Buying Motives 

A consumer purchases a particular product or service because of a strong inner feeling or force which instils in him a strong desire to have possession of the same. A buying motive, can thus be said to be all the desires, considerations and impulses, which induces a buyer to purchase a given product. Marketers are interested in the understanding of buying motives because it would indicate about their attitudes and the 'why' of their purchase decisions.

Basically buying motives are of two kinds

• Product motives

• Patronage motives

Product is said to be a bundle of satisfaction to take care of consumer needs and desire. Then the question before the marketing decision maker are - why does a person buy a product, a specific brand? And why does he not have brand loyalty or why does he change his brand from one to another? These questions can be explained by understanding his buying motives.

A. Product Motives

The impulses, considerations and desires that induce a person to be positively inclined to purchase a particular product are called product motives. Accordingly the product will be inclusive of the attributes i.e., the colour, design, package, price and utility.

Product motives can be classified on the basis of the nature of satisfaction sought by the buyer. Based on this classification, we can have two categories of product motives.

• Emotional product motives 

• Rational product motives. 

a. Emotional product motives 

Emotional product motives are those impulses which persuade a consumer to purchase a product spontaneously without forethinking on the consequences of the action or decision. Evaluation of the pros and cons of the decision or logical reasoning analysis is not found behind such purchase decisions. Here the buyer lets the heart rule over the mind. That is, emotional product motives usually appeal to the buyer's sense of ego, to display his social status, tendency to imitate others or convey the feeling of love and affection to close friends and family members. For instance, a father may on impulse buy a saree for his wife and gift a toy to his little daughter.

b. Rational product motives 

Rational product motive, on the other hand, involves careful reasoning and logical analysis of the intended purchase. The buyer will work-on whether it is worthwhile to purchase the product, the purpose to be served by the intended product purchase, the various alternatives available to the buyer and so on. The buyer will think and work-out the valid and relevant reasons to justify the proposed purchase of the product. For instance, if a person is planning to purchase furniture for his house, he/she will work on various aspects like suitability to the home environment, durability, economics, etc. before purchasing the same. They will lookout, enquire about the furniture available at various outlets before taking the final decision on whether or not to buy the furniture.

At times the product motives may be a mixture of emotion and rationality. That is, a buyer may react quickly to a situation and make an impulsive buying decision but there could be some conscious reasoning behind such purchases. So a more logical way of classifying product motives is by adding two dimensions to the product motives - utility and prestige. In most purchase decisions, these two motives are combined to a certain extent. It is believed that a buyer gains satisfaction from the purchase of a product partly because of its utility to him/her and partly because of the social recognition he or she gets from the purchase of the product.

B. Patronage Buying Motives

Why do buyers purchase from certain specific shops? What are the considerations or factors which persuade the buyer to display such store patronage? These questions can be answered by understanding patronage buying motives.

Patronage buying motives can also be categorised into two namely 

• Emotional patronage motives 

• Rational patronage motives

a. Emotional patronage motives

Emotional patronage motives are those impulses which motivate and persuade a buyer to purchase from specific shops. There may be no logical reasoning behind his decision to purchase from a particular shop. He may simply decide to buy from his "most preferred" or "favourite" shop, based on subjective reasons. This is referred to as emotional patronage motives. Here also it may the urge to gain social recognition or urge to imitate others. which may have led to the buyer developing to patronage to a specific shop (s).

b. Rational patronage motives

On the other hand, if a buyer solicits a particular shop after following a logical reasoning of the mind, it is called rational patronage motives. He/she may select a shop because it offers a variety of products, or stocks the latest designs and models or prompt delivery or assures good after sales service. Then we can say that the buyer is influenced by rational patronage motives. But, as mentioned earlier here also every patronage will be inclusive of a combination of rational and emotional motives. Knowledge of the product motives and patronage motives will help the marketers to devise or formulate sales promotion programmes such that the same product appeals to the different motives of the buyers. Marketers can also work-out strategies to attract and retain store patronage