Motivation and Purchase Behaviour

Abstract

For any marketer it is very clear that knowing the motivation of a consumer means knowing why he engages in a certain activity, why he prefers a certain offer to others, why one method of promotion is more effective than another. In order to respond to this, it is absolutely necessary to study closely its motivations for purchase and consumption. Experts in motivational studies believe that the motif has an atomic structure, consisting of a nucleus (embodied in a need to cover) and an "electronic" cloud that revolves around the need (consisting of emotions related to meeting the need and representing the image of pleasure that makes the individual act). This means that the behavioural manifestations of an individual engaged in the process of searching, buying and consuming goods are determined by the existence of a state of tension caused by the pressure of a need, which determines him to act to remove it. The motivation can be: intrinsic or extrinsic; positive or negative, cognitive or affective, etc. In order to know it, the marketer must capitalize on the results of motivational research (which designates all activities of collecting, coordinating, evaluating and capitalizing on information on the subjective aspects of consumer behaviour in the market, their decision to buy or a particular product, made in the basis of the methods and tools currently used in marketing research - factual observation, experiment, simulation, tests, investigation etc.).

Headnote

Abstract: For any marketer it is very clear that knowing the motivation of a consumer means knowing why he engages in a certain activity, why he prefers a certain offer to others, why one method of promotion is more effective than another. In order to respond to this, it is absolutely necessary to study closely its motivations for purchase and consumption. Experts in motivational studies believe that the motif has an atomic structure, consisting of a nucleus (embodied in a need to cover) and an "electronic" cloud that revolves around the need (consisting of emotions related to meeting the need and representing the image of pleasure that makes the individual act). This means that the behavioural manifestations of an individual engaged in the process of searching, buying and consuming goods are determined by the existence of a state of tension caused by the pressure of a need, which determines him to act to remove it. The motivation can be: intrinsic or extrinsic; positive or negative, cognitive or affective, etc. In order to know it, the marketer must capitalize on the results of motivational research (which designates all activities of collecting, coordinating, evaluating and capitalizing on information on the subjective aspects of consumer behaviour in the market, their decision to buy or a particular product, made in the basis of the methods and tools currently used in marketing research - factual observation, experiment, simulation, tests, investigation etc.).

Keywords: motive, motivation, emotion, conflicts, desires

Introduction

To define motivation, it is necessary to start from the notion of reason. In the current language, the reason is understood: " 1. reason justifying an action; 2. the impulse that pushes someone to commit an action or that determines an action"; 3. "the subjective basis of an action" [1]; 4. "phenomenon which causes or causes the effect" [2].

Starting from here, the motivation is defined as: 1) set of reasons that explain an act, a conduct"; 2) "all the motives, considerations or motives (conscious or not) that determine someone to perform a certain action or to aim at certain goals [3]. It is the fundamental source of human existence, an essential and subtle mechanism of human psychology, able to influence its behaviour, which is why it must be aware and stimulated. As an inexhaustible source of energy, it is the one that makes the difference between an inertial existence of the individual and another, in which this energy is capitalized to the maximum [4].

For a long time, thinkers have been concerned with the mechanism that determines human behaviour in terms of motivation. Plato, for example, approached the "soul" as the essence of the human being, on three levels: epithumia (desire for food and reproduction), noos (spirit, intellect, reason) and thumos (emotion), which mediate between them. Of these, thumos (emotion) is the one associated with mood, temperament, personality and motivation. In fact, even etymologically, the notions of emotion and motivation have the same origin, coming from the Latin emovere / exmovere - e / ex (outside) and movere (movement). [5]

Taken separately, the notion of emotion is defined as an affective reaction mirroring the individual's attitude towards reality [3], it influencing the attention, ability and speed of reaction of the individual, respectively his behaviour. [6] It is the moving energy [7] and the driving force of motivations, manifesting itself through states of: sadness, contempt, joy, anger, disgust, fear, insecurity, surprise, shame, pain etc. [8] - such states can be distinguished (in most cases) even from the mimicry of individuals.

As research on the system of human needs has evolved, concerns have evolved in the direction of knowing the mechanism of generation and action of motivations. Such theories on human motivation developed by specialists in the field have various implications for the study of consumption and the development of marketing strategies. [8]

The motif has an atomic structure. Its core is the need, so what must be satisfied. For people, this is related not only to the need for food, security, but also to comfort, belonging to a social group, etc. The electronic cloud around need is made up of those pleasant emotions that accompany the satisfaction of need. These emotions present the image of pleasure that makes the individual act.

