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Consumer psychology is a discipline that studies the psychological phenomena and behavior laws of consumers in consumption activities. Its research content mainly includes two aspects: (1) the internal factors of consumer behavior, including demand and motivation; The process of consumers' psychological activities; Personality and psychological characteristics of consumers; Physiological factors of consumers. (2) External factors affecting consumer behavior include social factors, including culture, nationality, race, class, stratum, group, family, system, religion, education, occupation, etc. Market factors, including store layout, advertising, sales service, business personnel, operation mode, corporate image, etc. Commodity factors, including commodity design, packaging and decoration, trademark naming, raw material technology, commodity price, etc. Natural factors, including geographical environment, climate change, etc. The research of consumer psychology is based on psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology, behavioral science and economics, and makes use of empirical research results. Therefore, it can be said that it is an interdisciplinary research.

I. A brief history of development

Whether in the west or in China, the study of consumer psychology has a long history. However, it is less than 100 years since the world really applied scientific principles and methods to study and finally establish the subject of consumer psychology from both theoretical and practical aspects. Its historical development process can be roughly divided into the following four stages:

1, the early 20th century 1950 is the primary stage. At present, the theoretical basis of consumer behavior research in western countries mainly comes from industrial economics and academic economics, focusing on the whole macro market, with a deep "positivism" color. In the academic field, a number of pioneers have also emerged. Historically, the beginning of consumer psychology was W.D. Scott's report 1902, in which he expounded that the principles of psychology can be applied to advertising and sales, and consumer survey is the center. In 1930s, consumer research societies appeared in capitalist countries, which provided consumers with relevant commodity information while studying their needs. At this time, advertising psychology has become basically mature.

2. The 1950s was the exploration stage. At this stage, the study of consumer behavior in western countries began to shift from macro-economic orientation to micro-orientation of individual consumers' motives, attitudes and buying habits by using behavioral science methods. The basic concepts and theories of consumer behavior research tend to take shape.

3. The 1960s was the growth stage. At this stage, the world has entered the electronic age. The focus of consumer behavior research is mainly the analysis of consumer behavior in the process of new product diffusion. From 65438 to 0960, the American Psychological Association established the Consumer Psychology Branch with about 400 members. It announced the birth of consumer psychology as a truly independent discipline. At this stage, two magazines, Advertising Research and Market Research, came out one after another, which made the research results of consumer psychology more widely spread. There are several representative scholars in this period: one is G katona from the Research Center of the University of Michigan and his collaborators, who emphasized the importance of expectations and attitudes affecting consumer behavior; Secondly, the research results of P.F. ladas Feld and his colleagues from the Institute of Practical Society of Columbia University, and the research on "personality influence" by Z Katz and ladas Feld; The other is R.A. Bauer of Harvard University's research on consumers' reaction under uncertain conditions, especially the perception of risk.

In 1970s, consumer behavior research began to enter a mature stage. At this stage, researchers pay more and more attention to the relationship between "cost" and "profit", and strive to improve the quality of consumer behavior research in order to make greater contributions to market practice and theory. The theoretical foundation of consumer behavior research is constantly consolidated, the information is richer than before, and the conclusion is more and more clear. In recent years, China began to pay attention to the study of consumer behavior. Although it started late, it started well and was in the ascendant.

Second, consumer behavior patterns.

Consumer behavior pattern is the procedural structure of indoor activity time allocation; It is the spatial distribution of the starting point and scope of people's activities. It is a series describing the unique, stable and regular buying behavior of this kind of people.

Representatives of different schools have established their own consumer behavior models, such as allport's social psychological model, Freud's psychological model, Lei Wen's field theory model, kotler's behavior choice model, as well as Kaosha model, Anderson model, Engel model and Howard Heath model. China has Professor Hu Zhongjing's consumer input-output model. The following are several major classic consumer behavior patterns.

1, kotler's behavior choice mode. The model shows that consumers' behavioral response to buying goods is influenced by economic factors such as price, quality, use, style, variety, service and impression, and these factors will inevitably enter consumers' minds through various channels such as advertising media, salesmen, relatives and friends, family members and personal observation, which will lead to the process of psychological activities and eventually lead to the choice of goods, trademarks, sellers, quantity and purchase times.

2. Engel model. It appears in textbooks about consumer behavior in many foreign universities. The model includes: first, the central control system, which describes the psychology of consumers. Consumers evaluate external information according to their personal experience, attitude and personality, and then start the decision-making process. The second is information processing, which gains experience and knowledge through contact, attention, synthesis and memory, and uses the brain to process external stimuli and turn them into behaviors. Third, in the decision-making process, what kind of actions are taken to stimulate factors. Fourth, the environment, that is, various factors that affect the decision-making process. Engel model emphasizes the decision-making process more than other models, but ignores the important internal factors of consumers such as motivation and demand.

3. Consumer's psychological input-output model. This model regards consumers' evaluation of commodity use from the generation of purchase intention to the purchase as a system. If you invest in the system, you can get the output. The model is divided into three parts: first, input, including purchasing power, personal internal factors, interpersonal influence, promotion activities, environmental factors and so on. Second, the purchase process includes several stages: budding demand, seeking information and goods, deciding to buy, using goods, and purchasing evaluation. Third, the output is the buyer's thinking, planning and actual purchase behavior. The ultimate goal of the whole system is the buyer's satisfaction, and the degree of satisfaction is related to the buyer's expectation.

4. Consumer behavior patterns. It includes three parts: objective environment, behavior basis and purchase procedure. For details, please see the diagram of "Consumer Behavior Patterns" on the next page.

Consumer behavior has some common characteristics, including: (1) autonomy, that is, consumers' personal consumption process is generally autonomous, and there is no need to resort to external forces, authority, orders, etc. To force it; (2) Causality, that is, consumers' behavior has its own promoting factors; (3) purpose; (4) Persistence means that consumers will continue to act before reaching a certain goal, and consumers will change their behavior in the process of pursuing the goal.

Need is the root cause of consumer behavior, and both need and stimulation are the conditions for generating motivation, and need is the most basic. Need is the desire of organisms for objective things under certain living conditions. Desire dominates the behavior of most consumers. Needs can be divided into physiological needs and psychological needs. Psychological needs are more complicated than physical needs. First of all, the psychological needs of consumers are endless and infinite. After a demand is met, a new demand will arise. Secondly, the psychological needs of consumers are diverse, and different consumers will have different or diametrically opposite associations and feelings about the same style of goods, even the same color of goods. This is because every consumer's living habits, appreciation ability, income level, values and national customs are different, so the same thing will have different effects on different consumers' psychology. Third, the psychological needs of consumers will be influenced by the ethos of the times and the environment, which is the times.