Customer behavior is how people see your product and make a buying decision for it. It covers all the aspects of consumer journey from choosing your product to buying it and then giving  feedbacks on the product.

In simple terms it refers to the cultural , psychological, social and personal decision that a buyer makes when they buy any product.

No two consumers have the same need or mindset while purchasing a product. So customer behavior varies from person to person. It is more of like understanding what, how and when the customer wants a product that can  fulfil their needs.

What could be tempting for one could not necessarily be the same for others.

As a brand you cannot just hold on to limited customers and leave the others. To reach out to each and every possible customer it is necessary to understand their consumer behavior and plan your marketing strategy accordingly.

For example – In a class, all students sit with a different mindset, approach and capacity, and most importantly all if they have a different behavioral pattern. Some of them might find your class interesting but to others, it might sound boring. Some of them will have the capacity to grab things at once but there will be some who would want more explanation. As a teacher, you cannot leave any of the students unattended. It is the responsibility of the teacher to find out ways in which they can connect to each and every student.

Now if we connect this with consumer behavior, we could find the same scenario in the market as well.

The customers for your product in the market have different behavioral patterns, they think, feel and choose your product on the basis of different parameters.

As a marketer, it is becomes necessary to study your customer behavior pattern and plan your marketing strategies in a way that it meets the need of each and every consumer.

The best example here is of Coca – Cola.

Their Diet Coke became one of the bests selling soft drinks in America as it is sugar free.

Why did they launched it there?

Because they studies the behavioral pattern of people. In America, people are more prone to health issues related to sugar.

Coca- Cola used this and created a product that solves their consumers problem.

Now the question is, will majority of people in India would prefer the same Diet Coke or they would consider the Regular Coke?

We all k know that the answer would be Regular Coke.

This is the reason why Coca-cola promotes regular coke in India .

You see all this depends upon customer behavior and their preferences.

In all these years the behavior of consumers has grown more complicated and to get hold on them it is necessary to understand their buying journey. All this include getting answers to the questions like,

What kind of buyers they are? What are their needs? Which age category they fall into? How often they buy? Where they shop? What influences them to shop?

 To get the answers of all this, first, you need to understand the type of buying behavior.

Types of Buying Behavior –

Most of the buyer purchases fall into one of the four categories, but their reaction can be different .

The four main types of buyer behavior include – complex behavior, dissonance reducing behavior, habitual behavior and variety seeking behavior .

To understand your buyers deeply, lets look at these types in detail.

• Complex buying behavior

This type of buying behavior involves the buying pattern of customers when they make a big purchase such as a car or a house. Behavioral pattern here implies a lot of research work before actually purchasing a product as the purchase impacts a person’s life significantly.

Marketing for such buyers should involve strategies that could assure them that they are making the right choice but with that your product should have the capability of standing out from the rest.

• Dissonance reducing buying behavior

The people who are afraid of purchasing a wrong product depict dissonance reducing buying behavior. This behavior is a result of bad buyer experience in the past. As the result the buyer compares similar products irrespective of the brand.

• Habitual buying behavior

In this type of buying behavior consumers show high product locality. Instead of researching for alternatives, they purchase the same product over and over. This happens because they do not feel the need to stray their go-to brand. Marketing and retaining such type of consumers becomes easy and effortless.

• Variety Seeking buying behavior

This type is just opposite of habitual behavior. Instead of sticking to one brand, here the buyer seek variety because they still don’t find their favorite product or they are continuously in search of newness. Understanding these buyers and marketing products for them requires a good amount of hard work.

Now you know that understanding consumer behavior is important as each costumer falls into different category.

A question might cross your mind that how to measure buying behavior?

This can be done by analyzing your customer behavior by undergoing consumer research that gathers both quantitative and qualitative data point.

Such research helps you identify buyer personas and the buying behavior each persona reflects at different stage in their buying journey.

           Interviews, case studies, surveys are the easiest way to get data from your customers or target market to understand the pattern of buyer behavior.