It follows that the reason for buying a good (impulse) is something other than a need that causes the consumer to react in such a way that it is removed (or mitigated), its main components being the needs, goals and ways of achieving goals.

In general, the motive has a dual function:

* orienting and directing consumers towards the products offered to them on the market;

* to potentate a certain type of behaviour.

Motivation is a cyclical process (which resumes at a certain time), determined by the cyclicity in which the need for consumption is manifested: ceasing to cover the need and reappearing with its manifestation.

1.Types of Motivations

Motivational behavioural studies operate on several types of grounds, based on criteria [9], such as:

* the origin of the reason, depending on which they are divided into: primary (biological, innate) and secondary or derived (psychological, acquired);

* the degree of interpretation and organization, on account of which the non-integrated (unorganized) reasons are delimited by the integrated (structured) ones;

* the sign or value of the reason, distinguishing between positive and negative reasons;

* the importance of the reasons, according to which the reasons are divided into inferior (with low and transient value) and superior (with major significance);

* the degree of consolidation or force of action ^depending on which the vital reasons (which can cause serious imbalances) can be delimited from the modular ones (such as interests, aspirations, ideals, whose dissatisfaction does not affect the consumer too badly);

* the source of the reasons 3 according to which the reasons can be rational and emotional, etc.

The following classes of reasons are also taken into account in the study of purchasing and consumption behaviour [10]:

* the reason for purchasing certain goods, i.e. the desire to take possession of the goods that the consumer needs;

* the reason for the prestige, respectively the desire to be considered, by the other consumers, as an important person (educated, wealthy, refined, etc.);

* the reason for the affiliation, i.e. the desire to be associated, through the goods they purchase, with other persons;

* the reason for power, found in people who feel the need to dominate (or at least influence) others;

* the reason for altruism, specific to people eager to help others);

* the reason for curiosities, respectively the desire to know and accumulate new experiences, etc.

If the genesis criterion were taken into account, we could talk about:

* biogenetic reasons, based on the primary, innate needs of man (hunger, thirst, health, comfort), with general manifestation (always and to anyone);

* psychogenic reasons, related to the secondary needs of the buyers (appreciation, esteem, belonging to a group, self-realization etc.), which no longer have a general manifestation (being met only from a certain age and only to certain people). Although they sometimes derive from the primary ones, once they appear, they manifest independently.

If the motivation related to the primary needs determines the consumer to act as urgently as possible, the one based on the secondary needs allows him to resort to postponements.

Not without interest for marketers is the division of reasons into [11]:

* utilitarian, i.e. functional, these determining the buyer to procure goods (food, clothing, medicines) that provide material benefits, being related not only to the functional characteristics of the products (safety, resistance, taste, calorific value etc.), but also the economic characteristics (purchase prices, operating and maintenance costs etc.);

* hedonic, which directs him to material goods or services that give him pleasure (prestige, admiration from others, etc.), these being related to: the feeling of good mood that some products can offer (such as be: leisure trips, entertainment shows or massage services - not to mention alcoholic beverages or drugs'); the feeling of aesthetic satisfaction, offered by products such as paintings or jewellery; the feeling of comfort (which are able to provide, for example, fireplaces, air conditioners or furniture); the feeling of economic or social valorisation that products such as housing (especially holiday ones), yachts or opera performances can provide;

* ethical, which determines the consumer to choose his goods from the market in accordance with his moral obligations (as the country teacher does, who avoids consuming alcoholic beverages in front of children). Depending on the component of the marketing mix to which it relates, we find:

* motivation through the product, when the consumer bases his purchase decision on the characteristics of the product;

* motivation by price, when the consumer is stimulated in the act of purchase by very convenient prices or by price reductions; * motivation through distribution, when the client is attracted to the company's offer through the most convenient ways to bring the goods to his disposal;

* motivation through promotion, when the emphasis is on the correct and complete information of the buyer, on demonstrations etc.

