Consumer and Business Buyer Behavior

“The American consumer market consists of more than 300 million people who consume more than $12 trillion worth of goods and service each year, making it one of the most attractive consumer markets in the world.” (Kotler, Marketing: An Introduction, Pg. 130) As you can see, there is more than enough of a market out there for almost any product, especially here in America, though there is still the whole world to possibly deal with. All you have to do is market intelligibly, and one of the steps to marketing intelligibly is understand consumer buyer behavior. There are plenty of factors out there that influence consumers’ decision; we just have to be aware of what they are so we can use them to our advantage. First off, the 4 P’s, product, price, place, and promotion, which we have control over and need to be studied and adjusted carefully so the consumer will make purchases. For a book like this about 15 dollars will do the trick, it’s enough to pay off manufactures, businesses, its not too expensive, and we’ll still make profit. Then there are the economic, technological, social, and cultural influences we must work around, or “with” to help increase customer purchases. Then there’s the Buyer’s Black Box which we have no control over, that’s how they operate personally, every person is different. Then there is the buyer responses we must study and constantly work with to make our company the best it can be. “In the business buying process, business buyers determine which products and services their organizations need to purchase and then find, evaluate, and choose among alternative suppliers and brands.” (Kotler, Marketing: An Introduction, Pg. 150) Once again, this is our microenvironment. The department of my company I told you about that will be studying and dealing with the microenvironment will be taking care of this too. They will be constantly researching and dealing with our suppliers and other company’s to make sure we have the cheapest, highest quality, and most reliable cookbook we can create.