CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY: FACTORS AND DECISION MAKING - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The psychology of the consumer studies how people make decisions about what they buy, need, want or how to act around a product, service, or brand. All this is of vital importance for companies, as these variables will guide their market strategies.

In short, consumer psychology is the study of how people make decisions about what they buy, what they need, what they want, or how they act around a product, service, or brand.

An example that highlights the scope of the analysis that consumer psychology requires is found in gluten-free products, which in Spain have found their peak in companies such as Mercadona or, more recently, Día supermarkets.

These companies that we have just named have used the right tools to find a need through the monitoring of eating habits in the population and thus fill a gap in the market, making a difference that other companies have not paid attention to.

The four factors to understand the consumer

There are four essential factors that we must take into account to understand consumer behavior: behavioral and cognitive variables, personal, social and cultural. Let's take a closer look at each of them:

Cognitive and behavioral factors

These factors refer, above all, to how people process information from day to day and how we behave around it; In other words, do we buy a certain product because the brand's slogan catches our attention? Does said slogan encourage us to buy it?

We must also take into account the differences between the sexes, since men and women have, each one, their way of perceiving and attending to stimuli; for example, when processing color.

However, there is still controversy in this regard and it is not entirely clear (Barbur, 2008); What is clear is that, despite this, products intended for men are one way while those for women are another.

Personal factors

Personal factors, also called individual differences in Psychology, are what make each person, because of who they are and regardless of their age, sex, culture or place of origin, like a certain product and not another; that is, personal factors are those that are governed by our personality.

For example, a person who is a fan of video games will not mind spending a huge amount of money on his hobby, while another person totally disinterested in them does not even consider spending a minimum part of his salary on them and will decide to dedicate that money to others products.

Of course, age is a variable to take into account when studying Consumer Behavior; However, how many older people like the world of comics, for example, something traditionally reserved for younger generations? That is why the analysis of age, sex or culture of origin can lead us to error.

Social factors

The social factors are critical to understand consumer behavior, especially in the information age in which we are immersed and social networks seething. A person's social influencer can, of course, be an Instagram user, but it can also be a family member.

It can also be a reference group for the individual (called an outgroup), with which he wants to identify or be reflected. Likewise, it can also be a social class with all that it implies: income of that class, standard of living, aesthetics of the people belonging to it, educational level, etc.

As we can see, social factors are very diverse and are often the most difficult to analyze when drawing up a Marketing strategy. However, it is very important to take them into account, especially when producing an advertisement in which, for example, an influential celebrity appears today as the protagonist.

Cultural factors

Culture is still an influence on a social level. Cultural factors are of special interest to companies, especially when adapting products to certain very specific markets or designing international marketing strategies.

For example, if we want to adapt a North American product to the Spanish population, we will have to take into account Hofstede's cultural model, which determines, according to a series of scores (individualism-collectivity, masculinity-femininity, uncertainty-certainty, etc.) what aspects differ one culture from another.

Hofstede's cultural model is one of the most used by Marketing specialists and has a special interest when it comes to adapting prices to different markets, developing advertisements, segmenting the population or choosing which sector we are going to direct our product to.

The decision-making process of a buyer

We can say that the product we buy is just the tip of the iceberg of a complex cognitive decision-making process that has taken place in our brain and to which, on a daily basis, we rarely pay attention. However, attending to these internal reactions can make us more responsible and conscientious consumers in our day to day.

Engel, Blackwell, and Kollat's research group developed a model in 1968 that is still considered to be the most accurate model in explaining our behavior as buyers to this day.

When we talk about this model, we have to imagine it as a cycle in which the last step gives way to the first again through a feedback mechanism.

With that said, let's move on to analyze why we consume what we consume:

State of need and recognition of it

Here we talk about the moment when we realize that we need something that we do not have, and that this state of need ("I'm hungry, my stomach is empty") differs from our ideal state ("I would be much better if I ordered a pizza home").

However, the fact that we need something (or, more interestingly, that we create a need) does not have to culminate in a secure purchase. The price of the product or the availability or ease of acquisition has to be seen as acceptable by the consumer, on a subjective scale of importance that he attributes to that need (is it a matter of life and death? Is it simply a whim?)

For example, if we want a bricklayer to change the floor of our house for a more beautiful one (ideal situation or state) but the budget he gives us is very high (inaccessibility of the service or product), we will see the situation as unacceptable and we will opt for staying as we were. In this case, a need does not end in a purchase.

The fact that we realize that we need something in particular can be caused by various reasons. A well-known classification is Maslow's pyramid of needs, at the base of which are the basic physiological needs to climb to the top, where the self-realization of the human being is located.

Information search

Once we have identified the need, it is time to find a solution to this state of "discomfort" that this lack generates. The information that will be sought will be proportional to the importance of which we give to the need we have (for example, buying a new computer requires a much more select and complex decision-making process than ordering pizza at home).

It is also possible that we skip this second step in the process: for example, if the identified need is thirst, we will rarely start to ponder which brand of water is the most appropriate to fill our lack.

The opinion we form about the product we need involves both internal factors (the consumer's memory and the relationship he had with previously purchased products) and external factors (information that he finds on the Web, in magazines, from word of mouth).

Evaluation of alternatives

When we have gathered the information in our heads, we evaluate the different purchase options that are presented to us and choose which is the one that best suits our needs (also our pocket, of course).

Each person has their own criteria and each one of us gives more weight to some characteristics than to others. For example, there are people who prefer the prestige of a certain brand rather than a beautiful product design, or there are those who prefer a perfect finish rather than the "extras" that the product may present, as in the case of a car..

The final decision

We can say that this phase is the moment of truth, in the sense that our thoughts and our behavior are directed to the objective of finally buying the product. Of course, this decision will be made based on the phases described above and may be affected by factors such as in-store experience or a good return policy.

Lately, the aesthetics of the establishments are being taken much more care and details that can go unnoticed (the air freshener, the temperature or the lighting) are increasingly taken into account. This is something that we can see in our daily lives, and it is that we will all have noticed the smell so characteristic of stores like Stradivarius.

Also, the treatment that sellers provide to the public, the colors of the walls of the store in question or the speed of the queues at the checkout line are very important issues when the establishment leaves us a good memory in our memory, I remember that will certainly be recalled on future occasions.

Nor can we forget that negative stimuli condition us much more than positive ones, and that a bad experience in an establishment is enough for us to decide never to step on it again.

Post-purchase behavior

Although the previous phase was the last step in the process, this is the decisive one, and it is here where we can feel satisfied with the product that we have just acquired or disappointed, which will make us repeat or not.

The evaluation or assessment that we make after the purchase has very important consequences for companies because it creates loyalty on the part of the customer, something desired by any company.

Of course, with the Internet in our hands, we cannot underestimate the power of an angry, sad or disappointed customer with a certain brand and with the power of this to damage it.

An example of this can be found on TripAdvisor, where we can give a negative score to the restaurant we just went to, causing other potential customers to wonder whether or not to set foot in that establishment.

In summary, and as we have already mentioned previously, being aware of this process can make us consumers much more responsible, as well as avoid impulsive behaviors towards purchases or get carried away by a company's slogan without stopping to analyze beforehand if we really need that product or is it mere whim.

In this way, we will get more out of our purchases and avoid the feeling of guilt that sometimes invades us when we perceive that we buy or that we spend a lot of money on a certain product unnecessarily.