Consumer Behaviour Essay

Consumer Behaviour Essay

Today the world population is around seven billions people. A large part of the world population is consuming goods and services which mean they are consumers and part of the global consumer society. We are also talking about a “Throw-away society”, for example around 80 percent of US products are used once and then thrown away. That why it’s interested to know: what does it mean to be a consumer and what are the issues and challenges?

First we are going to define the consumer and what does it means to consume, then we will explain what the consumer society is and finally what are the issues and challenges for the consumer.

First of all it’s important to define the consumer. The consumer is the final buyer of a product and not necessarily the same person as the customer. In practice we use the word consumer to define people who buy for their own. The consumer is someone that’s purchasing and using goods and services. The question is why do we buy a product or service? According to Abraham Maslow the consumers are motivated by satisfy their needs. “Needs” is the keyword, Maslow said “when the need is satisfied we move on to the next”. The needs are what cause individual actions, the feeling that something is missing. Unsatisfied needs are at the origin of behavior through desires for goods. The consumer wants more all the time because of his needs. This theory explains why in our consuming society there is ever growing demand for goods and services. The graphic below show us the “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”.

The pyramid of Maslow is a hierarchical classification of human needs.

The firsts steps are Physiological and Safety needs call primary needs. The secondary needs are Belonging, Esteem and Self-actualization needs.

First Maslow spokes about physiological needs, these incudes what we need to survive like eating, drinking and sleeping, so the consumer needs water, food and clothing. When those needs are satisfied everyone wants to feel safe which mean stability, protection and dependence. The examples of goods are insurances, medication and housing. So after the primary needs we’ve got the secondary needs like the belonging and love needs. The consumer needs to get an identity, recognition. So he is going to consume goods a bit more cultural like music, sport and clothes. When you buy some fashion clothes it’s because you feel the need to be recognized as belonging to a group, according to your culture, your age, education or the kind of music you listen. The next step is Esteem needs; its means the consumer needs some prestige, self-confidence, independence. We can translate it by the consumption of cars, electronics goods and restaurants. The last human needs according to Maslow are the self-actualization. These are