1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In order to stay profitable and competitive in today’s market, satisfying customer is vital. So as to meet this goal, understanding the customers’ behaviours should be given a top priority.
These days, organizations are expected to perform more than producing products and delivering services. Before producing products or delivering services, there is a need to do customer research. The customer research enables to answer questions like what the market buys, why the market buys, who participate in the buying, how the market buys, when the market buys, where the market buys and the like. But learning about the whys of consumer buying behaviour is not so easy the answers are often locked deep within the consumer’s head.
Marketing is the art of creating, attracting, and keeping customers, in order to convert occasional purchasers in to brand loyalists; habits must be reinforced by appealing to the factors that shape consumer behaviours which include the cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics; because they hold the key to success or failure of any product.
Among the aforementioned factors which influence consumer purchases, this research focuses on the psychological factors particularly attitude and perception. Consumer’s attitudes towards a product according to Kotler and Armsrong (2006) is being shaped and influenced by psychological factors such as motivation, perception, learning, personality, attitude and belief.
Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets stimuli in to a meaningful and coherent picture of the world. Two individuals may be exposed to the same stimuli under the same apparent conditions, but how each person recognizes, selects, organizes and interprets these stimuli is a highly individual process based on each person’s own needs, values, and expectations.