A consumers buyer behavior is influenced by four major factors; cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors. These factors cause consumers to develop product and brand preferences. Although many of these factors cannot be directly controlled by marketers, understanding of their impact is essential as marketing mix strategies can be developed to appeal to the preferences of the target market. When purchasing any product, a consumer goes through a decision process. This process consists of up …showed first 75 words of 744 total…

…showed last 75 words of 744 total…in expenditures on various expenditure components including new types of goods and services, gift-giving behavior, consumption studies, and historical spending trends. An important use of the survey by BLS is for the periodic revision of the Bureau's Consumer Price Index (CPI). Survey results are used to select new market baskets of goods and services for the CPI, to determine the relative importance of CPI components, and to derive new cost weights for the market baskets.