Find out the types of consumers in the consumer market and the business market

The different types of buyers and consumers are combined within several major categories, the consumer and the business market. Amid these two major categories, the consumer/buyer market is comprised of individuals and households that purchase “goods and services for personal consumption,” whereas the business market encompasses organizational entities that purchase goods and services for the “use in the production of other products and services or for the purpose of reselling or renting them to others at a profit.”

Business markets possess a smaller amount of large buyers, unlike the consumer market, and whose consuming traits are “more geographically concentrated.” Dependent on the type of buyer and consumer, characteristics through decision processes may differ. For instance, the consumer market’s behavior is “influenced by four key sets of buyer characteristics: cultural, social, personal and psychological.” Culture, is defined by social class and group wants and behaviors; social, incorporates the factors of influences by family and small groups that determine ideal brands and products; personal adopts the different age groups and lifestyles, and psychological, utilizes motivators and perception of “beliefs and attitudes.”

Additionally, the business market’s behavior is influenced by a buying center that displays “three types of buying situations: straight rebuys, modified rebuys, and new tasks.”

Types of Consumers

Seasonal consumers

These are types of consumers who purchase and consume products on seasonal basis. You would most of the times not find these types of consumers buying the goods or service in question but rather at certain times when the need for them arises. They buy products that are season based or demanded at certain times and not all the times.

Examples

·         Purchasing umbrellas during the rainy season

·         Purchasing cold drinks during the hot seasons

·         Going out for holyday during the Christmas season

Personal consumers

These types of consumers are individual consumers who purchase goods for the sole purpose of personal, family or household use. The products are primarily used for personal, family or household use to satisfy a certain need or want that the consumer may be having at a particular point in time.

Examples

·         Going to the supermarket and shopping for goods which are to be used in the house

·         Purchasing a car that you intend to use personally

·         Purchasing clothes for personal use from a clothing mall

·         Purchasing a mobile phone to communicate with people

Organizational consumer

Organizational consumers are consumers of goods and services whose main intention is not for immediate use but rather to use it for things like production, using them to carry out the organization’s activities or for resale purposes aimed at getting profits as a result. Unlike the individual consumer organizational/industrial consumer does not purchase products for immediate personal use but rather for other uses. Industrial consumers are companies or organizations who themselves engage in the business of buying, selling and aiming at maximizing profits. They purchase goods and services from suppliers in order to use the same materials to manufacture other products which are then offered for sale to the target consumers. E.g. an organization may buy raw materials that are aimed at producing other goods which will later be offered for sale to other consumers.

Organizational consumer consists of the government agencies, business organization, non governmental organization (NGO), firms and different types of manufacturing companies who purchases the goods and services in order to run the business of the firm or business concern or business organization.

Impulse consumers

Impulse consumers or buyers are those who make unplanned buying decisions. Impulse buyers make swift buying decisions in that they encounter products which they immediately purchase after they fall in love with the product and its features. The products they purchase were not initially in their plans but as a sort of something that comes up all over sudden from somewhere and that calls for the consumer to make an unplanned purchase.

Need based consumers

Need based consumers are those types of consumers who buy goods and services when they need them and not any other time. A need for a certain product will necessitate buying it as the consumer would find it tempting to buy the product because it is needed immediately for a certain purpose.

Discount driven consumers

Discount driven consumers are types of consumers who are purchase goods and services primarily for the discounts on offer. They may not engage in any buying activity for most of the times only to act when they hear or see large discounts being offered on products they like. They are price sensitive and they would rather wait and purchase products when they come with discounts as opposed to when they have no discount.

Habitual consumer

Habitual consumers are those who find it a must or compelling to use certain type of goods whenever they are presented with the opportunity. It is just like a habit that they can’t do without engaging in it. E.g. the cigarette smoker falls under this category of consumers. The person would smoke at any given time when he/she has a cigarette. He may also not be able to do without smoking because it is a habit that he has become addicted to.