Given where it comes from, motivation is of two kinds: intrinsic and extrinsic [12]:

a) Intrinsic motivation (also called direct) is centred on the individual, coming from the internal sources of the consumer (from fear of hunger, cold, dangers, etc., from the desire for social integration, from the desire to excel, from the pleasure of being well informed, loved, appreciated etc.; from the desire to achieve something independently and meritoriously, etc.). It expresses the relationship between the customer's expectations, perceptions and feelings, on the one hand, and his behaviour in the buying and consuming process, on the other hand, manifesting itself when his mind and emotions are in balance. Although very difficult to obtain, it is considered to be the most effective form of motivation.

b) Extrinsic (indirect) motivation has its origin in external sources of the consumer (coming from other people, from the competition of favourable or unfavourable circumstances, from the tendency to imitate other behaviours, etc.), expressing the relationship between the individual and the environment runs the purchase process. It is the energy that the consumer receives from outside. Unlike intrinsic motivation, it lasts less (external motives are much easier to lose than those that come from within the consumer).

Depending on the means by which it is achieved, the motivation can be positive or negative.

a) Positive motivation begins where the consumer's desire for pleasure is born [13], being achieved through a series of material or spiritual rewards that the bidder makes available to the customer to determine him to buy the goods. Although it would seem that the material rewards (price reductions, promotional gifts, free transport and installation, etc.), which are related to what some specialists consider to be an economic motivation, would be those that would be in the first place under the aspect of impact on clients, behavioural studies recommend the others (performed through thanks, praise, encouragement, etc.), which would be related to a moralspiritual motivation [14] - especially if we take into account the fact that it does not requires expenses. By offering immediate satisfaction to buyers, positive motivation also contributes to strengthening confidence in the offers thus promoted (consolidating the well-known "reflex" purchases).

b) Negative motivation is based on aggressive stimuli (threats, punishments, denigration, blame or contempt), in order to determine the consumer to avoid or refuse the offer of competitors - which is why it is considered a negative and even primitive. This does not mean that, for the promoter, it would not produce positive effects. [8]

Depending on the human personality component considered, two other forms of motivation can be identified: one cognitive and one affective [15]:

a) Cognitive motivation targets the intellectual side of the consumer, focusing on a whole range of formal and informal, economic and moral-spiritual motivations, on the use of his intellectual capacity, respectively on discovering his needs to be informed, to learn new things, to know well what is offered on the market, to "control" somewhat the environment in which they carry out their purchases, etc. To achieve this, bidders must make full use of a range of promotional solutions (such as: information advertising, attracting customers to fairs and exhibitions, training them in games and promotional contests in which they demonstrate their knowledge and skills on who own them etc.).

b) The affective motivation is related to the satisfaction of the sentimental, affective needs of the consumer, to his need to gain recognition from others (16), motivational studies approaching him in his family, college or friends' entourage. Therefore, in order to achieve this, it is necessary to know how the individual chooses the goods he is going to give to others as a gift, how he reacts to the wrong choices, the extent to which he is satisfied with the products that the company has managed to sell them to him etc.

Motivation is a cyclical process in which the less the customer is pressured by the reason for the purchase (the products are less necessary), the longer the period of postponement of their purchase. This is self-evident since the need for consumption is cyclical: it appears, intensifies (until consumption takes place), attenuates (as the product is consumed), disappears, and after a certain time, reappears, intensifies and so on (the reasons being nothing but the reflection of the needs, respectively the mobiles that impress on the consumer a certain buying behaviour).

2.Motivational Conflicts

The consumer is constantly subjected to an arsenal of needs that occur simultaneously, some of them with similar intensities, and this can lead to conflicts of motivation. [9] This is the case, for example, when he wants the fastest and cheapest fare service.

The main types of motivational conflicts that an individual (and therefore a consumer) can experience can be briefly expressed in the following forms:

* I have to, but I can't.

* I want but I can not.

* I have to, but I don't want to.

* I want to, but I don't have to.

* I can, but I don't want to.

* I can, but I don't have to (1).

For example:

* I really need a medicine (so I have to buy it), but I can't find it on the market (so I can't buy it).

* I want (want) a new apartment, but I don't have enough money (I can't) to buy it.

* I have to buy a piece of jewellery to give as a gift to my wife, but (although I have money) I don't want to (for a reason I know).

* I want (want) a bottle of brandy, but the doctor forbade me (so I shouldn't) to drink something like that. * Although I can (have enough money) buy a yacht, I still don't want to buy it (because I found it appropriate that a luxury car would be more and more suitable for my demands).

* I can (have money) buy a recreational aircraft, but, having a pronounced altitude sickness, I know very well that I do not need such a thing.

