소비자 행동에 영향을 비치는 사회적 요인의 분석

Abstract

The importance of studying consumer behavior is widely recognized in the study of modern marketing. Although consumer behavior is influenced by numerous factors, an attempt has been made in this thesis to study sociological analysis of consumers. To show the basic framework of consumer behavior a couple of well known conceptual models are presented and their approaches for the analysis of consumer behavior are briefly discussed. Along with these models, psychological factors, which will strongly and directly influence consumer behavior, are briefly discussed. Such a discussion will serve to provide the basic of analyzing social factors of consumer behavior. Since the significance of market segmentation by social stratification is well recognized by marketing men, in this thesis special emphasis is placed on the discussion of it. Concerning the study of buying behavior of each social class and analysis is made primarily with the reference of Engel and dthers' work(Consumer Behavior, 1968). Especially, in this analysis, value orientation, attitude, norm, etc., and behavioral characteristics of each class of buyers are presented. An examination is atteempted upon the significance of the impacts and implications of referene-group(individual) to a consumer at the time of buying a product. By comparing the relative impacts with the attributes of each product(group) a number of meaningful findings sre drawn. Some discussions on Korean consumerbbehavior are made, based upon a field survey of the behavior and attitudes held by middle class housewives in Korea. Despite aome limitations of the survey itself, some meanigful findings are drawn from the result of the analysis, some of these are : 1) Basic needs for daily necessities are reasonably fulfilled for Korean middle class consumers, hence, they seem to have more interests in home furnishings, such as pianos, refrigerators, gas-ranges, and so forth. 2) It is found that substantial amount of expenditures for education are made by those who are sending their children to the sohool. 3) Majority of the respondents have saved some of their income regularly in the from of bank deposit and/or""Ke"". The survey made it possible to compare the differences of middle class consumers between the United States of America and Korea. The findings of the survey present that in many aspects consumers in both countries behave similarly, but in some cases behave differently, according to their respective class in the society. It is certain that the survey provides a useful insight for the students of marketing to understand the needs and desires of Korean middle class consumers.