Consumer behaviour and a European perspective

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,3 (A), University of Tampere (School of Business Administration), course: Buying Behaviour, language: English, abstract: One "official" definition of consumer behavior is "The study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of pro-ducts, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these pro-cesses have on the consumer and society." Although it is not necessary to memorize this definition, it brings up some useful points: Behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e.g., friends in-fluence what kinds of clothes a person wears) or an organization (people on the job make decisions as to which products the firm should use). Consumer behavior within European Community involves the use and disposal of pro-ducts as well as the study of how they are purchased. Product use is often of great interest to the marketer, because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can encourage increased consumption. Since many environmental prob-lems result from product disposal (e.g., motor oil being sent into sewage systems to save the recycling fee, or garbage piling up at landfills) this is also an area of interest. Nowadays, consumer behavior in EU involves services and ideas as well as tangible products. The impact of consumer behavior on society is also of relevance. For example, ag-gressive marketing of high fat foods, or aggressive marketing of easy credit, may have serious repercussions for the national health and economy. With the unifying of EU the impact is even bigger.