On the other hand, other types of motivational conflicts can be reported, such as those between:

* a positive and a negative reason, in which case the buyer must carefully weigh both the advantages and disadvantages of each product involved in the choice - this conflict being the easiest to resolve;

* two positive reasons - the consumer wanting about two different products (and the yacht, and the luxury car), having to evaluate, with rational arguments, especially their advantages;

* two negative reasons, the buyer having to choose between two evils, the lesser evil (as happens when, following a calamity, he would have to choose between repairing, with a lot of money, a damaged house and buying, all with a lot of money, a new one - both variants being undesirable. [17]

The consequences of conflicts consist in:

* hesitation, which is the most common form of conflict - in which case the consumer simply can not decide what to do;

* attitude changes, i.e. bringing the reasons to a certain state of balance (such as acceptable speed at an acceptable rate), which happens most often. When the consumer goes to the market in search of more goods, but has a limited amount of money, either he will give up some of them (too expensive, those that can not be found, etc.), or he will reduce the quantities of each (when, at market prices, the money is not enough to buy the desired quantities of each commodity). In other words, its buying behaviour will be adapted, as naturally as possible, to the realities existing on the market;

* aggressive manifestations, most of them falling into the category of reprehensible behaviours, but which offer the client the possibility of nervous discharges that (in the end) to calm him down and make him accept that he does not have a solution to get out from the impasse;

* conflict management, a case encountered when the eventuality of conflicts is known by the buyer, who prepares in advance the solutions to mitigate or cancel them (so as not to be subjected to pressure after it has already reached the market).

Such solutions are as follows:

1) approval-approval, encountered when, with the same amount of money, the consumer would like to buy (about the same amount) two completely different goods from the point of view of destination, which exclude each other (a car and a house, for example). In other words, not being able to buy both, he is faced with a choice of times - times, which involves a very difficult process of making the purchase decision. In the end, the choice will be made by weighing carefully and at length on what each of the two products offers (in terms of the satisfaction of purchasing one and the dissatisfaction of giving up the other). The decision will be one of double acceptance: accepting the purchase of one (with one set of arguments) and accepting the renunciation of the other (with another set of arguments) - by reducing the socalled cognitive dissonance (accepting the defects of the chosen product and rejecting the advantages of the other).

2) approval-avoidance, a solution that, unlike the first, is encountered when the consumer has to choose between goods with the same destination, under pressure (about the same intensity) for two different reasons - which forces him again to reflect quite long on the positive and negative consequences of the choice. If for example, he had a choice between a very tasty meat and cheese pizza (which he would simply enjoy) and a very healthy vegetable one, which his doctor prescribed with great care, insistently, he would be faced with a purchase decision of the type and - and, choosing from the market a pizza and tasty (enough), and (acceptably) healthy.

3)avoidance-avoidance, which is a solution to resolve a motivational conflict in case any choice would result in predominantly negative effects, which the consumer wants, almost equally, to avoid - which is why when choosing the "least harm" For example, if the individual is the owner of an old defective car, he is forced to choose between consequences that are difficult to accept, respectively between: repairing it (which would cost him a lot), replacing it with one new (with a financial effort just as hard to bear) or give it up (which will make it still hard to bear).

Aware of the possibility of motivational conflicts, the marketer must come to the aid of the consumers who experience them, trying to convince them that his company's products (unlike those of competing companies) have enough qualities to be bought to resolve these conflicts.

3.Involvement and Motivational Persistence

Motivational involvement is a concept that brings together in its content the processes of activation, direction and motivational orientation.

In current language, the notion of involvement designates the action of "attracting, including; to have something as a consequence" [18].

It expresses the perceived importance or personal importance given by the consumer to an object or event. In the sense of psychology, motivational involvement is approached as the person's willingness to be attracted, to intend, to accept or to tend towards achieving motivating goals [19]. It is thus defined "by the preferences or tendencies of a person to be motivated by certain ultimate goals (pleasure, reward, challenge, recognition) or, in other words, to be attracted to certain types of motivational goals (egocentric, instrumental, internalistic or social, etc.)" [20]. The intrinsic and extrinsic forces that mobilize the individual, which initiates his behaviours, determining their shape and direction, are considered here.

Motivational persistence expresses a person's ability to persevere behaviourally and motivatively in the effort to achieve goals (which becomes visible especially after the individual has chosen a certain behavioural direction).

