Marketing Management

4 types of consumer buying behavior

Wants are unlimited and the resources to satisfy these wants are limited. So the consumers think rationally before buying any product. Buying a toothpaste is totally different from buying a luxury car. The more expensive the good is the more information is required by the consumer. There are four types of consumer buying behavior on the basis of buyer involvement while purchasing any product.

  High involvement Low involvement
Significant differences between brands Complex buying behavior (motor cycle ) Variety seeking behavior (washing detergent)
Few differences between brands Dissonance buying behavior (floor tiles) Habitual buying behavior (toothpaste)

 High involvement:- the term means when the consumer is highly involved while buying a product. Generally this situation happens in case of expensive or luxuries goods. Like while buying a diamond necklace a consumer is highly involved.

Low involvement:- this term means when the consumer is not highly involved while buying a product. It happens in case of low price goods. Like while buying toothpaste a consumer is not highly involved.

Significant differences between brands:- it means when there are significant differences between brands.

 Few differences between brands:- it means when there are very little differences between brands.

 1)      Complex buying behavior:- when the consumer is highly involved in the buying and there is significant differences between brands then it is called complex buying behavior. So in this case the consumer must collect proper information about the product features and the marketer must provide detailed information regarding the product attributes. For eg. Consumer while buying a motor cycle is highly involved in the purchase and has the knowledge about significant differences between brands.

2)      Variety seeking behavior:- in this case consumer involvement is low while buying the product but there are significant differences between brands. Consumers generally buy different products not due to dissatisfaction from the earlier product but due to seek variety. Like every time they buy different washing detergent just for variety. So it is the duty of the marketer to encourage the consumer to buy the product by offering them discounts, free samples and by advertising the product a lot.

 3)      Dissonance buying behavior:- here consumer is highly involved in the purchase but there are few differences between brands. Like consumer while buying a floor tiles buy them quickly as there are few differences between brands.

 4)      Habitual buying behavior:- in this case there is low involvement of the consumer and there are few differences between brands. The consumer buys the product quickly. For eg. Toothpaste.

            These are the types of consumer buying behavior.

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