Chapter Summaries - Chapter 9

This chapter comprised an eclectic review
of some of the major factors influencing
buyer behaviour. The reader should be
aware that there are many textbooks dealing
with this subject and most of these make a
distinction between consumer behaviour
(i.e. how individuals make choice decisions)
and organisational buyer behaviour
(OBB). However, based upon a review of the
major influences that bear upon choice
decisions, we have chosen to propose that
all such decisions contain the same elements
and follow the same sequence.

Central to our composite model is the
view that some cue or stimulus is needed to
make a buyer (individual or corporate)
aware of a need and so initiate consideration
of possible means of satisfying that
need. In the process, the information considered
will be interpreted in the light of the
reviewer’s own knowledge and experience,
and the attitudes which have developed out
of them. For this reason sellers must seek
to establish the precise nature of their
intended customers’ needs so that they can
devise products and/or services which will
match these as closely as possible and,
also, to enable them to communicate this
information effectively to their intended
audience.

To achieve this matching process,
intending sellers need guidance to help
them pre-identify those potential buyers
who may be prepared to consider their
offering. We return to these issues in Chapters
12 and 13 when we consider some of
the techniques and procedures which have
been devised to help disaggregate demand
into meaningful market segments and
enable the seller to position his product so
that it will, at least, attract the intended
buyer’s attention. Before doing so we look
next at the third element of the marketing
appreciation – the internal audit of the
organisation itself.