As a quantitative dimension, motivational persistence is what gives the individual the ability to overcome routine, fatigue or disappointments, as well as the support to keep a motivational option for a relatively long time. In other words, it refers to "the ability of a person to persevere behaviourally and motivatively in the effort to achieve ambitious goals, the tendency to persist in actions aimed at achieving the proposed goals, to invest time, effort and energy to achieve the goal, not to give up" [21]. Motivational persistence manifests itself only after the decision of motivational involvement is taken and involves the activation of all resources (including those that provide "re-supply of motivation") in the effort to achieve the proposed objectives. [22]

These two concepts differ from each other primarily by the fact that involvement ensures the qualitative and adaptive component of motivation (which ensures the individual adaptation and modelling according to the particularities of social context and personal needs), while motivational persistence ensures the quantitative component of individual motivation, forming its hard core (which ensures its stability and constancy).

Conclusions

For the marketer, involvement means the degree to which the consumer is attracted to an offer, as well as the loyalty felt towards it, it involving both cognitive and emotional elements (thus demanding it both intellectually and emotionally). A high degree of involvement will be conditioned by the product satisfying the consumer's needs in their entirety (being offered by products that fit strongly into his lifestyle), and a lower level of involvement occurs when the product partially satisfies him (only in terms of functionality or when its features are irrelevant). Usually, the products to which the consumer is very involved are those that he knows very well and about which he has strongly consolidated his opinions.

Levels of involvement are influenced by two sources: personal and situational.

The personal sources (with intrinsic relevance) of the motivational involvement and persistence are constituted by the totality of the knowledge and experiences accumulated and stored by the individual in his memory, being influenced both by his personality and by the products to which he is connected.

Their situational sources are provided by the physical and social environment located in the vicinity of the individual.

Depending on their level of involvement, we find:

1) consumers loyal to a product, a brand, a supplier, etc., who are individuals with high involvement, who show strong emotional ties with them, motivated by the fact that, repeatedly, those products, brands, etc. they were at a high level of the claims they had;

2) routine consumers, who are people with low involvement, but with a favourite product, which they buy not so much because of its performance, but because they have been thanked repeatedly;

3) avid consumers of information, who are very well-informed people on what they are looking for in the market, without being oriented towards a certain brand, reason for which they are mainly motivated by information (the chosen brand being decided by the volume of information occurs in connection with it);

4) unfaithful consumers, who are people with the lowest personal involvement, not having any emotional relationships with the offer to which they are directed, which is why they can be easily influenced by short-term factors (personal or environmental). Involvement is related to a complex of factors, having a strong affective component. [12]

Sidebar

Suplementary recomanded readings

Alexandru Şt., Conflictul emoţional, https://economiaonline.ro/conflictul-motivational/

Bogdan C., Tehnici proiective, https://ro.scribd.com/doc/24997401/TEHNICI-PROIECTIVE

Cojocaru Şt., Focus grupul - tehnica utilizată pentru evaluarea nevoilor din comunitate,

Dumitraşcu N., Tehnici obiective în evaluarea personalităţii,

Duu, L., Tipuri de scale, https://prezi.com/aufwo8xqqm4p/tipuri-de-scale/

https://www.rcis.ro/ro/section1/8-volumul-8-2005-martie/100-focus-grupul-tehnica-utilizata-pentru-evaluareanevoilor-din-comunitate-7.html

https://www.edituratrei.ro/carte/nicolae-dumitrascu-tehnici-proiective-in-evaluarea-personalitatii/1922/

https://www.academia.edu/36399067/Minulescu tehnici proiective

https://insideiurnalpsihoterapieintegrativa.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/tehnici-proiective-testul-arborelui/

https://dexonline.ro/definitie/implicare

https://elisabetastanciulescu.ro/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Focus-grupul-si-alte-inteviuri-de-grup.pdf

http://elsentidoalreves.overblog.com/viene-del-latin-exmovere-o-emovere-que-significa-movimiento-hacia-el

https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo%C8%9Biehttps://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo%C8%9Bie

http://www.acuz.net/html/Studiul comportamentului consumatorului.html

http://www. enciclopedie. info/motivatie/

https://www.rasfoiesc.com/educatie/psihologie/sociologie/Interviul-interviul-focalizat-77.php

http://www.scrigroup.com/management/marketing/Studierea-comportamentului-con75268.php

https://www.scrigroup.com/management/TPURI-DE-MOTVATE94573.php

References

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