Chapter 2
Consumer Behaviour
2.1 Introduction

“The consumer, so it is said, is the king… each is a voter who uses his money as votes to get the things done that he wants done” [Samuelson in
Oxford Dictionary of 20th Century Quotations, 2000:274].

There is no question about it – consumers are paramount to the economy. All marketing decisions are based on assumptions about consumer behaviour [Hawkins et al., 2001:8,
Mulkern, 2001:126; and Labbe, 2000:38]. In order to create value for consumers and profits for organisations, marketers need to understand why consumers behave in certain ways to a variety of product and services offered.

In order to determine the factors that influence the preferences of the Millennial
Generation, an understanding of how consumers generally think and behave in buying situations is vital. This chapter starts off with a model of consumer behaviour, which will serve as the foundation of this chapter’s structure. The first part of the model takes an in-depth look at internal, external and other influences that are relevant for the purpose of this study, whilst the second part examines the consumer decision-making process in detail. 2.2 Model of consumer behaviour

Understanding consumer behaviour and “knowing customers,” have and never will be simple. Consumers may say one thing but do another. They may not be in touch with their deeper motivations. They may respond to influences that change their mind at the last minute. These issues have lead to theories like that of the black box approach taken on by Futrell [2000:67]. It refers to how marketers are not able to tap into consumer minds, thus “keeping them in the dark.” In other words, marketers can apply various stimuli and observe the conduct of consumers, but they cannot observe the consumers’

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actual thought processes. This hidden information is