by Filipe Martins

Created on: April 24, 2009

To understand how the marks and brands influence the decision to purchase is essential to understand the business of marketing consumer behavior in relation to products and services. Consumption is a symbolic system that articulates things and human beings and as such a privileged view of the world around us. Through his principles expressed the culture, lifestyles, ideals, categories, social identities and collective projects. He is one of the great inventors of social classifications which regulate the world views, and perhaps any other phenomenon mirror with such a spirit of adaptation time - to face our final season.

From the second half of the twentieth century, changing social, economic, political and technological changes began to occur in high speed turning to Western society increasingly oriented towards consumption. In this context, understanding consumer behavior has become a vital necessity not only for companies but for the entire organization geared to the market.

For organizations to understand the reasons why we have to buy certain products, especially services and unnecessary objects, like certain brands and designer labels, go shopping and spend much of our time involved in experiences of consumption, we must find the mental model which leads to their purchasing decisions. Rock suggests that to understand the consumer is to understand how to classify objects and people, make similarities and differences. And thus see that the reasons that govern our choices between stores and shopping malls, trade marks and brands, styles and tastes.

Consumer behavior is an applied science that uses knowledge of economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, statistics, marketing and other disciplines. These references serve as a support for the knowledge of the culture, values, beliefs, desires and everything that influences the formation of his personality and, consequently, its influence on decision-making processes of purchase.

Decision making by the buyer is largely dependant on the trust of the brand. We read and hear many stories about people who die because they eat bad products or how the authorities are influenced by money to let some bad companies operate when they should be closed.

Bad companies with bad brands can have great products but people will not buy them because they just do not trust them. Microsoft is very successful because it's a very tursted brand and Google too.

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