DISCUSS HOW THE CONSUMER BEHAVIOR HAS CHANGED TODAY
Kotler defines consumer behavior to be the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society. He argues that it blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the decision-making processes of buyers, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general.
Macinnis and Gupta, 2008. Argue that consumer behavior reflects the totality of consumer’s decisions with respect to the acquisition and disposition of goods, services, activities and ideas by human decision making units. They have it that consumer behavior means more than just how a person buys tangible products such as bath soap, digital music players and automobiles. It includes consumer’s use of service, activities and ideas such as going to the doctor, visiting a theme park, etc.
Foxall, 2005. Identifies with changes in consumer behavior in world. He argues that the buying behavior of urban middle class of Africa and India and the upper middle class as well to a large extent has a western influence. There is an increase in positive attitude towards western trends. These consumers have become much more open minded and experimental in their perspective. There is now an exponential growth of western trends reaching these consumers by way of the media and their people working abroad. Foreign brands have gained wide consumer acceptance in these countries. These brands include