Social factors in Consumer decision making process - Essay Example

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOR Social factors in Consumer decision making process [Supervisor’s Social factors in Consumer decision making process The social factors that influence the consumer’s decision making process are family, culture and reference groups. The social factor in which the decisions of purchasing a product or a service depends on the participation of all family members is said to be family social factor. This is because a certain product or a service would be consumed by entire family members and whenever a particular service or a product is bought by a family they would consider the needs of all family members (Grewal & Levy, 2011).

The mutual spending of the family members exceeds the expenses of an individual family member and this affects the decision making process of the whole family. For example, if a family considers purchasing a house, then all the family members would participate in the decision making because they would all be living in the same house. It is possible that each family member might propose a different opinion but the final purchase decision rests with the head of the family (Grewal & Levy, 2011).

Reference group is the other social factor in which an individual makes a decision of purchase on the basis of the other person’s feelings, beliefs and behaviors. A reference group of a consumer might include friends, family or the person to which an individual is inspired with. These reference groups have an impact on the decision making process of a consumer in three ways (Grewal & Levy, 2011). Either the reference group would offer information to an individual or they might reward a consumer for purchasing a specific product or a service.

These reference groups enhance the self-image of a consumer because they affiliate themselves with the reference group in purchasing decision. It is the group to which a consumer relates itself and aspires to and they make a comparison while evaluating one’s performance. For example, in a purchase decision of a house a consumer might get influenced by his best friend who thinks particular house has a great view. The best friend would be considered as a reference group because of which a consumer got influenced in buying a house (Grewal & Levy, 2011).

A group of people that shares a common belief, customs and values are considered to have a same culture and this also influences a consumer in the purchase decision. These cultures can be the reference groups and can guide the decision of purchasing a product or a service. For example, if a consumer has been raised from his childhood for caring about the environment and is strictly against the people who pollute the environment then he might purchase a house that would be environmental friendly.

He would even use the appliances that would not affect the environment (Grewal & Levy, 2011). These social factors have a major impact in the decision making of buying a house because a consumer is inspired with them. A consumer has to involve his family in purchasing a house because a house is consumed by entire family member. A consumer might get influenced by the person with whom he is inspired and the environmental friendly culture of a person might force him to buy an environmental friendly home.

Reference Grewal, D., & Levy, M. (2011). Marketing second edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.