useful method of segmenting the (Turkish) market is to divide it into two groups; men and women.

The women's market is big, rich and powerful. This market is well educated and is moving into better jobs. Furthermore, the number of women is increasing at a more rapid rate than the number of men and they are living longer. Special efforts and to plan products as to interest women.

Manufacturers of such diving products are cigars, guns and ammunition, men's wear, wristwatches etc. are only a few examples of the kinds of companies which must pinpoint marketing population. A bitter understanding of the male market is resulting in revaluation of product and advertising strategies. New promotional appeals, new packaging and new advertising media are some of the phases of marketing programs affected by an awareness of the growing, changing, profitable men's market.